Well this small case is ‘huge’ in my opinion. How many of you have unlimited data plans from your cell phone company? Although those with new plans in the last year or so had to buy a certain amount of GBs, many who have had data plans for years were grandfathered into unlimited plans. I have an unlimited plan. However, what happens when the user starts using over 2GB of transfer data? They get throttled. ATT and Verizon have said that around 5% of their users use over 2GB of data each month (I use around 400mb on average) and once they reach that level they decrease the speed at which that user can make those transfers, thus limiting what they can download. In the first court case on this issue, a man challenged Att claiming that after 2GB his data was throttled even though his plan is unlimited. He won, the small court judge agreed with him and Att paid him $935.

Here is link to an article on the case

Now why is this so important?

– Well for one, as we teach online, users may need to view videos and other data heavy applications which will use a lot of data. So we do need to watch data.

– Two – We know that courts do agree. Even though this was settled, cases like this may work their way up to the supreme court so its important to take note.

– Three – Internet companies have been doing this with high speed internet for years so maybe its time they get challenged as well.