AT&T bumps its unlimited data throttling limit up to 22GB

AT&T has today announced a slight revision to the way that it handles data throttling for customers still on one of its unlimited data plans. Don’t plan your switch just yet though, the change is actually really beneficial to customers.

Rather than the old 5GB limit before throttling would take place in congested areas, AT&T has increased the limited to 22GB, giving customers four times the monthly amount of high speed data. This limit applies in each billing period. Should anyone surpass the new 22GB limit, their connection will only be throttled down to lower speeds in congested areas, such as larger cities.

“We recently revised our practices such that Unlimited Data Plan smartphone customers can now use 22GB of high-speed data during a billing period before becoming subject to network management practices that might result in reduced data speeds and increased latency.

We will notify customers during each billing cycle when their data usage reaches 16.5GB (75% of 22GB) so they can adjust their usage to avoid network management practices.”

This is excellent news for those who have been looking to get the most out of their so called unlimited data allowance with AT&T. However, the carrier’s unlimited contracts are no longer available to new customers, so only existing plan holders are affected by today’s change.

In another recent shake-up to unlimited data plans in the US, rival carrier T-Mobile stated that it would be clamping down on customers who abuse its unlimited data package. However, this move is only designed to target those customers who use huge amounts of data via tethering.