T-Mobile announced today that it will throttle LTE data and speeds for users on unlimited plans who illegally use more data than they bought by concealing their tethering.
A small percentage of T-Mobile customers on unlimited 4G LTE plans have been discovered to be gaming the system in order to make their tethering look like smartphone usage.
T-Mobile's Simple Choice plans offer a set amount of mobile hotspot data (up to seven gigabytes) and include tethering at no extra charge. Making tethering look like smartphone usage allows data-hungry customers to use significantly more 4G LTE tethering than their plan includes, with some people consuming up to two terabytes a month.
Their activities have a “disproportionately negative impact” on other users as these rule-breakers “can compromise the network experience for other T-Mobile customers.” The carrier will now clamp down on those people by starting to throttle their data speeds, especially if the carrier determines that they're misusing their data to access peer-to-peer file sharing networks.