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Federal court dismisses AT&T throttling case

Mike Snider
USA TODAY
The AT&T logo on the facade of Whitacre Tower, the AT&T global headquarters building at One AT&T Plaza in Dallas, Texas, March 20, 2011.

A federal appeals court has dismissed a case brought by the Federal Trade Commission against AT&T for throttling, or slowing data speeds, on millions of customers with unlimited smartphone data plans.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in a decision filed Monday, reversed a lower court's denial of AT&T's motion to dismiss the throttling lawsuit. The appeals court ruled that because AT&T was a common carrier, the service provider cannot be held liable for the violations that the FTC brought in its case.

The FTC filed the complaint in October 2014 charging that the nation's second-largest wireless carrier failed to adequately unlimited-data customers that their data speeds are reduced, or throttled, if they use too much data in a given billing cycle. Throttling would often make many common smartphone functions such as using the Web, getting directions and streaming video difficult or nearly impossible to use.

The FTC had alleged that AT&T began throttling data speeds in 2011 and, overall, throttled at least 3.5 million unlimited data customers a total of more than 25 million times. AT&T did not offer new unlimited plan contracts after June 2010, but customers who had them could keep them.

T-Mobile updates unlimited plan with faster, premium offering

​AT&T and other carriers that offered unlimited plans at the time argued that at some point they must throttle customers who used excessive amounts of data as part of network management. "We're pleased with the decision," AT&T said in a statement.

The FTC is "disappointed with the ruling and are considering our options for moving forward," said FTC spokesman Jay Mayfield in an emailed statement.

Shares of AT&T (T) rose 0.79% Monday to $41.

Ironically, the court decision comes at a time when T-Mobile and Sprint have begun touting new unlimited data plans.

AT&T still faces a potential $100 million fine, proposed by the Federal Communications Commission in June 2015, saying the company misled consumers. AT&T has filed a response, which is still under review by the FCC.

Follow Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider

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