T-Mobile going after unlimited data 'violators'

T-Mobile just announced that a small number of its customers has been abusing its unlimited data plan, circumventing limitations imposed on tethering to steal data. The "violators", as they are referred to by T-Mobile, have allegedly used various methods to use as much as 2 TB of 4G LTE data in a month, without paying for the extra traffic.

Customers who opt for the unlimited data plan have the option to use the Smartphone Mobile HotSpot feature, which includes 2.5 GB of 4G LTE data that they can use for tethering, free of charge. Those who exceed this limit have to pay to continue to take advantage of tethering at 4G LTE speeds for the excess data, otherwise transfers "slow down".

To add 2 GB of 4G LTE data for tethering, customers have to pay an additional $10 per line, while those who need 4 GB of 4G LTE data need to shell out $20 per line. At an average of $5 per extra GB, offending customers would basically have to pay around $10,000 per line, assuming they are currently tricking T-Mobile out of 2 TB of 4G LTE data while tethering.

"They are 'hacking' the system to swipe high speed tethered data", says T-Mobile CEO John Legere. "These aren't naive amateurs; they are clever hackers who are willfully stealing for their own selfish gain". The number of "thieves" is estimated to be "1/100 of a percent" of its 59 million customers, which equates to roughly 5,900 customers.

They have used various tricks to get around the aforementioned data limit, "downloading apps that hide their tether usage, rooting their phones, writing code to mask their activity, etc", and Legere says the company he runs will be "going after" each and every one of them, "starting with the 3,000 users who know exactly what they are doing" as early as today, August 31.

Customers who are known to be stealing data will first be notified and warned. T-Mobile hopes that they will "stop on their own so they can keep their current plan", but, in case that does not happen, they will be moved to an "entry-level" limited data plan.

You can read more about the measures here, but it is clear that the carrier does not want to come out as the bad guy from this situation by billing everyone for the unpaid additional data that they have used so far. It says that there is a system in place which detects abuse, so there might be little that would-be offenders can do from now on without being noticed. At the moment, this does not apply to pre-paid and MetroPCS customers.

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