Ouch! T-Mobile UK are about to slash their ‘acceptable use’ data limits for smartphones to a miserly 500MB from 1st February.
Slashed in half
With most T-Mobile contracts previously offering a 1GB limit, this is one hell of a reduction and one that is sure to hit some users hard.
It seems that T-Mobile are keen to redefine what ‘Internet browsing’ means to something that suits their profits better, insisting that it not longer involves viewing videos or playing games.
Here’s part of their announcement bringing the bad news:
Browsing means looking at websites and checking email, but not watching videos, downloading files or playing games. We’ve got a fair use policy but ours means that you’ll always be able to browse the internet, it’s only when you go over the fair use amount that you won’t be able to download, stream and watch video clips.
So Whats Changing? – From 1st February 2011 we will be aligning our fair use policies so our mobile internet service will have fair use of 500MB.
No video, no fun
In T-Mobile’s new data-stingy world, it seems that smartphone users with massive screens and high def video playback abilities should now only use their phones for looking at websites when they’re out and about.
Customers wanting to use their phones for crazy reckless things like downloading, streaming and watching video clips are firmly instructed by their carrier to, “save that stuff for your home broadband.”
Thanks for the advice T Mobile, but we suspect many people will opt to ‘save that stuff’ for another network with more reasonable data limits.
IMPORTANT UPDATE: T-Mobile data cap backfires horrendously: and here’s how to cancel your contract
