AT&T on Wednesday said that it\u2019s changing its policy on unlimited plans and, instead of pushing folks away from those plans, actually seems to be embracing some of its customers with those packages.<\/p>\n
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Previously, the carrier would start to throttle unlimited data users if they exceeded 5GB of data and were using a congested network. Now, AT&T says it\u2019s bumping that cap up to 22GB in a billing period before it\u00a0might<\/em> reduce data speeds.<\/p>\n \u201cWe 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,\u201d AT&T explained. AT&T\u2019s unlimited data plans are no longer available, so this technically applies to long-term AT&T customers who have been around since they were offered.<\/p>\n AT&T said that it will send an alert to users when they hit 16.5GB of usage in a single billing period \u201cso they can adjust their usage to avoid network management practices that may result in slower data speeds,\u201d if they hit that 22GB cap.<\/p>\n Keep in mind that this does not apply to folks on AT&T Mobile Share plans, who may pay for much more than 22GB of data per month. If you\u2019re one of those customers, you won\u2019t ever be throttled, you\u2019ll just get full speed data until you hit your monthly cap.<\/p>\n