T-Mobile data cap cut riles U.K. watchdogs

A U.K. consumers group known as Which? is criticizing T-Mobile's decision to reduce its "fair-use" limit for smartphone data usage, asserting that the move may break the operator's own terms and conditions.

In a blog post today, the group said T-Mobile is selling smartphones built for video streaming and downloading, but then telling its customers they should not use the devices for these purposes. The group also pointed out that T-Mobile had given "little notice" of the changes in its terms and that some customers had received no notification at all, "which may be in breach of T-Mobile's terms and conditions"

Starting February 1, the operator plans to reduce its fair-use cap to 500MB. Customers who do not have Android phones will see their cap halved from 1GB a month. Those with devices based on Google's mobile operating system will see an 83 percent drop from 3GB a month. T-Mobile asserted that its mobile broadband and "Internet on your phone" services were not for watching videos or downloading files. "If you want to download, stream and watch video clips, save that stuff for your home broadband," T-Mobile stated.

Read more of "T-Mobile data cap cut faces consumer group attack" at ZDNet UK.