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T-Mobile caves on 1GB data limit for G1

The carrier had planned to throttle users' data connection if they exceeded 1GB of usage in a month, but is dropping that limit from its marketing materials.

Tom Krazit Former Staff writer, CNET News
Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Google, as the most prominent company on the Internet defends its search juggernaut while expanding into nearly anything it thinks possible. He has previously written about Apple, the traditional PC industry, and chip companies. E-mail Tom.
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Tom Krazit
2 min read
T-Mobile has apparently rethought its 1GB soft limit on the data usage for its G1 phone, shown here. CNET

T-Mobile has given its data usage cap proposed for the G1 Android phone a second thought.

The company distributed a statement Wednesday saying that it has removed the 1GB "soft cap" that it planned to impose on the data usage of G1 owners starting next month when the device is released. The carrier had planned to throttle the data connection speed to a paltry 50Kbps for those who exceeded 1GB of data usage in a month, which isn't that far-fetched for the early-adopter crowd.

Here's the full statement:

"Our goal, when the T-Mobile G1 becomes available in October, is to provide affordable, high-speed data service allowing customers to experience the full data capabilities of the device and our 3G network. At the same time, we have a responsibility to provide the best network experience for all of our customers so we reserve the right to temporarily reduce data throughput for a small fraction of our customers who have excessive or disproportionate usage that interferes with our network performance or our ability to provide quality service to all of our customers.

We removed the 1GB soft limit from our policy statement, and we are confident that T-Mobile G1 customers will enjoy the high speed of data access over our 3G network. The specific terms for our new data plans are still being reviewed and once they are final we will be certain to share this broadly with current customers and potential new customers."

That sounds to me like T-Mobile hasn't given up on the idea of a soft cap altogether, but has decided that 1GB is perhaps a little too stingy. Which it is.