AT&T

Big Three carriers pay $10M to settle claims of false “unlimited” advertising

AT&T, Policy, T-Mobile, unlimited data, verizon / Mike M. / May 11, 2024

False advertising —

States obtain settlement, but it’s unclear whether consumers will get refunds.

Jon Brodkin – May 10, 2024 6: 36 pm UTC

T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T will pay a combined $10.2 million in a settlement with US states that alleged the carriers falsely advertised wireless plans as “unlimited” and phones as “free.” The deal was announced yesterday by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

“A multistate investigation found that the companies made false claims in advertisements in New York and across the nation, including misrepresentations about ‘unlimited’ data plans that were in fact limited and had reduced quality and speed after a certain limit was reached by the user,” the announcement said.

T-Mobile and Verizon agreed to pay $4.1 million each while AT&T agreed to pay a little over $2 million. The settlement includes AT&T subsidiary Cricket Wireless and Verizon subsidiary TracFone.

The settlement involves 49 of the 50 US states (Florida did not participate) and the District of Columbia. The states’ investigation found that the three major carriers “made several misleading claims in their advertising, including misrepresenting ‘unlimited’ data plans that were actually limited, offering ‘free’ phones that came at a cost, and making false promises about switching to different wireless carrier plans.”

“AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile lied to millions of consumers, making false promises of free phones and ‘unlimited’ data plans that were simply untrue,” James said. “Big companies are not excused from following the law and cannot trick consumers into paying for services they will never receive.”

States have options for using money

The carriers denied any illegal conduct despite agreeing to the settlement. In addition to payments to each state, the carriers agreed to changes in their advertising practices. It’s unclear whether consumers will get any refunds out of the settlement, however.

The settlement gives states leeway in how to use the payments from carriers. The payments can be used to cover “attorneys’ fees and other costs of investigation and litigation,” or can go toward “consumer protection law enforcement funds.”

States can use the payments for future consumer protection enforcement, consumer education, litigation, or a consumer aid fund. The money can also be used for “monitoring and potential enforcement” of the settlement terms “or consumer restitution,” the settlement says.

We asked James’ office about whether any consumer restitution is planned and will update this article if we get a response.

Advertising restrictions

The three carriers agreed that all advertisements to consumers must be “truthful, accurate and non-misleading.” They also agreed to the following changes, the NY attorney general’s office said:

“Unlimited” mobile data plans can only be marketed if there are no limits on the quantity of data allowed during a billing cycle.

Offers to pay for consumers to switch to a different wireless carrier must clearly disclose how much a consumer will be paid, how consumers will be paid, when consumers can expect payment, and any additional requirements consumers have to meet to get paid.

Offers of “free” wireless devices or services must clearly state everything a consumer must do to receive the “free” devices or services.

Offers to lease wireless devices must clearly state that the consumer will be entering into a lease agreement.

All “savings” claims must have a reasonable basis. If a wireless carrier claims that consumers will save using its services compared to another wireless carrier, the claim must be based on similar goods or services or differences must be clearly explained to the consumer.

The advertising restrictions are to be in place for five years.

T-Mobile provided a statement about the settlement to Ars today. “After nine years, we are glad to move on from this industry-wide investigation with this settlement and a continued commitment to the transparent and consumer-friendly advertising practices we’ve undertaken for years,” T-Mobile said.

AT&T and Verizon declined to comment individually and referred us to their lobby group, CTIA. “These voluntary agreements reflect no finding of improper conduct and reaffirm the wireless industry’s longstanding commitment to clarity and integrity in advertising so that consumers can make informed decisions about the products and services that best suit them,” the wireless lobby group said.

Big Three carriers pay $10M to settle claims of false “unlimited” advertising Read More »

AT&T announces $7 monthly add-on fee for “Turbo” 5G speeds

AT&T, Net Neutrality, Policy / Blake Jones / May 3, 2024

Getty Images | Bloomberg

AT&T is now charging mobile customers an extra $7 per month for faster wireless data speeds. AT&T says the Turbo add-on, available starting today, is “built to support high-performance mobile applications, like gaming, social video broadcasting and live video conferencing, with optimized data while customers are on the go.”

While Turbo “boosts all the high-speed and hotspot data on a user’s connection,” AT&T said the difference will be more noticeable for certain kinds of applications. For example, gaming applications using Turbo will experience “less freezing or stuttering and lower latency,” AT&T said.

The $7 charge is for each line. Adding Turbo to multiple lines on the same account requires paying the extra fee for each line. AT&T said that Turbo lets users “optimize their plan’s high-speed (premium) and hotspot data allotments” and provides better data performance “even during busy times on the network.”

Turbo is only available for 5G phones on certain “unlimited” plans. AT&T notes that “Turbo does not provide extra data” and that “if you exceed your existing allotments your normal network management applies.”

“On AT&T Unlimited Extra EL after 75GB, AT&T may temporarily slow data speeds if the network is busy,” the company says. “On each eligible plan, after you exceed your hotspot allotment, your hotspot speeds are slowed to a maximum of 128Kbps.”

People who pay extra for Turbo might want to look at their video settings. By default, AT&T limits video streaming to DVD quality, but customers can turn on high-definition video at the expense of using more data.

Quality of service

An article by The Mobile Report said that AT&T will differentiate between users who pay for Turbo and those who don’t with Quality of Service Class Identifiers, or QCIs. “We’re told that, basically, all eligible plans are now moved to QCI 8, and get the privilege of buying their way back into QCI 7,” the article said. QCI 6 is reportedly reserved for public safety professionals on the FirstNet service built by AT&T under a government contract.

AT&T confirmed to Ars today that Turbo “is assigned to a QCI to which some of our consumer traffic was previously assigned.” But AT&T said it has “materially modified it and increased network resources and relative weighting for AT&T Turbo traffic, thereby creating a higher level of performance than we’ve ever before offered to consumers.”

AT&T also said that QCIs “are simply a number assigned to a class of service,” and that the “treatment and performance of traffic in a particular class is affected by a range of variables that can be tuned to provide different experiences.” AT&T said that last summer, it “rationalized and streamlined how our plans are mapped to QCI levels” and that “these changes helped optimize network performance for our overall customer base.”

The current version of Turbo may be followed by other paid extras that enhance performance, as AT&T called it the “first step in modernizing and preparing our mobile network for future innovative use cases… Latency-sensitive applications will continue to need more enhanced network technologies to perform their best, so we plan to continue to advance and evolve AT&T Turbo.”

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FCC fines big three carriers $196M for selling users’ real-time location data

AT&T, Location Data, Policy, T-Mobile, verizon / Blake Jones / April 30, 2024

Getty Images | SOPA Images

The Federal Communications Commission today said it fined T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon $196 million “for illegally sharing access to customers’ location information without consent and without taking reasonable measures to protect that information against unauthorized disclosure.”

The fines relate to sharing of real-time location data that was revealed in 2018. The FCC proposed the fines in 2020, when the commission had a Republican majority, and finalized them today.

All three major carriers vowed to appeal the fines after they were announced today. The three carriers also said they discontinued the data-sharing programs that the fines relate to.

The fines are $80.1 million for T-Mobile, $57.3 million for AT&T, and $46.9 million for Verizon. T-Mobile is also on the hook for a $12.2 million fine issued to Sprint, which was bought by T-Mobile shortly after the penalties were proposed over four years ago.

Today, the FCC summarized its findings as follows:

The FCC Enforcement Bureau investigations of the four carriers found that each carrier sold access to its customers’ location information to “aggregators,” who then resold access to such information to third-party location-based service providers. In doing so, each carrier attempted to offload its obligations to obtain customer consent onto downstream recipients of location information, which in many instances meant that no valid customer consent was obtained. This initial failure was compounded when, after becoming aware that their safeguards were ineffective, the carriers continued to sell access to location information without taking reasonable measures to protect it from unauthorized access.

“Shady actors” got hold of data

The problem first came to light with reports of customer location data “being disclosed by the largest American wireless carriers without customer consent or other legal authorization to a Missouri Sheriff through a ‘location-finding service’ operated by Securus, a provider of communications services to correctional facilities, to track the location of numerous individuals,” the FCC said.

Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said that news reports in 2018 “revealed that the largest wireless carriers in the country were selling our real-time location information to data aggregators, allowing this highly sensitive data to wind up in the hands of bail-bond companies, bounty hunters, and other shady actors. This ugly practice violates the law—specifically Section 222 of the Communications Act, which protects the privacy of consumer data.”

For a time after the 2018 reports, “all four carriers continued to operate their programs without putting in place reasonable safeguards to ensure that the dozens of location-based service providers with access to their customers’ location information were actually obtaining customer consent,” the FCC said.

The three carriers are ready to challenge the fines in court. “This industry-wide third-party aggregator location-based services program was discontinued more than five years ago after we took steps to ensure that critical services like roadside assistance, fraud protection and emergency response would not be disrupted,” T-Mobile said in a statement provided to Ars. “We take our responsibility to keep customer data secure very seriously and have always supported the FCC’s commitment to protecting consumers, but this decision is wrong, and the fine is excessive. We intend to challenge it.”

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AT&T: Data breach affects 73 million or 51 million customers. No, we won’t explain.

AT&T, Biz & IT, Data breaches, Identity theft, Security / Ryan Harris / April 10, 2024

“SECURITY IS IMPORTANT TO US” —

When the data was published in 2021, the company said it didn’t belong to its customers.

Dan Goodin – Apr 10, 2024 10: 28 pm UTC

AT&T is notifying millions of current or former customers that their account data has been compromised and published last month on the dark web. Just how many millions, the company isn’t saying.

In a mandatory filing with the Maine Attorney General’s office, the telecommunications company said 51.2 million account holders were affected. On its corporate website, AT&T put the number at 73 million. In either event, compromised data included one or more of the following: full names, email addresses, mailing addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers, dates of birth, AT&T account numbers, and AT&T passcodes. Personal financial information and call history didn’t appear to be included, AT&T said, and data appeared to be from June 2019 or earlier.

The disclosure on the AT&T site said the 73 million affected customers comprised 7.6 million current customers and 65.4 million former customers. The notification said AT&T has reset the account PINs of all current customers and is notifying current and former customers by mail. AT&T representatives haven’t explained why the letter filed with the Maine AG lists 51.2 million affected and the disclosure on its site lists 73 million.

According to a March 30 article published by TechCrunch, a security researcher said the passcodes were stored in an encrypted format that could easily be decrypted. Bleeping Computer reported in 2021 that more than 70 million records containing AT&T customer data was put up for sale that year for $1 million. AT&T, at the time, told the news site that the amassed data didn’t belong to its customers and that the company’s systems had not been breached.

Last month, after the same data reappeared online, Bleeping Computer and TechCrunch confirmed that the data belonged to AT&T customers, and the company finally acknowledged the connection. AT&T has yet to say how the information was breached or why it took more than two years from the original date of publication to confirm that it belonged to its customers.

Given the length of time the data has been available, the damage that’s likely to result from the most recent publication is likely to be minimal. That said, anyone who is or was an AT&T customer should be on the lookout for scams that attempt to capitalize on the leaked data. AT&T is offering one year of free identity theft protection.

AT&T: Data breach affects 73 million or 51 million customers. No, we won’t explain. Read More »

EPA expands “high priority” probe into AT&T, Verizon lead-contaminated cables

AT&T, Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, lead contamination, lead exposure, Policy, telcos, telecommunications companies, verizon / Ryan Harris / January 12, 2024

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expanding its investigation into potential risks posed by lead-covered cables installed nationwide by major telecommunications companies, The Wall Street Journal revealed in an exclusive report Thursday.

After finding “more than 100 readings with elevated lead near cables,” the EPA sent letters to AT&T and Verizon in December, requesting a meeting later this month, the Journal revealed. On the agenda, the EPA expects the companies to share internal data on their own testing of the cables, as well as details from any “technical reports related to the companies’ testing and sampling,” the WSJ reported.

The EPA’s investigation was prompted by a WSJ report published last July, alleging that AT&T, Verizon, and other companies were aware that thousands of miles of cables could be contaminating soils throughout the US, “where Americans live, work and play,” but did nothing to intervene despite the many public health risks associated with lead exposure.

In that report, tests showed that the telecom cables were likely the source of lead contaminated soils because “the amount measured in the soil was highest directly under or next to the cables and dropped within a few feet.” WSJ also spoke to residents and former telecom employees in areas tested who had contracted illnesses commonly linked to lead exposure.

Immediately, WSJ’s report spurred lawmakers to demand a response from USTelecom—a telecommunications trade association representing companies accused—with Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.) suggesting that telecom giants were seemingly committing “corporate irresponsibility of the worst kind.”

Since then, the EPA has followed up and developed “its own testing data” in West Orange, New Jersey, southwest Pennsylvania, and Louisiana—the same locations flagged by the WSJ. In all locations, the EPA found lead contamination exceeding the “current recommendation for levels of lead it believes are generally safe in soil where children play,” 400-parts-per-million, the WSJ reported. In West Orange, two testing sites found lead “at 3,300 parts per million or higher.”

According to the EPA, initial testing by a national working group led to a conclusion that none of these sites poses an immediate health risk or requires an emergency response, but that finding hasn’t stopped the probe. The EPA told the WSJ that it still needs to address unanswered questions to decide “whether further actions may be required to address risks from the lead-containing cables.”

“While some locations sampled show concentrations above screening levels for long term exposures, existing data is not sufficient to determine whether lead from the cables poses a threat, or a potential threat, to human health or the environment,” the EPA said in a Reuters report.

Companies maintain that evidence from their own testing has shown lead cables do not pose public health risks requiring remediation.

USTelecom, speaking on behalf of Verizon and other telecom companies, told the WSJ that “our industry has been engaging with the EPA and our companies look forward to meeting with the EPA to discuss agency and industry testing results. We will continue to follow the science, which has not identified that lead-sheathed telecom cables are a leading cause of lead exposure or the cause of a public health issue.”

AT&T told the WSJ that it “will continue to work collaboratively with the EPA as it undertakes its review of lead-clad telecommunications cables. We look forward to the opportunity to meet with the EPA to discuss recent testing and other evidence that contradicts the Wall Street Journal’s assertions.”

An EPA spokesperson, Nick Conger, told Bloomberg that there is no date set for the meeting yet.

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