Capping upload speed was inevitable. Not, that I agree with it, I just saw it coming. They've been saying how the problem with their network was 20% of users using 80% of the traffic or something to thay effect. Which is stupid because that's saying everyone with a smart phone is using all the data when they're the only ones who need it. They said they would fix that issue in a way that didn't involve fixing their network. It started with the data plans and is coming to this.
**** AT&T.
That's not quite it. The issue stems largely from the fact that they said UNLIMITED. So certain people get Jesus Phones and use it as such. That number is small but still large enough to unbalance the network. So they applied a quota which generally applies to most - but not all - people because then it encourages the higher users to actually pay more or reduce their use. Therefore the network can invest more. That's how its "supposed" to work.
But then, its unlimited. How can people be pissed because the network took away their infinity?
Here O2, Orange and Vodafone did the same thing. They've now all dropped the "unlimited" moniker concerning data and now say varying amounts between 500-1GB a month and the majority provide "unlimited wifi data" on various wifi networks to push the demand off the mobile network. Of course thats just handing off the issue from one pillar (the mobile network) to another (the wifi network).
So 3 - yes we have a network called "3" - abolished the word "unlimited" altogether. When they meant unlimited texts they now mean 5000 texts, and so on.
Unlimited by definition allows users for increasing amounts of flexible demands because there's just no limits. Like the word suggests. But then eventually the line has to snap somewhere. And here we are, with the network creaking.
I'm not really surprised at what AT&T's done but its not their fault that their users used the phones willy nilly. For which it IS their fault for telling them that they can.