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There is an old axiom that most everyone is familiar with: "Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it." This holds true as much for massive corporations as it does for each of us as individuals. The proof of the matter is AT&T.
In 2007 a, frankly naive, corporation (or nefarious with future plans depending on your view point) called AT&T (a quite young corporation in archaeological time measurements) decided to get a stranglehold over the Smart Phone market by making an exclusivity deal with Apple for their most recent MUST HAVE tech toy... the iPhone. This deal would cement their market strength for years to come, and they could lure new customers by making all the features of the iPhone readily available as part of a tidy unlimited data plan. All things went according to plan.
But then issues started to crop up. People disliked the lack of reception from AT&T's network. People lamented leaving Verizon for AT&T and being locked into deals by virtue of their phone. Resentment grew. But AT&T owned the market on the iPhone and if people wanted one, they had to suffer for it. As time moved on the success of this pairing led to even greater resentment from the public beholden to AT&T to satiate their Apple Lust.
Then Verizon cracked the Apple Barrier. With another network competing for business it was time AT&T did something drastic to keep their customers. At this point AT&T never invested in their infrastructure to be able to appropriately maintain the needs of their customers. If you purchased an unlimited plan from them they couldn't back out of the deal... but they could force you to. Now they're pressuring customers to drop those old unlimited plans by killing their connection speed if they... you know... try to use what the phone for the reasons they bought it: http://news.yahoo.com/t-customers-surprised-unlimited-data-limit-080906861.html.
While this seems like a vile and detestable case of bait-and-switch it, surprisingly, isn't. You see AT&T is not preventing you from using your unlimited data; they are simply slowing down your service. Nothing said they had to provide you that data quickly. Even the phone itself isn't culpable as it's downloading at the speed of the network. The biggest kick being that this effect is punitively levied against customers with data consumption that is lower than the limited plans and if you contact AT&T they'll tell you should switch to the limited plan (maybe, if you're lucky, they'll be nice and waive the hefty fees related to cancelling your current unlimited contract early!)
AT&T was so unprepared for its success that now it’s using your Smart Phone to make you look like an idiot.
/rant
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