FCC plans to fine AT&T $100 million over 'unlimited' data plans

The FCC alleges that customers who used more than 5GB of data in any billing month would see their data speed slowed to 512Kbps, significantly slower than the 5Gbps to 12Gbps advertised by the carrier.

The government doesn't have a problem with the throttling itself, but says that AT&T didn't make it clear enough to consumers on "unlimited" plans that their plans were, in fact, limited.

Martyn Williams covers mobile telecoms, Silicon Valley and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Martyn on Twitter at @martyn_williams. Martyn's e-mail address is martyn_williams@idg.com