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AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) confirmed that starting Oct. 1 it may throttle the data speeds of smartphone users who are among the heaviest top 5 percent of data users in a given billing period.

AT&T said that those customers who are affected can still use unlimited data and their speeds will be restored with the start of the next billing cycle. Before customers have their speeds throttled, likely down to 2G EDGE data speeds, AT&T said it will provide multiple notices, including a grace period.

The carrier said the new policy will affect a “very small minority” of subscribers who use an “extraordinary” amount of data. “In fact, these customers on average use 12 times more data than the average of all other smartphone data customers,” the company said in a statement, explaining that users in the top 5 percent are streaming very large amounts of video and music daily. “This step will not apply to our 15 million smartphone customers on a tiered data plan or the vast majority of smartphone customers who still have unlimited data plans.”

AT&T did not indicate what amount of data usage would qualify users to be in the top 5 percent of heaviest users, but noted that as demand for mobile data increases, the top 5 percent threshold will change from month to month. AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel told FierceWireless that the announcement is not tied to any specific product launch or change at AT&T. According to data from The Nielsen Company, 95 percent of average U.S. smartphone users in the first quarter used under 1.5 GB of data per month.

The blog 9to5 Mac first reported that AT&T would throttle users’ data speeds.

AT&T isn’t the first to throttle users’ data speeds. T-Mobile USA announced in May it would not charge customers for data overage fees but would instead throttle users’ down to 2G EDGE speeds if they went over their data allotments. Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) instituted usage-based smartphone data plans in early July and charges a /GB overage fee. However, Verizon said in February, ahead of the launch of Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone 4, that it would begin throttling the data speeds of its the top 5 percent of its heaviest unlimited data users.

Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) does not charge overage fees or throttle its smartphone data users, but its Virgin Mobile brand will begin throttling the speeds of smartphone users who use more than 2.5 GB of data per month. The company said less than 3 percent of its customers currently use that much data monthly.

For more:
- see this release

Related Articles:
What does AT&T’s usage-based pricing adoption mean for Verizon?
Verizon CFO: We will combat heavy data users with overage charges, not throttling
The tiered-pricing dilemma on smartphones: Overage charges or throttling?
T-Mobile unveils new tiered data plans for smartphones, details throttling speeds
As iPhone looms, Verizon to throttle data speeds of heaviest users

FierceWireless

Boost Mobile launched the Samsung Seek (SPH-m350), Boost Mobile’s first touchscreen device with a slide-out QWERTY keypad offers social-0networking voice, text messaging, Web, e-mail, IM and calls to 411 for just a month without an annual contract. Features include a 2.6 inch touchscreen, 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, GPS, microSD and a speaker phone with voice recognition.

Samsung Seek will be available Aug. 25 at for 9.99 (excluding taxes). Shipping is free. The phone is available now through Boost Mobile exclusive retail stores and select independent wireless dealer locations. By the end of the month, the Seek will also be available at Best Buy and RadioShack. The Seek will be in Sprint stores in September and in Target in October.

Samsung Seek Specs:
• 2.6-inch QVGA touchscreen display
• Slide-out QWERTY keypad
• 1.3MP camera
• Wireless Web and e-mail access to Gmail®, MSN®, Yahoo! ® and more
• Instant messaging capable (Yahoo! ®, AIM®, and Windows Live™ Messenger)
• Stereo Bluetooth capable
• Music player (microSD card required)
• Multimedia and text messaging capable
• GPS enabled
• Supports microSD™ card up to 32GB
• Voice mail, caller ID, call waiting and call forwarding
• Speakerphone with voice recognition
• Downloadable games, wallpapers and ringtones

WIRELESS AND MOBILE NEWS

Att announced today that it is ending its unlimited iphone data plans for a month, introducing new plans for new customers on June 7th, 2010:

DataPlus — Provides 200 megabytes (MB) of data. for example, enough to send/receive 1,000 emails (no attachments), plus send/receive 150 emails with attachments, plus view 400 Web pages, plus post 50 photos on social media sites, plus watch 20 minutes of streaming video

DataPro — Provides 2 gigabytes (GB) of data. for example, enough to send/receive 10,000 emails (no attachments), plus send/receive 1,500 emails with attachments, plus view 4,000 Web pages, plus post 500 photos to social media sites, plus watch 200 minutes of streaming video

This is terrible news for new customers.
Thankfully existing contracts are not effected, and Att is “generously” offering to allow existing contracts to chose this new plan with no contract extensions.

New plans cost a month for the DataPro and for DataPlus.
Att has announced it is also ending the unlimited iPad data plans.

for unlimited data with an existing plan, or for limited?
Each 1 gigabyte over costs a user and Att will send a txt to a device nearing the monthly limit.

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