Last year, AT&T warned smartphone customers that it will slow down their service once the user hits 2GB of data used in a month. AT&T reasoned that only the top 5 percent of data users will have their data throttled or slowed down on that particular month billing cycle depending on a user’s data consumption.

Now here is the reality!

AT&T has started cutting users’ data speeds as part of an attempt to manage data usage on its network much before it reaches the threshold limit. And this isn’t coming across very well for AT&T’s consumers. There’s been news of some customers getting notification messages on their phone about their data plan being slowed down. If you hit 2GB, expect sluggish service.

According to The New York Times, John Cozen was the first victim to have his data speed throttled until the next billing cycle, but only after using 2.1 GB of data. He received an email from the company that claimed that he was on the list of top five percent of heavy data users, and his services would be throttled until the next billing cycle. He is currently using 3GB data plan.

AT&T provides unlimited data plans and 3GB limited plan at $30 per month to some 17 million customers and all will be subjected to throttling.

AT&T introduced unlimited data plans when the iPhone was first launched. The company encouraged customers to avail its services. Now AT&T has a bigger customer base of data-heavy users, and most of their smartphone plans are contracted. That has led to bigger load on the network.

The company was quick to react to the issue, even if it’s not exactly what customers wanted to hear. AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel explained that since last summer, the top five percent of heaviest data users averaged about 2GB or more per month. He also explained that throttling was decided on a case-by-case basis, and depends on the availability of the spectrum and data usage of other customers in that area.

“There’s a very good chance you wouldn’t be slowed,” Mr. Siegel said. “In the last month, less than 1 percent of AT&T smartphone customers were affected by the policy.”

Contrary to AT&T, Sprint provides an unlimited data plan without throttling.  AT&T other competitors including T-Mobile are all falling to a tiered data monetization scheme, starting to throttle after a user reaches 5GB limit. On the other hand, Verizon Wireless only slows down the limit if the cell tower is congested at that moment. So if you’re unhappy with AT&T, you can always change your provider.