What to do if Sprint is throttling your data

What is Data Throttling?

Data throttling is when a company intentionally reduces the speed you get through your internet or with your phone. This can be very unsettling to customers to pay for an unlimited plan or a certain level of Mobile Hotspot data. When you pay for a specific speed with your kpbs, it makes sense that you expect Sprint to honor that speed.

Data Throttling versus Deprioritization

If you have a Sprint device, you might experience data throttling or deprioritization. Both of these are instances where the speeds you get are slowed down usually without warning.

The difference is that data throttling happens when you pass a threshold for whatever data usage you pay for it. This applies to any of Sprint plans but has a monthly data cap. If you have an unlimited Sprint plan, you shouldn’t be subject to data throttling but you can still be subject to deprioritization. Deprioritization is just a fancy term that refers to the exact same thing: Sprint will slow down your speeds.

This can happen at any time without warning and it usually happens when things get busy or congested. What it means is priority has been given to someone other than you. If you are in a major city or a busy area and you have a great signal but then your signal suddenly cuts out, it is probably because you are using a tower that Sprint doesn’t own. Sometimes Sprint uses towers from Verizon or T-Mobile and in those situations they might give priority to Verizon or T-Mobile customers and not you as a Sprint customer.

If you use Sprint for things like your internet, you can do tests every once in a while to see if they are using data throttling by running an internet speed test, and then repeating that test with a VPN. The VPN will change your location and if they are using data throttling you will see a much higher speed with the VPN. You can also do the same thing for your mobile device by running a speed test for your phone.

What your Sprint contract says about data throttling

The actual text of your mobile contract with Sprint does not include the words data throttling or deprioritization. However, Sprint covers themselves by including information about data throttling in their account and billing section.

Here they make it clear that no matter the plan you have, even unlimited plans are not actually unlimited and they reserve the right to throttle your service when things are busy. Like most major cell phone providers and telecom companies they do not qualify what constitutes as busy and they make it clear that those who have the most affordable service plans can get hit with data throttling at any time, without any warning.

The obligations Sprint has to you and your data

Sprint is obligated to give you the speeds and the data that you pay for in your plan but this can get tricky when you pay for unlimited plans and yet they arbitrarily decide that where you happen to be in a given moment is very congested or the towers you are using are so busy that they get to throttle your data.

What you can do if Sprint throttles your data

So what happens if using Sprint is throttling your data? What can you do if a new billing cycle has started and yet your speeds are still unacceptably slow when you have paid for something like an unlimited plan?

Contact Sprint customer service

If you believe that Sprint is throttling your data, you can reach out to them through the customer service phone line at (888) 211-4727. Another way is through Sprint’s live chat which is always available.

If you want to use email, Sprint has a dedicated customer care email address at customercare@sprint.com.

If you ran a test on your mobile device or your internet and you found evidence that they might be using data throttling, make sure to take screenshots and bring that information to customer service when you reach out to them. If they know that you are aware of data throttling, they might try to do things to resolve the issue like stop the throttling or offer some sort of compensation.

Here are other ways to contact Sprint customer service about your data throttling.

Use Consumer Arbitration to get Sprint to Resolve Your Complaint

If you have reached out to Sprint customer service but you still aren’t getting a satisfactory solution or they aren’t willing to help you at all, there are other options you can pursue.

Arbitration is a form of dispute resolution where you can bring your dispute with Sprint in front of a neutral, third-party arbitrator who will make a legally binding decision based on all of the facts. Your Sprint contract may not allow you to engage in things like class action lawsuits against the company but it will allow you arbitration.