Some current and former AT&T customers will get a little bit of money from the company soon thanks to a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. AT&T will distribute the $60 million settlement to anyone who fell victim to the company's claim of "unlimited" mobile data throughout this decade.
Per the FTC's press release, AT&T's mistake was selling an unlimited data plan that was, well, pretty limited. The carrier would never shut off your access to mobile data, per se, but if you hit an invisible limit, your data would be throttled to the point of uselessness. According to the FTC, AT&T started doing this in 2011 and would throttle data for customers after they used 2GB of data, which is a minuscule amount.
If you signed up for unlimited data from AT&T prior to 2011, you should be eligible for a payout. The good news is you won't have to lift a finger to get your payment; current customers will get a credit and former costumers will get checks in the mail.
Two details the FTC's release left out were the amount of money each customer will get and when they will get the money. Don't get your hopes up, though. I got a whopping $10 from Sony last year from a PlayStation 3 class-action lawsuit, and it took long enough that I forgot I was even eligible by the time it showed up. Still, money is money.
