Sprint, like many other wireless carriers, used to engage in the practice of "throttling" their users data speeds.
This means that if you were one of Sprint's heavier data users, you would often see your stream of data slow to a trickle when the network was busy. But Sprint confirmed to The Wall Street Journal that this policy stopped Friday, the day the government's net neutrality rules took effect. No more throttling.
Sprint maintains that its policies would have been allowed under the new FCC rules, but that it was dropping them just in case - and Sprint certainly had reason to worry.
The FCC announced Wednesday that it is planning to fine AT&T $100 million dollars for "misleading" those with unlimited data plans. The FCC says AT&T never disclosed that these customers would be subjected to throttling after using 5 gigabytes of data per billing period, a practice similar to the practice that Sprint stopped on Friday.
Sprint could claim they had disclosed their practices in a way AT&T had not, but the FCC seems to be taking a hard line on this practice. "Unlimited means unlimited," FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc said in a press release.