I can not see how this is good for consumers, if compared to actual unlimited data.
At least T-Mobile Germany is throttling users to 64kbit/s after the cap is reached, which is so slow that you can't use most online services (logins over https just time out). Of course you can buy more uncapped gigabytes.
This is a perverse incentive scheme for the providers: they have no reason to upgrade the network capacity, because they can use the "network is overloaded" argument to limit the data volume, and to charge more from their users.
They can't if there's competition. We used to have caps on our cable connections here in Portugal; that works fine for the ISP until its competitor raises the cap, which they did, until we got unlimited connections.
What bothers me is that half of our regulatory system is basically a jumble of patches designed to fix the problems caused by lack of competition, which is often artificially introduced by the other half of the regulatory system.
Not to say this is the case, though. I think the FTC is completely right here - unlimited should mean nothing is curtailed based on your usage. Anything else is misleading, bordering on fraud.
E-Plus resellers are now offering a thing where you can buy 5GB for €15/month, but then buy another 5GB for €3 when you reach the cap. Repeat as needed. Not a bad deal for heavy users.
At least T-Mobile Germany is throttling users to 64kbit/s after the cap is reached, which is so slow that you can't use most online services (logins over https just time out). Of course you can buy more uncapped gigabytes.
This is a perverse incentive scheme for the providers: they have no reason to upgrade the network capacity, because they can use the "network is overloaded" argument to limit the data volume, and to charge more from their users.