Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile will pay a combined $10.22 million to a group of states to settle claims that the carriers lied to customers about their “unlimited” plans and “free” phone offers. The settlement, which follows an investigation from a coalition of 50 attorneys general, requires the three companies to make their advertisements more transparent.
Under the terms of the agreement, Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T can only advertise their plans as “unlimited” if there are no limits on how much data someone can use during a billing cycle. The ads must “clearly and conspicuously” say that restrictions on speed may apply, as well as specify the amount of data customers can use before triggering the slowdown.
Additionally, the attorneys…