Recently, AT&T has been under fire for misleading its customers on several of its program’s pricing strategies. Additionally, the FTC just discovered that AT&T is also affecting how a customer’s data functions in order to reduce AT&T’s data costs.

AT&T has developed the promotion of the Unlimited Data plan which is supposed to charge a relatively low flat rate for all the data usage the customer needs in a month without charging them overages. This is a highly competitive tactics since other telecommunications providers say that there are too many costs associated with unlimited data problems.

Seems too good to be true? Well, the Federal Trade Commission says that it is. Based on FTC research, AT&T is being sued for mis-advertising the unlimited data plan. Apparently, once the customer gets to a certain level of data, the service slows up to 90% of the speed, making it impossible for customers to use the data quickly and forcing them to either wait for their connection or give up and stop using it. The barrier ensures that AT&T does not have to pay excess costs for data, essentially setting a technical limit on an unlimited plan. This technique is called throttling and it is not legal. It is illegal because AT&T is telling customers that they will get the same access to unlimited amounts of data, but really they are guilty of false advertising by making it impossible to use the data (even though technically they are providing unlimited data to the user).

Although this is frustrating for an individual AT&T user, it could be detrimental to businesses using AT&T services. Businesses rely on access to large amounts of mobile data to speak, present, and share information with clients. The unlimited data plan is enticing because business owners and corporations generally use a large amount of data. However, AT&T’s tactic ensures that business communication will slow and valuable partnerships could potentially end because of lack of response.

In many articles, I speak of how important it is to monitor costs. However, it is also important to know the company providing a service respects you and your business. Telecom providers often are not seen as partners to a business because they are a necessity. However, you need to remember that you are a client to them and their main focus should be to make their service work best for your business, not to make money. Make sure that those you form business relationships with are serving your best interests, or find another resource that wants to see their client’s succeed.

#1   The top 1 percent of all income earners already pay 39.5 percent of all federal income taxes.

#2   When you take all forms of federal taxation into account, the top 1 percent of all income earners pay 28.1 percent of all federal taxes.

#3   The top 20 percent of all income earners in the United States pay approximately 86 percent of all federal income taxes.

#4   One recent poll found that 64 percent of Americans are in favor of raising taxes on those that make $250,000 or more a year in order to help balance the federal budget deficit. Another recent poll found that 72 percent of Americans favor raising taxes on those making $250,000 or more a year.

#5   Approximately 45 percent of all U.S. households pay absolutely no income taxes at all.

#6   Overall, U.S. households are now receiving more income from the U.S. government than they are paying to the government in taxes. This is clearly not anywhere close to sustainable.

#7   During 2010, the U.S. government paid out a combined $2.3 trillion in unemployment benefits, Social Security benefits, disability insurance, Medicare benefits, Medicaid benefits, benefits for veterans, education assistance and other direct transfers of cash from the government to individual citizens.

#8   59 percent of all Americans now receive a government payout of one form or another.

#9   The ultra-wealthy keep much of their wealth outside of the United States so that the government cannot tax it. It has been estimated that a third of all the wealth in the world is held in “offshore” banks.

#10   Thanks to new corporate tax cuts in Japan, the United States now has the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world.

#11   Large corporations have become masters at avoiding taxes. Back in the 1950s, corporate taxes accounted for about 30 percent of all federal revenue, but in 2009 corporate taxes accounted for just 6.6 percent.

#12   General Electric has been a great friend to the Obama administration. According to the New York Times, General Electric made a total of 14.2 billion dollars in profits last year. So how much did they pay in taxes to the U.S. Treasury? According to the New York Times, not one penny was paid.

#13   Even though Boeing receives billions in federal subsidies every year and even though it has a bunch of juicy government contracts it did not pay a single penny in federal corporate income taxes from 2008 to 2010.

#14   Exxon-Mobil paid $15 billion in taxes in 2009, but not a single penny went to the U.S. government. Meanwhile, their CEO brought in over 29 million dollars in total compensation that year.

However…I think my question was should we worry about taxes? The answer is no. Worrying never helped anything. Instead try to understand better how you can impact future change. Educate your children, or other children if you do not have any, on how taxation affects us and make them better educated voters.

Also, know what you should or should be paying for in taxes (as well as, not paying for).  Look at your local candidates, as well as, your state and national government leaders taxation platforms, and make better voting decisions in the years to come.

And when it comes to watching you own personal or business wealth remember…

taxation reduction, cost reduction, lower telecom costs, billing optimization