T-Mobile backtracks from plan to throttle Apple Watch speeds to 512kbps

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T-Mobile USA last week said it would throttle Apple Watch cellular data speeds to 512kbps unless customers paid double the normal $10-per-month service charge, but it quickly backtracked after criticism from customers.

As reported by MacRumors on Friday, T-Mobile was advertising "unlimited talk, text, and data at 512kbps on your smartwatch" for $10 a month. The speed limitation was "noted on the pre-order page when adding an Apple Watch Series 3 to your cart" and apparently applied to any smartwatch.

Customers could get the Apple Watch's full LTE speeds by paying $20 per month by purchasing a "paired Digits" plan. "If customers feel they need high-speed data, they can choose high-speed data with paired Digits for $20 with auto-pay" or $25 per month if auto-pay isn't enabled, T-Mobile told The Verge Friday.