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.

“I heard your frustration”

With the new Apple Watch enabling high-speed LTE connectivity, T-Mobile received some immediate criticism from customers. Within hours, T-Mobile CEO John Legere announced a change in policy on Twitter.

"I heard your frustration about the Apple Watch plan," Legere wrote. "I sincerely believe in listening to our customers & have dug into this." Instead of the original plan to charge more for LTE speeds, Legere wrote, "The Apple Watch Series 3 plan on T-Mobile will be $10/m for unlimited 4G LTE. Thanks for your feedback. We always listen & act!"

I heard your frustration about the Apple Watch plan. I sincerely believe in listening to our customers & have dug into this... — John Legere (@JohnLegere) September 16, 2017

The 512kbps limit might not have been noticeable for most customers. One of the most bandwidth-heavy applications for Apple Watch is Apple Music, which streams at a 256kbps bit rate.

The watch might temporarily download at a higher bit rate in order to buffer a song, though. "For best battery consumption, you want to download your data as fast as possible, then return to LTE idle mode," mobile application developer Jake Hamby pointed out.

Still, 512kbps should be enough to stream music as long as the watch's connection to the T-Mobile network remains steady. T-Mobile was counting on this, telling The Verge that "Customers can do everything they want to do with the watch at 512kbps."

But the watch's low-bandwidth needs relative to smartphones and tablets mean that any sort of throttling likely isn't necessary from a network-management perspective. Legere's quick decision to change the policy suggests that T-Mobile's network can handle the extra speeds.

We contacted the other major carriers about their Apple Watch policies on Friday before T-Mobile announced its change in plans. AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint all told Ars that they will offer LTE connectivity on the watch for the standard $10-per-month rate. All four major carriers are offering three free months of Apple Watch connectivity before the monthly rate kicks in.