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Jacqui Cheng - Jan 11, 2011 5:15 pm UTC

Do you like pulling up that crazy YouTube video you saw the other day on your phone to show your friends? Not anymore you don't, at least if you're a T-Mobile UK subscriber. The company has notified its users of a change in its mobile fair use policy, which allows users to check e-mail and look at websites. When it comes to watching video, downloading files, or playing games though, T-Mobile says to save it for your broadband connection.

"We'll always let you e-mail and browse the Internet and you'll never pay more than you agree to," the company told its customers. "We do have a fair use policy but ours is there to make sure we deliver the best service possible to all our customers."

Part of the modified policy involves dropping users' "fair use" data caps down from 1GB or 3GB (depending what they signed up for) down to 500MB—including users who had already signed contracts for something higher. Further, T-Mobile UK says that users who go over the 500MB cap will have their connections "restricted"—they'll still be able to access "important services" like e-mail and Web, but anything else will be verboten.

Needless to say, many of T-Mobile UK's customers were unhappy with the news, but the company emphasized in a series of tweets that it can "change non-core services as long as reasonable notice has been provided." That isn't likely to be a very comforting response to those who have already signed on for years' worth of service, but T-Mobile swears that most of its users only use 200MB of data and that the change will only affect a "small minority" of users.

"Customers who have a need for higher volumes of data will be encouraged to take up a separate mobile broadband plan," the company said. "We are confident that these changes will result in a better experience for all of our customers who use internet on their phone."

Update: T-Mobile has responded to the backlash and posted an update to its policy change. Now, the 500MB cap will only apply to new customers as of February 1, who will be able to upgrade to a 1GB plan. Existing customers won't be affected.

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