Top five percent of AT&T smartphone usage and Bandwidth throttling

snook911 · Dec 1, 2011

Ok I noticed that I have been using cloud copy to upload all my videos to dropbox and in the last week have used about 2GB of data. I am still around 3 for my billing cycle but maybe they don't mean the top 5% in a billing cycle maybe they mean if you are in the top 5% anytime during you billing cycle you will get a notice. I don't think I would be in the top 5% for my billing cycle but i would be if they just counted the last week of usage.

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cyks said:
Your dad represents the vast majority of smartphone users. Those here (and on various other tech sites) only account for a small percentage and, even here, you'll find plenty of people who also use that little data each month due to WiFi.

Many non-technical people get smartphones because of good salespeople, not because they need them. If they use data at all, it's to check email and facebook updates, but little else... things that use minimal data.

It's not hard to believe AT&T's claims that most of their users use under 200MB and that 97% use under 2GB.

I have to disagree with you. More and more smart phones are being sold to kids. More daughter is 11 years old in the 6th grade and almost everyone of her friends has a smart phone with a data package. These kids are on sites like you tube all the time and using large amounts of data. I know alot of people who are non techies but have smart phones and use large amounts of data due to watching videos on the internet.

HeezyBear · Dec 1, 2011

Munkypoo7 said:
6.6GB last month, no messages.

Yay grandfathered Unlimited Plan

I don't think being grandfathered in means anything as far as this is concerned. Both my brother and a friend are grandfathered in and received the same message.

Xgm541 · Dec 1, 2011

cyks said:
Your dad represents the vast majority of smartphone users. Those here (and on various other tech sites) only account for a small percentage and, even here, you'll find plenty of people who also use that little data each month due to WiFi.

Many non-technical people get smartphones because of good salespeople, not because they need them. If they use data at all, it's to check email and facebook updates, but little else... things that use minimal data.

It's not hard to believe AT&T's claims that most of their users use under 200MB and that 97% use under 2GB.

The point about my dad was that he is very and I mean very conservative about his data usage. He is constantly checking it to make sure he doesn't go over. This means he would be using more than 200mb if he had it allotted.

FreakinEurekan · Dec 1, 2011

dylanursula said:
I think it's time the carriers come out with more Gb tiers. Example 2gb for $25 an then say 4gb for $30 and 6gb for say $40. If they included tethering I would give up my unlimited plan in a heartbeat. Until then I'll stick!

AT&T does offer three options:

200MB $15.00
2GB $25.00
4GB with Tethering $45.00

I gave up my Unlimited to get the tethering option.

Ed: Plus as marksman notes, additional use on the 2GB/4GB tiers is $10/GB, no need to pay in advance, they'll just charge as-needed

boredandlonely · Dec 2, 2011

update

October speed was 'throttled', it was LESS than Edge. It was USELESS. I could barely load most webpages, and COULDN'T load others.

November, I went well over 15gigs with no warning messages, no throttling.

December, Four days into billing cycle, including 24hours of uncharged phone, and I got the warning message txt at 1.5gigs (1.5 via AT&T app "usage>data" section).

Whether I am tethering or not, something smells when:
09.0g gets a warning the 1st month,
15.0g gets NO warning the 2nd month,
01.5g gets a warning the 3rd month.

Whatever definition they put on "unlimited", to me, at a minimum should be MORE than their largest 4GB plan. How is "unlimited" LESS than the 2GB plan??? especially when it costs more?

I have been talking to other #ATTfail MyWi/TetherME/PDAnet users I know in-person, heavy torrenters, and they are getting NO WARNINGS. WTF!? I'm the only one (local) getting the warnings? And they have NEVER mentioned "tethering", unlike these people.

Whatever 'logic' they are going to go with, does't stand up when they are being so inconsistent. It's still lies. #ATTfail all the way. I'm GLAD they are getting boned on the attempt to get T-Mobile. By the way, thanks #ATTfail for disconnecting me during that telephone interview with my potential employer yesterday. That was REALLY professional.
-When I tether, you hang up on my calls, ignore incoming calls, and don't notify me of voicemails: #ATTfail
-When I DON'T tether, you still hang up on my calls, still ignore incoming calls, and still don't notify me of voicemails: #ATTfail
-When I am STOCK unjailbroken, you still hang up on my calls, still ignore incoming calls, and still don't notify me of voicemails: #ATTfail
-Tethering on MyWi, the service you DON'T support, is the only one that works the way it's supposed to.

My ETF is down to $0. Frakk them. I'm jumping ship as soon as 4S has an untethered jailbreak. None of my Sprint friends have this issue. Even if the speed is slower, it's consistent, I won't lose all my calls and voicemails, I won't be paying you to FAIL over and over Or maybe I will go with Verizon, and get a CLEAR spot. As long as I'm not being lied to any more.

BTW, using Snow Leopard. Home network (MyWi) password changed monthly. I'm the only user.

lordofthereef · Dec 2, 2011

I help people grandfather plans, and have had a few people message me stating they got the text. They were all around 10GB data (one of them was at just under 14 before getting the message).

chakraj · Dec 2, 2011

Dont be madd at ATT, this is your fault for missunderstanding what they sold you when you purchased Unlimited Data plan.

Unlimited is not a description of how much Data you can use, it means you can go to unlimited places on the web with the 2gigs of data you get before they throttle you down to nothing.

Data consumption by all customers, including the top five percent of smartphone data customers, varies by month and by market. As of August 2011, the average data use across the country by the top five percent of AT&T smartphone customers was 2GB per month.Linky
http://www.att.com/esupport/article...ent+of+smartphone+customers?#fbid=9ShmIJjhwAP

lordofthereef · Dec 2, 2011

Xgm541 said:
Current subscribers to AT&T ~107.7 million
95% of subscribers = ~102 million

I don't find that hard to believe at all. What makes it so hard to believe?

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chakraj said:
Linky
http://www.att.com/esupport/article....id=9ShmIJjhwAP

Not working for me

chakraj · Dec 2, 2011

fixed the Linky
http://www.att.com/esupport/article...ent+of+smartphone+customers?#fbid=9ShmIJjhwAP

Vesian · Dec 2, 2011

I agree with the majority of you on this page. Around Nov 20th I received a notification that I was in the "top 5%" of users and if I didn't curb my data usage, I would be throttled next month. Concerned and confused, I loaded up my ATT account to check on just how much data I had used. The result?

2.1gb. That's it. No tethering. Just some music streaming and skype. The 2.1gb report is from ATT's website btw.

How does this make any sense? I pay $30 a month for "umlimited data." Someone can pay $25 a month (5 bucks less than me) to get 2gb. I pay 5 bucks more, download 100mb, and get a message basically painting me as a deviant with threats?

How does this make any sense at all? How are they getting away with this!? I used to be under the assumption that individuals receiving this message really were abusing the system, and that "ATT knew best". What was I smoking?

chakraj · Dec 2, 2011

ATT is just mad because we wouldnt let them buy T-Mob and then raise everyones rates.

Class action Suit sounds right about now. I will sign up!

ap3604 · Dec 2, 2011

Vesian said:
I agree with the majority of you on this page. Around Nov 20th I received a notification that I was in the "top 5%" of users and if I didn't curb my data usage, I would be throttled next month. Concerned and confused, I loaded up my ATT account to check on just how much data I had used. The result?

2.1gb. That's it. No tethering. Just some music streaming and skype. The 2.1gb report is from ATT's website btw.

How does this make any sense? I pay $30 a month for "umlimited data." Someone can pay $25 a month (5 bucks less than me) to get 2gb. I pay 5 bucks more, download 100mb, and get a message basically painting me as a deviant with threats?

How does this make any sense at all? How are they getting away with this!? I used to be under the assumption that individuals receiving this message really were abusing the system, and that "ATT knew best". What was I smoking?

Good lord

Might be time to switch to 2gb then...

Cant believe the 200mb plan doesn't qualify for employer discount whatsoever

(only the 2gb one does)

Orlandu · Dec 2, 2011

I just got the message 20 minutes ago. I checked my current data usage and I'm at 5.1GB for this billing cycle that ends on 12/8. No tethering. I get low speeds here at my work anyway but if I notice it affecting speeds elsewhere then I'll be switching to Sprint.

lordofthereef · Dec 2, 2011

It may be helpful to share what city people are experiencing this in (or if not that, then population). The reason I say this is because I know for a fact Verizon has publicly stated they will only throttle your data in high traffic areas and peak times. It certainly could be possible that people getting the message at a mere 2.x GB are in those heavy traffic zones?

chakraj · Dec 2, 2011

The worst part is that ATT says as a solution to use one of their 25,000 wifi hotspots, but those places have slower data than the throttled data.

Have you ever tried to watch a netflix at a starbucks? it just skips, if you can even get it to load.

Its the old BAIT and SWITCH.

Here pay for unlimited, oh but its not unlimited, but dont worry you can go to one of our 1,000,000 wifi data dead spots and hope you can download a email if your lucky.

What kind of solution is that.

Can you say
CLASS ACTION SUIT!

marksman · Dec 2, 2011

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Vesian said:
I agree with the majority of you on this page. Around Nov 20th I received a notification that I was in the "top 5%" of users and if I didn't curb my data usage, I would be throttled next month. Concerned and confused, I loaded up my ATT account to check on just how much data I had used. The result?

2.1gb. That's it. No tethering. Just some music streaming and skype. The 2.1gb report is from ATT's website btw.

How does this make any sense? I pay $30 a month for "umlimited data." Someone can pay $25 a month (5 bucks less than me) to get 2gb. I pay 5 bucks more, download 100mb, and get a message basically painting me as a deviant with threats?

How does this make any sense at all? How are they getting away with this!? I used to be under the assumption that individuals receiving this message really were abusing the system, and that "ATT knew best". What was I smoking?

You are free to switch to the pay for what you use plan and not worry about throttling at all.

boredandlonely · Dec 2, 2011

chakraj said:
Dont be madd at ATT, this is your fault for missunderstanding what they sold you when you purchased Unlimited Data plan.

Unlimited is not a description of how much Data you can use, it means you can go to unlimited places on the web with the 2gigs of data you get before they throttle you down to nothing.

Even if they expected us to believe that, it was intentionally deceptive marketing.

chakraj said:
The worst part is that ATT says as a solution to use one of their 25,000 wifi hotspots, but those places have slower data than the throttled data.

Can you say
CLASS ACTION SUIT!

"Class Action Lawsuit"

And by Wifi, you mean those completely non-secured public hotspots? Yeah right.

lordofthereef · Dec 2, 2011

boredandlonely said:
And by Wifi, you mean those completely non-secured public hotspots? Yeah right.

Why on earth does the public hotspot need to be secured?

NoHo · Dec 2, 2011

lol@throttling at 2.6GB.

So what happens in a few years when 2.6GB lasts less than a week with updated apps and all media being digital?

Oh, that's right, you just have to pay more for a higher tiered pricing plan.

Hilarious. AT&T is totally owning their customers.

I would cancel and go with SPRINT. Try and get the ETF taken off. The best option is true unlimited data because data is going to be at a premium in the very near future.

lordofthereef · Dec 2, 2011

NoHo said:
I would cancel and go with SPRINT. Try and get the ETF taken off. The best option is true unlimited data because data is going to be at a premium in the very near future.

Came from Sprint and couldn't stand it. Plenty of people in my shoes. If Sprint truly was that appealing to so many ATT would be hurting. Obviously that's not the case.

NoHo · Dec 2, 2011

lordofthereef said:
Came from Sprint and couldn't stand it. Plenty of people in my shoes. If Sprint truly was that appealing to so many ATT would be hurting. Obviously that's not the case.

Right now SPRINT isn't appealing, but in the near future when there are apps we can't even imagine yet and all media is digital and 2GB doesn't last you very long, they're going to be a lot more appealing so it's probably best to jump on the unlimited data bandwagon now rather than later.

I never understood why people didn't make a bigger fuss about AT&T and Verizon getting rid of true unlimited data. I guess they felt that since they weren't using 2GB now that they would never be using more than 2GB. I'm sure if in the early 00's if home broadband companies offered a tiered 25GB a month plan save you $5 a month people would have jumped on it since the they weren't using 25GB then, but now they sure are. Fortunately, the home broadband companies didn't have the foresight to realize technology changes so they never implemented tiered pricing, but the mobile broadband companies aren't going to make the same mistake.

lordofthereef · Dec 2, 2011

NoHo said:
Right now SPRINT isn't appealing, but in the near future when there are apps we can't even imagine yet and all media is digital and 2GB doesn't last you very long, they're going to be a lot more appealing so it's probably best to jump on the unlimited data bandwagon now rather than later.

I never understood why people didn't make a bigger fuss about AT&T and Verizon getting rid of true unlimited data. I guess they felt that since they weren't using 2GB now that they would never be using more than 2GB. I'm sure if in the early 00's if home broadband companies offered a tiered 25GB a month plan save you $5 a month people would have jumped on it since the they weren't using 25GB then, but now they sure are. Fortunately, the home broadband companies didn't have the foresight to realize technology changes so they never implemented tiered pricing, but the mobile broadband companies aren't going to make the same mistake.

I see what you're saying. That still taking a pretty big gamble assuming they stay unlimited forever. Also, if NOW I can't stream stuff properly on that pig slow network, how will it be better when more people are congesting the network with even more data hungry applications?

ap3604 · Dec 2, 2011

NoHo said:
Right now SPRINT isn't appealing, but in the near future when there are apps we can't even imagine yet and all media is digital and 2GB doesn't last you very long, they're going to be a lot more appealing so it's probably best to jump on the unlimited data bandwagon now rather than later.

Stop drinking the kool-aid. Soon enough Sprint will data throttle as well

Data sucking idiots jumping on the "Sprint has unlimited so we can stream/tether as much as we want!" bandwagon will make sure to kill off 'unlimited' real quick!

Sprint could change it's throttling policy tomorrow if it really wanted to since they said in the contract you signed that they can change whatever terms they want whenever they want. The only reason that you have unlimted without throttling ATM is because they let you...

NoHo · Dec 2, 2011

ap3604 said:
Data sucking idiots jumping on the "Sprint has unlimited so we can stream/tether as much as we want!" bandwagon will make sure to kill off 'unlimited' real quick!

Don't be an idiot. AT&T and other mobile broadband companies (and probably SPRINT too when it's all said and done) used the "data hog" bad word to essentially push their tiered pricing agenda through. They said people who were using a lot of data were the reason they had to take away unlimited data plans. They said the top 5% were the problem so everyone got on these peoples cases. Worked like a charm.

Now, as you can see, the data hogs are the people who are using just above 2GB. You're getting throttled now for using 2.6GB. That doesn't sound like a data hog to me, but apparently it puts you in the top 5%. AT&T, Verizon and probably SPRINT in the future used smoke and mirrors to get their customers to agree to do what they wanted, and in the future when 2GB doesn't last you a week, they're going to have you right where they want you. In their pockets.

Vesian · Dec 3, 2011

marksman said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

You are free to switch to the pay for what you use plan and not worry about throttling at all.

Right. Your suggestion is the same as picking between gas sites during a price-gorging session. You are free to choose wherever you want, but the price is still utterly ridiculous.

Top five percent of AT&T smartphone usage and Bandwidth throttling

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