What does it say about people who want all the bandwidth they can use and not pay for it?
They (as well as Sprint, tMobile and Verizon) are a for profit business. Putting up towers, investing in the backhaul costs MONEY. If you want the speed and data, you have to pay money for it.
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But it's AT&T who are the greedy ones.
The point is that We DO pay for it. Under the contract we have with AT&T unlimited data at $30 a month per iPhone was EXPENSIVE. Now it may be on the low end of a data plan cost, but I for one have not been cheap about it. For two iPhones since 2008 at $60 a month for data, and $30 for texting... Seems to me I pay a lot as that only accounts for half of the cost of my plan. while I understand the business aspect of it, as a consumer I feel robbed. AT&T has altered and changed the arrangements multiple times over the years. This latest ploy is a slap in the face... No pun intended. "Here's this amazing phone, but since you are an old, longstanding customer, you do not get to enjoy all it has to offer."
They certainly don't inspire much in the way of consumer brand loyalty... Apple makes an awesome set of products. AT&T has screwed it up. Bottom line.
Just the other day I was driving in unfamiliar territory, like I do for work often, and was using the maps app... When suddenly the map wouldn't load and I was completely lost. Throttled on the spot. Full bars, and it was taking so long to load my location I just quit and had to ask directions... That shouldn't happen if I pay for a service, one which I am clearly not provided. Had that been my wife in the car with my 6 month old son in the car having to pull over for directions, I would have been livid.
Just because I was grandfathered in and don't pay as much as you for my data does not mean that I am less of a customer... I would like to see AT&T treat long term customers as something of a financial asset... Which will never happen. Sad.
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On the phones that existed before the original iPhone, how many people ever hit 2 GB per YEAR? The device and the network entirely dictate the usage model. The iPhone 5 on LTE is going to change the way people use their phones once again. (iPhone users at least, it won't matter much to the Android set.)
5 GB will no doubt be sufficient for most until 10 months from now when all their apps are updated to take full advantage of the device's new capabilities. At which point most people will go over their caps, get a huge bill / get throttled, be shocked and outraged, and then change their plan so they pay a higher amount every month.
Any one here remember when people used to use their phones for making calls and they did the same thing with minutes?
Word.