AT&T Scales Back Throttling of Grandfathered Unlimited Data Plans

freediverx · May 9, 2015

rgarjr said:
This is key point right here. They should raise threshold limit from 5GB to at least 20GB, then throttle when congested if u go over that.

That would require investing in network upgrades to support the extra bandwidth. It's much easier and more profitable to limit demand through frivolous pricing policies since the result is more revenue, flat operating costs, and the ability to lie to the public about offering higher speeds which are in fact only possible by limiting everyone's usage.

alphaod · May 9, 2015

I'm wondering how this would work for those of us on unlimited roaming plans?

Since I would not technically be using AT&T's cellular towers, they never experience "congestion? Granted, I do get an US IP address, so maybe they'll base it on that?

I guess they have no reason to ever clarify this.

iChrist said:
Instead of buying garbage like Beats, Apple could have really shaken things up by buying Sprint or Tmobile.

So instead of a "garbage" electronics company they should have bought one of two "garbage" carriers?!

BD1 · May 9, 2015

k1121j said:
dosent tmobile use ATT towers so wouldn't it be the same?

I don't think so. I tried the use t-mobile for a week but unfortunately in my area and house, t-mobile was pretty bad. Stuck with ATT, for now.

erayser · May 9, 2015

T0MMYBOY4 said:
Over 100 gig used....still no throttling

Wrong thread... this is thread is for justifying why you left AT&T UDP... for a better tiered plan... LOL... j/k.

I usually leave wifi on since I have fast wifi at work and home... but turned it off to see if AT&T really did scale back on throttling. I went out all over San Diego today with my wife and kids... streaming Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, uploading and downloading files, and a lot of web surfing... I used over 7gb of data today, and I didn't see any slowdown. I didn't even get the 5gb usage warning message from AT&T. I posted my screens in the other thread you posted in... no need to post here.

The reason I stuck with AT&T UDP... is because the cost of data was still considered cheap to me... even if I was limited to 5gb of LTE data speeds. My Verizon 5gb data plan is $20 dollars more that my AT&T unlimited data. Now that AT&T appears to have lightened up on throttling, I might just cancel my Verizon mifi LTE data plan. Since I got the 6+ I hardly use my Verizon mifi since I don't take my iPad with me anymore.

igorsky · May 10, 2015

iChrist said:
Instead of buying garbage like Beats, Apple could have really shaken things up by buying Sprint or Tmobile.

As a shareholder I say thank goodness you're not the CEO of Apple.

Consultant · May 10, 2015

alphaod said:
Great. Now I need my FaceTime over cellular without having to jailbreak.

Already done ... in 2013
https://www.macrumors.com/2013/05/2...e-over-cellular-to-all-customers-by-year-end/

Nicksd84 · May 12, 2015

Watched some live stream events on my phone to get over the 5 GB threshold quickly in this bill cycle. I can say they are still throttling but not to the unusable speeds they were before. Down to about 3-4 Mbps so not LTE, but usable for videos and such. This is what I always said would be fine. Slow it down, but still let me use it. Hooray! Happy I navigated through all BS. Assuming they will do something in the future that will force me to drop the unlimited plan, but oh well take what I got for now.

erayser · May 12, 2015

Nicksd84 said:
Watched some live stream events on my phone to get over the 5 GB threshold quickly in this bill cycle. I can say they are still throttling but not to the unusable speeds they were before. Down to about 3-4 Mbps so not LTE, but usable for videos and such. This is what I always said would be fine. Slow it down, but still let me use it. Hooray! Happy I navigated through all BS. Assuming they will do something in the future that will force me to drop the unlimited plan, but oh well take what I got for now.

I'm over 12 GB... and if this is considered throttling in my area, I'll take it...

Nicksd84 · May 12, 2015

erayser said:
I'm over 12 GB... and if this is considered throttling in my area, I'll take it...

Image

Yea... I just restested, got 18 down. Earlier when I tested it was rush hour (live in Atlanta) so looks like they're doing what they said. Again though the key is they aren't throttling it to dial up speeds when they do throttle. Kudos AT&T for whatever the motive was I'm ecstatic!

yoheywut · May 12, 2015

Nicksd84 said:
Yea... I just restested, got 18 down. Earlier when I tested it was rush hour (live in Atlanta) so looks like they're doing what they said. Again though the key is they aren't throttling it to dial up speeds when they do throttle. Kudos AT&T for whatever the motive was I'm ecstatic!

Thanks for posting this. I was looking in this thread for the actual results of this policy change. And perhaps your slow speed earlier was just regular congestion on the network, similar to when you go to a concert or whatnot. I'm intentionally using a good amount of data this month to hit the 5GB limit to see how things are where I live.

stevehip · May 13, 2015

I hear ya!

penajmz said:
Awesome news! I noticed in my last billing cycle I used over 6GB and was not being throttled. Yay! #

I spent 6 long years of limited unlimited data w/ ATT, mostly because they had the iPhone. I was promised $30 unlimited iPad data, retracted almost immediately after offered. I was promised unlimited data, then told that unlimited means limited and unlimited to limited speeds - unlimited use of lower speeds which limit ones use of the device. Once I moved to T-Mobile I never looked back. I now pay $80 for the truly unlimited data plan w/ T-Mo, and I pay an extra $10 x 2 for 2 sims for my iPad air, each one gives me 5GB of high speed LTE data which also doubles as a hotspot. I can use 5GB of my unlimited data on the iPhone as a hotspot as well. That's 15GB of hotspot a month, plus unlimited streaming from the iPhone. If I plug it in with an HDMI cable and adaptor I can stream all month for the one fee I pay. I'm very happy w/ my plan. I don't need the 2nd sim for the iPad. I got it because I signed up for a free tablet and messed up ordering it online and only got the sim card. Called up a month or so later and found out I had made a mistake. The manager said I could get a fresh nano sim if I wanted the card for the iPad, which isn't really allowed but they did it for me, since I'd mentioned that was the reason I'd wanted the free alcatel tablet, since it was a crap tablet anyway. So for $10 more it's basically insurance against needing extra data when I travel and I travel every month. W ATT I would have been screwed at 5GB on LTE and 3Gb lower speeds and they wanted me to pay $50 every time I used my iPad for 5GB of data. So this is significantly less.

berniefl36 · May 18, 2015

How is everybody's throttling going lately? Has it improved ?

mac.cali · May 18, 2015

That's good to hear att reduced its stance on data throttling. Let's see if it pans out for a permanent solution.

Rayfire · May 18, 2015

berniefl36 said:
How is everybody's throttling going lately? Has it improved ?

So far so good, I was at 7gb on the 4th and never got throttled, usually I would wait at the end of my billing cycle on the 11th to do more stuff but now I don't.

erayser · May 18, 2015

Rayfire said:
So far so good, I was at 7gb on the 4th and never got throttled, usually I would wait at the end of my billing cycle on the 11th to do more stuff but now I don't.

Same here... over 16gb's this month... and no signs of throttling in my area.

Screenshots from today:

Macboy Pro · May 20, 2015

igorsky said:
When I first signed up for AT&T's unlimited plan it was their most expensive data plan, so for a very long time I was paying more than the rest of you. You can GTFOH with that freeloading nonsense.

Classy... FYI, its been about 7+ years since they offered the unlimited plan and the halted it a few months after offering it. Time to move on...

Kendo · May 20, 2015

Macboy Pro said:
Classy... FYI, its been about 7+ years since they offered the unlimited plan and the halted it a few months after offering it. Time to move on...

Not quite a few months. I hopped onto the iPhone with the 3rd generation 3GS and at that time they offered the unlimited plan which I am now grandfathered in.

Macboy Pro · May 20, 2015

Kendo said:
Not quite a few months. I hopped onto the iPhone with the 3rd generation 3GS and at that time they offered the unlimited plan which I am now grandfathered in.

The point is exactly the same. It's been 7 years. Users can use 10x the data speed and 10x the data in 2015. The carriers have a right to throttle $30 unlimited plans when the rest of the customer base is paying full price for tiered plans.

AT&T should have dropped the plans immediately back in 2007/8 when it all went down. DROP THEM, PERIOD!! Instead they let these folks hang around forums making buttclowns of themselves whining about not getting there unlimited data plan from 2007.

Kendo · May 20, 2015

Macboy Pro said:
The point is exactly the same. It's been 7 years. Users can use 10x the data speed and 10x the data in 2015. The carriers have a right to throttle $30 unlimited plans when the rest of the customer base is paying full price for tiered plans.

AT&T should have dropped the plans immediately back in 2007/8 when it all went down. DROP THEM, PERIOD!! Instead they let these folks hang around forums making buttclowns of themselves whining about not getting there unlimited data plan from 2007.

Agreed. But gonna assume you aren't one of the lucky ones to get grandfathered in.

Macboy Pro · May 20, 2015

Kendo said:
Agreed. But gonna assume you aren't one of the lucky ones to get grandfathered in.

Lucky in 2007 for a few months or a year. But 7 years later. I am lucky to get full data speed with a data plan with room to spare, at a very reasonable cost.

I am off the opinion they should drop the unlimited and let the whiners leave (but they won't, because AT&T has the premium network, hands down).

pooleman · May 22, 2015

Here is my current usage since they changed the policy. I have yet to be throttled. I'm loving it.

iMas70 · May 24, 2015

I'm currently just under 30GB with a few days left in this month's billing cycle. Have seen unthrottled speeds of close to 70 Mbps. I'm glad it finally works like it's supposed to!

erayser · May 24, 2015

A couple days after this thread started, I had .5gb. I finished this billing cycle today with 18gb... still no throttling in my area and every location in San Diego I've been in. Starting a new billing cycle tomorrow. It will be interesting how much I use for a full billing cycle with the freedom of using my 6+ that way it should be used.

TECHNOLOGE · May 28, 2015

It seems that ATT backed down from throttling iPhone Data Unlimited Plans, this is indeed excellent for the people that kept there Unlimited Data iPhone plans, out there, i mean it is great.

Now you guys pretty much have the status of the iPad data unlimited plan, enjoy ATT 4G LTE at full speeds.

ATT Unlimited Data and Verizon Unlimited Data is worth having.

For the people that stuck in there and kept there Unlimited Data Plans, i know ya feel a sense of relief.

BD1 · May 28, 2015

TECHNOLOGE said:
It seems that ATT backed down from throttling iPhone Data Unlimited Plans, this is indeed excellent for the people that kept there Unlimited Data iPhone plans, out there, i mean it is great.

Now you guys pretty much have the status of the iPad data unlimited plan, enjoy ATT 4G LTE at full speeds.

ATT Unlimited Data and Verizon Unlimited Data is worth having.

For the people that stuck in there and kept there Unlimited Data Plans, i know ya feel a sense of relief.

Now we just need ATT to add tethering to the unlimited plan.....but not likely

AT&T Scales Back Throttling of Grandfathered Unlimited Data Plans

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