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palmerc2

macrumors 68000
Feb 29, 2008
1,624
684
Los Angeles
By throttling unlimited data plans, AT&T is naturally encouraging customers to switch to one of the tiered data plans

By throttling unlimited data plans, AT&T naturally encouraged me to switch to T-Mobile which has truly unlimited data. On this billing cycle with T-Mobile I've used 14GB of data and have not been throttled.
 

BeyondtheTech

macrumors 68020
Jun 20, 2007
2,146
715
They've simply switched from one vague metric (usage) to another (congestion). Add the fact that they're keeping you throttled until the billing cycle ends proves it's not congestion, but rather spite that you have something that they can't take away, but will piss on you for keeping it.

Never have I seen a company be so disrespectful of the people that support them. If you're not a shareholder or an executive of the company, you're a burden. At this point, if you subscribe with them, you deserve the poor treatment they give you.
 

Xgm541

macrumors 65816
May 3, 2011
1,098
818
The unlimited data plan is great to have in certain situations but nowadays its actually obsolete especially since mobile share comes with hotspot and data rollover.

Lol @ Unlimited data being obsolete. It doesnt seem like you have unlimited data, because if you did, you wouldnt be saying that.
 

LouieTheLug

macrumors member
Sep 14, 2013
44
55
America
Amen..!!!

What does this mean though? If I have a non-unlimited plan (let's say 30GB a month), I won't get throttled even in a congested area. But those who have unlimited plans will get throttled in a congested area? If they don't have to throttle a person that pays for their data in buckets, obviously there isn't congestion to begin with?


YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY CORRECT..!!!!

SEEMS LIKE DATA PREJUDICE TO ME...!!!

What there doing & for Why do not make any sense except for the all mighty Dollar...
 

Populism

macrumors regular
Jun 11, 2014
193
3,080
Step 1: Back off throttling (which AT&T appears to be doing)
Step 2: Allow tethering
Step 3: Olivia Wilde asks me out
 

DipDog3

macrumors 65816
Sep 20, 2002
1,191
812
Nice! I use much less of the data, as a percentage of my plan than Mrs. thequick...

Mrs. thequick: 2.5GB/3.0GB, or 83% of her plan
Me: 40GB/Infinite, or an insignificant percentage of my plan

Do you not have a home broadband connection?

How do you even use 40GB/month?
 

afawcett

macrumors regular
Feb 23, 2010
129
10
San Diego
Everyone on my family was on the unlimited plan until last week when my brother decided to switch it (without asking) to a mobile share plan so he could wouldn't be throttled and so he could tether. I wanted to take that plan to the grave.
 

LouieTheLug

macrumors member
Sep 14, 2013
44
55
America
Jealous Much?

Not necessarily. During congestion, it makes some sense to throttle the unlimited data guys to ensure there is sufficient bandwidth available for those who bought the bucket of data. From AT&T's point of view, those are the "paying" customers who have a higher priority than the "freeloading" guys with old unlimited plans.

Jealous Much? There's NO way that it hurts at&t's data ... They don't have to throttle the Unlimited people. it's just there way of trying to get people to do what you did, to get frustrated enough to switch to a 30 G data tier & pay out more. Gee Wizz, so if i was getting throttled and wanted to pay more & switch my plan to a higher gig plan then my data would be just fine according to there business tactics..... COME ON..!!!!
 

IbisDoc

macrumors 6502a
Apr 17, 2010
527
371
"their speeds will be restored with the start of the next billing cycle."

Doesn't that suggest that once throttling occurs (for whatever reason, congestion, etc) that their data speed won't return in that billing cycle?

This is the important point. The AT&T folks are just trying to pull a fast one here, in an attempt to preempt government action. In reality, they did not change the throttling policy at all.

Anyone with half a brain understands that throttling during a period of congestion that lasts the rest of the billing cycle is just plain thievery. Officials will easily see through this phony "concession". Punish those crooks.
 

colourfastt

macrumors 65816
Apr 7, 2009
1,047
964
Do you not have a home broadband connection?

How do you even use 40GB/month?

I for one don't have a home broadband connection; I choose to have 1 bill to pay. And it seriously annoys me when my "unlimited" data plan throttles me back to the level of a 14.4k modem when I go over 3Gbs each month.
 

freediverx

macrumors 65816
Feb 19, 2006
1,009
1,022
and their speeds will be restored with the start of the next billing cycle

BS, AT&T are still violating the FCC's mandate. The customer's speed should be restored as soon as they are no longer using data services in an area currently experiencing network congestion.
 

afawcett

macrumors regular
Feb 23, 2010
129
10
San Diego
They've simply switched from one vague metric (usage) to another (congestion).

The old metric was congestion, but AT&T implemented that at 5GB. Also throttling by usage is extremely define, quite the opposite of vague. This is a huge win gain for AT&T customers, especially because other major telecoms still throttle on flat usage. If you are truly unhappy with AT&T, other companies will pay your ETF.
 

jpgr15

macrumors 6502a
Apr 28, 2015
528
992
I wanted to leave for Verizon, but could not get past the problem where verizon would not let me talk and surf at the same time. Maybe that has been resolved now, but the significant quality difference between the two is not so significant anymore.

This was resolved when the 6 & 6+ were released. I am with VZW and this was a glorious day.
 

ProVideo

macrumors 6502
Jun 28, 2011
497
688
I was wondering why I hadn't received a notice that I was about to reach 5GB last month and then experienced no throttling after I had passed it.

Good for them for doing this, but I seriously doubt without the FTC lawsuit or T-Mobile competition they would be doing this.
 

sk1wbw

Suspended
May 28, 2011
3,483
1,010
Williamsburg, Virginia
Network congestion is such ****** cop out for trying to get people to go on a higher priced plan. If you have a grandfathered unlimited plan and they throttle you at 5 gigs per billing cycle, what's the difference in paying for a more expensive plan getting you 15 gigs per month and then proceeding to go over that 5 gig data limit? If you use 10 gigs on a plan that isn't unlimited, how does that NOT contribute to this so called "network congestion"?
 

camarograna2

macrumors member
May 7, 2015
80
43
Great! Let me just tell 2010 me so I can keep not being able to use personal hotspot or FaceTime over LTE for a few extra years because it'll be worth it in the end!

You cant facetime on LTE with your grandfathered unlimited plan ??? You should call customer service because they enabled that this year i believe. hotspot still no go
 

norrismantooth

macrumors regular
Nov 29, 2010
185
44
Dallas, TX
AT&T customers with unlimited data plans have experienced speeds as low as half a megabit per second when being throttled..."

Article Link: AT&T Scales Back Throttling of Grandfathered Unlimited Data Plans

Apparently the author of this article has never been throttled before. The article should read like this:

"AT&T customers with unlimited data plans have experienced speeds as low as ZERO kb/s when being throttled..."

Does anyone not understand that when you are throttled, your phone is a worthless piece of ****? Good for nothing, can't check email, can't browse the web, can't use apps, and can often sometimes not even make a phone call.

Moron!!
 

camarograna2

macrumors member
May 7, 2015
80
43
BS, AT&T are still violating the FCC's mandate. The customer's speed should be restored as soon as they are no longer using data services in an area currently experiencing network congestion.

It does. I experienced that a week ago. Went over 5 GB, was throttled to like under 1 mbps, a few hours later at same location i was back at full speeds
 

freediverx

macrumors 65816
Feb 19, 2006
1,009
1,022
It does. I experienced that a week ago. Went over 5 GB, was throttled to like under 1 mbps, a few hours later at same location i was back at full speeds

That's good to know, but their written policies and press releases should reflect that as well.
 

rgarjr

macrumors 604
Apr 2, 2009
6,820
1,051
Southern California
Network congestion is such ****** cop out for trying to get people to go on a higher priced plan. If you have a grandfathered unlimited plan and they throttle you at 5 gigs per billing cycle, what's the difference in paying for a more expensive plan getting you 15 gigs per month and then proceeding to go over that 5 gig data limit? If you use 10 gigs on a plan that isn't unlimited, how does that NOT contribute to this so called "network congestion"?

I guess those who are paying for the 15GB bucket of data have more priority than the unlimited guys.

IMO, there should be no 5GB threshold and just throttle during high congestion, although it would suck to be at 1GB and get throttled when it's congested.
 
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afawcett

macrumors regular
Feb 23, 2010
129
10
San Diego
\Good for them for doing this, but I seriously doubt without the FTC lawsuit or T-Mobile competition they would be doing this.

Absolutely. However, I believe they began throttling because of users who want to use their phone as their primary internet and began using 100GB of data a month. Most cable broadband plans are $60 per month (and they had a ton more bandwidth than cell towers, especially before LTE). However, I still disagree with AT&T's choice. IMO they should have throttled only during congestion and it should have applied to all data equally (aka unlimited and tiered plans).
 
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