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ZBoater

macrumors G3
Jul 2, 2007
8,497
1,322
Sunny Florida
Apparently you know everything.


You don't pay for my bill... i think i would know.

additionally, how is it i can pay my cable company 40 bucks a month for unlimited data 100% of the time [not to mention it's 25mb up/down] and it be acceptable, yet you whine and complain that i use 5-10Gb for the whole month and pay $30?

This isn't "Occupy MacRumors" go troll somewhere else.

How old are you? 13? You can't compare the cable or fiber optic infrastructure with the cellular network. Apples and oranges doesn't even begin to describe the differences.

And I'm sorry if you think talking about PAYING for what you use sounds like whining. It's something grown ups are more used to. It's a simple life fact. You get what you pay for. Unlimited anything comes at a price. Whoever is sellin it has to make a profit or they won't be offering unlimited for long. It's called capitalism. Not whining or complaining.
 

cyks

macrumors 68020
Jul 24, 2002
2,090
8
Westchester County, NY
And I'm sorry if you think talking about PAYING for what you use sounds like whining. It's something grown ups are more used to. It's a simple life fact. You get what you pay for. Unlimited anything comes at a price. Whoever is sellin it has to make a profit or they won't be offering unlimited for long. It's called capitalism. Not whining or complaining.

Considering what data actually costs the cell companies, they are making a profit off the unlimited users.... they're just making that much more of one off the tiered accounts.

I love the constant bickering on here about who pays for what and who deserves what... especially when so many of you are siding with the phone companies. It's funny... and sad.

Nobody is paying for somebody else's usage... the companies get profit from EVERY bill. And unless the person using 10GB of data just happens to be local to you, using the same tower, at exactly the same time as you want to use your phone, and everyone else in the area is using theirs at the same instant, you won't effect you in the slightest.


Not to mention, if the cell companies actually cared about usage and those 'abusing' unlimited actually made a difference, they'd be throttling ALL excessively used unlimited accounts, not just those with smartphones.

It's amazing how I could use over 50GB last month on a non-smartphone (without tethering) and AT&T won't bat an eyelash, but if an iPhone user uses just 10% of that, they get a warning.
 

apollo1444

macrumors 65816
Jul 22, 2011
1,329
27
mexico
Seriously?

Netflix, HBO Go, iTunes Match, rdio, Spotify, SiriusXM, YouTube, therestoftheinternet, Hulu, MacRumors?, etc. etc.

seriously what? I have tons of stream services and I never even use more than 1.5gb/2gb per month

----------

I used 3GB last month just trying out iTunes match on my iPhone 4 for only a few days. Very easy to do these days.

When using my Sirius/XM app on 3G, I would use about .5GB just on one day alone.

very hard to believe this, as i have a 3G usb nokia stick and I use grooveshark (mp3 music stream service) and I have the MB counter next to me, (even tho' I have a truly unlimited plan) and I've yet to cross the 400 MB mark using it extensively for hours with youtube HD included
 

hexonxonx

macrumors 601
Jul 4, 2007
4,610
1
Denver Colorado
seriously what? I have tons of stream services and I never even use more than 1.5gb/2gb per month

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very hard to believe this, as i have a 3G usb nokia stick and I use grooveshark (mp3 music stream service) and I have the MB counter next to me, (even tho' I have a truly unlimited plan) and I've yet to cross the 400 MB mark using it extensively for hours with youtube HD included

Grooveshark and Sirius/XM apps are different apps and I do have Grooveshark by the way. I've posted over the years many times on this forum how easy it is to use data using the Sirius/XM app. A few hours alone can use a few hundred MBs. There are times I just leave it running for hours and yes, it is that easy to use half a Gig in so many hours.
 

Kyotoma

macrumors 68000
Nov 11, 2010
1,996
46
Carnegie and Ontario
I got my notification on Nov 22nd:

IMG_01031.png
 

blevins321

macrumors 68030
Dec 24, 2010
2,768
96
Detroit, MI
Accident

I expect that I'll be receiving a text here in the next day or two. I enabled iTunes Match on my phone a few days ago and had it download all my playlists. Unfortunately, I forgot to turn on Wifi when I got home from work earlier that day. 14 Gigabytes transferred over the next 36 hours. :( lol
 

Irock619

macrumors 68000
Sep 16, 2011
1,788
293
San Francisco, CA
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

Spectrum Abuser said:
Just wanted to say it. I received a text message this morning stating I'm in the top 5% of data users for the month and to switch to WiFi to avoid reduced speeds. If any are interested I received the message shortly after my phone hit 4.9GB of cellular usage.

It is required by law now that phone carriers notify people about to go over data limits. It doesn't surprise me they texted you.
 

ShionoyaTamaki

macrumors 6502
Oct 9, 2011
403
29
Today's heavy users are tomorrow's avg users. As TV shifts to online streaming it is just a matter of time before we all eat 5GB of data a month. Carriers will do whatever to milk us as much as possible because we can't live without it and competition is limited, if any.

I don't disagree with throttling if it maintain adequate services to the majority, but I hope they only throttle when really needed instead of abusing it to avoid infrastructure upgrades.

I don't even stream movies on my iphone and yet I rack up 1.2-2.5GB a month on average. Just web browsing and app download/updates.
 

wesk702

macrumors 68000
Jul 7, 2007
1,809
368
The hood
No need to call me a puppet. It is precisely the people who abuse their 3G service and treat it like their personal fiber optic connection to the Internet that have ruined it for the rest of us. Our cellular networks are not built for this kind of abuse. So if you download 10 or more GB over 3G, that puts you in the top 5% of users. Why should the rest of us have to pay for your "unlimited" use? Pay $10 per GB or use wifi.

Yes, the carriers did advertise "unlimited", but carefully worded their contracts to protect themselves from heavy users. And that's what they are doing. You can disagree all you want, but unlimited, uncapped cellular bandwidth for $30 or $40 is just not realistic. You can get unlimited, uncapped bandwidth today, just be prepared to PAY for it.
Because it IS his personal connection. That's what he's paying for. Who said we have to pay for his unlimited use?
 
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kdarling

macrumors P6
Because it IS his personal connection. That's what he's paying for. Who said we have to pay for his unlimited use?

No such thing. People don't pay for a personal dedicated frequency on all towers. It's not possible. Cells are a shared (and fairly limited) resource.

The limits keep expanding as carriers spend billions to upgrade their infrastructure, but there will always be some limit for the forseeable future.

The only question is how best to work around the limits. Should those who pay more, always have first pick at the bandwidth? Or should they be throttled at times in order that all customers get at least some access?

(Carriers need to come up with a term other than "unlimited", since naive people take it literally. It's like with "all you can eat" buffets... they don't actually mean you can back up a truck and take all you can eat! Common sense.)
 
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DroidRules

macrumors 65816
Aug 10, 2010
1,006
1
Yes. I disagree.

I joined the carrier with Unlimited data as my plan... never have they mentioned throttling my data when i joined. :)

How do YOU think it's REASONABLE for them to change that for those of us who are grandfathered in?


I'm gald you're ok with being a puppet. good day

Why should my experience suffer because you are a data hog? If you feel the need to use the network more than the typical user you should pay a penalty in speed of your connection. The greedy few should not be able to decrease the service of others. They guarantee unlimited which they are not takin away, they however didn't promise at what speed that unlimited data will be.

So all you heavy users enjoy your slower yet unlimited data. (if you pay for unlimited)
 
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ShionoyaTamaki

macrumors 6502
Oct 9, 2011
403
29
if you do get throttled how long does it last & by how much? Just for the remaining month or cycle or until your contract ends? or forever?

Maybe the 5% threshold is determined by general location too since some use 12GB and didnt get a notice, while the OP got one at 5GB
 

mastercheif91

macrumors regular
Oct 7, 2011
197
140
The carriers are the ones at fault here. They shouldn't have sold the data packages as "unlimited" knowing they didn't have the capability to deliver that to everybody. Unlimited is not 5GB, it should be truly limitless.

That being said, throttling is a necessary evil at this point. Hindsight is 20/20, they shouldn't have sold people these unlimited plans. However, throttling the heaviest users is the fairest way to solve this problem. If you are seriously avoiding WiFi for security reasons if you are streaming netflix or something, you need a tinfoil hat with that data plan. If you are using your companies VPN or email system I can understand using the 3G connection for security reasons, but for streaming services there is no security risk.

It's a ****** situation all around, we all got duped. The heavy users need to realize that light users pay the same amount that you do, and there is limited bandwidth to go around. Technically, at&t is still providing unlimited data, they are just using network management to ensure the quality of service for all their users. It may not be fair, but its the best of a bad situation. If you really really like streaming lots of crap over 3G, you can move over to the limited plan and pay for the data you use, they won't throttle you.
 

Vesian

macrumors member
Aug 4, 2008
77
0
No, 5gb is apparently not safe. I received the warning of being "in the top 5%" last friday with a month's bandwidth usage of 2.1gb. I'm still scratching my head trying to figure this out, because it REALLY doesn't seem right...
 

solarguy17

macrumors 6502a
Sep 10, 2007
738
183
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

ClutchThese said:
You disagree with it being unrealistic to expect unlimited bandwidth from 3G carriers without paying more or being throttled?

Ok... :confused:

Yes. I disagree.

I joined the carrier with Unlimited data as my plan... never have they mentioned throttling my data when i joined. :)

How do YOU think it's REASONABLE for them to change that for those of us who are grandfathered in?


I'm gald you're ok with being a puppet. good day

You signed a contract with an unlimited AMOUNT.of data. Not at a guaranteed speed though.

You can attempt to smile smugly all you want but they can and WILL throttle you if need be and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it.
 
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