A Look at AT&T's Throttling for High-Use Unlimited iPhone Data Customers

[aross99]

...since there seems to be far more than 5 percent of users getting notices, it appears, as many experts have said, that there is no "top 5 percent." AT&T is throttling up to 50% of its "unlimited" customers in order to force them onto tiered plans.

I don't think you can say this for sure. There may be way more than 5% of the MacRumors audience who are getting these notices, but I don't believe more than 5% of the AT&T users are.

There are plenty of people who use their iPhones more in WiFi than on 3G, and have way less than 2GB of data. Even people who consider themselves heavy iPhone users.

I'm just as disappointed about the throttling as everyone else, but I don't think AT&T is faking the numbers - they just picked way to high a percentage.

Remember when they said 98% of their users used less than 2GB of data? Wouldn't that mean that 2% of the people use more than 2GB, so the top 5% should have been people using less than 2GB from the beginning. I think they have just gotten more aggressive about enforcement.

What doesn't make sense is why they throttle you for using less data than the $30 tier. If everyone who was throttled at 2GB switched to the $30 3GB plan, they would be using MORE data for the same price.

Just makes no sense...

 

[FelixDerKater]

The warning came at 1.5 GB this month in the Washington, DC area.

Speeds were reduced to .05Mbps at the exact moment 2.0GB was reached.

 

[corncakes]

Dial Up is Faster

CROSS POSTED

Called AT&T 7 times to complain about extremely slow speeds. This happened for 3 days following billing date. AT&T did everything to avoid addressing throttling. They insisted it was an Apple issue. Finally they said "a file" would have to be opened on my problem. They connected me to a "special tech" for this purpose. The tech played ignorant until I detailed AT&T's actions re: throttling unlimited users. The tech ACTUALLY ADMITTED that my phone had not been reset upon my billing date on 02/13. She also claimed that AT&T was having difficulty with resetting cycles! Surely there's a lawyer/firm out there interested in this?!

 

[class77]

I know Shepard Smith was raising hell on his Fox news show last week.

 

[Eviltwin]

Very Important!

Third month in a row I got the warning message. Im in NYC and got it after half way throught my billing cycle at 1.58GB. Its toally pointless to call them they cant/wont do anything.

I founded a petition on change.org

http://www.change.org/petitions/att-data-throttle

Please sign it maybe it will do some good. Tell your friends, post it on facebook,twitter, and other forums.

I also complained to FCC here is the link

http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm


I really hope CDMA iPhone 5 wont have Voice/Data issue and hopefully Tmobile will get the phone too.

Cant wait to dump ATT and I encourage to do the same

 

[Tec972]

CROSS POSTED

Called AT&T 7 times to complain about extremely slow speeds. This happened for 3 days following billing date. AT&T did everything to avoid addressing throttling. They insisted it was an Apple issue. Finally they said "a file" would have to be opened on my problem. They connected me to a "special tech" for this purpose. The tech played ignorant until I detailed AT&T's actions re: throttling unlimited users. The tech ACTUALLY ADMITTED that my phone had not been reset upon my billing date on 02/13. She also claimed that AT&T was having difficulty with resetting cycles! Surely there's a lawyer/firm out there interested in this?!

Funny how their system has such a hard time resetting cycles yet their throttling system seems to be running flawlessly. Don't be fooled, this is a ploy to exterminate all UNLIMITED data plans. This has absolutely nothing to do with protecting bandwidth or their infrastructure. If that were the case you would be only throttled during peak demand periods, not constantly. When people are on an unlimited data plan and being throttled before people on the $25 2GB plan there is a cause for serious alarm. You are paying more money and being throttled when the limited plans are not. I really hope someone can bring a class action on this.

I am willing to bet that the grounds they are using and their supposed 5% is BS!! People in the same metro areas are being throttled at 1.5 -2GB while others on the same plan and in the same area are over 5GB? I would not have a problem with throttling IF it were to protect their network but we all know that is not the real reason. Otherwise you wouldn't be throttled in the middle of the night when network traffic is next to nothing. They are actively trying to purge the unlimited data subscribers.

I find it disgusting that they are having record quarters and signing a record number of customers if their system can't handle it, then don't take any more customers. I hope they ********** burn in hell for this and get their asses handed to them by the court or by the customers.