Stuff like the MMS and tethering delay is just crazy, and seems unique amongst the world. Over here there is something like 4 or 5 phone companies that have stacks of the iPhone for everyone. Only one of those companies sought a slight delay with tethering - the rest offerred MMS and tethering ready to go on the day Apple rolled out the capability.
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AT&T Again Moves to Downplay Reports of Imminent Tiered Data Pricing for iPhone
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Stuff like the MMS and tethering delay is just crazy, and seems unique amongst the world. Over here there is something like 4 or 5 phone companies that have stacks of the iPhone for everyone. Only one of those companies sought a slight delay with tethering - the rest offerred MMS and tethering ready to go on the day Apple rolled out the capability.
Can all of the people on these forums, the person above included, please stop just parroting the line "Fix the network?"
"The Network" is already one of the bigger and better run ones in the world. Don't confuse this post as one saying ATT is perfect, they aren't, but they certainly aren't as bad as many people make them out to be, and they are certainly working hard, and spending very aggressively to continue and build out there network.
Even if they had all the money to fix every issue for every person overnight (100's of billions don't appear overnight, you know) do you have any idea on how complicated the RF engineering is and how much time it can take to plan, approve and initiate even the frequency changes, much less build new base stations outright.
But thankfully they are spending money hand over fist to upgrade there network on a constant basis and I can see the results of that every day.
I travel all over the southeast and have been having better service, more 3G, and less trouble as the months and year(s) have gone by.
The reality is that the major issues with ATT exist primarily in the heavy urban areas where the issues are heavily related to lack of cell density, or in the very sparsely populated areas where fiscal responsibility deems that you work on more heavily populated areas first.
In short, if you live in a major urban area, and want better cell coverage, lobby your local HOA's and zoning boards to approve anything reasonable the cell companies through their way.
If you live in a sparsely populated area, use whichever network works there and realize that even after the much sought after verizon to lte switch that is coming, that it will take many many years for LTE to reach even ATT's current 3g coverage area, much less there EDGE coverage.
So to all you who are constantly complaining, please stop.
Write a professional letter to ATT and see if you can lobby your local organizations to be more friendly to new cell towers.
Thanks,
A Guy Who Knows.
This is not a denial
"We have not made any decision to implement tiered pricing"
This says no decision has been made to move ahead with tiered pricing YET.
"We have not made any decision to implement tiered pricing"
This says no decision has been made to move ahead with tiered pricing YET.
We're talking about public WiFi hotspots, not your DSL connection. Most public WiFi hotspots are likely to be running on a substantially more capable service. That has certainly been my experience.
AT&T finally brought 3g to my mountain town, and I gotta say it's pretty sweet. Reliable service and good connection speed. The coverage still isn't nearly as large as verizon's, but the speed is excellent.
All that said, they are taking way, way too long to release the microcells nationwide.
All that said, they are taking way, way too long to release the microcells nationwide.
Of course. Most decisions are "yet." I've decided not to stick a needle in my eyeball... yet.
The time to begin worrying about tiered pricing is when it happens. Until then, complaints about it are just so much hot air.
Maybe he's assuming nobody would want to stay in a McDonald's for more then two hours.
yeh exactly I don't know why people still keep reading in between the lines that aren't there and coming up with "doomsday" conclusions. The fact that Vega refuted the claim twice should be enough. How many times does at&t have to keep putting out statements for people to accept it?
Suppose the naysayers just want something to gripe about (much like I'm griping now about the gripers, fancy that).
Very wise words. People forget that coverage is partly based on zoning laws and who can schmooze the decision makers. It often takes years for local ordinances to approve new towers and equipment. The ironic part is that probably many folks complaining about coverage are also in the "not in my backyard" crowd.iamkarlp said:
Airport Exteme should add a femtocell.
I think Apple should add a femtocell to the Airport Extreme. It should work for multiple carriers, and shouldn't have any additional monthly charge unless you want to buy extra minutes.
Configuration would merely be an extra tab in the Airport Utility.
I think Apple should add a femtocell to the Airport Extreme. It should work for multiple carriers, and shouldn't have any additional monthly charge unless you want to buy extra minutes.
Configuration would merely be an extra tab in the Airport Utility.
Agree. I've never understood the "I pay for unlimted data so I refuse to use WiFi. Lets stick it to AT&T." crowd. You only hurt yourselves and other AT&T users.
A lot of business people, and a fair number of regular people, don't want to send their transactions or searches over a public network... ever.
Certainly not automatically. That's just begging for an evil twin attack.
Otherwise, sure. The device could CHECK the relative speeds and choose the faster network. It won't be long before public WiFi could easily be the slower option.
Unlimited McD's? or just delayed charges...
I was thinking the same thing. The question is where the "waive for two hours..." quote came from as it's not attributed to de la Vega. What's the original text of that News Release? Maybe it's being poorly paraphrased... Need to read the original statement to find out.
If they are only waiving a fee for the first 2 hours then it's not unlimited, obviously.
HutcH
macrumors said:
I was thinking the same thing. The question is where the "waive for two hours..." quote came from as it's not attributed to de la Vega. What's the original text of that News Release? Maybe it's being poorly paraphrased... Need to read the original statement to find out.
If they are only waiving a fee for the first 2 hours then it's not unlimited, obviously.
HutcH
hot wind
Heh, right. Sort of like certain politicians who demand more renewable energy like wind power, but balk at the idea that they would be able to see turbines from their boat dock. Classic.
Heh, right. Sort of like certain politicians who demand more renewable energy like wind power, but balk at the idea that they would be able to see turbines from their boat dock. Classic.
Agreed. AT$T would never have a tiered plan. But probably due to the fact that they would have to start the pricing lower than the current $30 a month rate. I bet they would love to START the tiered rate at $30 if they could get away with it.
I guess Verizon is better at schmoozing then. I can't wait until 1)an Android phone I want gets on Verizon or 2)the iPhone gets on Verizon. I'd jump ship in a flash and you guys on AT$T can worry about WIFI and cell towers amongst yourselves.
I actually read an article about McDonalds doing an announcement about their new free wi-fi. I remember them saying multiple times that there is no time limit - so I think the 2 hours mentioned by AT&T is wrong. McDonalds spun it as if it was their idea to offer their customers better value and AT&T is spinning it as a way to offload their cell networks. Ah how I love corporate public relations.
I think they need to do a better job of spreading the word to users about this issue. Be frank, tell people that if they can't be more conservative with their data usage and utilize WiFi more often, AT&T will not be able to provide unlimited data plans. I had no idea about this until I read these blogs. Now, I try to limit my data usage to when I'm within a WiFi network. Before, I never turned on my WiFi because the 3G was fast enough. Now, it's the first thing I do when I enter my house or any coffee shop. In major cities, keeping WiFi on will almost guarantee that you're always on a network (in DC and NYC there are Starbucks AT&T hotstops on almost every block).
Seriuosly, AT&T - spread the word about this issue!! Maybe offer some incentive plan for "unlimited" customers - like if customers on unlimited plans keep their data usage below a certain threshold, they will get $5 off their bill for that month.
Seriuosly, AT&T - spread the word about this issue!! Maybe offer some incentive plan for "unlimited" customers - like if customers on unlimited plans keep their data usage below a certain threshold, they will get $5 off their bill for that month.
Tiered Pricing = Good
Problem: Small % of customers consume a hugely disproportionate share of product (data) from a limited pool of resources (network bandwidth). As a result, there are shortages that adversely affect a large % of customers.
Solution:
1. Keep increasing bandwidth at huge cost to handle the problem caused by a small % of customers. Increase costs for everyone, decrease profits for shareholders, and probably never keep up with demand. It's much easier to double network consumption than it is to double network supply.
--or--
2. Get rid of the small % of customers causing the problem. One method is to set a hard data cap each month. Another method is to cancel the contracts of the small % of customers causing the problem. A third method is to increase fees to the small % of customers to "encourage" those customers to stop their behavior that causes the problems.
Why is #2 bad? If AT&T does not limit consumption by the heavy users, then the AT&T Board of Directors should fire the CEO.
Problem: Small % of customers consume a hugely disproportionate share of product (data) from a limited pool of resources (network bandwidth). As a result, there are shortages that adversely affect a large % of customers.
Solution:
1. Keep increasing bandwidth at huge cost to handle the problem caused by a small % of customers. Increase costs for everyone, decrease profits for shareholders, and probably never keep up with demand. It's much easier to double network consumption than it is to double network supply.
--or--
2. Get rid of the small % of customers causing the problem. One method is to set a hard data cap each month. Another method is to cancel the contracts of the small % of customers causing the problem. A third method is to increase fees to the small % of customers to "encourage" those customers to stop their behavior that causes the problems.
Why is #2 bad? If AT&T does not limit consumption by the heavy users, then the AT&T Board of Directors should fire the CEO.
If I actually believed that AT&T was going to put in a "tiered system" that ACTUALLY affected only a few % of people.....I would be for it. I don't really think it is the end of the world to possibly clean off the top 1%-2% who are using data non-stop, all-day, 24/7.
But I don't trust AT&T whatsoever and I could VERY easily see them implementing a system that actually effected a far larger % of users, even those not using a very high amount of data....thus getting them more money.
Anything AT&T puts into place will be sold to us as only affecting the few % of people yet will end up hurting a far larger % of users, including many who shouldn't be considered a large data user
Sprint was also contacted, but turned down Apple's offer. Very short-sighted on their part. A Senior VP paid for the mistake later.....
imo AT&T shot themselves in the foot by offering 'unlimited' data access. Here in Canada, Rogers actually did something right *gasp*... For $30/month I have a data plan which includes 6GB of data (on-device or tethering). It's a psychological barrier that I should budget data usage so I have enough to last the whole month. If people have know they have a limit on data usage, they'd allocate the resource appropriately.