AT&T Announces iPhone Tethering and New Smartphone Data Plans

[TeamDNA]

How much data do you use in a month on your iPhone?

According to AT&T 65% use less than 200MB and 98% use less than 2GB. Meanwhile, you are just pulling numbers out of thin air and saying they "sound reasonable" to you.

My usage on my iPhone for the past few months ranges from 200-400MB/month.

arn

thats YOU but what about that 2% which i am a part of.. are we screwed??? I use 5-9 GB a month.. i tether to my macbook and ipad and constantly download and stream...

So let me get this straight there is absolutly NO unlimited data anymore??

if its true .. then if verizon gets one Bye bye ATT i would drop your ass in a heart beat.. i hate being digitally molested

 

[marksman]

How much data do you use in a month on your iPhone?

According to AT&T 65% use less than 200MB and 98% use less than 2GB. Meanwhile, you are just pulling numbers out of thin air and saying they "sound reasonable" to you.

My usage on my iPhone for the past few months ranges from 200-400MB/month.

arn

It does seem this will actually allow most people to spend less money per month, and move the burden on to those who are the outliers in bandwidth usage.

I am not sure I agree with how they have implemented tethering, I would prefer to see a more reasonable cost, especially with the limits, but in terms of the other side, I am seeing it as good for me. My bill will go down if I switch over.

95% of the people have been subsidizing the other 5% for a while now. The 5% are going to be very unhappy, the 95% will be indifferent or happy. Certainly seems less problematic than when I first read it.

 

[paulyras]

New verizon ad campaign... Streaming music to your iPhone? There's a cap for that. Checking the latest sports scores? There's a cap for that...

 

[Nuvi]

You don't have a lined internet connection? I bet I go through 20-30 gb of data on my lined connection, but the infrastructure is priced and planned to support it.

If you want to watch movies and use 10x more data than everyone else then you pay for it, if you find that much value in doing it then you'll find the value in paying for it.

That simple. Either it has value for you or not, if you don't like it, go somewhere else. That is a concept lost on the majority of American's today. Before people complain there is 'no where else to go' then wonder why, maybe because there is no business case for offering people the ability to watch HD movies over a cellular network for $30 a month.

Sure I have lined connection. I have fiber which is 100 Mbits/10 Mbits but by end of 2010 my ISP is upgrading it to 1000 Mbits/100 Mbits. I'm using tethering on the road only. FYI, even if US carriers don't have the infrastructure to support normal tethering it doesn't mean carriers in Europe have the same problems. Regarding making profit, the carriers here in Europe can provide unlimited tethering, far better coverage and stability then AT&T and faster connections under 10 € and still make profit.

 

[marksman]

Good job AT&T. You found a new way to screw people over.

I bit the bullet and got the iPhone 3G S at Walmart because of the $97 price tag. It also allowed me to get in before the new $325 ETF and kept me at 3.1.3 so I can use MY iPhone how I wish.

But these new plans are even worse than the $325 ETF.

$15 for 200MB? Really? 200MB is nothing. That data plan is pure profit for AT&T. Especially when those few poor souls happen to go over 200MB.

Even 2GB at $25 is pure profit. 2GB of data, these days, is nothing. The fact that AT&T is offering 10x the data for only a few dollars more should tell everyone just how little it costs AT&T to actually deliver that bandwidth to you and how that $15 or $25 is essentially pure profit.

Last I checked, AT&T pulled in about $2.5b in profits the first quarter of this year and their operating costs are down.

So, rather than trying to extract more money from customers, why not use some of that extra cash to make your network better? It wouldn't please shareholders. But honestly, shareholders of any company are the scum of the Earth because they only care about profit and not about actual customer satisfaction. Take some of that money and make your network better. Don't slap expensive restrictions on everyone. Upgrade. Compete.

Oh wait, thanks to the previous administration, we have no competition They allowed everyone to buy each other up and we went from dozens of wireless carriers to just a handful now.

You do realize most customers will be paying less for the iPhone usage now?

 

[bergmef]

Oh man, you Americans get reemed.

12 USD unlimited 3G 2mbit connectivity with tethering here in the Netherlands (with T-Mobile). You want a different provider? Sure 3.6mbit unlimited with tethering for 12 USD a month.

USA! USA! USA!

Not defending ATT, but the Netherlands is the size of 2 New Jersey's. We need a few more towers that might raise the cost a little. ATT probably put up enough towers to triple cover an area that size. And I don't even like ATT because of the coverage in my area. Verizon will have 25-30 cities with LTE by the end of the year, about 100 million people (according to them) and the Netherlands have less than 20 million people ... total. It costs more because a lot more hardware is needed.

Just my opinion.

 

[Dr Kevorkian94]

Y is att so f*** r-tarded y do they have to make it 20$ extra 10$ would be fine in other places it's free. Besides if anything I would only use it to tether my iPad (witch u can't even do) but for now I'll just use the sim trick with my iPhone. Until the new iPhone comes out and we will have to see if it still works. I still would use tethering but with an iphone/ipad it would be rare so it still would be nice to have but thats too much GOSH!

 

[Chupa Chupa]

I'm not eligible for a new phone until November so I must say this makes having to keep my 3GS much more palatable. However grateful Steve is for ATT taking the iPhone when no one else would, ATT is really putting the screws to Apple now. I love the iPhone, but seriously, the EVO is looking pretty nice right now with Sprints no jerk around plans. Maybe a nice Verizon LTE phone. Decisions, decision, thanks to ATT.

 

[ComputersaysNo]

Not defending ATT, but the Netherlands is the size of 2 New Jersey's. We need a few more towers that might raise the cost a little. ATT probably put up enough towers to triple cover an area that size. And I don't even like ATT because of the coverage in my area. Verizon will have 25-30 cities with LTE by the end of the year, about 100 million people (according to them) and the Netherlands have less than 20 million people ... total. It costs more because a lot more hardware is needed.

Just my opinion.

True, but you have to compare the US with Europe for that part of area coverage. We have this lady checking all major (phone/data-)companies in the European Union if they don't make secret deals in between to keep prices sky-high. For example, so far she has fined Microsoft for 497 Milion Euro's (about 625 milion US dollars) And other companies trying to screw us Europeans. And thus callingcosts are pretty low and protected by law.

One of the things that she is also looking into is Apple having a closed deal with T-mobile for selling the Iphone exclusively. No idea how that turned out so far. Never heard anything about dropped calls on European Iphones either

 

[arn]

thats YOU but what about that 2% which i am a part of.. are we screwed??? I use 5-9 GB a month.. i tether to my macbook and ipad and constantly download and stream...

So let me get this straight there is absolutly NO unlimited data anymore??

if its true .. then if verizon gets one Bye bye ATT i would drop your ass in a heart beat.. i hate being digitally molested

fwiw, you are exactly the users they are trying to target with this new rates. Since you aren't technically supposed to be tethering on your current plan.

I may only use 300-400MB for my iPhone data, but I also pay $60/month for a sprint 3g usb dongle where I have "unlimited" usage.

arn

 

[Aetles]

I'm usually envious of U.S. citizens getting lower prices on Apple products and get to play with new products long before us in Sweden (iPad doesn't even have a launch date here yet).

But I'm not envious of what you pay for phones and internet access.

Here in Sweden I pay ≈ 8.50 USD/month (69 SEK) for my dataplan which gives me 1 GB/month and up to 6 Mbit/s and that includes tethering!

 

[marksman]

I'm putting it out there - I'm 10 days through my billing cycle and I've used 200 MB. I could get by on the new plan. But the point being is that there have been times when I have gone over 2 GB and I don't want to have to pay an extra 10 bucks when that happens.

But you pay $5 less every other month. If you go over the limit once every 4 months, you come out ahead $10.00

 

[CubusX]

BOne City.

Guess thats the price of having an iPhone on AT&T.

You guys are getting boned.

 

[Nuvi]

Not defending ATT, but the Netherlands is the size of 2 New Jersey's. We need a few more towers that might raise the cost a little. ATT probably put up enough towers to triple cover an area that size. And I don't even like ATT because of the coverage in my area. Verizon will have 25-30 cities with LTE by the end of the year, about 100 million people (according to them) and the Netherlands have less than 20 million people ... total. It costs more because a lot more hardware is needed.

Just my opinion.

Tethering is included in data plans with vast majority of European carriers and the plans are far cheaper then in US. So its about Europe as a whole and not single countries.

 

[raremage]

Obviously, there's no way AT&T or anyone else will allow unlimited data AND tethering...even for $30+$20 a month.

Actually, Verizon does right now with the Palm phones.

But I suspect this is just the first salvo. Someone had to introduce this sort of cap, but all the carriers wanted to. I'm confident Verizon will be next to jump to this sort of bandwidth metering, their CEO was talking about this being the logical direction just last month.

 

[Michael CM1]

I'm usually envious of U.S. citizens getting lower prices on Apple products and get to play with new products long before us in Sweden (iPad doesn't even have a launch date here yet).

But I'm not envious of what you pay for phones and internet access.

Here in Sweden I pay ≈ 8.50 USD/month (69 SEK) for my dataplan which gives me 1 GB/month and up to 6 Mbit/s and that includes tethering!

Yeah, but we have summers here.

As far as the person who mentioned "there's a cap for that," I don't think Verizon is that short-sighted. With AT&T doing this, that means anybody else who carries the iPhone in the US has cover for the same tiered plans. Verizon can do unlimited now because BlackBerry and Android-based phones don't use as much data.

 

[CaryMacGuy]

I wonder if there is going to be a technical restriction keeping that haven't paid for tethering from tethering. Because if not, I will tether my phone without paying all day long. I am not switching plans because when OS 4.0 comes out and I get a new iPhone, I will be probably constantly streaming Pandora during my workday. That 2 GB cap will get eaten up really quick. Instead of imposing rediculous limits on data, fix your network, AT&T.

 

[marksman]

Heavy user? Eh, how about re-calibrating the scale? Yesterday I watched HD movie with my MBP tethered to my iPhone and it was around 2 GB. Watch a couple of SD and HD movies, some TV shows and you're easily over 10 GB a month.

You are the reason why they changed this. I and thousands of others were paying each month for that ridiculous use of bandwidth. It is time you actually pay for the services you use and not rely on others to pay it for you.

You are the posterboy for why this change is good, as most of us win, and you lose big time. As it should be. You are using up the resources of 1000 normal customers.

Exactly, now I am going to have to waste time monitoring my usage. AT&T you suck.

It does say it will send out notices at different usage thresholds, so it is not like you have to monitor it like a hawk...

I don't like the feeling of keeping track either, and I have always prefered the unlimited pay one price deal, but the reality is the cost of that for me is overpriced, so I really would rather pay significantly less and pay for what I use.

I am sure if I was one of the people streaming 20 hours of porn a day over 3G I would be upset too... but I and most others are not in that boat.

 

[yg17]

Person A uses 500 MB of data a month. Person B uses 7 GB a month. Why should person B pay the same as person A?

 

[Aeolius]

Capped data plans seem contrary to Apple’s supposed move towards cloud-based services. If you stream a movie or two and watch a few videos on the web, you’re done for the month.

If AT&T caps the iPhone data plan, that would be enough for me to forgo getting a new iPhone (or three) the day it is released and instead wait for Verizon or another carrier who will offer an unlimited plan.

Yes, I was one of those folks who called Time-Warner a dozen times a day, when they threatened to bring consumption-based billing (data caps) to my town. I blew through their proposed 30 GB/month plan in less than 3 days.

 

[tuna]

That will include Wi-Fi data too I believe.

On my iPhone 3GS running 3.1.3 the counter is titled "Cellular Network Data" so I'm pretty confident that its only cell data.

Anyways, people don't use that much data. Here's a nice chart that was featured on Macrumors in 2010:

So iPhone uses more than other smartphones, but still not nearly enough on average to brush up against 2GB.

According to the article, the average iPhone user uses 273MB/month, only 12% use more than 500MB/month, and only 4% use more than 1GB/month.

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/el...lackberry-mb-network-att-carrier-istress.html

 

[goosnarrggh]

Based on this new caps, expect those activities to die down as people will not want to pay for overages. Plus, people here apparently wants things to go backward, where people will only use smartphones for text emails.

Do you know how many text emails you can send in 200 MB? Likely something over 10,000. Over ten thousand text-only emails.

There's no freakin' way you can convince me that you (or any other natural human being) would ever send and receive anywhere close to a total of ten thousand text-only emails on their smartphone within the space of one month.

So clearly, even after we subtract out all the text-only emails you (or any other natural human being) would ever use within the space of one month, there would still be space left over for other uses. And that's before we even start considering the people who elect for the 2GB plan.

Your analysis also ignores the fact that both plans still include unlimited WiFi usage in any AT&T hot spot. This will encourage people to take advantage of WiFi where it is available, and that is actually a good thing in terms of overall efficiency of service -- it provides faster speeds and lower latency to customers at the hot spots, and it frees up cellular bandwidth for the customers who are not near a hot spot.

Here's a nice little FACT for you:
Even with these caps in place, the VAST majority of customers (98%) will be able to continue using the iPhone the EXACT SAME way as they always had under an unlimited service, except now they'll be paying less for the same amount of usage. Let me repeat that so that it sinks in: They will not need to put any thought or effort into attempting to reduce their usage at all -- they will continue using their iPhones the exact same as always, and pay less.

thats YOU but what about that 2% which i am a part of.. are we screwed??? I use 5-9 GB a month.. i tether to my macbook and ipad and constantly download and stream...

You have been the lucky recipient of "wealth redistribution" for quite some time now... Getting a free ride on the backs of everyone else who have been paying for more service than they actually used. As long as you don't make any changes to your existing contract, you will continue to be in this enviable position. But nobody else will be joining you. Good riddance.

 

[raremage]

thats YOU but what about that 2% which i am a part of.. are we screwed??? I use 5-9 GB a month.. i tether to my macbook and ipad and constantly download and stream...

So let me get this straight there is absolutly NO unlimited data anymore??

if its true .. then if verizon gets one Bye bye ATT i would drop your ass in a heart beat.. i hate being digitally molested

Yep, you're getting screwed.

But be honest, you've been gaming the system for quite a while with everything you're doing, you're violating the TOS, and you've (presumably) been negatively impacting network service and performance for the 98% that aren't in the >2GB group. I have to admit my sympathy is limited.

 

[noneother]

But you pay $5 less every other month. If you go over the limit once every 4 months, you come out ahead $10.00

THIS... I agree for that continuous HIGH bandwidth user the plans suck.. the unlimited iPad plan, was available for what 30 days???


I was holding off for the 3G pad, but liked the unlimited plan idea.. yet I know I won't exceed 2GB EVERY month... via 3G anyways..

still going to wait until the new year before committing any more money to ATT

 

[Michael CM1]

It does seem this will actually allow most people to spend less money per month, and move the burden on to those who are the outliers in bandwidth usage.

I am not sure I agree with how they have implemented tethering, I would prefer to see a more reasonable cost, especially with the limits, but in terms of the other side, I am seeing it as good for me. My bill will go down if I switch over.

95% of the people have been subsidizing the other 5% for a while now. The 5% are going to be very unhappy, the 95% will be indifferent or happy. Certainly seems less problematic than when I first read it.

Yeah, I've been tired of spending $30/month for using maybe 500GB. Shoot, half the reason I bought the MLB At-Bat app was to justify that $30/month. Most the data I use timewise is for news apps. Now I download an audio podcast nightly, which I just realized would be 200MB per month if I get it on each weeknight.

With my current usage, this saves me $60/year. If/when we get WiFi at work, I can probably go to the cheapest plan and save $180/year. As I believe arn said, MOST OF US ARE HAPPY WITH THIS. I think maybe there should be a $40 plan for truly unlimited data or maybe 10GB, but that in no way concerns me so it's not like I'm lobbying for it. If you're downloading that much over 3G, you should probably try to figure out where WiFi is near you.