Join the crowd. AT&T and Verizon both want you to play for internet at least three times:
- On for your home DSL / Cable internet
- One for your iPhone
- One for your tablet / Mifi
That's how they make money, selling you more services that you need.
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AT&T Begins Warning High-Volume Data Users of Upcoming Throttling
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Join the crowd. AT&T and Verizon both want you to play for internet at least three times:
- On for your home DSL / Cable internet
- One for your iPhone
- One for your tablet / Mifi
That's how they make money, selling you more services that you need.
Hint back at you - throttling back your speed isn't leaving it unlimited to the capablilities of the service. Nobody is asking for infinite speed, just no limitiation placed on the throughput. That isn't unlimited. My bill still says I'm paying for unlimited usage, though.
Really? They were promised some specific average data rate? (I promise you, they weren't. They were not promised an open pipe.)
Actually I know several people that have fell unto hard times and AT&T worked with them on their bill.
In fact, personally in 2005 I was stuck in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico during hurricane Wilma, I had one of the few working cell phones (yes, AT&T) after the hurricane among the hundreds of us stranded, so I let several people use mine to phone their families and tell them that they were ok. My bill came in at just over $600, AT&T knocked 80% of that bill off when I called and told them my situation, and they didn't have to.
So what were you saying again?
Ooh... Scary truth there. And I'm planning to increase my usage. Been paying for unlimited for years without needing it in preparation for a foreseeable future when I would, and now... Scary...
How many of the 5%ers said they are tethering to get home internet service. I have read maybe 1 or 2 people on this forums said they do that. Don't throw us into the same pile!
I use about 10 to 15 GB a month all during my commute or will at work. I use it on streaming slingbox, netflix and espn radio and youtube. Am I doing anything illegal? If I paid for unlimited data don't have the right to use as much of it as i like?
Silverbird it's a smartphone it is capable of doing many other things besides taking phone calls and text. Those of us who use it for the many other things are getting penalized for AT&T short sided thinking.
Ok, I am going to quote Dictionary.COM Here:
Now, it doesn't say without restrictions, except as provided by fine print, it says without restrictions.
I firmly believe that if any restrictions are placed on unlimited internet, they should not be able to use the term unlimited.
I have noticed AT&Ts network getting slower over the past 3 months or so, I think they are trying to make it look slow to say, look we need T-Mobile's towers to speed it back up. I think this is being done intentionally, but I have no proof of it.
Please note that not all ISPs have fair use policies, they simply state you can't take the network down for everyone else (i.e. no hacking or other illegal activities), but we use Sonic.net at work and short of that it is truly unlimited.
Now, I used 14GB last month and never got this message. Many will ask how did I use so much? Well, the answer is:
I also work for an engineering firm, where email attachments can total 3+GB per day and I sometime have to send them on when I am not connected to WIFI
The list goes on and on, but even just uploading photos from my Digital Camera (using an Eye-Fi Pro card in Ad-Hoc mode and the Eye-Fi app on my phone) can cause me to go over 10GB per month and that would be without counting the tethering.
Now, this is in addition to what I would estimate would be 25-30GB of WIFI data per month on my Phone.
Now, it doesn't say without restrictions, except as provided by fine print, it says without restrictions.
I firmly believe that if any restrictions are placed on unlimited internet, they should not be able to use the term unlimited.
I have noticed AT&Ts network getting slower over the past 3 months or so, I think they are trying to make it look slow to say, look we need T-Mobile's towers to speed it back up. I think this is being done intentionally, but I have no proof of it.
Please note that not all ISPs have fair use policies, they simply state you can't take the network down for everyone else (i.e. no hacking or other illegal activities), but we use Sonic.net at work and short of that it is truly unlimited.
Now, I used 14GB last month and never got this message. Many will ask how did I use so much? Well, the answer is:
- Tethering (yes, I use my phone to tether, it was also not prohibbited in our fine print under the business contract).
- Streaming Netflix
- Youtube
- Hulu
- Uploading Photos from my digital camera
- Uploading Videos from my cameras
- Downloading software
- Software Updates
- Apps
I also work for an engineering firm, where email attachments can total 3+GB per day and I sometime have to send them on when I am not connected to WIFI
The list goes on and on, but even just uploading photos from my Digital Camera (using an Eye-Fi Pro card in Ad-Hoc mode and the Eye-Fi app on my phone) can cause me to go over 10GB per month and that would be without counting the tethering.
Now, this is in addition to what I would estimate would be 25-30GB of WIFI data per month on my Phone.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)
This is exactly why unlimited use plans suck. I only use less than 1 GB per month. Why should I help pay for someone who regularly uses over 10?
Throttling is one solution, but I think the real solution is the introduction of reasonably priced tiered plans. Verizon missed the boat on this when they kept the 2GB plan cost the same as the unlimited, but at least ATT gave u a $5 discount.
This is exactly why unlimited use plans suck. I only use less than 1 GB per month. Why should I help pay for someone who regularly uses over 10?
Throttling is one solution, but I think the real solution is the introduction of reasonably priced tiered plans. Verizon missed the boat on this when they kept the 2GB plan cost the same as the unlimited, but at least ATT gave u a $5 discount.
How can people not understand that throttled is limited. That's the very definition of it - they are limiting your data rate. Limited is not unlimited.
I view "unlimited" in terms of the amount of the time you spend per month being denied permission to pull in data when you ask for it, or with the obligation to pay an extra fee before you're permitted to continue pulling in data -- which, under this deal, continues to be "never".How can people not understand that throttled is limited. That's the very definition of it - they are limiting your data rate. Limited is not unlimited.
I'm afraid we're just going to keep on disagreeing about this one.
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Your throughput is directly related to the bandwidth available, so I don't undestand your point.
You do know that by tethering (other than doing so by paying the extra fee), you are violating your terms of service, don't you? AND you are a big part of the reason people in your area have such slow data speeds -- because you are being greedy.
How can people not understand that throttled is limited. That's the very definition of it - they are limiting your data rate. Limited is not unlimited.
How are people similarily not understanding that the "unlimited" in AT&T's "unlimited" data plan does not refer to throughput? "200 MB of data for $15/month" makes no mention of throughput. "2 GB of data for $25/month" does not refer to throughput either (in case you didn't know, "MB" and "GB" are not units of data transfer speed). "Unlimited data for $X/month" follows the same trend.
You paid for a 3G-capable phone. The data plan is about an amount of data -- not a 3G vs. edge bandwidth / speed.
The data plan only determines whether there is a cap on the total GB's you can download before incurring additional charges -- the T's & C's make no claim about speeds.
Really?
'Japanese blog Macotakara reports (via MacPost) that a China Unicom executive apparently confirmed during a presentation at this week's Macworld Asia that the "iPhone 5" set to be announced next week will indeed support HSPA+ "4G" technology, offering a maximum theoretical data speed of 21 Mbps.'
- per 'Macrumors'
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1236215/
So what if you have a theoretical maximum speed of 21 Mbps?
If with AT&T, you may be checking emails real fast, but will not use that speed to any effect in downloading many movies. For instance, say you wanted to take advantage of iTunes to download the HD version of 'Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides;' good thing it is released in October, because at 4.51 GB if you had downloaded two films of similar length in September, aside from any other data use, you might have already run afoul of AT&T in being in their 'top 5%.'
Many may ignore this in thinking, 'well, I'm not in the top 5% of anything,' but that would be a big mistake. Because by limiting the top AT&T is effectively saying no one can use much more than 10 GB in a month, not at any reasonable speed that is.
Apple, Netflix, and every other media provider should be screaming bloody murder, and their customers most of all. Technology in electronics is advancing in leaps and bounds, with increasingly large file sizes, and all the more offered every day at the touch of a button. Assuming you have any bandwidth. But one would think AT&T and the rest of their ilk had not yet advanced beyond the horse and buggy, or envisioned the automobile.
It doesn't make much sense to have a 'wired' nation when rocket science advances daily with Apple et al, but a near impenetrable gulf between them and their customers, and right in the middle a Berlin wall of sorts guarded by AT&T and their cadre of 'visionaries.'
'Japanese blog Macotakara reports (via MacPost) that a China Unicom executive apparently confirmed during a presentation at this week's Macworld Asia that the "iPhone 5" set to be announced next week will indeed support HSPA+ "4G" technology, offering a maximum theoretical data speed of 21 Mbps.'
- per 'Macrumors'
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1236215/
So what if you have a theoretical maximum speed of 21 Mbps?If with AT&T, you may be checking emails real fast, but will not use that speed to any effect in downloading many movies. For instance, say you wanted to take advantage of iTunes to download the HD version of 'Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides;' good thing it is released in October, because at 4.51 GB if you had downloaded two films of similar length in September, aside from any other data use, you might have already run afoul of AT&T in being in their 'top 5%.'
Many may ignore this in thinking, 'well, I'm not in the top 5% of anything,' but that would be a big mistake. Because by limiting the top AT&T is effectively saying no one can use much more than 10 GB in a month, not at any reasonable speed that is.
Apple, Netflix, and every other media provider should be screaming bloody murder, and their customers most of all. Technology in electronics is advancing in leaps and bounds, with increasingly large file sizes, and all the more offered every day at the touch of a button. Assuming you have any bandwidth. But one would think AT&T and the rest of their ilk had not yet advanced beyond the horse and buggy, or envisioned the automobile.
It doesn't make much sense to have a 'wired' nation when rocket science advances daily with Apple et al, but a near impenetrable gulf between them and their customers, and right in the middle a Berlin wall of sorts guarded by AT&T and their cadre of 'visionaries.'
Limiting the amount of data you can pull at any given time limits it. Allowing you to get part of the available throughput is a limit. An open pipe is unlimited. A limited pipe is... uh... dare I say it?... Limited.
No, the amount of data you can download isn't limited ("never"), but the amount you can download in a period of time is - limited!
When does the throttling start...
I haven't seen anything that says at what point they begin throttling.. it says you're throttled until the next billing cycle... so do they start throttling after 10GB? I'm no where near 10GB... but just for reference I would like to know when that threshold begins...
I haven't seen anything that says at what point they begin throttling.. it says you're throttled until the next billing cycle... so do they start throttling after 10GB? I'm no where near 10GB... but just for reference I would like to know when that threshold begins...
Are you an idiot? Why are paying for unlimited when you only use a Gb a month, save your self 5 bucks and go for the 2 GB a month plan. And let us unlimited users use as much as we like.
By that logic, Apple should give the next iPhone out for free. Somehow, this logic only ever applies to the telcos, not beloved Apple...
Too lazy to read everything...
...but did anyone mention that there will ALWAYS be a top 5% of users? So, if now the people with 10GB+ get throttled, then next month, the ones with 8GB+ will be the ones because the top 5% did not reach their usual limit. That means there will be an effect on max. 10% of customers. Also: Why does AT&T not invest into more towers or more bandwidth to accustom the need? Pretty simple: There is a monopoly of an oligarchy of 4 companies and in some areas, there is no alternative at all.
I wonder if a class action law suit would help against throttling because there is already a max. you can download. It is the "speed of connection" X "time in a pay period." That was the contract the users signed as "unlimited" plan.
The other thing is: The speeds you can achieve with a wireless connection go up but the price per GB does as well. Since the wireless companies are abusing their market position, I would just love to see a court involved.
Yes, there are the arguments that in Europe, where everyone uses pretty much the same technology, it is cheaper to maintain a network. Granted, but all companies in the USA had the chance to work together on the technology as well and use the same one. It was their fault to go into different directions and even still continue with the next "4G" network - which ever technology it is. Using this argument as an excuse that the revenue has to increase just shows one of the two: Management fails, consumer pays or management tries to tier you to their network without ability to switch using same device, consumer pays. See what is the same? Consumer pays.
...but did anyone mention that there will ALWAYS be a top 5% of users? So, if now the people with 10GB+ get throttled, then next month, the ones with 8GB+ will be the ones because the top 5% did not reach their usual limit. That means there will be an effect on max. 10% of customers. Also: Why does AT&T not invest into more towers or more bandwidth to accustom the need? Pretty simple: There is a monopoly of an oligarchy of 4 companies and in some areas, there is no alternative at all.
I wonder if a class action law suit would help against throttling because there is already a max. you can download. It is the "speed of connection" X "time in a pay period." That was the contract the users signed as "unlimited" plan.
The other thing is: The speeds you can achieve with a wireless connection go up but the price per GB does as well. Since the wireless companies are abusing their market position, I would just love to see a court involved.
Yes, there are the arguments that in Europe, where everyone uses pretty much the same technology, it is cheaper to maintain a network. Granted, but all companies in the USA had the chance to work together on the technology as well and use the same one. It was their fault to go into different directions and even still continue with the next "4G" network - which ever technology it is. Using this argument as an excuse that the revenue has to increase just shows one of the two: Management fails, consumer pays or management tries to tier you to their network without ability to switch using same device, consumer pays. See what is the same? Consumer pays.