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AT&T CEO's "Only Regret" is Offering Unlimited Data Packages
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Carriers are greedy but so are some customers
Let's be real here. It is true that carriers charge way too much for data and texting but it is also true that unlimited data for a "fixed" price is ridiculous as well. While most people might not abuse unlimited data, there are some idiots out there that think they can stream audio for hours on end on a cellular network without impacting other people "sharing" the same cell towers and backhaul. If you are only paying 30 bucks for data then you should not expect unlimited access without some throttling after you blow past a soft cap.
The American carriers should never have offered unlimited data on 3G or faster networks but at the same time they should only charge 20 bucks for up to 10 GB of bandwidth per month and offer 5 GB for 10 bucks and 5 bucks for 2.5 GB caps. They should also offer you to pay 2 bucks per GB over your "tier" setting. They should also automatically bump you to the next tier when you blow past the cap on the next tier instead of charging you more.
I think that would be fair and still recognize that bandwidth on a cell tower is still a finite resource that needs to be "shared" with everyone else on the same tower.
Also, texting should just be considered "data" and included in your data usage. That means that people who abuse texting would eat into their data cap but I think that would be fair.
Let's be real here. It is true that carriers charge way too much for data and texting but it is also true that unlimited data for a "fixed" price is ridiculous as well. While most people might not abuse unlimited data, there are some idiots out there that think they can stream audio for hours on end on a cellular network without impacting other people "sharing" the same cell towers and backhaul. If you are only paying 30 bucks for data then you should not expect unlimited access without some throttling after you blow past a soft cap.
The American carriers should never have offered unlimited data on 3G or faster networks but at the same time they should only charge 20 bucks for up to 10 GB of bandwidth per month and offer 5 GB for 10 bucks and 5 bucks for 2.5 GB caps. They should also offer you to pay 2 bucks per GB over your "tier" setting. They should also automatically bump you to the next tier when you blow past the cap on the next tier instead of charging you more.
I think that would be fair and still recognize that bandwidth on a cell tower is still a finite resource that needs to be "shared" with everyone else on the same tower.
Also, texting should just be considered "data" and included in your data usage. That means that people who abuse texting would eat into their data cap but I think that would be fair.
I would rather "protect" right-winged agenda than to be a hypocrite and rob a company right after I finish crying about such company robbing me.
Two wrongs don't make a right buddy.
I agree with you that it was ridiculous. So why on earth did AT&T charge only $30 for unlimited data in the first place?
The point was SMS. If AT&T stops SMS tomorrow, they have the same 57 billion costs. If they give away SMS for free, they have the same 57 billion costs. Actually, they would save money by giving it away for free, because they would not have to meter it anymore.
SMS costs nothing either way.
Of course, they MAKE several billion with it, out of nothing, by charging people for a service, they themeselfs get for free (byproduct of the cell tower tech) that is what they are worrying about.
That would apply to any service... everything is a "byproduct of the cell tower tech".
For long term sustainability, you have to factor fixed infrastructure costs into all services, including SMS unless you deliberately do away with it but then have to make other services more expensive. You just have to take in a certain amount to keep the infrastructure running. You as a customer will have to pay in one form or another.
Unlimited data plans were first offered on Blackberries and other "primitive" smartphones.
You couldn't really do much on an old Blackberry Curve (the one with the trackball) for instance.
Fast-forward to today... and most current smartphones are capable of sucking down data at an alarming rate... thanks to Netflix and other stuff.
I guess AT&T didn't plan for that
No, not everything is a byproduct. You build the towers or your network for voice or data use. Thats what you make money with. To comtrol your network, you need this little carrier wave to follow the handsets and exchange data with them, you have fe to permanently sent the message AT&T to the handset so it can display the network on the display. That SMS piggyback on that is a real byproduct, for years people send messages for free over this channel here in Europe, at no cost to the provider, until they decided to charge for that as well.
By now, that is going in full reverse again, prepaid costumors normally get unlimited SMS now, postpaid is going this way or get at least a few thousend SMS a month "free" as its included in the monthly premium.
Data plans here are generally unlimited but do get throttled. On my iPad I have unlimited SMS, unlimited calls (VoIP) and unlimited Data (but only 14Mbit/s) with teather for the computer but throttled after 10GB for 39 euros (about $55) and that is more then enough for me, I did cancel my (slower) home DSL and only once reached my limit (LEON download at home) so that I had to live with 256kbit/s for 4 days. But there is Wifi everywhere, so really, no problem.
I think that I for one do whine on a very high level. When I see how much you guys have to pay in the States for a really subpar service, I would be slightly miffed about this guys remarks.
That is correct. They will need to get he money back somewhere to make their business viable.
Because we are all different and so are our needs.
My wife and I both have old unlimited plans. We don't come near the use of most people but like having the potential (throttled) use. What a greedy M-F-er. I think $40 for unlimited everything would be fair. $50 for international calls included. This would also include tethering and FaceTime. Stop overpaying your slob employees and execs.
Someone may enlighten me here:
Let's take two examples here: VDSL (i.e. AT&T U-Verse) and LTE.
On a VDSL connection, the device is connected to the POTS telephone line, which is connected to a box on the street, which is connected somehow to the Internetz (that explanation is sufficient for the corse of this example). This gives you a complete flatrate on 25MBit/s for $60/mo.
On a LTE connection, the device is connected over the air to an antenna, which is connected to (probably) the same box on the street, which is connected to the Internetz. $60/mo gives you a 12MBit/s connection with a 15GB cap here.
Where exactly is AT&T spending more money on the bandwidth side for the LTE thing, so that they have to add a bandwidth cap, except for building more antennae, but no one would probably complain if the bandwidth on the current antennae get completely used while they build new ones?
I don't understand this. Or rather, I do understand this, which is even worse.
Actually you don't understand the fundamental issue at all in your above example. You can't simply state bandwidth is bandwidth unless you are within the same market. If you were a backbone transit provider, you could use bandwidth as base commodity. In these markets, the access technology varies the cost per GB.
DSL is fixed line dedication: over subscription happens at the distribution or core side. The POTS line terminates at a DSLAM. Mobile has a fixed amount of edge bandwidth it needs to manage. Once it goes from mobile to transit, then they can have enormous pipes. The only place these two would co-mingle on the network would be at aggregation devices (routers, full layer 3 IP) but I would not be surprised if they are fully overlaid networks and interconnect only at ATT's common backbone routers.
Did you ever wonder why FTC nonsense about broadband carriers should not be able to manage their networks as they see fit is all the rage...but no one every mentions mobile carriers in the same discussion? Think about that one.
On the business side, the CEO's comments come off as douchy but in all honesty, from a business perspective it could be an honest answer. I think the TMobile fiasco is a bit bigger as they have mitigated revenue loss with messaging by forcing a higher tier plan on people (hey FTC...WTF are you now? Talk about the real ass clowns...
) Short story: after upgrading the wife's iphone to a 4s, they magically forgot to port her messaging plan (the upgrade was simple: new phone, same everything else).
I had to call back a few months later and firmly state: you made a mistake, I know you still have the $5/200 plan for longer customers like us...so make it happen. 30m later it was done. CR rep was very pleasant but I had my coffee, a headset, and was not going to give in on this one.
- b (Network Engineer who works with both mobile and broadband carriers)
Bad deal
No carrier in the US seems to make a good deal for the customers.
In Sweden, all operators provides unlimited data for iPhone (at least the 16Gb).
unlimited minutes of talking (50 hrs/month).
I'm travelin to the US for Xmas this year, anyone who knows a good carrier ? a pre-paid , the cheapest one?
No carrier in the US seems to make a good deal for the customers.
In Sweden, all operators provides unlimited data for iPhone (at least the 16Gb).
unlimited minutes of talking (50 hrs/month).
I'm travelin to the US for Xmas this year, anyone who knows a good carrier ? a pre-paid , the cheapest one?
If I think you're generally making too much money - just the THOUGHT that you MIGHT be - then you're making too much money. /discussion
You can have what you make on generally monthly billing for minutes. You just have to come up with whatever it takes to satisfy unlimited data. Instead of 3.58 billion net profit, maybe it's 3.0 or 2.5. Whatever. That's enough. Just eat it, and do something that's not greedy.
You can have what you make on generally monthly billing for minutes. You just have to come up with whatever it takes to satisfy unlimited data. Instead of 3.58 billion net profit, maybe it's 3.0 or 2.5. Whatever. That's enough. Just eat it, and do something that's not greedy.
You have to remember that when the original iPhone unlimited plan rolled out, connectivity was limited to AT&T's Edge network which inherently limited the amount of data you could utilize due to slow data connections. Also, back when the iPhone originally rolled out, there were very few apps available and most utilized little to no data usage. You couldn't download iTune songs over the network, there were no streaming services available, you had to download apps over wifi or through iTunes, etc. The only way you could really drive data usage was browsing through Safari. Even if you browsed all day, you wouldn't use anywhere near the data usage as you would use streaming a movie or music today.
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Yeah, thats a brilliant idea. What a great concept. How about we ask all American companies to simply make less profit going forward (so as not to be greedy). Would love to see all of our 401k balances and stock portfolios once that idea is implemented.
i think what youre neglecting is that for the majority of the general public, cdma is more than enough. my mother in law just bought an iphone 4 from verizon, and is thrilled with it. the majority of us on macrumors are techies and expect more from our gadgets. would i like a faster connection? of course i would, but i refuse to put up with at&ts crap to get a slightly faster speed. and i can honestly say say that in last year+ that ive had an iphone and last 4 years ive had a smartphone, ive never needed data while on a phone call.
So I guess I'm an idiot. I pay for Pandora and I pay for Spotify. I also pay $200 a month for cell phone service. Excuse the crap out of me for wanting what I pay for. I'm not costing Verizon money by streaming 3-4gb a month in data. It ain't happening. I am not pushing them out of business. For them to throttle me after 2gb would be criminal. THem charging $.10 per text message (140 bytes per message?) is also criminal. That is highway robbery based on the bandwidth you're using.
So I say screw AT&T and Verizon. I'm a paying customer and I'm low maintenance. Give me what I paid for and agreed to - and that is an unlimited data plan. If you didn't want people to have it, then you shouldn't have offered it. Don't change the plan because YOU failed to plan for people using it.
These companies hedge their bets (just like hosting companies who offer 100000000GB of transfer a month for $3.99) that people won't use but 5% of what they bought. When someone does, they want to throttle them.
I call BS. Give me what I paid for and agreed to. Don't change the terms after the fact just because I am utilizing everything I am paying for.
Very interesting, I am thinking on doing something like that but I haven't seen the numbers yet.
I just went to the AT&T website and didn't see any straight talk plan.
I am currently under a family plan with 2 iPhones with unlimited data. What will be your suggestion?
Thanks
Now I know who's been down voting most of the comments here! He probably gets fed by AT&T and/or Google and is defending his greedy bosses. He is the one who downvoted your comment too. Don't worry, trolls never have valid arguments, and instead, just cause more damage to themselves.
Check all the threads he started and you'll see how all are about bashing the iPhone and the iPad.
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When will these carriers really be ahead Leading instead of playing the constant catch up game?
When they start focusing in their customers first, and then in their revenue.
The problem is that the carriers that are more customer friendly are struggling to survive, and can't afford to lead at this time. Hopefully that will change for the mobile user's own sake.
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They must really hate me, I have free unlimited messaging.
I can't blame AT&T for wanting to make money though. It's a capitalistic economy, they won't make it if they keep loosing money.
I found the other one!
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It's not about being cheap, but about being overcharged.
It's like when you go to a restaurant and leave a good tip, but then later realize that the tip was already included in the bill, plus additional charges for using silverware and glassware, and a fee for the dishwasher and a table use fee.
If you don't understand this, perhaps someone else could enlighten you more.
the point youre trying to make is ridiculous. what your saying is that those of us who payed for unlimited data and texts, shouldnt expect unlimited data and texts. thats like saying im going to an all you can eat buffet, but after my first plate im limited on what i can have. thats not what i payed for, and bought into their system for. its not my problem to worry about the carrier or other people on the network. the carrier should have expected that some people would take the unlimited to an extreme, while others would barely use it, its on them if they didnt. again, if their network cant handle it (which it can, its a ploy that the big two cant), its on them to upgrade their network.
The crazy thing is that in five years or so EVERYTHING will be streaming HD video. All new appliances really will be connected to the net (unlike promises of 15 years ago it will be reality).
Backbone providers, ISPs, wireless...they're all going to have to offer truly unlimited solutions to their end users if they want to remain relevant.
The growth in data use will be insane, but, I assume, will hit a relative plateau per person. We have the technology to handle this, it's just expensive to use faster switches, lay more fiber. Heck, there are probably even wireless solutions for backbone haul using microwave towers and/or LEO sats.
My point is just that this ATT guy is talking really insignificant small potatoes stuff from the PAST. I would think the companies succeeding in the future see opportunity servicing all this new traffic--instead, the bean counter CEO is a dinosaur running a company many of us still need (at least for the short term).
Backbone providers, ISPs, wireless...they're all going to have to offer truly unlimited solutions to their end users if they want to remain relevant.
The growth in data use will be insane, but, I assume, will hit a relative plateau per person. We have the technology to handle this, it's just expensive to use faster switches, lay more fiber. Heck, there are probably even wireless solutions for backbone haul using microwave towers and/or LEO sats.
My point is just that this ATT guy is talking really insignificant small potatoes stuff from the PAST. I would think the companies succeeding in the future see opportunity servicing all this new traffic--instead, the bean counter CEO is a dinosaur running a company many of us still need (at least for the short term).