AT&T Introduces New Smartphone Data Plans w/3GB and 5GB Options

[mantan]

Correct. Neither do you. In fact it could cost them much less what they're charging customers for and hence seeing a tidy increase in profit. What's a decent profit? I'd wager that Randall Stephenson's idea of a decent or fair profit is much much different than yours or mine.AT&T is, and has been, slowly forcing their "average" customer to purchase more data than they need by increasing the lowest rate plan (and complaining about people using too much data at the same time). Their happy medium is having 20 million customers paying for 3 gbs of data and using 350 mb. Instead of charging a fair rate for data usage.

That's how business works. Lock the customer up and extract as much money from them as possible. They care not one bit about the customer other than as piggy bank.

A decent profit often depends on the bias a person has about the company involved.

A lot of people in here have no issues with Apple pulling in record profits. Yet, they often expect cell carriers to operate to break even.

And unlike Apple, AT&T has to play in a competitive market for iPhone customers.

 

[ZipZap]

For me the big question is what will happen when iPhone 5 shows up. I would be happy to move to the 5gig plan so that I can tether.

What stops me is LTE. When LTE releases, data speeds go up and make mobile devices way more usable and practical. This will certainly drive more data use (ie, streaming movies etc).

If ATT allows for unlimited users to br grandfathered to unlimited LTE plans, then I would not want to miss out on that.

Its a big IF.

LTE plans seem to be more costly. And I dont believe anyone really offers true unlimited. So WWAD (what will ATT do).

My gut says, no grandfathering and more expensive LTE plans but I just dont know.

 

[gLaDiAtOr73]

IF THERE IS GOING TO BE A $30/3GB PLAN, since I have an unlimited plan can they stop throttling me at 2gb and wait til i hit 3gb since i pay the same $30???????????

 

[MacManTexas56]

IF THERE IS GOING TO BE A $30/3GB PLAN, since I have an unlimited plan can they stop throttling me at 2gb and wait til i hit 3gb since i pay the same $30???????????

it's probably just another way to get everyone off of the unlimited. They know they are throttled at 2gb and could change their plan to the 3gb plan for the same price and not be throttled that last gig.

 

[tshort]

I want a family data plan!

I have 5 phones on my family data plan; 3 of us have iPhones with data (2 @ $25, 1 @ $15), the 4th uses data occasionally (typically $2/month ever other month), and the 5th has data blocked.

The two 2GB plans are not used anything near their limits, but the 250MB plan is.

I would really love a family data plan where we all could share 2GB among the 5 of us: we're being charged $65/$67 for data right now.

At this point, once you hit the $30 threshold, you are paying $10/GB, why not just make it $10/GB for everyone? No, they couldn't do that!

 

[Hakone]

I agree w/ a family data plan among X number of phones and oh... btw... how about ROLLOVER Data?

 

[diamond.g]

1. No one is getting a fee hike. Existing users are grandfathered and can keep their current plan (presumably as long as they stay with ATT). New users come to ATT with their own free will with full knowledge of the cost of data. They can go elsewhere or choose to not buy a smartphone.

2. Pricing is expensive, yes, but no one here knows ATT's costs to build out a LTE network. ATT needs to make a decent profit or their is no incentive to invest in new technology. That is how business works.

3. Average consumer -- not those here but non-Geeks not obsessed with technology, and if you are on this board you are obsessed with technology -- uses well under 1GB of data so the true cost of data is relatively unchanged from when the iPhone was first launched.

Didn't AT&T tell the FCC that it would cost them 3-4 Billion to lay have an
LTE network that covers 97 percent of where American live?

 

[3460169]

After tweeting a nastygram mentioning @ATT & their new data plans, an @ATT rep was kind enough to reply & remind me that I'm grandfathered in. At this point I'm more concerned about how he equated my twitter account with my cell plan, given the lack of personally identifying information on my account.

And yes -- how about roll-over data?

 

[diamond.g]

After tweeting a nastygram mentioning @ATT & their new data plans, an @ATT rep was kind enough to reply & remind me that I'm grandfathered in. At this point I'm more concerned about how he equated my twitter account with my cell plan, given the lack of personally identifying information on my account.

And yes -- how about roll-over data?

They were probably making an assumption that you have an AT&T phone. Because if you did you would be grandfathered in.

 

[KentuckyHouse]

IF THERE IS GOING TO BE A $30/3GB PLAN, since I have an unlimited plan can they stop throttling me at 2gb and wait til i hit 3gb since i pay the same $30???????????

This is my EXACT question as well. I still have grandfathered data, and though I've not been throttled yet (since I rarely go over 2GB), I'd love to know if they're going to raise that "cap" from 2 to 3GB. Or is this just a ploy, as someone else pointed out, to get people with Unlimited to switch?

 

[3460169]

They were probably making an assumption that you have an AT&T phone. Because if you did you would be grandfathered in.

Ah very good point -- see I read their response as you're grandfathered into your unlimited plan, which would mean they knew about my plan. Now I see that any current AT&T plan would be grandfathered. Thanks for shedding that light; total reading comprehension fail on my part.

 

[840quadra]

I am a regular user of my iPhone, but use just shy, or just over 1GB of my 2GB plan. I was hoping they would beam down to Earth and release a $15 1GB plan. I could easily switch some of my tactics to use a touch less data to avoid scraping into a 1GB limit, and pay less a month.

 

[sweetbrat]

I would really love a family data plan where we all could share 2GB among the 5 of us: we're being charged $65/$67 for data right now.

I'm in the same boat (sort of). We have 3 iPhones on our family plan. We share minutes, and I wish we could share data. Hubby and I always use up to our limit, but my mom used 33MB last month. Having a pool of shared data would be so much easier. I keep hoping for this, but not sure it will ever actually happen.

 

[hbenitez09]

Have you actually gotten notice from ATT that your bbeing throttled after two Gibson of data usage? As I stated I have 5 total devices on my family plan two of which consistantly go over 4 gbs of data while never being throttled. As I mentioned I use an LtE device and a 4S so that means I'm obviously not in the middle of Kansas I life in Chicago. I average about 6 gbs on my iPhone with unlimited data. I use a lot of tethering for my tablet and stream some music and vidoes. On my iPhone 4s I use about 4.5 gbs. A monyh I have iTunes match and stream all my music through it again without ever being throttled

According to your logic then of only the top 5% being throttled, if I'm at 2GB and am throttled and someone else is over 10GB, how would I fall into the top 5%? I just think that's incredibly unlikely. I've read up on this a lot and the most logical answer is that it is location based. I live in NJ right across the river from NYC, so I'm in a highly populated area. If I lived out in the middle of Kansas or something I probably would be OK w/ my 2GB's of usage.

 

[gLaDiAtOr73]

Have you actually gotten notice from ATT that your bbeing throttled after two Gibson of data usage? As I stated I have 5 total devices on my family plan two of which consistantly go over 4 gbs of data while never being throttled. As I mentioned I use an LtE device and a 4S so that means I'm obviously not in the middle of Kansas I life in Chicago. I average about 6 gbs on my iPhone with unlimited data. I use a lot of tethering for my tablet and stream some music and vidoes. On my iPhone 4s I use about 4.5 gbs. A monyh I have iTunes match and stream all my music through it again without ever being throttled

yes,2months in a row and i usually only use 2.5 gb per month

 

[hbenitez09]

Wow must be metro area specific like you mentioned. It's really hard to believe such a drastic change in data usage from the new york area to chicagoland area. I consistently see users who average 7 8 gb a month. (i talk with a lot of smart phone users on a consistent basis) of all those people only one of them has ever been throttled.


Sorry just noticed you aren't the original person who quoted me at first

yes,2months in a row and i usually only use 2.5 gb per month

 

[MrXiro]

Since the lowest plan at 300mb is 20 dollars now. Doesn't it mean it qualifies for business discounts? I believe that it was for data plans 20 and up. So if you have 20% off, you end up at $16 (or $1 more) for 100mb more data... Or am I wrong?

 

[hbenitez09]

at&t is altering the way the Iru discounts are being applied to data plans. As a short answer no it won't qualify. I read a little into it yesterday but i can't remember everything it stated. I remember something like only the 30 dollar data plan for 3gb was going to be discounted the 25 dollar 2gb plan that was discounted before isn't going to be anymore. Don't take this word for word as i didn't bother to memorize what was listed. (i know this because i work for the company)

Since the lowest plan at 300mb is 20 dollars now. Doesn't it mean it qualifies for business discounts? I believe that it was for data plans 20 and up. So if you have 20% off, you end up at $16 (or $1 more) for 100mb more data... Or am I wrong?

 

[HazyCloud]

Do they always throttle *any* user that goes above 2 GB? Or just users that consistently go above 2 GB with an unlimited plan?

I went over 2 GBs (2.5 to be exact) and I got throttled immediately. Looking at my account all the way back to Sept 2010, I've never gone over 2 GBs. The ONLY thing I can think of that might not get you throttled is if you live in an area that doesn't use much data overall. I also checked with a co-worker and she just hit 2 GBs and received the "Top 5%" text and now her speeds are horrid as well.

If the $30 plan is for 3 GBs, will AT&T raise the throttling limit to 3 GBs+? If they don't, how is it fair that unlimited users are getting bad speeds when paying the same amount as the 3 GB users?

I used to not have to monitor how much data I've used, but now even with the unlimited plan, I now must keep a close eye on it or risk getting .01 Mbps.

 

[MrXiro]

at&t is altering the way the Iru discounts are being applied to data plans. As a short answer no it won't qualify. I read a little into it yesterday but i can't remember everything it stated. I remember something like only the 30 dollar data plan for 3gb was going to be discounted the 25 dollar 2gb plan that was discounted before isn't going to be anymore. Don't take this word for word as i didn't bother to memorize what was listed. (i know this because i work for the company)

Bastards... I hate AT&T so much... if I wasn't in my current situation I would bail in a heartbeat.

 

[Big Dawg 23]

I have yet to be throttled or get a warning. We have three data plans, 2-200MB and my Unlimited. I have been to 3.5-4.0 GB a few months with no warning on throttling. My wife has the original POS BB Torch and use about 40-50MB of her 200.

Like others have mentioned I think they will start throttling people at 2GB or slightly over in an attempt to move them off of unlimited data. On Tuesday I was in a store and take it for what its worth, they told a customer 95% of users use less than 2GB. With the cap on downloading large apps, it is pretty hard to go past 5GB. I know the only way is streaming Video of some sort 1-2 hours a day on a bus or train. I do stream a music on Tune In Pro and SiriusXM without high usage.

 

[theman510]

Have you actually gotten notice from ATT that your bbeing throttled after two Gibson of data usage? As I stated I have 5 total devices on my family plan two of which consistantly go over 4 gbs of data while never being throttled. As I mentioned I use an LtE device and a 4S so that means I'm obviously not in the middle of Kansas I life in Chicago. I average about 6 gbs on my iPhone with unlimited data. I use a lot of tethering for my tablet and stream some music and vidoes. On my iPhone 4s I use about 4.5 gbs. A monyh I have iTunes match and stream all my music through it again without ever being throttled

Yes, I got the notice I was close to the top 5% when I was at 1.5GB. The MINUTE I hit the 2GB mark I was slowed down so much I couldn't stream a thing on netflix and waiting for a youtube video to buffer took longer than watching the actual video did. I got the notice 10 days into my billing cycle, so for the remainder of the 20 (only 6 days left) I haven't been able to do anything for the most part.

Using SpeedTest, my download speeds at my office were generally 1 - 1.2 MB/s. But now i'm at 0.07 Mb/s

 

[MacChinoNyc]

This is VERIZON's chance to bring back the 4GB for $30 promotion again and Im abandoning this at&t ship quicker than that italian skipper or whatever.....seriously though I'm tired of at&t and will gladly give up my unlimited data plan since its basically 2gb for $30 now.

 

[ubersoldat]

I have just been to Austria. Orange sells iPad prepaid (no contract) sim cards for 5$/1GB or 10$/3GB. And it's fast damn fast, too.

 

[freediverdude]

Exactly. This may sound crazy, but I'm actually considering dumping my unlimited data for the 3G plan. Why get throttled at 2GB when for the same price I can get 3GB?

This is exactly what AT&T is counting on. Moving everybody off the unlimited in this way is really slick.