AT&T Replaces iPad Unlimited Data Plan with 2GB Capped Plan for New Customers

[Fluffy Bunny]

Actually, these cheaper lower use data plans for the iPhone/iPad make sense. The way the market is going, the iPhone/iPad are geared towards the lower end of the comfortable with technology crowd (lke AOL used to be) who need device to play music and look at pictures and are fine with a slow internet connection while Andriod is more for the moderate to hard core tech crowd looking for laptop power with high speed internet on a phone.

This will turn out to be a good move for AT&T and apple. All the little kids and grannies will be buying this crazy!!

 

[BryanLyle]

I just switched from an iPhone to tje jtc incredible on Verizon.
It is awesom actually having data coverage. Now I have coverage everywhere and a phone that handles flash, can download videos in the background, etc. I've discovered that when I'm away from WiFi I can use up to 1 GB in a day.
A limit of 2 GB is simply unreasonable. They should have made it 5gb cap for 25. That would have clarified the supposed unlimited while lowering the price.

Time for any serious smartphone or mobile device users to bail from ATT.

Same here. I live in an area that has NO 3G AT&T service. Finally gave up on the iPhone last week and am using a Droid Incredible. We've seen what the 4G iPhone looks like and we've seen what OS 4 looks like. It wasn't enough to keep me hanging on with AT&T.

 

[JediZenMaster]

Seems like me getting the wifi iPad was the way to go

 

[distortedloop]

I'm not surprised that the bulk of the discussion has focused on outrage over the AT&T pricing, but I'm surprised that only one or two posts so far has even hinted at what's more interesting if you read between the lines of this move:

Act now BEFORE June 7th to lock in the unlimited plan rate. June 7th's WWDC and the expected announcement by El Jobso of whatever the new iPhone and any other surprises out there. What could the surprise be that's prompted/(scared?) AT&T to try to get you to buy into their network before you learn about the new goodies from Apple.

THIS IS EXCITING, ACTUALLY.

 

[Blorzoga]

So this means no unlimited plan is being offered at all? How many people are going to go over the usage on the 2gb plan incurring huge charges?

No. If you enroll your 3G iPad before June 7, you will be able to keep unlimited 3G.

 

[bookofzero]

Yeah, you're grandfathered in before June 7th. That's a great consolation to people who've been on the wait list for over a week...

Then you're grandfathered in if you bought it before June 7th. And by calling it just a multimedia device is putting the device in a narrow description.



Don't make me laugh that hard again, grandpa.

 

[ryanzec]

No. If you enroll your 3G iPad before June 7, you will be able to keep unlimited 3G.

only if you continue to buy it every month, once you turn off 3G (which I think was the big selling point of the 3G not being contracted for the iPad) you can't get it back basically locking you into a contract with no termination fee.

 

[JoJoCal19]

Verizon has a 375 dollar ETF. Don't be surprised if other carriers fall in line soon. Same thing with the data plans.

You get screwed by all cell phone providers.

$350 get it right!

 

[Jphillippe]

Omg just saw 6 minutes of lost on netflix via 3G and I consumed 42 mb of data...2gb cap is a joke glad I'm grandfathered in the unlimited plan..who knows if it'll be unlimited anyway..I've read somewhere they cap ppl who go above 5gb, anyone can support this?

 

[mskorup8]

So? Then keep the $30/month unlimited rate. Existing iPad customers aren't affected.

arn

What happens if I have a warrant exchange etc. Or drop this one and have to buy another?

 

[bookofzero]

Yeah! I never eat my entire entree at a restaurant. Why should I pay as much as someone that does? ::eyeroll::

No it is the way to get more money from customers who use data A LOT. And it does make sense that users who use a lot of data should pay more than the ones who don't.

Me and nearly all of my friends use less than 1GB of data so why should we pay $30/month as much as guy who uses 95GB of data??

That is why tiered plans are awesome. I just wish they would make unlimited plan for like $50 for those data MONSTERS

 

[goosnarrggh]

So this means no unlimited plan is being offered at all? How many people are going to go over the usage on the 2gb plan incurring huge charges?

Nobody. With an iPad, the service is prepaid -- after you've used up your 2GB allotment, your plan expires -- ergo, no more data for you until you make the conscious decision to pay to re-up.

 

[ReallyBigFeet]

Ready for their next trick?

What do you want to bet that upgrading to an iPhone 4 requires not a 2-year EXTENSION to an existing iPhone contract, but a NEW contract altogether? This way, they force giving up your grandfathered unlimited plan if you want the new phone?

 

[marksman]

This is really a breach of trust. I Understand the plans are "no contract," and ATT is not legally bound to continue but change things up a hair under a month after the 3G drops is a break of trust w/ customers. It also show that ATT doesn't have a clue what its doing or they would not have green lighted the unlimited plan in the first place. I formerly was not among the ATT bashers, but this changes things. It's just the timing that bothers me.

That said, if ATT is going to press the reset button they could have at least offered consumers a bone like a 24hr rate like providers in the UK and elsewhere offer. Or lower the 200MB rate or raise the cap to 300MB -- something more usable and will guarantee that light users don't get nailed for another $15 for a lousy 200KBs of overage. (I frequently go over 200MB, but never 300MB).



They are not affected IF they currently subscribe. However, many 3G owners, myself included, do not intend to subscribe each month, but only on an as-needed basis. We are affected because we were sold on the "unlimited" concept. Even if they just changed it to the typical 5GB cap I would have been fine, but $25 for less than half of that, c'mon. That is ridiculous.

You do understand that is hard to believe people are going to be that upset that they could not go from being able to not spend anything on 3G for months at a time, and then all of a sudden have a need for more than 2 gigs in one month for $25 to going back to having zero need for it again.

It does suck, but it is not the end of the world, and the plan was not guaranteed to stay forever. Yeah if you want to keep the 5 gig plan, for $30 you have to keep paying for it.

Otherwise if you need to use 5 gigs 6 months from now it will cost you $55.

I don't think it was a matter of no clue what they were doing, I think it is a matter of being the first company to offer mobile data service for an unprecedented type of device. So all they really had to go on was guesswork as to how much usage people might need.

For most people this is a BETTER deal than $30 unlimited (which you know is not unlimited anyways). So for almost ALL their customers this saves them money. You are upset because you planned for potentially not using 3G at all then having months where you just went batcrap crazy and used it up and drank its milkshake.

You have to admit that would be a very weird and unique usage pattern. Not improbable or impossible, just fairly unusable. Also how realistic is it? Isn't it more likely the months you want to activate 3G you are most likely going to use less than 2 Gigs?

 

[JoJoCal19]

I'm not surprised that the bulk of the discussion has focused on outrage over the AT&T pricing, but I'm surprised that only one or two posts so far has even hinted at what's more interesting if you read between the lines of this move:

Act now BEFORE June 7th to lock in the unlimited plan rate. June 7th's WWDC and the expected announcement by El Jobso of whatever the new iPhone and any other surprises out there. What could the surprise be that's prompted/(scared?) AT&T to try to get you to buy into their network before you learn about the new goodies from Apple.

THIS IS EXCITING, ACTUALLY.

I agree. I mean AT&T has maintained status quo and then all of a sudden with many realistic VeriPhone rumors circulating and within weeks of WWDC all of a sudden their CEO is going out of his way to assuage his stockholders that there wont be a mass exodus of AT&T users to other carriers, they jack thier ETF fee up a week before WWDC and now this, they totally change thier data terms a few days before WWDC with the effective date of the day WWDC is on. Hmmm...

 

[JediZenMaster]

Ready for their next trick?

What do you want to bet that upgrading to an iPhone 4 requires not a 2-year EXTENSION to an existing iPhone contract, but a NEW contract altogether? This way, they force giving up your grandfathered unlimited plan if you want the new phone?

In my situation that wouldn't work. I'm not eligible for an upgrade till november of next year. So there is no way they can force me to sign a contract without giving me a discount.

 

[DCBass]

Given the representative sample here on the Macrumors forums, I suppose that I should not surprised that so many people here on the boards are livid about this.

However, count me in with those that are happy to hear this. I am constantly using my phone during the day surfing the web, however my average usage is just under 200MB --> pure savings for me. On top of that, I know several other people that would now buy a smartphone of some sort as a result of this... $30/mo was just not worth it for them before.

I still can't believe that I am going to get 50% savings, that's great. The writing's been on the wall for a while (see de la Vega's comments going back for months now), but I was expecting higher prices than this.

It's a pity that they don't at least offer unlimited plans for their corporate customers at a higher fee. It will be interesting to see what Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint will do in response.

Cheers,

DCBass

 

[JoJoCal19]

Ready for their next trick?

What do you want to bet that upgrading to an iPhone 4 requires not a 2-year EXTENSION to an existing iPhone contract, but a NEW contract altogether? This way, they force giving up your grandfathered unlimited plan if you want the new phone?

If I were a betting man I would put a lot of money that they will.

 

[JediZenMaster]

Omg just saw 6 minutes of lost on netflix via 3G and I consumed 42 mb of data...2gb cap is a joke glad I'm grandfathered in the unlimited plan..who knows if it'll be unlimited anyway..I've read somewhere they cap ppl who go above 5gb, anyone can support this?

The Non iphone and iPad plans had a Cap of 5GB. The soon to be grandfathered iphone and ipad plans have no data cap. And if they did add a data cap to those plans then that would enable people to cancel with no ETF. Since it's a change to the service.

 

[marksman]

2 gigs a month may be good for the casual user. But if you use it for business then there's a problem. I freelance photograph for news agencies and need to upload my photos immediately to a web server. Those uploads average around 200mb. Waiting until I get to a place with wifi usually means someone else's photos are bought. Add to that my casual use is about 50mb per day

If ATT would have said this at the beginning I would never had bought an iPad.
Now I have to worry about will I be suddenly dropped to a 2 gig plan if ATT totally does away with unlimited even if your grandfatherd in

I don't understand. You need to use a lot of data for your business? Seems pretty worthwhile to you. Sure it sucks you cost goes up, but you do understand you are using more bandwidth than other people right? I guess sell your iPad. How will you upload your photos then, out of curiosity?

Really, I Downloaded a 1.4gb movie from itunes today, took about 22min....Jailbroken with 3g unrestricted.....and cloud or no cloud , streaming is still downloading , correct , data exchange! 2gb cap, I can eat that up in 1 day.....

WOW Att........

Again you are the reason why this exists. Why should people who use 5 megs a day be paying for you to use 2 gigs a day. Why has that been fair for the past couple of years?

Also seriously, does nobody have wifi? Wifi anyone? Anyone?

 

[rdstoll]

Lots of info here. Looks like the overage charges are reasonable.

 

[madridista59]

hm....seeing as how i hardly even get up to half a gig in a month over 3g, i could stand to snatch the 25$ 2GB data plan. question, could i go from my unlimited data to the 2GB without having to renew my contract?

edit:

nevermind, found my answer from the link in the above post thanks.

 

[distortedloop]

People just think about how much you use your data BEFORE bitching about these changes. Also, more than 2GB/month is nuts anyways. Try using your PC/laptop for that and it will also download much faster

Speak for yourself. Your usage is your usage, and may or may not reflect what's normal for others.

Granted, I tether with TWO jailbroken phones ($140/month for the privilege), but I used 3.3GB on one phone, and 1.8GB on the second phone last month, so just over 5GB for the two. This is almost purely tethered use, I use a Nexus One on T-Mobile for actually in my palm data usage

It's probably because Apple has pulled the switch and will launch a Verizon / Sprint capable iPad. Not like they didn't see it coming though.

Yes, agreed, or something similar.

 

[distortedloop]

Well, users that care about these caps and tethering would know. For $529, you get an unlocked phone and once it gets 2.2, you can do tethering and wifi hotspot for free, something to consider if you're already on the to-be-discontinued $30 unlimited iPhone plan and in need of tethering but don't want to be raped by the new AT&T data plans.

You don't have to wait for Android 2.2. My Nexus One with Android 2.1 does Wireless tethering just fine. Just download the Wireless-tethering apk off of Google Codesite. You may have to be rooted, though (kind of like jailbreaking, but much less controversial than jailbreaking - Google makes it very easy to do, and doesn't constantly try to break the "hack".) I'm sure the EVO is using the same APK, only root/SU access isn't required on that phone.

Unlocked yes. But that's pretty much meaningless in the US. The other GSM carrier, T-Mobile doesn't yet offer a micro SIM, and more importantly their 3G network runs on a different frequency that's not compatible with the iDevices.

SIM cards and micro-Sim cards are the same circuitry and connections, only the larger wasted plastic card that holds it is different. I haven't personally done it, since I don't have an iPad, but I have seen numerous posts on the net on how easy it is to take any SIM and trim it down to fit the micro-SIM port. Supposedly there are even trays to put the micro-SIM sized card back into a full SIM slot if you want to switch back and forth.

I just switched from an iPhone to tje jtc incredible on Verizon.
It is awesom actually having data coverage. Now I have coverage everywhere and a phone that handles flash, can download videos in the background, etc. I've discovered that when I'm away from WiFi I can use up to 1 GB in a day.
A limit of 2 GB is simply unreasonable. They should have made it 5gb cap for 25. That would have clarified the supposed unlimited while lowering the price.

Time for any serious smartphone or mobile device users to bail from ATT.

Waiting for the EVO on Sprint to do just that. I'm not planning on getting one this Friday, because I do want to see what Apple's got up it's sleeve with the iPhone 4th generation device, but Apple's really going to have to deliver something beyond what's been leaked to woo me back to the first-day crowd on the iPhone line. Other considerations on waiting to switch to the EVO are AT&T contract up the end of June on my older iPhone 3G, and might as well wait rather than pay any ETF. Also, the EVO really only becomes super-interesting when WiMax comes to your area, which for me isn't until later this summer.

 

[Mirice]

The ultimate multimedia device is now CRIPPLED.

What is this device you speak of because the ipad is certainly not the ultimate multimedia device.