AT&T Scales Back Throttling of Grandfathered Unlimited Data Plans

[Bobby Corwen]

You are aware that you can use hotspot with ANY wifi connected device right? Like, for example, a Mac. And even at that, iPad and iPhone are very different devices despite being the same OS. I use hotspot frequently with my MacBook Air.

Also I have a mobile share plan with 40GB to share with 9 different people. I pay about 70 a month with an iPhone 6 Plus on AT&T Next. Nobody will even be able to TOUCH that pricing with an old unlimited plan.

Um ok, why would I bring my mac with me somewhere that doesnt have Wifi? lol.

I have a 15inch rMBP that I use for video and audio editing. Come to think of it I can do that on iPad as well if Im just playing around with ideas.

For browsing the internet and gaming and everything else I use iPad Air 2.

Why would I want to use my Mac in a scenario where I don't have Wifi, but somehow I am traveling? Camping but I need to edit a film and work on a project? I can't think of one. Anytime I bring my Mac somewhere, to a studio, a friends house, there is Wifi there.

Also what do you do on Mac that you can't do on iPad?

I honestly can't think of anything I do on Mac that I can't do on iPad except for running Ableton, Logic, and Final Cut and downloading big files to the file folder.

I can do everything else on an iPad with wireless keyboard, including browse the web, use millions of apps that do almost everything a Mac can do and I can even Airplay the iPad to my 1080P projector conveniently at home using Apple TV.

Furthermore most of the things I might really choose to do on Mac over iPad like maybe download huge files, I probably wouldnt do over a limited data hotspot anyway. So that narrows it down anyways.

Maybe if iPhone didnt have Safari I would want that lol. Its not that srs. Not worth 40$ for me.

 

[ItsGavinC]

For the Pareto analysis, the streaming radio takes the cake, but iCloud is making a case for second place, especially with the videos.

Photos only updates to iCloud when you are connected to Wi-Fi.

 

[barkomatic]

I live in NYC, so probably every tower would be congested. In practice I probably will be throttled every month if I exceed 5GB just like before.

 

[tbrinkma]

"...and their speeds will be restored with the start of the next billing cycle."

Here, I'll cut out everything extranious since you don't seem to be able to read an entire (short) paragraph.

...may experience reduced speeds when using data services at times and in areas that are experiencing network congestion.

Go back and read my post for comprehension. I covered the 'speeds will be restored' in the post that you responded to (but ignored).

 

[Bobby Corwen]

I live in NYC, so probably every tower would be congested. In practice I probably will be throttled every month if I exceed 5GB just like before.

damn... real talk...

They really should make it soft cap only after 10GB and throttle to 1.5mbps.

This is a more reasonable window of use where it would still not be abuse, but still usable for most common users.

The way it is now with 5GB and .5 it is crippling for almost any user who uses it even passively.

 

[dugbug]

Here, I'll cut out everything extranious since you don't seem to be able to read an entire (short) paragraph.



Go back and read my post for comprehension. I covered the 'speeds will be restored' in the post that you responded to (but ignored).

Snarkyness ignored, I read the full quote. My point is I feel they are going to retain the throttling (once triggered) until the billing cycle concludes.

 

[Bobby Corwen]

Snarkyness ignored, I read the full quote. My point is I feel they are going to retain the throttling (once triggered) until the billing cycle concludes.

No.

That doesn't even make any sense first of all. Think about it.

 

[TheMang]

Unlimited vs Tiered

One topic that I don't think has been discussed regarding AT&T unlimited vs tiered plans in this thread is that when the time comes to upgrade with the tiered plan you have to be part of AT&T Next or buy the phone outright at full price. As an grandfathered unlimited user, I enjoy paying the subsidized price ($100 - $200) every two years to get a new phone, not have to pay the extra $25 - $35 per month across two years to lease my phone from the Next Program, and I enjoy being able to sell my phone whenever I want since I own it, usually covering the price of new subsidized phone and then some.

Glad to hear AT&T is shifting their bogus throttling policy in the right direction!

 

[chevy57]

I am also grandfathered in to the unlimited ATT plan. I still be throttling after 5GB and over some months. I hope that it will have no throttling over 5GB this month, right?

Image: throttling over 6GB last week ago

 

[SoAnyway]

Too little too late.

I ditched AT&T for T-Mobile back in November and haven't looked back since.

I'm averaging 20GB per month on my unlimited plan, unthrottled. So unless AT&T can beat that with their paltry 6GB limit, I'm perfectly content where I'm at.

 

[superjew1492]

not seeing anywhere where they mention a change to the policy?

 

[hlfway2anywhere]

Um ok, why would I bring my mac with me somewhere that doesnt have Wifi? lol.

I have a 15inch rMBP that I use for video and audio editing. Come to think of it I can do that on iPad as well if Im just playing around with ideas.

For browsing the internet and gaming and everything else I use iPad Air 2.

Why would I want to use my Mac in a scenario where I don't have Wifi, but somehow I am traveling? Camping but I need to edit a film and work on a project? I can't think of one. Anytime I bring my Mac somewhere, to a studio, a friends house, there is Wifi there.

Also what do you do on Mac that you can't do on iPad?

I honestly can't think of anything I do on Mac that I can't do on iPad except for running Ableton, Logic, and Final Cut and downloading big files to the file folder.

I can do everything else on an iPad with wireless keyboard, including browse the web, use millions of apps that do almost everything a Mac can do and I can even Airplay the iPad to my 1080P projector conveniently at home using Apple TV.

Furthermore most of the things I might really choose to do on Mac over iPad like maybe download huge files, I probably wouldnt do over a limited data hotspot anyway. So that narrows it down anyways.

Maybe if iPhone didnt have Safari I would want that lol. Its not that srs. Not worth 40$ for me.

Are you really asking me to defend my usage scenario? I'm on a tiered data plan and literally NEVER think about how much data i'm using. I have hotspot, which is included at no additional charge. I pay $70 a month.

 

[macduke]

I thought people despised Verizon and AT&T to the same degree? Basically two companies cut from the same cloth.

The only one with any actual goodwill being T-Mobile, which unfortunately suffers from poor coverage?

Honestly T-Mobile is probably a big reason why Verizon has been acting this well. I joined in late 2012 and around that time they seemed to be improving when I did my research. They're customer service is really great. Every few months lately they give me a courtesy call to make sure everything is going well. They don't try to sell me anything, aside from letting me know an upgrade is available on my wife's line, and 2/3 times they increased my data and 1/3 times they lowered my bill by a decent amount (I think $15?). The one time I remember actually calling them in the past year was to cancel data on my wife's iPad Mini 2, to which they said I could have a year of free data. So my plan price went down another $10. Set a reminder for January next year and I'll cancel it again. Maybe I'll get free data again? If not, no skin off my nose.

i havent kept up w/ Verizon. in the old days you couldnt talk on the phone and use data at the same time -- has this been resolved? im often on the speaker phone but looking things up.

Verizon is a non-starter for me for two reasons.

1. Zero Verizon coverage where I live. Full LTE AT&T coverage, though.
2. I will never give up simultaneous voice and data

Even if #1 wasn't an issue, #2 would be.

I like the message behind this article, though. I hope it bears out in practical usage ... I still have an unlimited plan for my iPhone.

I'm surprised that more people don't realize this, but since the iPhone 6 came out you can now do simultaneous voice and data. Funny enough I can't really think of any instance where I've needed to use this feature. When I first switched to Verizon I was kinda annoyed by that, but nowadays I use the voice functionality on my phone so little that it's not even noticeable, but now it's possible. Combine that with free tethering and it's definitely the best network out there if they have coverage in your area. I'm curious as to where you live if you don't have Verizon coverage—it's quite rare that I dip below two bars anywhere I've been the past 2.5 years.

 

[Macboy Pro]

This was one of AT&T's biggest blunders. They were THE iPhone carrier at the beginning, but the whole throttling thing cost them a whole lot of smartphone customers.

My guess is they would rather the complainers go. AT&T could not keep up with the incredible demand for data on their network back when the iPhone was first released. They canceled the unlimited data almost immediately and it was ABSOLUTELY the right thing to do.

They let consumers keep the plan and still do to this day. They did not have to let consumers keep the plan. The contract says they can cancel it at any time. We are 7 years later and still they allow folks to keep their plan.

Data in 2007 and Data in 2015 are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!!! If they un-throttled everyone, people could use 1TB-5TB a month in data today. Image what that does to the rest of the customers who are paying for their data.

In 2007, you would be lucky to use 5GB. Do the math.

I believe AT&T should have canceled the plans and made people move to another plan to to an inferior network like Sprint/T-Mobile or even Verizon.
By canceling, it would have eliminated all the free loaders that want everything for free and not pay like the rest of us.

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Too little too late.

I ditched AT&T for T-Mobile back in November and haven't looked back since.

I'm averaging 20GB per month on my unlimited plan, unthrottled. So unless AT&T can beat that with their paltry 6GB limit, I'm perfectly content where I'm at.

Sorry, but AT&T Speeds and T-Mobile speeds are NOT COMPARABLE. You are throttled by your Tier2 network providers ability to provide.

 

[karlfranz]

Your family is in the desert. You're all dying of thirst. I offer to sell you unlimited water to drink. But, after you drink your first cup, i tell you that now you can only have one drop every 30 minutes. Until next month, of course, at which point you may drink another cup.

 

[tbobmccoy]

Too late, AT&T. Dumped their arses a couple weeks ago for T-Mobile's unlimited data. Service is better here, too. Love the speed! Also, AT&T can't give my SIM card out to a random person in Florida who charged hundreds of dollars on my account. Jerks.

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Sorry, but AT&T Speeds and T-Mobile speeds are NOT COMPARABLE. You are throttled by your Tier2 network providers ability to provide.

In Austin, TX, Tmobz is faster than AT&T. The coverage map is tmobile's weakness. I'm a teacher though, and rarely travel outside their service area.

 

[hipnetic]

Hmm...shouldn't their statement read:

All such customers can still use unlimited data without incurring overage charges, and their speeds will be restored with the start of the next billing cycle...*OR* when the tower is no longer congested *OR* when they change locations and are accessing a non-congested tower. ???

 

[Bobby Corwen]

Are you really asking me to defend my usage scenario? I'm on a tiered data plan and literally NEVER think about how much data i'm using. I have hotspot, which is included at no additional charge. I pay $70 a month.

Asking you to do what? I honestly don't care about your specific usage one bit.

Are you on Verizon or AT&T? because they have no such deals unless you only want 1GB of data.

Either that or you have 2nd rate coverage with another carrier.

How is that relevant to me saying that Hotspot is not worth it. Or rarely worth it.

 

[JeffyTheQuik]

Photos only updates to iCloud when you are connected to Wi-Fi.

Good point! You're right on that one.

Thank you for clarifying that.

 

[JawnVawka]

I used 18GB last month. I jailbroke my phone to share data to my ipad

 

[Macboy Pro]

Honestly T-Mobile is probably a big reason why Verizon has been acting this well. I joined in late 2012 and around that time they seemed to be improving when I did my research. They're customer service is really great. Every few months lately they give me a courtesy call to make sure everything is going well. They don't try to sell me anything, aside from letting me know an upgrade is available on my wife's line, and 2/3 times they increased my data and 1/3 times they lowered my bill by a decent amount (I think $15?). The one time I remember actually calling them in the past year was to cancel data on my wife's iPad Mini 2, to which they said I could have a year of free data. So my plan price went down another $10. Set a reminder for January next year and I'll cancel it again. Maybe I'll get free data again? If not, no skin off my nose.

My plan with AT&T has gone down significantly year by year and in the past couple years, they have doubled my data plan WHILE my plan cost was going down. AT&T has the coverage and the SIGNIFICANTLY better network. I get faster speeds on my LTE iPhone than I get on FIOS (up until they bumped me to 100mbit recently).

 

[Bobby Corwen]

Too late, AT&T. Dumped their arses a couple weeks ago for T-Mobile's unlimited data. Service is better here, too. Love the speed! Also, AT&T can't give my SIM card out to a random person in Florida who charged hundreds of dollars on my account. Jerks.

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In Austin, TX, Tmobz is faster than AT&T. The coverage map is tmobile's weakness. I'm a teacher though, and rarely travel outside their service area.

Thats a myth, its not "faster" its just less congested, because like you said, they have poor coverage so they have less subscribers.

Most of us don't like the idea of having to worry about coverage in buildings.

Guaranteed if we drove around town and did a dozen speed tests, there will be more areas where AT&T has better results because coverage also means you have more towers and the closer you are to a tower the faster the speeds.

So T-Mobile is only faster in a perfect scenario.

When you guys always post T-Mobile stuff in an AT&T thread there is always that caveat.

I never see the T-Mobile guys mention reception when they spout off the price plans.

its always gonna be an asterisk for most of us on AT&T.

T-Mobile is not a replacement for AT&T or Verizon, its a bargain downgrade. Keep that in mind when posting T-Mobile deals so non-chalantly.

IMO AT&T is awesome again for doing this.

 

[radiologyman]

Will have to see if my area congested. I have subsidized upgrades with my udp Att plan. Comes up slightly cheaper than tmobile if you factor in subsidy and I have a better network.

 

[hlfway2anywhere]

Asking you to do what? I honestly don't care about your specific usage one bit.

Are you on Verizon or AT&T? because they have no such deals unless you only want 1GB of data.

Either that or you have 2nd rate coverage with another carrier.

How is that relevant to me saying that Hotspot is not worth it. Or rarely worth it.

I'm on AT&T and already explained how my how my monthly payment is so low. You quoted it, and wrote a dissertation on it.

 

[Tech198]

this actually makes sense...


After all if u tag something as "unlimited" users will download as much as they can "all you can eat" without worrying about how bandwidth from the carrier's point of view... By throttling it back, they end up paying the same amount anyway. (while impeding the users)

You can't always win can you.