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AT&T Starts Throttling Unlimited Data Users after 2GB of Monthly Usage

You guys need to update your consumer protection laws.

Here in Australia we've been through the 'Unlimited' fiasco. Various providers have gotten in trouble for providing "unlimited" data or voice plans but then capping the speed (e.g. Optus -> 256kbps) after an arbitrary limit, or having exclusions (e.g. TPG - certain calls). While the fine print of the respective contacts does (did) state these limits/exclusions, it was still considered misleading and deceptive.
 
Rufuss Sewell said:
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Yes Warnrain, I have owned a 3g, 3gs, 4 and now 4s. When I bought my 4s AT&T's representative told me I was signing up for two more years of unlimited 3g data speeds. The same plan I've been on since 2008. That plan changed three days ago.
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Thanks for answering. I don't think there's any language in the ToS that defines what 3G is meant to be. They likely also include language to cap you or manage their network as they deem necessary.
 
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You've never seen an AT&T ad where they describe what 3g is?

Keep in mind that I'm not talking about the meaningless drivel in their fraudulent contract. I'm talking about the simple fact that I was sold:

"Unlimited 3g data" where countless advertisements described 3g as being fast.

I'm not even remotely confused. I understand that their sales reps sell me one thing and the contract is for something different. That's called fraud.
 
Sully5000 said:
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LISTEN TO THIS

so two months ago i received my first text about possibly being throttled I was at 12gigs nothing happened. Fast forward to last month at the middle of the month I was at the same 12gigs give or take and I got the text again that said I was 5 Percent blah blah blah so the next day my speeds went from averaging 5-6mbps to a whopping 0.08mbps and speeds never went fast then that for the next 14 days until my cycle ended. Total BS because I couldn't use Netflix couldn't use satellite radio YouTube. No streaming whatsoever forget downloading apps. My phone became a text and call only brick. Now I know I use my phone alot and rarely use wifi since I have no computer or interent at my house. So starting this month I was prepared I downloaded 2 data usage apps and I was gonna keep track of what was going on. So I wake up on The morning of the second and check my phone. YES my speeds are back but after 5 minutes of browsing. I check my usage on my AT&T app and it says 199.95mb of unlimited. WHAT!! How could I use that much in five minutes I was sleeping all night. This can't be right. So I think nothing of it I check the data app and it say ls I used 8mbs. Which is more believable...so fast forward to this morning I make sure all apps are closed when I go to sleep and sure enough another 190mb are tacked on in the morning without me doing anything. Now at this rate I'll be throttled before end of the month without even doing anything. So I call AT&T and explain my situation cuz maybe my 4S is broken or I have a bad app. I don't know. So this data specialist tells me do u have Facebook. Yes I do. Well even if the app isn't running even if your phone is off Facebook sends diagnostics 24 hours a day which is using up your data. I swear to god that's what this guy said. He said a lot of people are calling with same problem. So I said so is that the BS that your telling these people. There's no way my phone is using that much data while I sleep. Now I've done some research and turns out that congress is investigating AT&T using phantom data on peoples plans to jack there bill up. Sounds crazy but this is what I think is happening. What else could it be. Well I have an appt. with a apple representative and i will get to the bottom of this if this keeps happening I will use more then 1g a week and will have about 5 gigs used at the end of the month and I'm not even using the phone. Now I knew I used my phone alot but I was averaging about 18g a month and that just seams to high. I will post replays on further updates if anyone is interested to know what happens. And just to let everyone know I'm in the Hartford area of Connecticut and was throttles at around 12g. The "data specialist" at AT&T told me today to start expecting it around 5g from now on. And then he said he was happy to hear how knowledgable I was and aware of my data usage so I could make adjustments so I'm not throttled again. Oh and he even said that if I'm on wifi that my Facebook app could be charging data to my account. Even on wifi. Yes he said this. He told me only solution is to turn cellular data off at night. WTF Is AT&T for real. And if I can't solve his mystery I will contact a lawyer to see what they think
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Do you know how much data Netflix and Pandora use? An average 2 hour movie on Netflix is between 300-500MB. Pandora uses anywhere from 30-50MB an hour. It adds up quickly. Add Youtube and then day to day use you will easily hit 10+GB. When I was watching Netflix on my phone during school breaks and whatnot, I was pushing 15+GB a month. I subtracted that and I'm barely 2GB.
 
Rufuss Sewell said:
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You've never seen an AT&T ad where they describe what 3g is?

Keep in mind that I'm not talking about the meaningless drivel in their fraudulent contract. I'm talking about the simple fact that I was sold:

"Unlimited 3g data" where countless advertisements described 3g as being fast.

I'm not even remotely confused. I understand that their sales reps sell me one thing and the contract is for something different. That's called fraud.
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Fast compared to what? If all they are saying is "fast" without a comparison to a different connection it's a baseless argument you can't win.

Fraud would be the company knowingly deceiving customers and not having it stated in the contract. People need to closely read their T's and C's on their cell contracts and see what exactly AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint can do. They all include language to manager their network as necessary.
 
I was throttled 2 months ago at 2.1 GB. Last month I received the 5% warning again right at 2.0 GB. I have to hold back from calling AT&T and telling them to rot in Hell! I know it won't get me anywhere. They are trying to push people out of the unlimited plans. The throttle speed is unusable. How is 2GB considered high enough to cut you off? Yes, I say cut you off because .1 - .3 MPS is unusable.
 
I think if AT&T is going to throttle it should be at a set limit, say a 5GB cap for all. Therefore it is fair across the board. Its not fair some people can use 7+GB but I can't use 2.5GB because of my "location".
 
Rufuss Sewell said:
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For all you apologists... the cotract was sold to me as:

Unlimited 3g
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Unfortunately, they never specified how fast your data would be.

Your unlimited plan is still unlimited - just slower.
 
Warbrain said:
Fast compared to what? If all they are saying is "fast" without a comparison to a different connection it's a baseless argument you can't win.

Fraud would be the company knowingly deceiving customers and not having it stated in the contract. People need to closely read their T's and C's on their cell contracts and see what exactly AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint can do. They all include language to manager their network as necessary.
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"Fast" means fast enough to do the things with the iPhone that have appeared in AT&T's adverts. Downloading apps, listening to streams, looking at YouTube.
"Fast" means using the phone in the way it was described to you by the AT&T sales rep, who took his talking points from the company sales script.

That's what it would mean to a reasonable human being, legal mumbo jumbo aside. And every now and again, there's a judge out there who sees things as a reasonable human being, rather than goose-stepping in formation with these corporate imbecils and their shyster lawyers.
 
Can someone please give some real-world examples of their 2GB+ usage? What are you doing that sucks 2GB over the ATT wireless network?

I'm not saying 2GB is high (how high is high anyway?) but I use about 150MB a month since I am pretty much home a lot or on other public WIFI. So, in my estimated math, if I use 150MB/month while being on the ATT network only a few hours of usage a month, even if I used the ATT network 10x as much, I'm still at 1.5GB and under 2GB.

My ATT data usage is primarily email (with 3-5MB attachments per email), web, and an occasional youtube.

I'm sure folks stream from the Cloud or do a lot of Youtube stuff...but can some people please reply (who use more than 2GB/month) with their average monthly data usage and WHAT apps they are using?


Are there any apps (or maybe iOS should include it?) that will tally up WIFI usage vs. ATT data usage just so folks can see what's what? Who knows...maybe I use 4GB/month on all WIFI + 150MB on ATT.
 
I have never been throttled. Right now I am at 2869.49 GB. I am Unlimited Data and Free 200 Texts.



ericinboston said:
Can someone please give some real-world examples of their 2GB+ usage? What are you doing that sucks 2GB over the ATT wireless network?

I'm not saying 2GB is high (how high is high anyway?) but I use about 150MB a month since I am pretty much home a lot or on other public WIFI. So, in my estimated math, if I use 150MB/month while being on the ATT network only a few hours of usage a month, even if I used the ATT network 10x as much, I'm still at 1.5GB and under 2GB.

My ATT data usage is primarily email (with 3-5MB attachments per email), web, and an occasional youtube.

I'm sure folks stream from the Cloud or do a lot of Youtube stuff...but can some people please reply (who use more than 2GB/month) with their average monthly data usage and WHAT apps they are using?


Are there any apps (or maybe iOS should include it?) that will tally up WIFI usage vs. ATT data usage just so folks can see what's what? Who knows...maybe I use 4GB/month on all WIFI + 150MB on ATT.
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Lately I have been testing to see how much data I use with WiFi off all the time. Mainly because I plan on getting a iPad 3 with a 3GB of data a month but that will be WiFi and 3G.

First things first I have My3G installed so I never see a limit on app updates or downloads. I my data for App Installs/Updates, iCloud backups, LogMeIn (rare), Email, Web Browsing, Music Streaming, Maps, Weather, Etc.

I really wish ATT would give us 2GB+Rollover for data. That way if you do not use it you still get to keep it and use it later when it is needed or expires after so long. I hate how they always charge a monthly fee and you loose what you didnt use.
 
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2GB is nothing on a 4S as it seems to consume twice as much data for the same connectivity functions as my former 3G iPhone.
 
ericinboston said:
Can someone please give some real-world examples of their 2GB+ usage? What are you doing that sucks 2GB over the ATT wireless network?
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I listen to my music through iTunes Match, or listen to turntable.fm, during my ~1 hour daily commute. My other usage is trivial -- emailing and simple web browsing.

I regularly skirt 2 GB but have only gone over once. I watch the usage meter and often go a few days without the music in the car toward the end of the month. To me, I'm a reasonable user of my "unlimited" data but am being unfairly constrained by the greed of AT&T. I have paid for unlimited data since the debut of the original iPhone.
 
Verizon doesn't throttle the top 5% of users unless the tower is crowded. And that's only if you're a non-LTE user.

Maybe if AT&T had a better network they wouldn't need throttling...? Just a thought
 
Warbrain said:
It also appears that they are requiring anyone who upgrades now to choose one of the new data plans. I had already switched to a tiered data plan but had to choose from one of the new ones.
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Maybe if you're already on a tiered plan but that's not true if you're on an unlimited plan.If you are grandfathered into the unlimited data plan, then you can still keep it (same with the 200 message plan).
 
I'm on their unlimited data plan since iPhone 3G and now having the iPhone 4S.

On 12/31/2011, I received a text message on the Top 5% yadi yada. After that I stayed with WiFi as much as possible, which reduced my usage a lot.

Meanwhile, I noticed that the speed in the Seattle-metro area is much longer than last year. Is it all related?
 

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Glad I’m getting 2GB for $25... (+$10 and full speed if I go over, which I never have). I feel bad for the people now getting 2GB (+free and slooow if you go over) for $30.

Actually, I feel bad for anyone who has to be a customer of a US carrier...
 
joeshmo2010 said:
So because one person gets throttled after 2gb you assume they do it to everyone after 2? That doesn't make sense. I, and many others that I know use way over 7gb a month and we've never been throttled.
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My brother was throttled today as well, as just over 2gb. He lives in the state of Oklahoma if the region matters to others.
 
AT&T is the crappiest company (not just cellular company) I've had the misfortune of dealing with in years. Instead of fixing their garbage network, they are throttling users at 2GB. Ridiculous, but par for the course. I would not expect more from them. I'm not normally a government interventionist, but I was ecstatic when the T-Mobile merger was blocked. AT&T doesn't need another company to drag down.

If my iPhone 4 worked on Sprint or T-Mobile (3G) I would be there in a minute. As soon as the iPhone 5 is released I'm done with them.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/9A405)

AT&T is still giving you unlimited data; however, it is at slower speeds.

Unlimited is over, next upgrade I think AT&T will make you move to a tiered plan.
 
I participate in another technology forum. There is an iPhone thread there where 2 people have been throttled. The one guy posted his conversation with an AT&T rep and the guy said at 2GB, he was in the top 5%.
 
CubusX said:
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AT&T is still giving you unlimited data; however, it is at slower speeds.

Unlimited is over, next upgrade I think AT&T will make you move to a tiered plan.
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I wish people would stop saying that. It is a limit. Once you get to a certain amount of usage (an amount you, as a customer, have no way of knowing) you get throttled. As in limited speed. A person sitting next to you with the same phone, and a tiered plan has his data speed determined by signal strength, and the number of other users on the tower. Yours is limited by at&t to a specific speed. The very definition of limited.

Also, just checked my usage for this month. One day in to my billing cycle... 525MB. I don't tether, I haven't used netflix or any other video streaming app in quite a while. I suspect it is music match. I only listen to music in the car, and it doesn't store the music on your phone until you have listened to it. So I set it to use 3g. We'll have to see if I get throttled.
 
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