Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
AT&T throttling all customers?! WTF
- Thread starter BearerOBadNews
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Cracks me up that people post crap like this and is so far from the truth. Seriously dude do you now read all the news articles about this when it happened? It isn't the technology since it works on T-Mobile fine. It's AT&T doing it on purpose.
Like I said, I've seen it happen for three years on my devices. It isn't anything new. Not everything is a conspiracy these days.
Last edited:
Yes att is throttling while talking on the phone. They started doing this in my area around September last year. I could always be somewhere and talk and surf the web with ease until then. I even called att about this and was told that they now throttle people while talking on the phone. I've been with att since the first iPhone, and my 3G and 3GS would work very easily while I was talking, now I can't even get a text message to go through.
Call att and complain, I've been watching this forever and can't believe more people don't notice this throttling. There are many articles in the web about this. Stop posting lies that they are not throttling users while using voice. Do some google searches.....
Call att and complain, I've been watching this forever and can't believe more people don't notice this throttling. There are many articles in the web about this. Stop posting lies that they are not throttling users while using voice. Do some google searches.....
I find it hard to believe that you can't get a text to go through while on a call.
The question was are you currently bro g throttled when conducting these tests. Please answer the questions that are posed to you.
Try sending a picture text and see how long it takes to go through. Sometimes mine won't even go through until I end the call. This is throttling. Used to go through every time within 10-15 seconds. Now can take minutes or not at all. I'm not coming on here to comment and lie btw.
What's it matter how many people do this? What matters is att has changed how their network works without informing their customers. I work over the phone and help people with their computer problems all the time. When I out and about and someone needs help, it's really important to me to be able to use my phone and access the Internet. Granted its not an everyday thing because I do have access to wifi a lot of the time, but its very irritating when it doesn't work when it used to.
It just sickens me that more people don't stand up for something that isn't right? Like requiring you to switch to a different data plan to use FaceTime? Yes you can use many other apps for video conferencing, but its the simple fact that not enough people stand up and allow someone to step over us, the paying customer.
I do like att, and I'm not switching, but I do call and complain and send letters out to news agency's, congressman in hopes to be heard. I don't like to stand at the sidelines, and when something else bad happens, say to myself, did I do anything to voice my opinion? I'm just it a layback kinda follower like a lot of people, and say oh well, maybe someone else will do something about this. I always put my vote in. <end of rant>.
It just sickens me that more people don't stand up for something that isn't right? Like requiring you to switch to a different data plan to use FaceTime? Yes you can use many other apps for video conferencing, but its the simple fact that not enough people stand up and allow someone to step over us, the paying customer.
I do like att, and I'm not switching, but I do call and complain and send letters out to news agency's, congressman in hopes to be heard. I don't like to stand at the sidelines, and when something else bad happens, say to myself, did I do anything to voice my opinion? I'm just it a layback kinda follower like a lot of people, and say oh well, maybe someone else will do something about this. I always put my vote in. <end of rant>.
I'm on a grandfathered unlimited plan. Was on the phone and sending tweets with photos attached at the same time. No difference in speed. Same for downloading map files while on the phone.
Maybe they aren't doing this in all markets. Whatever the reason, I haven't seen any such effect.
I've talked to a few people, who have said this, so I don't know. I've only tested my phones in Orlando, Myrtle Beach, and Raleigh. Even the friends I have in these areas have the same problem. So, who knows, but I do know that I've talked to tech support and they admitted that there was throttling going on.
I experienced this issue on both my iPhone 4 and now my iPhone 5. I actually only really noticed the issue while tethering, but thought it was because I was jailbroken and using an unofficial tethering tweak.
Then I upgraded to the 5 and started using my internet during phone calls a lot... and for the past few weeks have been puzzled as to why I can't look things up on google without it taking forever like I used to while on a call. Lately I've had to wait to get off the phone in order to run searches. Can't send picture messages either, they often just fail if I'm on a call.
That is to say... I can tell you with absolute certainty that I'm being throttled on calls.
You can still do that, however they are all starting to control our data usage, you think Verizon is any different?
Sprint may have offered unlimited data, but with their network so slow, what is the point, also now that they are owned by the Japanese, you can see that offering going away in the near future.
Am being throttled for 2 weeks now, it's funny when you see "4G" and actual agonizingly crawling d/l or data speed is ranging from 100 thru 250 Kbps
----------
This current billing period will end or cycle on Friday. Ugh
Hilarious!!!! But, I do know what ya mean. I'm just glad my phone stopped sucking data like it did last month. In ten days I used 5 gigs, for no reason. My new bill rolled over last Monday, so in the last seven days, I've only use 300mb. There was definitely a bug that sucked all my data last month. It's very aggravating.
Just tested again- same readings on speed test whether on a call or not. I certainly believe some people are experiencing this, but I'm not, so far.
Am being throttled for 2 weeks now, it's funny when you see "4G" and actual agonizingly crawling d/l or data speed is ranging from 100 thru 250 Kbps
----------
This current billing period will end or cycle on Friday. Ugh
I'm throttled and have posted that it stinks. I'm getting 500 Kbps because of having an LTE unlimited plan. Actually it isn't as terrible as I thought. I'm still able to stream.
If you have an LTE unlimited plan you should be getting 500 Kbps.
I too have noticed a recent decrease in data speeds while talking on the phone. A Google search brought me to this thread. Reading through the thread, there are a large number of folks discounting the validity of these claims even though proof has been provided. Not that it will fix the problem, but I was inclined to respond to this thread to add my voice to the list of impacted users.
Some of the comments have indicated that this can't possibly be a problem because it doesn't impact them. Others have said that it couldn't have been a problem a year ago when this was first reported because there weren't a large number of complaints before. Both of those comments can be easily explained by AT&T slowly rolling out this change to different areas.
I myself did not have this problem a year ago. I regularly use data while on phone calls, since I have to sit on conference calls for work and still want to send/receive e-mails, send/receive iMessages, and look things up on the web. Less than a year ago, I never had problems with my data speeds while on the phone. Maybe it was slightly slower, but not enough to cause problems.
Fast forward to present day, my data speeds while on the phone are ridiculously slow. I'm not even sure how folks are posting screenshots of the Speedtest app while on calls. My data connection is so bad while I'm on a voice call that the Speedtest app usually can't even connect to the server to start the test. I've done several experiments, and it is definitely related to being on a voice call.
I have an iPhone 5 currently running iOS 6.1. As most people know by now, the phone automatically switches from LTE to 3G when on a voice call. I was surprised the first time this happened, but I did some research and found that this is expected. So, I performed the following experiment.
In the iOS Settings, I disabled LTE data and WiFi. So, my phone would only use 3G (incorrectly called 4G by the OS) data. I then opened the Speedtest app and performed a test without being on a voice call. The results were 95ms ping, 10.69Mbps down, and 1.26 Mbps up. I ran this test a second time and the results were 140ms ping, 11.46 Mbps down, and 1.07 Mbps up (screenshot attached).
I then started a call and re-ran the Speedtest app. Surprisingly, this time it was able to actually connect. The results were 353ms ping, 0.09 Mbps down, and 0.01 Mbps up. I ran the speed test a second time and the results were 305ms ping, 0.75 Mbps down, and 0.00 Mbps up (screenshot attached).
I was sitting in the exact same location using the exact same phone. I did the exact same test with my wife's iPhone 5 and had nearly identical results. I have seen this behavior both with "dead air" testing and while actively speaking. This is absolutely a real problem. Whether it's an iOS issue or an AT&T issue, I don't know for certain. However, based on posts I've seen here and on other forums, it appears to be an AT&T problem.
It is extremely frustrating for me, since it impacts my job. If anybody has a good place to report this to AT&T, please let me know. I have no interest in calling support and being given the runaround by the typical tier 1 support monkeys. I'd like to report it to somewhere that it'll actually make a difference.
Some of the comments have indicated that this can't possibly be a problem because it doesn't impact them. Others have said that it couldn't have been a problem a year ago when this was first reported because there weren't a large number of complaints before. Both of those comments can be easily explained by AT&T slowly rolling out this change to different areas.
I myself did not have this problem a year ago. I regularly use data while on phone calls, since I have to sit on conference calls for work and still want to send/receive e-mails, send/receive iMessages, and look things up on the web. Less than a year ago, I never had problems with my data speeds while on the phone. Maybe it was slightly slower, but not enough to cause problems.
Fast forward to present day, my data speeds while on the phone are ridiculously slow. I'm not even sure how folks are posting screenshots of the Speedtest app while on calls. My data connection is so bad while I'm on a voice call that the Speedtest app usually can't even connect to the server to start the test. I've done several experiments, and it is definitely related to being on a voice call.
I have an iPhone 5 currently running iOS 6.1. As most people know by now, the phone automatically switches from LTE to 3G when on a voice call. I was surprised the first time this happened, but I did some research and found that this is expected. So, I performed the following experiment.
In the iOS Settings, I disabled LTE data and WiFi. So, my phone would only use 3G (incorrectly called 4G by the OS) data. I then opened the Speedtest app and performed a test without being on a voice call. The results were 95ms ping, 10.69Mbps down, and 1.26 Mbps up. I ran this test a second time and the results were 140ms ping, 11.46 Mbps down, and 1.07 Mbps up (screenshot attached).
I then started a call and re-ran the Speedtest app. Surprisingly, this time it was able to actually connect. The results were 353ms ping, 0.09 Mbps down, and 0.01 Mbps up. I ran the speed test a second time and the results were 305ms ping, 0.75 Mbps down, and 0.00 Mbps up (screenshot attached).
I was sitting in the exact same location using the exact same phone. I did the exact same test with my wife's iPhone 5 and had nearly identical results. I have seen this behavior both with "dead air" testing and while actively speaking. This is absolutely a real problem. Whether it's an iOS issue or an AT&T issue, I don't know for certain. However, based on posts I've seen here and on other forums, it appears to be an AT&T problem.
It is extremely frustrating for me, since it impacts my job. If anybody has a good place to report this to AT&T, please let me know. I have no interest in calling support and being given the runaround by the typical tier 1 support monkeys. I'd like to report it to somewhere that it'll actually make a difference.
Attachments
AT&T hate threads are hilarious.
I've only been throttled once in a decade. And then it only lasted seven days, until the end of that billing cycle. When the new cycle began, the speed was restored just like the TOS promises.
It was all automatic and inconsequential.
Now one year later I'd forgotten all about it, till the haters surfaced again
I've only been throttled once in a decade. And then it only lasted seven days, until the end of that billing cycle. When the new cycle began, the speed was restored just like the TOS promises.
It was all automatic and inconsequential.
Now one year later I'd forgotten all about it, till the haters surfaced again
AT&T hate threads are hilarious.
I've only been throttled once in a decade. And then it only lasted seven days, until the end of that billing cycle. When the new cycle began, the speed was restored just like the TOS promises.
It was all automatic and inconsequential.
Now one year later I'd forgotten all about it, till the haters surfaced again
Thank you for your completely worthless and irrelevant post. This thread has absolutely nothing to do with throttling due to going over your allotted bandwidth. It also has nothing to do with hating AT&T. Frankly, I prefer AT&T over every other carrier I've ever used. The ridiculously low data speeds while on a phone call are simply unacceptable. It makes a service AT&T claims to offer (simultaneous voice and data) not viable. I'm glad your service is acceptable, though.
A friendly reminder.
Quality of service for all providers varies depending on geographics. If you are in a low coverage area for a certain provider, you'll get low performance. Conversely if one does the research before choosing a provider to do business with, you'll have an excellent experience.
It's all fundamental & well known to those who shop carefully.
It's definitely an AT&T only issue. I had my 4S with them last year and the data was slow and sometimes barely usable during a call but would go right back to normal after a call.
I tried talking and surfing with the same 4S on Tmobile 3G and there wasn't any slowdown. They're both hspa+ networks but it seems AT&T is doing something on their end to slow stuff down.
I tried talking and surfing with the same 4S on Tmobile 3G and there wasn't any slowdown. They're both hspa+ networks but it seems AT&T is doing something on their end to slow stuff down.