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AT&T to Bump DataPro + Tethering Plan to 4 GB Per Month

Providing customers with options, how is this bad?

I don't see Verizon giving the iPhone users many options with their plans.
 
Glad they are doing something. I have a feeling even the grandfathered unlimited plans will be a thing of the past when they go from 3G to 4G. I'll miss it but I can't seem to get over 2gb a month even with miwi
 
If they enable the WiFi hotspot, then I would go this route for my 3G iPad. The advantage I see are:

- iPad has 2GB data for $25, this would only cost me $20

- I could share the total 4GB between iPhone and iPad (though my iPhone is currently unlimited, I never come close to 0.5GB usage).

- My iPad does not benefit from my company's employee discount agreement with AT&T, but the tethering option would (so closer to $16.50 instead of $20).

The disadvantages I see are:

- Switching off unlimited would rule out video streaming over 3G if I was ever so inclined.

- My iPhone's battery does not compare with my iPad's battery, so heavy iPad usage would drain my iPhone.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2011/01/ipad_and_iphone_users_sue_att.php

With the additional $1.1 billion in over charges AT&T can afford to be a lot more generous than this.
 
I didn't read all the posts so lets not have anyone freak out if this was already answered. I think I'm missing something here....AT&T charges $25 for 2GB for standard iPhone usage. But they charge an additional fee for tethering that doesn't get you any extra data? What difference does it make how someone uses their data? Is there a difference between using it on the phone and using it with the phone tethered to a laptop?
 
I jailbroke so I could tether my phone to use for work -- we are in a very rural area & have only satellite internet access which has too much lag for me to work. While the jailbreak works fine, I can't upgrade to iOS 4.2 & who knows if one day Apple finally closes all their holes. I'd pay the extra if I could both tether to my PC when I need to & use the phone as a hotspot for my iPad. I don't want to only use it as a hotspot or only tether it. The value for me comes from being able to do both (whether simultaneously or separately).
 
TonyC28 said:
I didn't read all the posts so lets not have anyone freak out if this was already answered. I think I'm missing something here....AT&T charges $25 for 2GB for standard iPhone usage. But they charge an additional fee for tethering that doesn't get you any extra data? What difference does it make how someone uses their data? Is there a difference between using it on the phone and using it with the phone tethered to a laptop?
Click to expand...

No difference. Just dollar signs.
 
tslewis said:
WOWEE.

This is bull.

Why do I have to pay for a feature that is already included in the iPhone iOS? I am already paying for data, it is none of AT&Ts business how I get that data other than I dont go over my limit. Time to finally jailbreak i think. American mobile operators are nothing better than organized crime.............
Click to expand...

I bet you think that you should get free SMS, MMS, phone calls, etc.
 
TonyC28 said:
I didn't read all the posts so lets not have anyone freak out if this was already answered. I think I'm missing something here....AT&T charges $25 for 2GB for standard iPhone usage. But they charge an additional fee for tethering that doesn't get you any extra data? What difference does it make how someone uses their data? Is there a difference between using it on the phone and using it with the phone tethered to a laptop?
Click to expand...

The difference is that it adds value for those who want to use their laptop without the expense of buying a $60/mo plan for a laptop connect device.

You can argue about whether or not AT&T should get away with using that added value as a justification for the extra charge, but the fact remains that that is exactly what their justification for it is.

Of course, with this change, it also gets you another 2 GB of data as well, which is nice.
 
I have a better idea for them to maintain market share. Instead of spoon feeding data, how about dropping prices and improving reliability? 🙄
 
I think I'll stick to my grandfathered Unlimited plan for now. Even at an expensive $30 price point, the extra $10 for barrier and tethering doesn't seem enticing.
 
hcho3 said:
You call this a competition? This is more like insult to customers. AT&T needs to lose some customers and watch their stocks fall down hard.
This plan still sucks compare to even Verizon who has far better network in reliability.
Click to expand...

Somebody has been watching alot of ma bell commercials
 
And once again AT&T demonstrates its willingness to cheat its customers. How many times are they going to try to sell you THE SAME DATA ?
 
Isn't there a 5GB soft-cap if you're grandfathered into the AT&T unlimited plan?


It's certainly a step in the right direction... I just wish they would sell bandwidth and quit caring about what device I use it on.
 
Xtremehkr said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Or jailbreak and get unlimited tethering for free.

With the news that AT&T has been charging people as much as 300% more than they should be for the actual amount of data that was used I'm happily using their network for free.

It averages out AT&T's theft through completely illegal over billing of their own customers.
Click to expand...

just fyi. For the carriers 5gigs in a month is about the break even point. 5 gigs of data cost the carriers about 30 bucks.

Warbrain said:
I bet you think that you should get free SMS, MMS, phone calls, etc.
Click to expand...

Well SMS because SMS is piggy backing on the standby signal so it does not cost the carriers anything.
Now MMS and phone calls I could agree should cost a little but MMS should not cost that much. Reason MMS could take a cost is because it has to go over the data connection.
 
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