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AT&T to Throttle Unlimited Data Plan Customers Starting in October

Criminal, imo.

With Hulu, Netflix, and numerous other apps PROMOTING more usage...and with usage rates rising daily....it shows what an absolute joke it is that just 5gb or so is the "limit" before throttling.

We are told that a "small number" of customers will be affected...says who? I and many others point out that we use above 5gb a month....go to other forums and many others say the same thing. I realize we may not be the "norm" but don't tell me that more and more at a VERY fast rate won't be touching this number every day.

These companies are putting such a reachable limit to MAKE MONEY from penalties, overages, or simply stop users from using what they pay for.

Unbelievable how much power this country has given ISP's
 
All I need...

...is confirmation from my father-in-law when he gets his new iPhone 4S or 5 on Verizon that it works better in my house, and I'll dump AT&T immediately. Hey, AT&T, that's $170/month you won't be getting! :cool:
 
why do companies even put a caps on internet?
It's not like they're losing money from letting up use more/faster internet

----------

oh yeah and this makes iCloud basically useless. Unless you listen to your songs at a wifi area.
 
gta50419 said:
why do companies even put a caps on internet?
It's not like they're losing money from letting up use more/faster internet
Click to expand...

Perhaps you should price an OC-3 line to your home (155 Mbps). I think that you wouldn't want to pay that prices.

Bits per second and bytes per month have a very, very real cost to the providers.


gta50419 said:
oh yeah and this makes iCloud basically useless. Unless you listen to your songs at a wifi area.
Click to expand...

Many of us have been saying this for years - bandwidth charges make cloud storage out of the question for most of us, even if we are lucky enough to have a 100 Mbps line.

One terabyte for 3 years on Amazon S3 - $6000.
One terabyte on a USB 3 drive for 3 years - $100.
 
AidenShaw said:
Perhaps you should price an OC-3 line to your home (155 Mbps). I think that you wouldn't want to pay that prices.

Bits per second and bytes per month have a very, very real cost to the providers.




Many of us have been saying this for years - bandwidth charges make cloud storage out of the question for most of us, even if we are lucky enough to have a 100 Mbps line.

One terabyte for 3 years on Amazon S3 - $6000.
One terabyte on a USB 3 drive for 3 years - $100.
Click to expand...

Five family computers baked up to Crashplan+... 1.6 TB of backup data... $72/year. :)

/Jim
 
flynz4 said:
Five family computers baked up to Crashplan+... 1.6 TB of backup data... $72/year. :)

/Jim
Click to expand...

That does look like a great deal. How long did it take to backup 1.6 TB?

Is there a lot of duplicated data between systems? If five systems each had copies of a 200 GB music library, it would look like a 1 TB backup - but in fact only 200 GB would be transferred. (...and probably far less than that, because if any other Crashplan customer had already backed up a particular song it wouldn't transfer your song over the wire...)
 
AidenShaw said:
That does look like a great deal. How long did it take to backup 1.6 TB?

Is there a lot of duplicated data between systems? If five systems each had copies of a 200 GB music library, it would look like a 1 TB backup - but in fact only 200 GB would be transferred. (...and probably far less than that, because if any other Crashplan customer had already backed up a particular song it wouldn't transfer your song over the wire...)
Click to expand...

The initial backup on my home iMac took quite a while... but I did it in priority order. My documents took just a few hours. Then I backed up my ~80GB (at the time) photo directory, which took several days. My music directory took about a week, and my movies took several weeks. All in all, that machine was about 800GB (at the time) it probably took a month or so... but by phasing it... my most important data was backed up quickly. If I was starting from scratch again, I think I would pay CP+ the $120 to do a seeded secure backup via HDD.

Both of my kids have their computers backed up. and those went much quicker. They each have their own music and pictures, but their backup sets are maybe 100GB or so. They are away at college, and they are covered under the same family plan.

Of the 1.6TB of data, I would estimate we have about 1.1 - 1.2 TB of unique data backed up across the five computers.

Personally, I feel that cloud backup is the most important of all my computing expenditures. My data is important, and I need a fully automatic off-site backup strategy. I think that most people who own any digital assets do.

I am constantly amazed that I work daily with many of the smartest people in the computer industry... yet on about a monthly basis, I will find someone who has lost 100% of their digital life because of a hardware failure. What a waste when off-site cloud backup is nearly free.

/Jim
 
Seems like AT&T just wants to shoot themselves in the foot. Sadly, picking carriers is like picking political candidates: which is the lesser of two evils :D
 
final straw for me

im leaving att for verizon

att is making awful decisions the last few years, i hope they go bankrupt
 
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I'm definitely a heavy user. Basically the only time I'm not utilizing my formerly wonderful unlimited data plan, which AT&T has strongly encouraged me to keep due to my insane usage, is when I'm in the shower, & that'll change as soon as I can do so safely. Beyond that, who the hell are they to ask me to run down my battery more often, use more electricity recharging it more frequently (ultimately shortening my iPhone's [battery] life), & tax my router & monthly allowance of bandwidth instead of their service that I pay to use? Or even assume I have wifi or Internet service where I live or anywhere I go? I opted for "their" iPhone & unlimited data plan in lieu of a portable computer et al. I didn't expect to & shouldn't be, taxed for being a heavy user, just to benefit the lighter users. My mother & sister have CrackBerrys but they only check their email & text, & they're required to have the $15/mo. plan. That's easy money for AT&T & also wrong. This whole thing is ********. If AT&T can't handle the flow they need to fix it. And in the meantime, tax EVERYONE with slower service, not just the high volume users. This reminds me of Cingular adopting AT&T's in-network unlimited text & talk before their merger. AT&T is adopting T-mobile's capped, or bottlenecked unlimited data plan…only this sucks.
 
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Oh, and the word "throttle" as it's been being used, should be use like "throttle(d) down", as in reduced flow, rather than just "throttle", which is usually used in the sense of, "if I ever get the chance I'm gonna throttle (i.e. beat) whichever ******* at AT&T decided to tax us higher users by throttling down our data flow!" though I suppose it could work, but it's a stretch. It's become a rather disused expression, but still.
 
JerseyPunker said:
If AT&T can't handle the flow they need to fix it.
Click to expand...

AT&T has zero interest in fixing it unless competition forces them to do so.

The idea that 2gb is a reasonable cap is downright laughable. AT&T wanted an amount that many (not saying majority) would hit and AT&T will see many more hitting it in the near future with netflix, hulu, and others continue to explode onto the scene and expand.

AT&T spends so much in DC for a reason. They will continue helping to write bills and make sure that they have as little competition as possible in many areas around the country
 
DiamondMac said:
AT&T has zero interest in fixing it unless competition forces them to do so.

The idea that 2gb is a reasonable cap is downright laughable. AT&T wanted an amount that many (not saying majority) would hit and AT&T will see many more hitting it in the near future with netflix, hulu, and others continue to explode onto the scene and expand.

AT&T spends so much in DC for a reason. They will continue helping to write bills and make sure that they have as little competition as possible in many areas around the country
Click to expand...

I think you got a little off. AT&T choose it at this time that very few hit 2gigs but they knew in the future they could milk it as they new the demand would grow up and slam into it. IT is going to need to be increased.

I really want to know what the hard number is on the throttling. How much do we have to suck down before they kick it in.
 
DiamondMac said:
Criminal, imo.

With Hulu, Netflix, and numerous other apps PROMOTING more usage...and with usage rates rising daily....it shows what an absolute joke it is that just 5gb or so is the "limit" before throttling.

We are told that a "small number" of customers will be affected...says who? I and many others point out that we use above 5gb a month....go to other forums and many others say the same thing. I realize we may not be the "norm" but don't tell me that more and more at a VERY fast rate won't be touching this number every day.

These companies are putting such a reachable limit to MAKE MONEY from penalties, overages, or simply stop users from using what they pay for.

Unbelievable how much power this country has given ISP's
Click to expand...

How, exactly, does Hulu and Netflix offering streaming make it incumbent upon AT&T, or any ISP, to give you more bandwidth to match? Netflix lets you stream. You can stream as much as you want over wifi or wired ethernet in your home. It's not AT&T's responsibility to let you stream from the bus 24/7 for a low price.
 
Since they've begun sending out messages and throttling people, I've been curious to see if it is, in fact, only Smartphone customers they're targeting. So far, I'm actually surprised that I haven't received a text and that my 'non-smartphone' speeds haven't been changed in the slightest.

My cycle started on 10/8 and I've already topped 23.77GB of data usage (probably another 1-2GB higher since they're always behind in calculating). I'm now curious if I can hit 100GB.
 
something3153 said:
It's not AT&T's responsibility to let you stream from the bus 24/7 for a low price.
Click to expand...

Who said anything about streaming 24/7? The entire point of my post was that people are barely using streaming yet come upon the cap. Hence, the 2gb being a joke to start with. You come back with "Well don't stream 24/7"....huh?

What part exactly were you responding to?

But I understand what you meant because people like yourself who like the 2gb-cap can't help but over-exaggerate when discussing what can be done to reach the cap. I state people hit the cap with 1-2 shows on Hulu/Netflix...you say they are 24/7 streamers. Brilliant.

Just looking at the Bandwidth-Cap threads on this forum and you have posters and posters discussing how they didn't have Wifi one night and reached their limit after several shows on Netflix/Hulu.

Again, "several shows" in "one night"...nowhere is there "constant streaming" or "24/7" streaming or anything remotely near "heavy use"....yet for a reason I can't seem to get from the Pro-Cap people...that is what they are called
 
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I'm 15 days into my cycle I've only used 2.5 GB and I've been throttled to .12Mbps I've never tethered my phone and considerably dropped alot of usage and I'm throttled this is b.s. I've been on AT&T since 1st iPhone never had a problem
 
Lnasty360 said:
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I'm 15 days into my cycle I've only used 2.5 GB and I've been throttled to .12Mbps I've never tethered my phone and considerably dropped alot of usage and I'm throttled this is b.s. I've been on AT&T since 1st iPhone never had a problem
Click to expand...

Time to upgrade to a 4G phone....
 
Well, now that just about every plan is gettin capped, what does spell for streaming services like Netflix?? I see even home cable and DSL providers starting to cap broadband usage.., maybe Streaming just isn't the wave of the future, as had been promoted.
 
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I guess so didn't wanna jump iPhone ship but if AT&T is gonna render my phone useless mind as well
 
jcal0820 said:
Well, now that just about every plan is gettin capped, what does spell for streaming services like Netflix?? I see even home cable and DSL providers starting to cap broadband usage.., maybe Streaming just isn't the wave of the future, as had been promoted.
Click to expand...

With all of the new technology for faster internet, the current ISPs are just looking to cash in. I can't tell you what would happen if you reach/exceed your cable/DSL limit. I don't live on the internet THAT much. :p
 
I thought I read a while back that the main users that were 'hogging' bandwidth were those who were I using 8,9,10+ gigs a month. From what is being posted it almost looks like AT&T is throttling around their 2 gig plan limit. I wonder if this is a move to ensure a 2gig limit for everyone regardless of their plan. Unless AT&T makes public their user list I think I will call BS on their "top 5%" criteria. I find it hard to believe someone using only 2 or so gigs a month are in the top 5%.

Disclaimer: I have an unlimited plan but I rarely use more than 500 Mb or so.
 
jcal0820 said:
Well, now that just about every plan is gettin capped, what does spell for streaming services like Netflix?? I see even home cable and DSL providers starting to cap broadband usage.., maybe Streaming just isn't the wave of the future, as had been promoted.
Click to expand...

streaming was more hype then anything else. netflix selection is horrendous and some days it makes me sorry i bought a PS3 for it. but then i pop in a blu ray and feel better
 
cry my babies :( cry cry cry... I am loving the reactions on here.. I use 10GB+ a month .. love you AT&T.. you guys are the best.. love the customer service to lower my bills whenever I argue with them. My every month discounts.. and they qualify me for an upgrade every launch iphones.. every year
 
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