AT&T's Grandfathered Unlimited Data Plan Customers Get 5GB on LTE Before Being Throttled

[jdtoomey]

The $250 early upgrade fee also includes a $36 upgrade fee. So they cancel out.

The problem would be your phone number. I don't think you can cancel your AT&T account and then get the same phone number back. So if the OP is are alright with losing his number, then I guess the OP's idea would be cheaper...

You can port out and cancel in the same transaction.

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I have a 3GS and I'm definitely ordering an iPhone 5 Friday. My contract is done with AT&T, but I would like to keep my contract terms the same since I have unlimited data.

Do I order iPhone 5 from Apple or AT&T? Does it matter? Will I be able to keep my current contract terms if ordered through either one?

Also, if it really doesn't matter which one to order from... which one will ship faster???

Looking forward to getting the 5! Neat birthday present to myself!!!

Are you looking for subsidised pricing? Even if you extend your two year contract by purchasing an iPhone at the discounted price, you won't have to change anything about your plan. As far as shipping, either way (apple or AT&T) it depends on how much you're willing to pay. AT&T overnight shipping Is 14.95.

 

[vvebsta]

Do I have to go into the store to keep my grandfather plan or can I do it online? I really don't want to have to go to the store opening day

 

[Ntombi]

This makes me happy I stayed with my grandfathered in unlimited data. I'll be signing another contract with AT&T. We have LTE all around me, I can't remember the last time I used FaceTime (though I do think it's ridiculous that they're disallowing it), and I was lucky enough to get the HandyLight tethering app when it was first released, so I don't even have to jailbreak for those times I do need to tether.

I'm a happy woman tonight.

 

[nsfw]

Do I have to go into the store to keep my grandfather plan or can I do it online? I really don't want to have to go to the store opening day

no. just order from apple and they will ship you a phone. when you get it you can activate it over the air. you should be able to restore over wifi too if you have an icloud backup.

 

[FrogsterDude]

Good move by AT&T

They are bound to keep a lot of customers because of this. I'm on Verizon and now I really wish I had AT&T.

 

[Junglistic]

This is why....

...i chose sprint. at least sprint (until alleged October) is consistently slow... unlimited slowness (Sprint) is far better than unlimited ....umm OK now U r slow (AT&T)!

 

[Junglistic]

the last straw..

Who cares how fast you can download 5GB. The question is how much do you download in a month. I feel like I'm a fairly heavy user, and I hardly hit 2GB ever.

Data plans seem like a luxury... basically if you have the ability to use as much as you want , sometimes, you will use it; in some cases that you don't. My girlfriend who was not a heavy-duty data user and she was red flagged (texted by atnt and then throttled) after watching only two YouTube videos in high definition. That's ridiculous..

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Last time I checked there was an asterix on their unlimited plans too.

Sprint seems to be the only one with truly unlimited. Not sure how their LTE coverage is.

Kinda hurts to pay AT&T for two years 5k for two lines. ;(

Sprint? 4G LTE?..
pppsssffttt!
Try 4GWimax??
Maybe.....

If you have a High-end smartphone like the Galaxy SIII....

fugetta-bout-it!!...

...until October...


..Thanks for playing!

 

[miscnatev]

What does it say about people who want all the bandwidth they can use and not pay for it?
They (as well as Sprint, tMobile and Verizon) are a for profit business. Putting up towers, investing in the backhaul costs MONEY. If you want the speed and data, you have to pay money for it.

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But it's AT&T who are the greedy ones.

The point is that We DO pay for it. Under the contract we have with AT&T unlimited data at $30 a month per iPhone was EXPENSIVE. Now it may be on the low end of a data plan cost, but I for one have not been cheap about it. For two iPhones since 2008 at $60 a month for data, and $30 for texting... Seems to me I pay a lot as that only accounts for half of the cost of my plan. while I understand the business aspect of it, as a consumer I feel robbed. AT&T has altered and changed the arrangements multiple times over the years. This latest ploy is a slap in the face... No pun intended. "Here's this amazing phone, but since you are an old, longstanding customer, you do not get to enjoy all it has to offer."

They certainly don't inspire much in the way of consumer brand loyalty... Apple makes an awesome set of products. AT&T has screwed it up. Bottom line.

Just the other day I was driving in unfamiliar territory, like I do for work often, and was using the maps app... When suddenly the map wouldn't load and I was completely lost. Throttled on the spot. Full bars, and it was taking so long to load my location I just quit and had to ask directions... That shouldn't happen if I pay for a service, one which I am clearly not provided. Had that been my wife in the car with my 6 month old son in the car having to pull over for directions, I would have been livid.

Just because I was grandfathered in and don't pay as much as you for my data does not mean that I am less of a customer... I would like to see AT&T treat long term customers as something of a financial asset... Which will never happen. Sad.

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On the phones that existed before the original iPhone, how many people ever hit 2 GB per YEAR? The device and the network entirely dictate the usage model. The iPhone 5 on LTE is going to change the way people use their phones once again. (iPhone users at least, it won't matter much to the Android set.)

5 GB will no doubt be sufficient for most until 10 months from now when all their apps are updated to take full advantage of the device's new capabilities. At which point most people will go over their caps, get a huge bill / get throttled, be shocked and outraged, and then change their plan so they pay a higher amount every month.

Any one here remember when people used to use their phones for making calls and they did the same thing with minutes?

Word.

 

[kiljoy616]

So cool technology that is going to be hampered by Monopolistic companies. Can't wait till one of them is gone then we will pay even more and even less.

 

[Jwally1988]

Current iPhone 4s user with unlimited data grandfather plan...?

[url=http://cdn.macrumors.com/im/macrumorsthreadlogodarkd.png]Image[/url]


Image

AT&T has verified to MacRumors that customers currently holding unlimited data plans will be able to keep those plans when upgrading to the iPhone 5, and will now get 5GB of data before being throttled. On 3G smartphones, users would get throttled after 3GB of transferred per month.

Additionally, unlike Verizon, which is no longer offering unlimited data customers discounted pricing on new handsets -- even with a new, two-year contract -- AT&T will honor its subsidized pricing policies even for its customers with unlimited data plans.

However, AT&T customers who aren't using the company's new Mobile Share plans will not be able to use FaceTime over Cellular.

AT&T customers who are eligible for an upgrade can order an iPhone 5 16GB for $199 beginning on Friday through the Apple Online Store or att.com/iphone. Users can see if they're eligible for an upgrade by checking AT&T's upgrade eligibility checker.

Article Link: AT&T's Grandfathered Unlimited Data Plan Customers Get 5GB on LTE Before Being Throttled

I have the unlimited data plan for my iPhone 4s. Do i get the 5GB before throttling? when does this start? is it only with iPhone 5 upgrade? Please help me out thanks!!! FREAK! WALLY!

 

[freedevil]

So on my unlimited plan I cannot use facetime over cellular, how nice!

 

[Macboy Pro]

must be a sign of how bad its gotten, but being allowed to use 5 GB of my "unlimited" plan on a new phone gets me hyped.

uhh you can use UNLIMITED. You just can't use unlimited at LTE Speeds. Remember when you got your unlimited plan, it was at 2G speeds 1/20th of the speed you get now. AT&T has done the right thing all along. I kinda wish they had just put a final end date to unlimited altogether.

Whiners get me hyped!

 

[goosnarrggh]

Just the other day I was driving in unfamiliar territory, like I do for work often, and was using the maps app... When suddenly the map wouldn't load and I was completely lost. Throttled on the spot. Full bars, and it was taking so long to load my location I just quit and had to ask directions... That shouldn't happen if I pay for a service, one which I am clearly not provided. Had that been my wife in the car with my 6 month old son in the car having to pull over for directions, I would have been livid.

This obviously isn't a solution to other problems you'd encounter due to throttling in general, but at least I can offer you a workaround for this particular situation:

Investigate a navigation App that stores all its mapping data in the iPhone's internal storage, such as TomTom. That way, even when your Internet is connection unexpectedly throttled back (or, alternately, when you happen to drive into an area where cellular coverage is spotty no matter where you sit in your throttling schedule) you'll still be able to get reasonably accurate mapping information.

 

[Darkrider]

It's more that the USA is huge. I live in Texas, and our state is bigger than France in sq km, so it costs more to set up towers all over the countryside. Plus, the US has much larger geographic differences. It costs a ton to build networks out in the Rockys....

Also the US is full of Greed and that is why Our eco system is so bad now.

 

[goosnarrggh]

uhh you can use UNLIMITED. You just can't use unlimited at LTE Speeds. Remember when you got your unlimited plan, it was at 2G speeds 1/20th of the speed you get now. AT&T has done the right thing all along. I kinda wish they had just put a final end date to unlimited altogether.

Whiners get me hyped!

I'll be very interested to see what the speeds turn out to be once you hit the throttling threshold. Will you fall all the way back to GPRS-type speeds (as sometimes has been reported to happen currently when your 3G service is throttled)?

Or would it be something that is still capable of performing a reasonable minimal set useful tasks?

Throttling back to something like 200Kbit/s would still allow you to check your email, load live maps for navigation purposes, check out Wikipedia, etc. On the other hand, throttling back to 56Kbit/s would make most every-day activities impractical, often to the point of being effectively useless.

 

[617arg]

AT&T customers who are eligible for an upgrade can order an iPhone 5 16GB for $199 beginning on Friday through the Apple Online Store or att.com/iphone.

I don't get it. My contract is up and I'm eligible for an upgrade, but it looks like there is no real discount on the phone.

 

[Thunderhawks]

Greed.

If you throttle my data after 5 GB, I'd expect to be able to use my data however way I want. If I want to FaceTime for days over my LTE connection and use it up after a day, so be it. I barely even use FaceTime; and when I do, there are very few to zero times that I'm not actually near wifi, mine or public.

I am happy, however, that they're still letting grandfathered customers keep the unlimited. Even if it doesn't truly mean "unlimited" (which is a marketing term at best).

All about pennies, nickels and dimes.

They are throttling Unlimited now, so what's the difference?

Actually for ATT that was a big move to let us keep unlimited.

The face time decision is stupid, but like you I don't use it and there is Skype
which sidesteps that easily.

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I wonder if they will let everyone who already has an iPhone be eligible to upgrade early? Otherwise I'm stuck until November of next year haha

Usually for $ 50 when there is enough supply.

 

[Boatboy24]

SWEET! I can't believe I'm happy about this, but I'll take what I can get. Don't facetime that much outside of wifi anyway and 5G should be enough for me.

 

[macs4nw]

You know what this means? Buy unlocked iPhone 5 handsets and bring them to T-Mobile for $20 unlimited, unthrottled data enjoy faster HSPA+ than any other carrier in refarmed markets, and rest assured that your phone will switch over to LTE in 2013!

Hmm...Sounds like a plan.

so reward users with 5GB of LTE with unlimited but penalize them by holding facetime back....makes no sense let me get to 5gb however I want.

Well that's one positive thing AT&T did. Too bad they're playing hardball on the FaceTime thing which is unreasonable.

must be a sign of how bad its gotten, but being allowed to use 5 GB of my "unlimited" plan on a new phone gets me hyped.

At least 5GB is better than 3; I guess we should be thankfull now!

 

[Small White Car]

What speed will they throttle it to after 5 GB of LTE data? Will it just switch to regular 3G speed (which in most places their network is so saturated and slow it's "throttled" by default..)

This is actually a FANTASTIC question.

When they throttle 3G it goes from (let's say) 5 Mbps to 0.5 Mbps.

When they throttle LTE does it go down to 5 or down to 0.5?

We'll have to wait and see. No matter what evidence people have now with other phones doesn't matter since we know every carrier treats the iPhone as a special case with its own rules.

 

[itr81]

According to the Wall Street Journal you don't have to be on a special plan with Verizon to use FaceTime but it's only at 3G speeds not LTE speeds. I have a feeling unless you live in great high speed 3G area FaceTime with another person on the network will be so stuttering and spotty it will almost make having it worthless. Then Verizon will say for $10-15 a month you can have LTE in your area to fix it. lol At least with ATT you do get the LTE option for your money. I'm out of contract next month, but I'm just going to hold out until the Iphone 5s comes out and all the LTE pricing calms down a bit.

 

[Zimmy68]

I wouldn't have a problem if it was smart throttling.

Like, ok, this is peak time, slow his data down 50% of the guy paying full price.
Ok, slow time, he has full use.

But no, it's like, you hit 5GB and it is unusable until the month cycle ends at all times.

I assume that is how they do it now.

The easy method I guess.

 

[JupiterDoc]

"Additionally, unlike Verizon, which is no longer offering unlimited data customers discounted pricing on new handsets -- even with a new, two-year contract -- AT&T will honor its subsidized pricing policies even for its customers with unlimited data plans."

Would someone interpret this for me?

Does this mean that ATT will waive prior two year commitment on upgrade?

No

 

[BJMRamage]

so, ATT still KEEPS unlimited data and allows LTE...Verizon Does Not and people are still pissed at ATT?

and facetime over 3G, though somewhat exciting, can't be too great. i was in Palo Alto months back trying to Skype over 3G and it was horrible.

 

[azentropy]

It's incredible that plans in the USA are around $100/month.

Here in france, we have unlimited plans (talk/txt/data) for €20/month. That's UNLIMITED on 3G and now LTE all over the country, great coverage, etc... From ALL carriers!!!

Something's wrong in the US!

I hate US carriers as much as anyone... but for an explanation you just have to look at the population density and the sq. milage of each country to see a pretty big reason why.