In your case because you do not have an LTE phone it doesn't matter. Enjoy! 
But ya LTE is that much faster where 2GB is gone in a week.
But ya LTE is that much faster where 2GB is gone in a week.
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Bye bye Unlimited Data
- Thread starter GravityEyes
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This is pure assumption. And I live outside the metro area. I don't sit and watch kittens playing piano videos when I'm in the city.
I didn't say this is for everyone - somehow in true Macrumos fashion it comes off that way. For me, MY family, MY usage, MY budget... it made complete sense.
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I thought of those same scenarios. II think its still very presumptuous to think LTE is really going to consume that much more data. It's strictly dependent on your consumption habits. You can always, at anytime bump up your data cap.
Have you reviewed your past data usage? I found it very insightful.
Its odd how people in this thread (not you, I'm generalizing) compute "twice as fast, use twice the data". The only things that will consume more data are higher bit rate videos and audio. All other usage will likely be the same.
Good for you. All that matters is that, at the end of the day, if it works for you . . . That is all that matters. Thanks for sharing.
Perhaps, others may do the same, if it works for them, as well.
Ehh, not everyone uses Skye. My older family members use FaceTime. They won't switch to Skype. Its about the ecosystem.
Actually you will still be able to do jack squat.
They will just charge you for an extra GB.
You do know that now you will use way more data right? Tethering alone will eat up your GBs.
Good for you. All that matters is that, at the end of the day, if it works for you . . . That is all that matters. Thanks for sharing.
Perhaps, others may do the same, if it works for them, as well.
Exactly. Just thought I'd share my experience, as I assume others are on the fence too.
Thanks for your objectivity.
Of course. Trust me, my wife and I thought it out well. We won't tether our laptops when we travel for work - we'll continue to expense airport WiFi. Again, our usage habits will change marginally. Tethering is a convenience, nothing more.
Ehh, its not that bad. We use Facetime 90% of the time to talk to family members or the kids when we travel... always within range of WiFi. Having the ability to pull up Facetime at a concert, sporting event, etc will be nice to have. We won't carry on for hours over it.
Its about responsible usage folks. Again, how is it 'unlimited' when they choke ya over 3 Gbs? How awesome is that LTE connection when they degrade it to nearly Edge speeds when you go over?
FYI - the rep on the phone at T&T said "Unlimited will not be around forever."
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Ah yes, you are right. Thanks.
It should be obvious, but apparently its not.
You MUST have the Mobile Share plan to use FaceTime over 3G. Yet many in this thread say "But FaceTime will eat up your data..." Ok, maybe it will, but If I had unlimited data I couldn't use FaceTime to begin with *facepalm*
You MUST have the Mobile Share plan to use FaceTime over 3G. Yet many in this thread say "But FaceTime will eat up your data..." Ok, maybe it will, but If I had unlimited data I couldn't use FaceTime to begin with *facepalm*
It's about not getting overage charges. I rather be throttled thank be charged an arm and a leg.
I'll use Skype, and I can skype people on Android if I want, and if I need to tether, I'll get a hot spot and pay as I need it.
Also an AT&T rep said to me the unlimited was ending with the new iPhone.... and it didn't happen. They do not know anything at all.
Again, for the umpteenth time, its all about personal usage habits. I'll be fine. And I can afford to go 100 Gbs over if I had to. I wanted features, not saving a buck.
Well, I can use as much as I want or rather can and not get charged an overage fee. Sure I get throttled but I still can get data and I'm not charged more for it. You can use a set amount and sure, you won't get throttled after that, instead you get charged more money.
I'll take the throttled and no overage fee honestly. It's not like I ever use facetime anyways (once in a rare while and maybe once or twice thought, "Gee, I wish I could facetime over 3G") and only once a year have I ever thought the hotspot feature may be useful (and honestly, I found that you can find wi-fi easily in the situation I'm thinking of so not a big deal again). Not to mention even if I did find the hot spot useful, then I'd really want my unlimited plan.
But, in the end I appreciate that AT&T gives me that choice and chose to convince people to get off unlimited by offering them that choice rather than pretty much outright forcing them (the choice Verizon gives is much more obnoxious in my opinion. If you want us to sign a new contract with you and give you an upgrade as incentive you have to sign a contract for our much more expensive plans).
(and honestly, for me and my roommate's usage, the shared plans would cost us 30 dollars more and we'd have to split 1 GB of data which I could easily go through myself without having to split it with some one. It's a horrible deal for me and my roommate. I also appreciate that AT&T still offers the individual plans where you could just add a line cause for us it's still a far better deal. We don't talk on the phone that much and most people we know have iphones so we use imessage so the unlimited talk/text is no incentive to us at all. We already get way more minutes than we need on our very small minutes plan that saves us money as well as not paying for texting).
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Most people are clueless and ranting on a person usage and habits liek they know them.
LTE doesnt mean that you will triple your uasge. A smany stated the same 2 meg file is the same 2 megs on LTE. It doesnt. Limited to unlimited it doesnt.
I have 5 phones in my family all data phones. unlimited data as a year ago our highest uage was 3.4 gigs. This is with 3 teenagers. I left ATT to sprint because I feared they would kill me with data usage.
Well I found out that was not the case as stated many hot spot areas help, but they do not do anything more than face book, youtube, pandora...
This prompted me to move back to ATT where I enjoyed our service and went to the 10 gig plan. SHould be more than enough. At this point with 11 days left in billing we have hit 1 gig. So from unlimited to limited we are on track for the same usage we averaged over at sprint.
LTE doesnt mean that you will triple your uasge. A smany stated the same 2 meg file is the same 2 megs on LTE. It doesnt. Limited to unlimited it doesnt.
I have 5 phones in my family all data phones. unlimited data as a year ago our highest uage was 3.4 gigs. This is with 3 teenagers. I left ATT to sprint because I feared they would kill me with data usage.
Well I found out that was not the case as stated many hot spot areas help, but they do not do anything more than face book, youtube, pandora...
This prompted me to move back to ATT where I enjoyed our service and went to the 10 gig plan. SHould be more than enough. At this point with 11 days left in billing we have hit 1 gig. So from unlimited to limited we are on track for the same usage we averaged over at sprint.
Some folks just don't get it...
Exactly. All the unlimited data in the world is no use to me if I want to do FaceTime over cellular and can't, or want to tether. I'd far rather have these tools available and watch my data usage.
These shared data plans make no financial sense unless you have at least 3 devices on them. It works for my family, as we have 4, plus 3 wi-fi iPads.
Exactly. All the unlimited data in the world is no use to me if I want to do FaceTime over cellular and can't, or want to tether. I'd far rather have these tools available and watch my data usage.
These shared data plans make no financial sense unless you have at least 3 devices on them. It works for my family, as we have 4, plus 3 wi-fi iPads.
It's all a matter of choice and knowing your data usage. if you don't use that much, family share plans are great. For me, it doesn't make sense. I have the MLB streaming package and watch games on my phone with 4G when I am not at home. 3G was just too slow and never worked well. One game of streaming will quickly use 1 GB or more of data. Plus I stream Sirius radio, and on 3G alone would use up 2 to 3 GB a month just streaming that. So keeping unlimited is critical for me. But I am not the normal verizon user. But with so much more streaming options becoming available, like now being able to stream the thursday night, sunday night and monday night NFL games with the Verizon NFL app, normal users will quickly become similar to me and use a lot of data. That is what Verizon is betting on. People will have to increase their data allotment, which means bigger profits. The unlimited data user is disappearing as people upgrade their phones. Eventually Verizon will just tell me to go to another provider since those that are left with unlimited data will just be a very small drop in the bucket. I would imagine in a few years, unlimited data will be gone for everyone.
J-A-I-L-B-R-E-A-K. that spells what ever stupid feature you want over 3g. or LTE.
My iPhone - unlimited.
My wife's iPhone - 200 MB.
My usage - approx .3-.4GB per month for at least two years.
My wife 50-100 MB per month.
Planning on going to a share plan as well. Either the 2GB or 4GB (just in case), will save a little, and mostly for the features you mentioned, hotspot and FaceTime.
Anyone who says that LTE will eat up tons more data or that my usage will skyrocket, especially using FaceTime is wrong. Sorry.
But I don't really stream much video. The occasional DirecTV Sunday ticket game for a few minutes, but never a whole game or anything else that substantially long.
My wife's iPhone - 200 MB.
My usage - approx .3-.4GB per month for at least two years.
My wife 50-100 MB per month.
Planning on going to a share plan as well. Either the 2GB or 4GB (just in case), will save a little, and mostly for the features you mentioned, hotspot and FaceTime.
Anyone who says that LTE will eat up tons more data or that my usage will skyrocket, especially using FaceTime is wrong. Sorry.
But I don't really stream much video. The occasional DirecTV Sunday ticket game for a few minutes, but never a whole game or anything else that substantially long.
That may be true for your family. But families with teenagers will see the data usage spike. Kids are more wired than you and I ever will be. They will stream, stream, stream and play video games over their phones. 2GB family plans will be burned up in a few days. 4G, and all the smarter smartphones equals one thing, mega data use, which equals mega profits.
Change marginally????
You said you now plan to tether "ipads and laptops" as well as using FaceTime over cellular.
You consider that a marginal change? You're not getting the mobile sites on your laptops, going to be using more data.
I don't pretend to know your internet habits, but with 3 of you, and one of them being a teen...3 iPhones, 2(3?) iPads and 3(?) laptops utilizing this data plan....6GB isn't very much at all.
If video chatting over cellular was your main objective, would have been much easier just to use Skype or Tango. Using another app instead of FT has nothing to do with the ecosystem. Have you or the people you will be FaceTiming with download any non-Apple apps? Because that's all it takes w/Tango.
Alas, that ship has sailed. You keep to your argument, so you must believe you'll be fine...hope it works out. For questioning why other people want to keep unlimited; Well, I'm single and not on any family plan, there's nothing for me to share my data with. I could go to a tiered plan, but 3GB is the same price as the unlimited plan. So it realistically makes ZERO sense to change that. Do I go over often? Nope, only a couple of times. But it's there if I happen to use a lot of data in a particular month and as others have said, I'd rather be (threatened) throttled than pay overages.