Firstly: thanks everyone for chiming in!
Secondly: I wanted to follow up with the resolution. I was out on the road and never got back to you guys.
I ended up spending an obscene amount of time calling AT&T... but hey... I was driving and had nothing better to do. Eventually they did a "one time" wipe of my data usage for the month. They said that it was because I'm a "Diamond Level Customer" or whatever (been with AT&T for over 10 years now). I ended the last month using about 30GB total and never got the message saying I was being throttled... so I guess whatever they did worked.
Now - to answer some of the questions:
You don’t get throttled, your speeds slow down. It’s not like the old days of getting throttled at 500kps.
But I couldn't take the chance on it... if I'm in a congested area and I need directions _right now_ I don't need to be getting throttled... I've got ~40ft of van and trailer that I need to get moved efficiently to the next spot!
The slow down IS NOT throttling. I get those notices every month and exceed 22GB every month and I don’t notice.
You said it sounds pretty crippling. But have you ever experienced it? In the old days it was crippling because they throttled you. Now it’s a slow down due to congestion on a tower and it’s not for the entire billing cycle.
See above.
Keep your wifi on, and what do you need the data for? Are you streaming movies while you cross the country?
Not streaming movies... but using Google maps with satellite view on does chew up a decent amount of data as you roll across the entire country. The satellite view is KEY by the way... I use it to actually see if I can pull into and out of gas stations / restaurants / hotels with my huge van and trailer.
Also: streaming Spotify as I roll used up some data (although I download most of the playlists I listen to).
Also: I did work every night on a tethered laptop which takes some amount of data.
He mentions tethering, so he may need the data for is computer. I'm just trying to process how he chewed up over 17GB of data in a week.
Not for nothing, that's why ATT has those data caps so everyone plow through the data willy-nilly. I know the OP's situation is a result of eventuating circumstances.
Well - this was a special circumstance. I had dropped my phone a couple of days before the trip and used AppleCare+ to get a new one... and I think that my phone chewed through a bunch of data redownloading apps and re-caching playlists on Spotify. So I think that's where a lot of my data went.
Since I was out of my house for about a week before leaving (I was at my girlfriend's parent's place) I was also using tethering some to do work (their wifi was not good at all).
Focus on driving?
Hah - definitey was - but had Google Maps open the whole time.
Here’s an idea. Get a new number with a T-Mobile ONE plan and see if you’re happy with them. The plan is really good but you might not like the network or something. Then, if it works out well you can port your current number over or even have two lines for a while.
I tried T-Mobile last year for a few months and wasn't very happy with it. Ended up sticking with AT&T.
Change plans to a higher data cap.
Turned out not to be necessary - see above about how they did a one-time data reset for me.
How in the world can you go through so much data?
See above about getting a new phonea couple of days before the trip and being out of my house and needing to use tethering.
Probably tethering and doing work on a laptop.
Yep. That was part of it.
I'm at 40gb so far this month on AT&T unlimited plus, and I have not noticed any slowdowns of speed or loss of tethering. Everything works exactly as it did at the beginning of this month!
Good to know - I just didn't want to take the chance.
You'll only get "slowed down" in congested area only. I've used before about 30 GB and never saw the difference in speed. When you open up an internet page, most likely it will be in mobile viewing/format so you won't see any difference. Same for Youtube or Netflix for example, instead of streaming at HD quality, you will get standard 480p which is DVD quality.
See all of the above about not wanted to take the chance that I couldn't pull up directions / satellite views while on the road.
Haven't you heard of free public wi-fi? Use it.
Doesn't work so well while ON the highway...
