Leaving AT&T Due to Throttling of Grandfathered Unlimited Data

[theman510]

Nope. None. Not jailbroken, no tethering. Nada.

Update: yesterday while out I decided to stop into a local AT&T Wireless store and spoke with a rep. He checked my account and saw no reason for this to be occurring. After striking up various conversations with him and establishing a "relaxed" rapport, he candidly stated AT&T has been randomly picking people who are on grandfathered plans who aren't necessarily abusing their limits in order to keep people "in check." The suggestion was that AT&T is attempting to frighten us by randomly selecting accounts to create a paranoid atmosphere most likely in hopes that an unknowing consumer (i.e. soccer Mom's) would change to a tiered plan.

After our meeting he made a few more notations on my account and my 3G speeds were miraculously back to normal. Interesting...

Any idea what those notations were or what he did? I was just over 2gb at 2.06GB this month and it was like a switch was flipped instantly. I can't watch Netflix for more than 20 seconds at a time with 5 bars of 3G and I have to wait 5 minutes for a 3 minute YouTube video to load. It's ridiculous and prior to the past two months this has never happened before.

Edit: So I went to the AT&T store near my office at lunch and the guy basically told me there's nothing he can do since they just do sales there and no technical support. I guess it's back to being on hold for 20 mins with AT&T and trying to state my case

 

[magicbrain]

Bull

For the love of g I can't comprehend why so many macrumors members defend Att and other greedy corps on this one. i guess, att has many trolls posting ("glad to see you go"????).

Here, I wrote up another post, with links to the petition, nielsen, how to cancel without paying cancellation fees and h20: $60/m unlimited talk, txt and 2gb of data - new service that uses Att's network, so you can even use your locked iPhone 4s without jailbreaking

.... rest moved to a bigger post on this issue (sorry for initial double post)

 

[haxrnick]

For the love of g I can't comprehend why so many macrumors members defend Att and other greedy corps on this one. i guess, att has many trolls posting ("glad to see you go"????).

Here, I wrote up another post, with links to the petition, nielsen, how to cancel without paying cancellation fees and h20: $60/m unlimited talk, txt and 2gb of data - new service that uses Att's network, so you can even use your locked iPhone 4s without jailbreaking

.... rest moved to a bigger post on this issue (sorry for initial double post)

Lol, cry about it. Those "greedy corps" employ hundreds of thousands of people. It's called Capitalism. Your Nielson link "well, according to Nielsen top 10% use over 4.6gb (i myself have been under 3gb for over a year now & _once_ jumped to 4.6gb when my daughter wanted to watch netflix on a family road trip)" is irrelevant because it has nothing to do with AT&T. It covers all carriers. It's whiny people like you that have ruined this great country. If you don't like it, leave AT&T. Sure you have to pay an ETF fee, which you call "extortion" if you leave early. You were told that when signing the contract YOU agreed to. You, my friend, are your problem. Not the "greedy corps".

 

[mrsir2009]

More for me!

With less heavy data users its liklier that you'll be in the 'top 5%' and get throttled.

 

[hexonxonx]

With less heavy data users its liklier that you'll be in the 'top 5%' and get throttled.

Correct. The whole reason it has been pushed down to 2GB now is because the majority of people use 2GB or less. I have been using less than 1GB per month since October. If everyone uses less than 1GB then 1GB will be the new average.

I just don't have enough uses for data on my iPhone anymore to use more than 1GB.

 

[mrsir2009]

Correct. The whole reason it has been pushed down to 2GB now is because the majority of people use 2GB or less. I have been using less than 1GB per month since October. If everyone uses less than 1GB then 1GB will be the new average.

I just don't have enough uses for data on my iPhone anymore to use more than 1GB.

Everyone should try upp their data usage to maintain a higher average

 

[rgarjr]

People have different needs (data usage), doesn't make sense to get throttled to the ground because of other users usage (top 5%).

 

[MattMJB0188]

I was using netflix today at school on a very congested AT&T tower and I went well over 2GB and I haven't heard a peep from AT&T about it.

 

[rjohnstone]

The 2GB thing is a myth.
I've gone over 2GB every month for more than a year.
Not a peep.

 

[hexonxonx]

The 2GB thing is a myth.
I've gone over 2GB every month for more than a year.
Not a peep.

It likely has to do with heavily congested areas. This would explain why some people get the notice and some don't.

There is too much evidence around to say it is just a myth.

 

[MattMJB0188]

It likely has to do with heavily congested areas. This would explain why some people get the notice and some don't.

There is too much evidence around to say it is just a myth.

Yeah I think so too. I guess you could run a speedtest and if you around 1-1.5Mbps you know there are a lot of people on the tower.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't the lower the PING score mean the better the connection?

 

[3282868]

Lol, cry about it. Those "greedy corps" employ hundreds of thousands of people. It's called Capitalism. Your Nielson link "well, according to Nielsen top 10% use over 4.6gb (i myself have been under 3gb for over a year now & _once_ jumped to 4.6gb when my daughter wanted to watch netflix on a family road trip)" is irrelevant because it has nothing to do with AT&T. It covers all carriers. It's whiny people like you that have ruined this great country. If you don't like it, leave AT&T. Sure you have to pay an ETF fee, which you call "extortion" if you leave early. You were told that when signing the contract YOU agreed to. You, my friend, are your problem. Not the "greedy corps".

This is absurd. You're basically positing your argument around complacency and as paying consumers we are "whining" about a corporation negating the contracts with their unlimited data costumers. Whiny people have ruined this country??? This country was founded on many principles, the first of which is the freedom of speech and the ability to vocalize our concerns in both politics and consumerism. I highly doubt consumers who have had four years of unlimited data at $30/month who are now being randomly throttled for going over certain amounts of data on an UNLIMITED PLAN are "ruining this country." What is ruining this country are individuals who excuse this corporate abuse and roll over without taking the necessary action in placing these businesses in check.

An unlimited plan is an UNLIMITED PLAN, no where in the contract I signed in 2007 did it state a SPECIFIC "fair use" clause for a specified amount of data - trust me, I looked. If there was a given figure, for example 2 GB/month of "fair use" then I would agree. As data usage for many ranges any where from 2GB - 50 GB/mo there seems to be a lack of logic in AT&T throttling unlimited data users. AT&T seems to prey upon uninformed consumers, i.e. MacRumors is predominantly a forum of knowledgable IT individuals so we are not the "general consumer", in order to threaten them into a lower data plan for more money.

So give AT&T a pass. Why stop there? Let's allow the government to increase your taxes and punish you by cutting off your power if you go over the usage for your last power cycle. Oh, that would make you a "whiner" and a threat to this "great country". What makes this country great is that we can write our concerns and vote with our dollars. If you do not, then YOU are the threat my friend.

Namaste

 

[MattMJB0188]

This is absurd. You're basically positing your argument around complacency and as paying consumers we are "whining" about a corporation negating the contracts with their unlimited data costumers. Whiny people have ruined this country??? This country was founded on many principles, the first of which is the freedom of speech and the ability to vocalize our concerns in both politics and consumerism. I highly doubt consumers who have had four years of unlimited data at $30/month who are now being randomly throttled for going over certain amounts of data on an UNLIMITED PLAN are "ruining this country." What IS ruining this country are individuals who excuse this corporate abuse and roll over without taking the necessary action in placing these businesses in check. An unlimited plan is an UNLIMITED PLAN, no where in the contract I signed in 2007 did it state a SPECIFIC "fair use" clause of data usage - trust me, I looked. If there was a given figure, for example 2 GB/month of "fair use" then I would agree however none was stated. As data usage for many ranges any where from 2GB - 50 GB/mo for some there is no rhyme or reason for what AT&T it doing other than to prey upon those who do not know any better (MacRumors is predominantly a forum of knowledgable IT individuals so we are not the "general consumer") in order to threaten them into a lower data plan for more money.

So give AT&T a pass, heck why not allow the government to increase your taxes more for the same property you own or allow your electric/gas company to double your energy charges? Oh, that would make you a "whiner" and a threat to this great country. What makes this country great is that we can write our concerns and vote with our dollars. If you do not, then YOU are the threat my friend.

Namaste

I agree with most of what you said, however, you signed the contract in 2007 and obviously renewed, so AT&T would have every right to change the terms for each new contract renewal. I have the same $30 plan as you and honestly, I don't mind the throttling. It's nice to know people can't bog down the network using as much as they want to. Of course this contradicts the word "unlimited." What AT&T needs to do is set the top 5% at a certain amount like T-Mobile does. Everyone can always guarantee on getting throttled at 5GB or 10GB. This would be much better and more understandable.

 

[3282868]

I agree with most of what you said, however, you signed the contract in 2007 and obviously renewed, so AT&T would have every right to change the terms for each new contract renewal. I have the same $30 plan as you and honestly, I don't mind the throttling. It's nice to know people can't bog down the network using as much as they want to. Of course this contradicts the word "unlimited." What AT&T needs to do is set the top 5% at a certain amount like T-Mobile does. Everyone can always guarantee on getting throttled at 5GB or 10GB. This would be much better and more understandable.

Nope. Sold every iPhone on eBay and paid full price ($599) as to not renew. I've sold unlocked iPhones at around $350-400 and paid roughly the same difference ($199-$250 depending on the sale of my older iPhone) in price for the full device. Every month since $5.00 was taken off my early termination fee so I am no longer locked in. In essence, my 2007 contract still stands, as confirmed by the rep I spoke with yesterday.

But again, my average usage for 2011 was 1.79GB/month on a grandfathered data plan. AT&T apologized and stated this will not happen again. If so, when the next iPhone is released, I'm free and clear to sell this iPhone 4S and move on.

 

[MattMJB0188]

Nope. Sold every iPhone on eBay and paid FULL PRICE as to not renew. I've sold unlocked iPhones at around $350-400 and paid roughly the same difference in price for a $600 iPhone. In essence, my 2007 contract still stands, as confirmed by the rep I spoke with yesterday.

Wow thats a first lol. I don't know much about contracts or cell companies but if you are not under contract can't AT&T take away your unlimited plan and just switch you to the 2GB/4GB plan? Technically your're not grandfathered in since your not under contract. So in your case, wouldn't it be different if you were still under that 2007 contract?

 

[3282868]

Wow thats a first lol. I don't know much about contracts or cell companies but if you are not under contract can't AT&T take away your unlimited plan and just switch you to the 2GB/4GB plan? Technically your're not grandfathered in since your not under contract. So in your case, wouldn't it be different if you were still under that 2007 contract?

Nope. I'm essentially still contracted but there is no early termination fee, meaning AT&T is still honoring the signed/agreed upon 2007 contract (not having to pay the $199 discounted price for a two year contract renewal gets around that issue, even though AT&T by law stated that all grandfathered unlimited data plans will remain as long as the owner does not switch data plans, this was stated for the iPhone 4 release, in November of last year when the 4S arrived the LTE 5 was due for release but shelved due to the Broadcom chipset battery drain which prompted AT&T to release notifications for grandfathered users should an LTE iPhone be released, which it wasn't). Tricky legalize but I learned from working at Apple Corp. how they play their reindeer games.

 

[scaredpoet]

So I should ditch my unlimited plan since day one at $30/mo with an average use of 2-3GB's 3G data for a 4 or higher GB tiered data plan? What will happen should I go over the my data limit? Extra fee's and/or throttling? (not meant to be sarcastic at all, honest questions, so just making sure you know ).

Assuming your predicament is truly resolved, you can probably stay on your unlimited plan. But I'll answer anyway in case the throttling comes back.

On the tiered data plans, if you go over the limit, they tack on another 1GB and charge $10. So if you average 3GB of usage each month, you're looking at paying $35/month for unthrottled data, as opposed to $30 on the onld "unlimited" plan for 2GB of unthrottled data, and then the rest being throttled after that.

 

[iYitsy]

Is that the stable Verizon network that had 3 outages last month?

AT&T has had outages on older technology. Their network isn't stable enough for their current users.

/shrug

I'd rather have Verizon.

 

[MattMJB0188]

Nope. I'm essentially still contracted but there is no early termination fee, meaning AT&T is still honoring the signed/agreed upon 2007 contract (not having to pay the $199 discounted price for a two year contract renewal gets around that issue, even though AT&T by law stated that all grandfathered unlimited data plans will remain as long as the owner does not switch data plans, this was stated for the iPhone 4 release, in November of last year when the 4S arrived the LTE 5 was due for release but shelved due to the Broadcom chipset battery drain which prompted AT&T to release notifications for grandfathered users should an LTE iPhone be released, which it wasn't). Tricky legalize but I learned from working at Apple Corp. how they play their reindeer games.

Where did you see AT&T release notifications for LTE users on the grandfathered unlimited plan?

AT&T has had outages on older technology. Their network isn't stable enough for their current users.

/shrug

I'd rather have Verizon.

Why Verizon is no better nor worse than AT&T in any way, shape, or form. Go visit any Android forum and you'll see LTE outages all the time. That sounds pretty stable to me lol. Verizon is too expensive and doesn't offer any kind of mobile to any mobile plan like AT&T & Sprint do. T-Mobile has free wifi calling which can make up for that. They are extremely limited with their OLD CDMA2000 technology and the drop off from LTE to CDMA 3G is a nightmare. I know many places with excellent AT&T service and poor Verizon service. At the end of the day, I'd rather be a much more faster GSM network.

 

[3282868]

Where did you see AT&T release notifications for LTE users on the grandfathered unlimited plan?

AT&T began rolling out LTE support to major cities in preparation for the iPhone 5 that was being tested at the time with LTE/CDMA/GSM support (later shelved due to the battery drain from that chip with the iPhone 4S backup released - yes I know it was in development and won't/can't go into further detail but expect an LTE 5 w/ NFC sometime this fall ). AT&T's concern was the possibility that the LTE network (still in its infancy) would be hit hard with grandfathered unlimited data users, thus began rolling out warnings last year around August/Sept.

AT&T Begins Sending Throttling Warnings to Top Data Hogs

The LTE network wasn't officially noted in these "warnings" but was the initial cause for AT&T's alarm. They feared bad press should an LTE iPhone shut down their network with sudden mass activations in addition to iPhone 4 GSM usage as well as the relaunched MobileMe service to the free iCloud and iTunes Match services that allow for 3G Cellular usage. So instead of preparing for that onslaught, AT&T decided a pre-emptive PR strike blaming consumers for heavy usage was the best way in remedying a possible nightmare scenario.

As the use of cloud storage and streaming music and video services becomes more widespread, the issue of these data caps and speed throttling is likely to get more heated.

AT&T bringing 'real' 4G to six new cities this month

http://www.dailywireless.org/2011/10/12/details-on-atts-lte-rollout/

 

[chakraj]

ATT is worst than Verizon. Verizon atleast has the backend to support the users it has on both 3g and LTE. Att would rather send messages to scare its customers than to build its network with adequit backhaul.

I voted with my $, and now have 35MB down, verizon LTE, shoot even when I only have one bar I get 10Mb down and LTE is everywhere around me for Miles and Miles.

Oh, I got the unlimited 4g hotspot with my new 4g phone, so I have unlimited LTE with unlimited Hotspot. ATT wont be offering that anytime soon.

F* Them and their bad service, both network and customer.

 

[MattMJB0188]

ATT is worst than Verizon. Verizon atleast has the backend to support the users it has on both 3g and LTE. Att would rather send messages to scare its customers than to build its network with adequit backhaul.

I voted with my $, and now have 35MB down, verizon LTE, shoot even when I only have one bar I get 10Mb down and LTE is everywhere around me for Miles and Miles.

Oh, I got the unlimited 4g hotspot with my new 4g phone, so I have unlimited LTE with unlimited Hotspot. ATT wont be offering that anytime soon.

F* Them and their bad service, both network and customer.

Which phone did you go with? The G Nexus?

 

[DarwinOSX]

The doubling data promo is only with LTE 4G devices and EXCLUDES the iPhone. As far as the OP leaving AT&T, go right ahead. I'm sure they'll care as that's one less unlimited user on their network.

You managed to miss the point entirely.
Negative points for siding with the most reviled carrier.

 

[chakraj]

Which phone did you go with? The G Nexus?

Yep, love it.

 

[DarwinOSX]

Lol, cry about it. Those "greedy corps" employ hundreds of thousands of people. It's called Capitalism. Your Nielson link "well, according to Nielsen top 10% use over 4.6gb (i myself have been under 3gb for over a year now & _once_ jumped to 4.6gb when my daughter wanted to watch netflix on a family road trip)" is irrelevant because it has nothing to do with AT&T. It covers all carriers. It's whiny people like you that have ruined this great country. If you don't like it, leave AT&T. Sure you have to pay an ETF fee, which you call "extortion" if you leave early. You were told that when signing the contract YOU agreed to. You, my friend, are your problem. Not the "greedy corps".

What do you not understand about unlimited?
Also you are delusional. Seek therapy.