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Letter from AT&T: my goodness, you use a lot of data!

I guess I will be getting one of those lovely letters as well. I haven't listened to FM radio since I got rid of my XM Radio satellite car subscription. I stream Slacker, Pandora, DI Radio in my car all the time. I enjoy watching movies through Netflix on my lunch break. To date, I have used roughly 4.6GB a month since Netflix was released. I most certainly get my $30.00 worth and then some.
 
hcho3 said:
Can you post the letter? I am curious what they are trying to accomplish. They want you to cut the usage?
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The letter was just a reminder to try to use wifi when possible (which I do). The tone of the letter seemed to be directed at users who may not realize that their wifi isn't set to "on" or that aren't aware of wifi's benefits or availability: at least, that's the approach that they took. It wasn't a threat to limit me, just a gentle nudge in case I wasn't particularly knowledgable. ;)
 
enjoy the unlimited data as long as you can ... IMO AT&T will be be nixing that sooner rather than later.

future unlimited will be limited to email only ... streaming video will soon cost everyone. :cool:
 
TB07-NJ said:
Actually I don't think you are paying for data without a cap. I believe their "unlimited" data is "limited" to 5GB per their TOS. While I am sure you can argue that point until the cows come home that's what they do. If you exceed the "cap" to often they can do bad things to you that I couldn't even put into words since this is a PG rated forum. :)
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No you're wrong, this has been discussed a lot.....
 
Pipper99 said:
<snip> ... I wouldn't be surprised to learn that they've reserved the ability to move me to a 2gb plan at their discretion.
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Is this conjecture/speculation on your part? Or mere inference? (Given that you're paying, in contract, for an UL data plan.)

I know that spiel in their TOS about they're ability to "assign you an appropriate data plan" where/when necessary, but I thought that was if you didn't have one to begin with.


Anyway, just curious.
 
Because it isn't unlimited. Just because you pay for "unlimited" doesn't mean you can abuse its service and tether for free and suddenly use 40+ GB a month and not expect them to chop you off at the knees.

I believe there have been reports of quite a few users losing their unlimited data plan due to going over 5GB consistently a month and deep rooted TOS fine print.
 
iBark said:
Is this conjecture/speculation on your part? Or mere inference? (Given that you're paying, in contract, for an UL data plan.)

I know that spiel in their TOS about they're ability to "assign you an appropriate data plan" where/when necessary, but I thought that was if you didn't have one to begin with.


Anyway, just curious.
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Just speculation. :)
 
Small White Car said:
Ha ha.

I love it. The passive-aggressive mother approach.

I also love the "hotspot" suggestion. As if I spend all day sitting at Starbucks. I use my Wifi when I can because it's way faster, but I've never found AT&T hotspots to be any help whatsoever.
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wife does use less battery than the cell does. On my phone I just leave my wifi turn on at all times. I get in range of an AT&T hotspot it just connect automaticly.
ihonda said:
im at 46gb with 6 days left in cycle.. this is the first time ive ever done this much and it was sort of on accident but not really.. i pull 700KB/s when tethered they just upgraded towers in last month so when i moved the internet was gonna take 2 weeks to get installed and i needed my mkv goodness.
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Do not be surpised if AT&T starts cracking down hard on abusers like you. Threaten to leave and the answer will be bye. It saves them money by you leaving instead of costing them money. I expect in the future the abusers will be look at and see if they see a pattern. They make start looking at your location and what towers you are pulling from. If it turns out that you are were you home is then you might be looking at being nailed for tethering since something looks off.
 
So I decided to check out AT&T's wifi map to see where all their abundant wifi hotspots are located.

Well, good luck finding one unless you're a frequent customer of McDonalds or Starbucks...
 
anonymous guy said:
So I decided to check out AT&T's wifi map to see where all their abundant wifi hotspots are located.

Well, good luck finding one unless you're a frequent customer of McDonalds or Starbucks...
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Oh, wow, mean to tell me they put them in two of the most known, and popualted food chains in America, god how horrible, AT&T really sucks, making me have to maybe get a small soda to use wifi at a McDonalds....sheesh I am snobby as the next Apple owner, but come on....:rolleyes:
 
Bawstun said:
Because it isn't unlimited. Just because you pay for "unlimited" doesn't mean you can abuse its service and tether for free and suddenly use 40+ GB a month and not expect them to chop you off at the knees.

I believe there have been reports of quite a few users losing their unlimited data plan due to going over 5GB consistently a month and deep rooted TOS fine print.
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well hopefully they change my data which will inturn allow me out of my contract! i got 3 lines with unlimited still under contract id LOVE for them to change my stuff
 
Applejuiced said:
Post it up if you can.
You gotta be the first person we ever heard of getting something like that.
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Nope. Heard about it years ago from other people who abuse the network.

Some people do get kicked off and released from their contract if I remembered correctly.
 
This whole argument about abusing "unlimited data" Makes no sense. I have an unlimited plan and I Never have gone over 2 gigs in the past three years with an iphone. So if they have a soft cap of 5 gigs, that means I am not using 3gigs a month that i could use. Well 3gigs X 36 months is 108 gigs that they owe me just for us to be on even terms. So if someone uses 40 gigs a month, well they did sell it as unlimited didnt they.


I am going to open a restaraunt, 20$ all you can eat, limit of one plate of food total.

Oh wait now I get it. Unlimited is the "name" of the plan not a description of how much data can be used. Sir would you like to sign up for our unlimited data plan? with that plan you get 5 gigs of data a month.
 
Pipper99 said:
Just speculation. :)
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10-4, Pipper. ;)

Yeah, if y'all could -- we'd love to see the content of that letter if you get a chance.

I like the restaurant unlimited buffet analogy, BTW. Apparently AT&T wishes they had gone this route from the get go (like Sprint, I think, does now.)

For the record, I don't break a couple hundred MB (at most) on my UL plan -- but it's for the absolute 'peace of mind' that I'll never pay a data overage charge which keeps me hooked on their $30/mo. truly (?) UL plan.

Eventually (10, maybe 20 years from now?) WiFi will become ubiquitous enough that cell phone data plans will be a product of the past. But somehow I don't know how free WiFi will come without strings (ads, data mining, etc.)
 
chakraj said:
This whole argument about abusing "unlimited data" Makes no sense. I have an unlimited plan and I Never have gone over 2 gigs in the past three years with an iphone. So if they have a soft cap of 5 gigs, that means I am not using 3gigs a month that i could use. Well 3gigs X 36 months is 108 gigs that they owe me just for us to be on even terms. So if someone uses 40 gigs a month, well they did sell it as unlimited didnt they.


I am going to open a restaraunt, 20$ all you can eat, limit of one plate of food total.

Oh wait now I get it. Unlimited is the "name" of the plan not a description of how much data can be used. Sir would you like to sign up for our unlimited data plan? with that plan you get 5 gigs of data a month.
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You pretty much summed it up. It's 'unlimited' with fine-print stating that there are softcaps that if you consistently go over every month, AT&T reserves the right to change or remove you from that plan (but allowing you out of your contract). Just because you didn't read or know that at the time you signed your contract doesn't mean it isn't valid. It's just rules and regulations they impose.
 
Wow, some of you guys are getting rude. I got a similar letter from AT&T 2 days ago, but it said I was consistently using more then 20 gb of data monthly. I've already tossed it out, so I can't post a copy, but it was worded exactly the same. All of you that call my usage abuse of my expensive unlimited data plans (I pay unlimited data on 2 iPhone 4's and an iPad) are wrong. How is it different if I stream a movie directly to my tv from my iPad, or I tether it to my MacBook pro. I don't see a difference. If you choose to pay three times to watch a movie on netflix, that's up to you. I already pay AT&T & netflix for the content and the data. Should I now pay more to get more bandwidth into my home that I don't need. Should I also pay direct tv or comcast to watch the same content? No thank you. AT&T gives me unlimited data at a cost that they set. I'm happy to pay them for it. I was happy to pay apple a premium on my iPad for built in 3G. If AT&T was losing money, they would do more to get us off unlimited plans. They have already stopped new users from getting them, and I'm sure they eventually will go away for the rest of us. Until then, I shall enjoy my unlimited data, and use it however I see fit.
Sorry about the rant, but I didn't like the hostility.
 
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