Carrier My AT&T iPhone Unlimited data Plan and the FCC's VICTORY today !!

[benguild]

The problem is that measuring and predicting the amount of data that you're going to use in a month is an unreasonable request. The carriers are the only ones who can reasonably compute that but instead want you to pay more by making it your choice instead.

It's either you:
1) Pay for more data than you need in order to "shield" yourself from overcharges
2) Pay for less, and pay more in overages during unexpected usage.

Most people want an unlimited plan, and only some people choose to abuse it by watching streaming movies, etc.

 

[Rayfire]

The problem is that measuring and predicting the amount of data that you're going to use in a month is an unreasonable request. The carriers are the only ones who can reasonably compute that but instead want you to pay more by making it your choice instead.

It's either you:
1) Pay for more data than you need in order to "shield" yourself from overcharges
2) Pay for less, and pay more in overages during unexpected usage.

Most people want an unlimited plan, and only some people choose to abuse it by watching streaming movies, etc.

I wouldn't choose the word abuse, I'm simply using my phone and the apps that it offers - streaming music, shows or movies is an example. There's always a warning on these apps, "data charges may apply" and by now consumers should get that.

 

[barkomatic]

The problem is that measuring and predicting the amount of data that you're going to use in a month is an unreasonable request. The carriers are the only ones who can reasonably compute that but instead want you to pay more by making it your choice instead.

It's either you:
1) Pay for more data than you need in order to "shield" yourself from overcharges
2) Pay for less, and pay more in overages during unexpected usage.

Most people want an unlimited plan, and only some people choose to abuse it by watching streaming movies, etc.

Streaming content is not "abuse"-- mobile devices are designed for this. That's what carriers labeled unlimited users when they first discontinued those old plans. Naturally, AT&T and Verizon encourage streaming content with their more profitable tiered plans.

We need a strong FCC. Some people are irrationally afraid of government regulation but there is a greater danger of deregulation.

 

[benguild]

Streaming content is not "abuse"-- mobile devices are designed for this. That's what carriers labeled unlimited users when they first discontinued those old plans. Naturally, AT&T and Verizon encourage streaming content with their more profitable tiered plans.

We need a strong FCC. Some people are irrationally afraid of government regulation but there is a greater danger of deregulation.

I'm not trying to say that anyone doing that is using a ridiculous amount of data, I'm just saying that even though I never stream stuff (mostly for battery reasons vs. data usage reasons) ... my data use tends to vary from month to month very significantly depending on what I'm doing.

I don't want to be bother by having to micro-manage that. It's a waste of time and money.

 

[aristobrat]

I wouldn't say most people are on tiered.

FWIW, two data points from AT&T earnings announcements:

Q1 2014 - 81% of smartphones are on usage-based plans*

Q4 2014 - 70% of post paid base on Mobile Share

* I realize this doesn't necessarily mean they're on a Mobile Share plan, but it does show that only 19% of smartphones are on unlimited plans, which does seem to correlate to AT&T store reps being somewhat surprised by stumbling across a customer that still has one.

 

[Applejuiced]

FWIW, two data points from AT&T earnings announcements:

Q1 2014 - 81% of smartphones are on usage-based plans*

Q4 2014 - 70% of post paid base on Mobile Share

* I realize this doesn't necessarily mean they're on a Mobile Share plan, but it does show that only 19% of smartphones are on unlimited plans, which does seem to correlate to AT&T store reps being somewhat surprised by stumbling across a customer that still has one.

You realize even at 19% of over 120 million customers that's still a very high amount of devices on unlimited.

 

[aristobrat]

You realize even at 19% of over 120 million customers that's still a very high amount of devices on unlimited.

I do, although it's actually 19% of AT&T customers with smartphones, not 19% of all 120m AT&T customers.

I was specifically commenting on your thought that "most customers aren't on tiered plans", which seemed to be in reply to macher's comment about his AT&T store telling him that most customers were on tiered plans (which turns out to be a true statement).

 

[Applejuiced]

I do, although it's actually 19% of AT&T customers with smartphones, not 19% of all 120m AT&T customers.

I was specifically commenting on your thought that "most customers aren't on tiered plans", which seemed to be in reply to macher's comment about his AT&T store telling him that most customers were on tiered plans (which turns out to be a true statement).

Either way up or down its still a high number of subscribers and nothing to snub about though.

 

[cousintim]

Many, if not most, Unlimited customers are not a burden to the AT&T network. I average about 2GB a month and very rarely ever gone above 5GB (and I've never been throttled).

 

[canucksfan88]

My 2cents - you don't have to agree with it.

When AT&T first rolled out their "unlimited" data plans, they had no idea how much data usage would spike in the future. At that point, the iPhone was the only "major" phone on the market that consumed data - blackberries were compressed and everything else was a dumb phone.

Fast forward 7 years and pretty much everyone has a smart phone - granted network infrastructure and technology has advanced, but IMO, unlimited plans should be phased out.

Pay for what you use. I have no problem with data being throttled, and am for it. If you are on an "unlimited" plan, and are tethering off it and downloading 30+ gb as I have seen people post, I am all for throttling.

That being said. I agree with FCC not allowing companies to throttle based on OTT services such as Netflix.

 

[cousintim]

1. Steve Jobs had a tremendous amount of "influence" with AT&T on its iPhone marketing and on how service for it was priced. My guess is he wouldn't have been a fan of data buckets and tiers.
   
2. Unlimited plans do not allow tethering.

Strategically as a business, AT&T wanted to decrease the percentage of customers on Unlimited plans. It has been very successful in doing so and is very satisfied with the current mix and the trend downward.

 

[macher]

I do, although it's actually 19% of AT&T customers with smartphones, not 19% of all 120m AT&T customers.

I was specifically commenting on your thought that "most customers aren't on tiered plans", which seemed to be in reply to macher's comment about his AT&T store telling him that most customers were on tiered plans (which turns out to be a true statement).

Yep a vast majority are on tiered plans. 19% of AT&T customers with smartphones are still on unlimited plans and the numbers will keep growing people moving from unlimited to tiered. In fact I know 3 people who recently moved their family plans from unlimited to mobile share.

Wouldn't be worth it for my family plan. Each of us use an average of 5GB/month x 4. The only thing that mobile share offers is tethering and we have never been in a situation where we wanted or needed to tether.

 

[cousintim]

Wouldn't be worth it for my family plan. Each of us use an average of 5GB/month x 4.

That's very surprising. How much total are you paying now for four lines? Mobile Share is normally cheaper for 4+ lines, even for heavy data users.

 

[HDFan]

tidalhifi eats up your data extremely quickly

When the iPhone 6+ came out I considered ditching my unlimited plan for Consumer Cellular. Best service according to Consumer Reports, uses AT&T network, and you can tailor the plan to pay for what you actually use. I have like 2 hours of call time over 2 years so there was no reason to pay $40 a month for unlimited calling. My data usage was also very low, maybe 1 GB a month.

But I finally decided not to give it up and that turned out to be a good decision. Tidalhifi (high bandwidth streaming audio, about 1422 kbps) is now available in the U.S. and in 11 days I've gone through 4.2 GB of data (streaming to my car speakers via bluetooth) while driving. And I don't commute!

 

[JrFreak]

I just canned AT&T and my unlimited plan and went with Verizon. I got sick of waiting.

 

[macher]

That's very surprising. How much total are you paying now for four lines? Mobile Share is normally cheaper for 4+ lines, even for heavy data users.

$217 with taxes.

 

[cousintim]

$217 with taxes.

As I said, that is surprising (and unusual).

 

[macher]

As I said, that is surprising (and unusual).

I get a very good employee discount not only on the primary line but each unlimited line gets the discount. The only thing we don't have is tethering. We haven't been in situations where we wanted or needed to tether. The throttling isn't as bad as people make it out to be. If and when I get throttled it never feels like my iPhone 6 is crippled. It does feel slower but not like 'holy crap this sucks' because you still get LTE pings.

 

[Applejuiced]

That's very surprising. How much total are you paying now for four lines? Mobile Share is normally cheaper for 4+ lines, even for heavy data users.

$189 with taxes.
Unlimited talk, text and unlimited iPhone data on 3 out of 4 lines.
1 line has a flip phone with no data.
And full subsidies on all 4 lines.
29% discount code.

 

[TECHNOLOGE]

..and risk losing millions and millions of their customers? I think more people are still on this plan than people realize. Do people forget how many millions of people flocked to AT&T when the first iPhone came out for all those years? That would be bad press and PR to just give people the middle finger like that and take away their unlimited data plans. Investors wouldn't like this move. They told me I "HAD" to have this unlimited data plan When I signed up in 2008. Now all the sudden the plan is too good and they want to take it away?? No way this would ever happen...... Look at Verizon, they caved to customer pressure and decided to not only allow grandfathered Verizon unlimited plans, but they decided not to throttle LTE customers as well.

Verizon tried to pull a fast one, and the FCC caught it. It was a little over 2 years ago Verizon purchased Block C 700 MHZ (Public Airwaves), but before the purchase the FCC had some rules saying, Verizon is unable to deny, limit or restrict customers from using this Block C (There 4G LTE Network) or any applications they choose to use in the Play or App store etc. So later on they tried to throttle, knowing they agreed not to and the FCC slapped there hand like a mother to a child, and Verizon sat down.

Doesn't matter if you think it's classy or not. It's their network, and they will run it as they see fit. If you don't like it, move over to T-Mobile or Sprint. I guess I don't understand why you would complain about a company, when there are multiple choices??

Sprint does not have good coverage and there network quality is not that good, T-Mobile has improved on there network a lot, but there build out is not as good as ATT.

ATT coverage is good, so if i know i have a provider that i have unlimited data on, and there coverage is good, so where ever i go I'am covered, of course i would be upset if they limit what i can use on the network.

My 2cents - you don't have to agree with it.

When AT&T first rolled out their "unlimited" data plans, they had no idea how much data usage would spike in the future. At that point, the iPhone was the only "major" phone on the market that consumed data - blackberries were compressed and everything else was a dumb phone.

Fast forward 7 years and pretty much everyone has a smart phone - granted network infrastructure and technology has advanced, but IMO, unlimited plans should be phased out.

Pay for what you use. I have no problem with data being throttled, and am for it. If you are on an "unlimited" plan, and are tethering off it and downloading 30+ gb as I have seen people post, I am all for throttling.

That being said. I agree with FCC not allowing companies to throttle based on OTT services such as Netflix.

So you would agree if ATT tells you that they will limit the quality of your calls on your Unlimited Calling plan and you would be forced to pay per minute if you want good call quality?

It really is not right, you can't offer something when its profitable for you, then when it is not as profitable as it was before, start limiting the customers who got it when it was.

A good marketing team would be trying new to things to make the customer want to get off the plan, not force someone off, it makes ATT look like a bully.

 

[T0MMYBOY4]

This sheds some light....

This article sheds some light to what I was looking for.... Even if the answer isn't in our favor for those of us that still have the Grandfathered unlimited data plan. http://arstechnica.com/business/201...mited-data-and-fcc-isnt-promising-to-stop-it/

 

[T0MMYBOY4]

It's about time !

After much wait, the hard throttle cap has finally been lifted. Per this article, http://arstechnica.com/information-...s-down-throttling-of-unlimited-lte-customers/ AT&T has changed its policy and now only throttles when you are connected to a congested cell tower. I live in a small town (not a lot of cell traffic) and I'm downloading a bunch of HD video/movies trying to reach the 5gb limit to see if they still throttle or not. I'll report back in a few days.

 

[Michael Goff]

Verizon tried to pull a fast one, and the FCC caught it. It was a little over 2 years ago Verizon purchased Block C 700 MHZ (Public Airwaves), but before the purchase the FCC had some rules saying, Verizon is unable to deny, limit or restrict customers from using this Block C (There 4G LTE Network) or any applications they choose to use in the Play or App store etc. So later on they tried to throttle, knowing they agreed not to and the FCC slapped there hand like a mother to a child, and Verizon sat down.



Sprint does not have good coverage and there network quality is not that good, T-Mobile has improved on there network a lot, but there build out is not as good as ATT.

ATT coverage is good, so if i know i have a provider that i have unlimited data on, and there coverage is good, so where ever i go I'am covered, of course i would be upset if they limit what i can use on the network.



So you would agree if ATT tells you that they will limit the quality of your calls on your Unlimited Calling plan and you would be forced to pay per minute if you want good call quality?

It really is not right, you can't offer something when its profitable for you, then when it is not as profitable as it was before, start limiting the customers who got it when it was.

A good marketing team would be trying new to things to make the customer want to get off the plan, not force someone off, it makes ATT look like a bully.

Phone calls take practically nothing to do.