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My idea for AT&T unlimited

A

ag29

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 7, 2014
284
85
Concerning AT&T, the 5Gb limit per month is very much on the low side. Especially considering it's per line and you can't share a pool of data with other people on the plan.

As you may know, if you have a bunch of people transmitting lots of data on a tower, it will get congested and cause everyone around them to have slow speeds and this is why I don't think it's fair for people to use a couple dozens of GB in a day. But if you spread out (for example) 100 GB of data into a month and only use 3.3GB data a day, then it's no big deal for the towers and it doesn't congest them.

My idea: I think it would be much better to have a limit of 5GB per day, If you use more, you get throttled for the day and you get unthrottled as soon as the clock resets to 12, this way towers do not get congested and it still provides a sense of unlimited. If you really think about it, it's like having 150 GB a month, but of course you're not going to be using the full 5GB every day.
 
dukebound85 said:
lol 5 gigs a day
Click to expand...

Much better than their 5 gigs a month don't ya think? :p

I highly doubt they're going to stop throttling unlimited plans and give everyone with them "truly" unlimited data just because the FTC is suing them. Even if they do, it's likely to be a long battle and they may get rid of unlimited all together in the future.

AT&T's defense is to giving people unlimited is "towers would get severely congested", with my idea their defense would not work because people would not be using over 5GB a day.

It would be good if they adapted an idea like this in the meantime and see how the feedback is. I bet a lot of people would be satisfied as it is much better than their current system now.
 
ag29 said:
Much better than their 5 gigs a month don't ya think? :p

I highly doubt they're going to stop throttling unlimited plans and give everyone with them "truly" unlimited data just because the FTC is suing them. Even if they do, it's likely to be a long battle and they may get rid of unlimited all together in the future.

AT&T's defense is to giving people unlimited is "towers would get severely congested", with my idea their defense would not work because people would not be using over 5GB a day.

It would be good if they adapted an idea like this in the meantime and see how the feedback is. I bet a lot of people would be satisfied as it is much better than their current system now.
Click to expand...

To put that into perspective, 5GB is about 10 hours of 720p video. No way the current infrastructure could handle that every single day.
 
5GB a DAY?

Not gonna happen.

Why not just let people use the service and set it up so that every time congestion crops up, all the unlimited data folks in the congested area get throttled before anyone paying for a specific data amount gets throttled?
 
Well, unlimited means unlimited to me.

I read that AT&T is getting sued for misleading customers on their unlimited data plans.
 
I have an honest question, why do you think it's fair that you get to put 5gb of strain on the tower when most of us use maybe 100-200 mb a day? We are all paying for LTE and if your insane usage impedes our speeds then how can you justify being able to do so? Especially since anyone who racks up over a gb a day is more than likely using it as home internet rather than mobile internet.

Yes I understand it's atts fault for advertising "truly unlimited". But for you to expect 5gb a day (assuming it affects the rest of our speeds) is just ridiculous. If it doesn't affect us then as usual the big corporation is wrong. But we just can't live without what they're selling can we?
 
I know many of you do not watch Fox Nes but they had a segment, yesterday, and it was about law suit reaching the higher courts where ATT is being sue for the unlimited plan thing. Their case is that when people originally signed up for Unlimited, they were not informed that it was limited in any way.

Depending on how this shakes out, ATT might be forced to provide truly unlimited service and compensate users who were or are getting throttled.

i am not sure if it is allowed to post this URL but just Google ATT Unlimited Lawsuit.
 
5 GB a day :eek:

I barely use 2GB a month. Since bandwidth is not free, how do you recommend that ATT pay for such extravagant settings? No doubt, they'd pass that on to the consumer and I'd rather not pay that much money for something I'll never use
 
stonyboys said:
I have an honest question, why do you think it's fair that you get to put 5gb of strain on the tower when most of us use maybe 100-200 mb a day? We are all paying for LTE and if your insane usage impedes our speeds then how can you justify being able to do so? Especially since anyone who racks up over a gb a day is more than likely using it as home internet rather than mobile internet.



Yes I understand it's atts fault for advertising "truly unlimited". But for you to expect 5gb a day (assuming it affects the rest of our speeds) is just ridiculous. If it doesn't affect us then as usual the big corporation is wrong. But we just can't live without what they're selling can we?
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Are you kidding me? I am paying for my data just like you are. My data package says unlimited, and yours has some kind of cap on it. 5BG, 10GB, 20GB, or whatever you choose. So just because I am unlimited does not mean I should not be able to use my data the way I choose. If it slows down other people. Well I guess that's AT&T problem right?

So let's say you have a 10GB plan. You are near the end of the billing cycle and you still have 3GB left. Your power goes out and all you have is your phone. You want to watch some Netflix. Everyone else in the area wants to do the same, but you still have 3GB of data so you can keep watching for a while. If some of the customers are unlimited, and because of your usage it slows down their speeds before they are throttled. How is that right? Just because you paid for the capped data package makes you no more special. You are suggesting because you pay for a capped data plan you should never have your speeds reduced because of bottlenecking the tower.

We pay for data just like you. Ours happens to be unlimited, and that meant unlimited when we got it. AT&T has just convinced you that some how we are the problem, and you are some how special because you picked a plan that rips you off more than our plan. I should get just as my speed as you do.
 
Newtons Apple said:
I know many of you do not watch Fox Nes but they had a segment, yesterday, and it was about law suit reaching the higher courts where ATT is being sue for the unlimited plan thing. Their case is that when people originally signed up for Unlimited, they were not informed that it was limited in any way.

Depending on how this shakes out, ATT might be forced to provide truly unlimited service and compensate users who were or are getting throttled.

i am not sure if it is allowed to post this URL but just Google ATT Unlimited Lawsuit.
Click to expand...

They'll just drop unlimited coverage. They may give people a small bill credit or some such if they lose this case, but they won't continue offering unlimited coverage unless they can raise the price so high as to make it completely undesirable.

No way they'll start giving people as many GB of unthrottled data as they want per month for 30 bucks.
 
bunnicula said:
They'll just drop unlimited coverage. They may give people a small bill credit or some such if they lose this case, but they won't continue offering unlimited coverage unless they can raise the price so high as to make it completely undesirable.

No way they'll start giving people as many GB of unthrottled data as they want per month for 30 bucks.
Click to expand...

I am not saying that AT&T will be forced to do anything.

Just bringing attention to the fact that ATT Unlimited is about ready to see it's day in court!
 
What a great idea! (sarcasm) AT&T can so afford to give 150GB per month, considering some peoples broadband caps are even less than that a month.

5GB per month should be enough for 70-80% of people on that plan, unless you're steaming a ton of videos you'll never, ever go over 5GB a day, unlikely to even go over 1GB a day.

I myself barely use 1GB per month.
 
Newtons Apple said:
I am not saying that AT&T will be forced to do anything.

Just bringing attention to the fact that ATT Unlimited is about ready to see it's day in court!
Click to expand...

Yeah. I think it's good that they're being called out for throttling.

I never understood why they deliberately throttled at 5GB instead of just throttling when demand was high.
 
bmac4 said:
Are you kidding me? I am paying for my data just like you are. My data package says unlimited, and yours has some kind of cap on it. 5BG, 10GB, 20GB, or whatever you choose. So just because I am unlimited does not mean I should not be able to use my data the way I choose. If it slows down other people. Well I guess that's AT&T problem right?

So let's say you have a 10GB plan. You are near the end of the billing cycle and you still have 3GB left. Your power goes out and all you have is your phone. You want to watch some Netflix. Everyone else in the area wants to do the same, but you still have 3GB of data so you can keep watching for a while. If some of the customers are unlimited, and because of your usage it slows down their speeds before they are throttled. How is that right? Just because you paid for the capped data package makes you no more special. You are suggesting because you pay for a capped data plan you should never have your speeds reduced because of bottlenecking the tower.

We pay for data just like you. Ours happens to be unlimited, and that meant unlimited when we got it. AT&T has just convinced you that some how we are the problem, and you are some how special because you picked a plan that rips you off more than our plan. I should get just as my speed as you do.
Click to expand...

I actually agree with you 100%. We should both be getting what we paid for. If AT&T can't provide that then they shouldn't be promising it to paying customers. Hopefully this lawsuit actually does something and either they give you what you agreed to pay for, or they pay you to cancel the contract.
 
stonyboys said:
I actually agree with you 100%. We should both be getting what we paid for. If AT&T can't provide that then they shouldn't be promising it to paying customers. Hopefully this lawsuit actually does something and either they give you what you agreed to pay for, or they pay you to cancel the contract.
Click to expand...


Ok I thought at first you were saying if unlimited customers cost capped customers. It was not right. I think AT&T is to blame, and should work on their network. There is no way unlimited customers are killing it for everyone. I have seen more slow down in my data speeds since they started capped data plans.
 
yg17 said:
Low side?

I have 4 smart phones and an iPad on a mobile share plan and together we don't even use 5 gigs a month.
Click to expand...

Yes very much low side. I drive all day every day for work. I don't have access to wifi unless I'm in the office or at home. I hit my 5gb cap about 1.5 weeks into my billing cycle and I'm not streaming any movies, music etc. I check email, texts, web browsing and the occasional funny video or pic from friends. I also only do updates, apps while at home on wifi to preserve 5gb of unlimited data. 5gb is on the low side especially when at offers 100gb plans if your willing to pay for it. So if 100gb isn't congesting the network how are the top 5% of heavy unlimited data users" at 5gb congesting it? That's right, they aren't. Att just wants more money from the unlimited data users.
 
Newtons Apple said:
I know many of you do not watch Fox Nes but they had a segment, yesterday, and it was about law suit reaching the higher courts where ATT is being sue for the unlimited plan thing. Their case is that when people originally signed up for Unlimited, they were not informed that it was limited in any way.
Click to expand...

lol at "fox nes" I'm sure their "fair and balanced" reporting is fantastic
 
mad3inch1na said:
To put that into perspective, 5GB is about 10 hours of 720p video. No way the current infrastructure could handle that every single day.
Click to expand...

So... If millions of people are on 20gb or 30gb monthly plans and they use 5gb in one day then what? If people had access to 5gb a day there are many, many people who would hardly use any of that. There would be some balance to it.
 
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