So I'm among the top 5% of wireless data users

[mikethebigo]

Rant, whine and stamp your feet because you don't think you're getting what you're paying for, but post your class envy, socialist drivel somewhere else and leave economics to the grown ups who understand why companies make the decisions they do.

ATT is far from perfect, but one thing no company does, unlike people, is make business decisions because 'they are just lazy'. They make them for financial reasons. Acquiring TMobile would give them this network access and capacity now, not 5 or 10 years from now if ATT built out their own network. That's one reason they'd pay a premium for TMobile. ATT was also going to bring a call center currently overseas back to the US, i.e., more jobs in the states.

I don't think class envy and socialist drivel mean what you think they mean (if you feel they were included anywhere in the text you quoted). Maybe you should leave the big words for the grown-ups.

 

[jesusplay]

If you're in the top 5% I am in the top 1%

 

[TC25]

I don't think class envy and socialist drivel mean what you think they mean (if you feel they were included anywhere in the text you quoted). Maybe you should leave the big words for the grown-ups.

Congrats on ignoring the economics/business decision information in my post. Typical.

Here's the 'drivel' from your post you couldn't seem to recall. Yes, their profits are so large, they should 'be doing more'. Many business decisions come down to 'buy or build'. ATT chose to buy, but since you clearly have vast experience in running a global company, I'll defer to your wisdom.

EDIT: Please post how much money it takes to build out a network and how long it would take so we can all be certain ATT made the wrong decision.

...but honestly, if you look at AT&T's BILLIONS of profit, there's no way they couldn't be doing more.

 

[mikethebigo]

Congrats on ignoring the economics/business decision information in my post. Typical.

Here's the 'drivel' from your post you couldn't seem to recall. Yes, their profits are so large, they should 'be doing more'. Many business decisions come down to 'buy or build'. ATT chose to buy, but since you clearly have vast experience in running a global company, I'll defer to your wisdom.

EDIT: Please post how much money it takes to build out a network and how long it would take so we can all be certain ATT made the wrong decision.

Sorry bro, you don't get a pass on using stupid insults just because you made a fair business point later in the post. What I said was not related to either economic class issues or socialism. That's what I was pointing out. If you're going to try to pass as more intelligent than the rest of us, do us a favor and avoid the talking point insults.

As a matter of fact, I agree that I don't know all the details. I don't know how much it costs AT&T to expand their network. Obviously both Deutche Telecom and AT&T feel that the buyout is the fastest and cheapest way to expand their network (and for Deutche Telecom, to get out of the US business).

All I have is personal observation that leads to personal opinion, and last I checked, there's no problem with having one of those. Verizon built out their network, invested in it, expanded it, and now they don't seem to be having any of the same spectrum or bandwidth issues and are well on the way to fully deploying LTE. All I see is that AT&T is posting huge profits and is simply not keeping up.

It may be very possible that the T-Mobile towers are the fastest way to efficiently upgrade their network now, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. The whole merger smells of the same monopoly that the government had to take down just 2 decades ago.

 

[vistadude]

Only 84 minutes used and you buy a 1400 minute plan?

Ha, I have the 450 minute plan and routinely use 3500 minutes and another 2000 on skype. I guess that's about 90% of my data usage.

If you're in the top 5% I am in the top 1%

Image

 

[kleinias]

So what?

Can you show me what part of the contract that I'm currently under where my unlimited 3G data plan is capped at a specific number? Did the meaning of the word "unlimited" change overnight and I wasn't told? Correct me if I am wrong, but a meaning of the word "unlimited" is "without limit". So I should be able to consume all I want, correct?

Throttling back users' speeds is just a way of limiting an unlimited plan.

It's almost as if you misunderstood your own question. You asked "why is there a cap or even reduced speeds for an unlimited 3G data plan?" You didn't ask "can they do this?," or "should they do this?" They do not want you (for a variety of reasons) using 20GB+ of data on your phone in one month. That is the answer to your question. It's also pretty clear that they can throttle your data speeds and still claim that you have unlimited data.

What is not so clear is how they are "capping" your data? Throttling and capping are two distinctly different things.

 

[iMikeT]

Lets go what a reasonable person considers all you can generally means all you can eat at 1 meal. That would be 60 mins max really. When you start hitting the 2 hour + market something are clearly wrong and hit a 2nd meal I do not think anyone would think it is unreasonable for you to be kicked out.

It is all models.

In this sense AT&T is still proving you with exactly what they promised. Unlimited data. No where did they promise you a speed. If you want to argue with me reason your contract and the advertising. You will find no where a promised speed or unlimited related to said speed. Sprint is the only carrier making said claim on their unlimited on max speed.

I though AT&T should of done this on day one when this came up. Throttle the worse offenders.

Also you can threaten to leave AT&T and they will tell you not to let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. You cost them money. They are not making profit off you. Instead they will make you someone else problem. T-Mobile honestly have the best model I feel. You pay for 3G speeds for the first X amount of data.




My guess is edge speeds. That is just fine for surfing the web and checking email but not so good for streaming internet. Heck I would not be opposed to them dumping them all into 1 group of abusers that get say 1% of the towers max speed but it is shared among that group so the more abusers there are on a given tower the slower they hurt each other. They are all trapped in that 1-2% area and do not effect everyone else using the tower correctly.

Potāto, potato; tomāto, tomato. You'll view my unlimited usage to be unreasonable while I think it is well within reason. Read post #15 of this thread [again], carefully this time, where I state my reasoning.

And as bgro eloquently points out, we're obviously going to be having a difference of opinion about this issue.

As far as AT&T making a profit goes, they make money off me, or any other customer, regardless, no matter how you spin it. You should read the email that I received about being in the 5% club where they make a sales pitch for me to buy a more expensive capped data plan in order to keep the speed consistent. I'm too tired to go over where this would lead to if I go through the logic of where this goes at the moment. But if you reply to this saying that you're right and I'm wrong or something along those lines, I might share some of my wisdom with you and perhaps enlighten you with that very wisdom.

I think the problem with this argument is that there is a lot of subjectiveness is what "reasonable" data usage is.

Do you think it's reasonable to stream 4 hours of music and 50 minutes of video (at lunch) a day if you're working a desk job? That doesn't seem so unreasonable to me. That usage in itself is almost 6.5GB of data according to the AT&T data calculator. Throw in all the other normal monthly usage (email, social networking, web browsing, downloading apps, etc) and you can easily hit 8-10GB of data.

I'm not saying that this usage is reasonable or unreasonable. i'm just saying that 10GB can be EASILY hit just by doing a few hours of streaming service a day (which is not unreasonable imo). It's not just people tethering as only internet connection or downloading insane amounts of movies, torrents, etc that are being "unreasonable".

Well said.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

Potāto, potato; tomāto, tomato. You'll view my unlimited usage to be unreasonable while I think it is well within reason. Read post #15 of this thread [again], carefully this time, where I state my reasoning.

And as bgro eloquently points out, we're obviously going to be having a difference of opinion about this issue.
.

yeah I read it. It is crap.

1-2G is not what you call light eaters. At most they are normal eaters. 5g people are heavy eaters.

if you want to go threw with it say at all you can eat after you get 2 platefuls of food they give you a smaller plate. Still all you can eat but they greatly slow down how fast you can eat.

You are complaining because you are going well over 5gigs and I am willing to bet good money that crossing 5gigs puts you in the less than 1% category. I am willing to believe the telicoms when they say 90+% of the data is going to be suck down by less than 1-2% of the users. Big time after data usage reports I have seen from some IT guys in there work field. Almost all of there total data could be traced back to very few people.

You are an abuser. All AT&T and others are doing is slowing you down so you do not hurt everyone else.

Also your contract never promises speed. Nor did they EVER advertise unlimited data at 3G speeds. It was always unlimited data but look at the works it was never promised unlimited at max speed.

Also as I said before you can threaten to leave and all AT&T will say is "do not the door hit you in the ass on the way out" Those 1%ers AT&T and other telicoms really do not want. You all cost them money.

 

[iMikeT]

Rant, whine and stamp your feet because you don't think you're getting what you're paying for, but post your class envy, socialist drivel somewhere else and leave economics to the grown ups who understand why companies make the decisions they do.

ATT is far from perfect, but one thing no company does, unlike people, is make business decisions because 'they are just lazy'. They make them for financial reasons. Acquiring TMobile would give them this network access and capacity now, not 5 or 10 years from now if ATT built out their own network. That's one reason they'd pay a premium for TMobile. ATT was also going to bring a call center currently overseas back to the US, i.e., more jobs in the states.

Argar largar.

You are more than welcome to think that you know business and economics in your armchair in the basement of your parents' home. If you want to go ahead and try to win this internet argument, go ahead you won. I'm too tired at the moment and don't really have the desire to compete in the special olympics.

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If you're in the top 5% I am in the top 1%

Image

This is what I would say if we were in the same room and you showed that to me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqqGFoASs9s

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yeah I read it. It is crap.

1-2G is not what you call light eaters. At most they are normal eaters. 5g people are heavy eaters.

if you want to go threw with it say at all you can eat after you get 2 platefuls of food they give you a smaller plate. Still all you can eat but they greatly slow down how fast you can eat.

You are complaining because you are going well over 5gigs and I am willing to bet good money that crossing 5gigs puts you in the less than 1% category. I am willing to believe the telicoms when they say 90+% of the data is going to be suck down by less than 1-2% of the users. Big time after data usage reports I have seen from some IT guys in there work field. Almost all of there total data could be traced back to very few people.

You are an abuser. All AT&T and others are doing is slowing you down so you do not hurt everyone else.

Also your contract never promises speed. Nor did they EVER advertise unlimited data at 3G speeds. It was always unlimited data but look at the works it was never promised unlimited at max speed.

Also as I said before you can threaten to leave and all AT&T will say is "do not the door hit you in the ass on the way out" Those 1%ers AT&T and other telicoms really do not want. You all cost them money.

Sorry to hear that you have no respect for wisdom.

 

[TC25]

Argar largar.

You are more than welcome to think that you know business and economics in your armchair in the basement of your parents' home. If you want to go ahead and try to win this internet argument, go ahead you won. I'm too tired at the moment and don't really have the desire to compete in the special olympics.

It is tiring defending the undefendable. You're good at running away when you lose. Bye.

 

[goosnarrggh]

When I think of unreasonable use of 3G wireless data, I think in terms of 220GB per month. That kind of usage means streaming data every waking moment during a billing cycle. Again, my 10GB of "heavy use" is well within reason compared to 220GB.

You're not even in the right ballpark. 220 GB per month is considered very close to the "heavy use" threshold for a fibre-optic landline that feeds directly into one single family dwelling.

A shared-access medium such as HSPA+ is a totally different ballgame than a fibre optic landline.

To reflect the true cost of installing and maintaining enough capacity to give a dedicated 12Mbps link, 24/7, to every individual cell phone customer everywhere in the USA without compromising any other customer's equal access to their own dedicated 12 Mbps link, amortized over, say 20 years or so, your data bill wouldn't be anywhere near $30 per month. Start somewhere closer to $3000 per month and we can discuss the give-and-take.

What I don't get is why is it that I can't get what I am paying for, truly unlimited data...

If you're paying $30 per month, then you are not paying for a guaranteed always-12Mbps link. You're paying for a link that will never be shut off (unlimited in time), but there are no guarantees about the average speed you'll be permitted to access through that link.

 

[murdoc158]

You're not even in the right ballpark. 220 GB per month is considered very close to the "heavy use" threshold for a fibre-optic landline that feeds directly into one single family dwelling.

This.

My home data use is capped at 250GB. Verizon is now throttling over 2GB. I get 252GB/month of data combined. This cloud computing and streaming that we all love and are getting shoved down our throats is BS. Until regulations change, we as consumers are the ONLY ones getting screwed!