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Sprint Throttles Top 1% of Data Users, No "Truly Unlimited" Data For US iPhone Users [Updated x2]

In other news that might shock many of the same people who cannot believe that "unlimited data" doesn't mean your data speed is also unlimited...

  • "All you can eat" does NOT literally mean you can keep eating forever.
  • "Healthy food" does NOT mean you'll get healthy eating tons of it.
  • "Money back guarantee" does NOT apply to every situation.
  • "Learn a skill" in the military does NOT usually mean something that applies to civilan life.
  • "Plus! If you call and order now..." does NOT mean you're getting a special deal by calling right away.
  • "And boy did we patent it" does NOT mean the patents will stop anyone else.
 
I could care less about speed, I need unlimited data...
mail
 
adversus said:
Original ATT is still "Unlimited" isn't it? I use tons of data a month and haven't noticed any throttling from them.
Click to expand...

Well one of the lines on my account uses about 10 GB a month and they are being throttled constantly.
 
blitzspear said:
I'm on the three network on my iPhone 4S in the UK and find USA plans so expensive.

I pay about $50 a month for the three unlimited plan. I get 2000 any network minutes, 5000 three to three minutes and 5000 texts per month plus unlimited data on their 'all you can eat' plan.

Three in the UK have said that 97% of their network traffic is data and last month I experienced my home broadband being down due to a telco cabling issue.

I tethered my iMac to my iPhone and continued for almost a week. In that time i downloaded / used 105GB of data without a problem.

I occasionally tether to my iPhone as i get 8mb download speeds on that, where as in my rural area i only get 2mb on my home broadband.

I think the term 'unlimited' is banded about a lot but few networks actually honour it, although so far it does appear three's advertisement as the 'only unlimited 3G network in the UK' is actually for real.

I tend to stream more media now direct on my iPhone and typically will use 5GB-10GB a week on data.

Blitz
Click to expand...

How many minutes do you get for free in France? And Belgium? And Greece? And Poland? And Russia? And Turkey?

Because in the USA we can cover that much distance and much, much more, all without paying an additional dime. You guys are getting ripped off big time.
 
I love how all the tech sites reported the same incorrect article. What's worse Dow Jones for the screw up and misquote, or all the tech sites for following along and not doing their due diligence to get the facts?
 
jedolley said:
I love how all the tech sites reported the same incorrect article. What's worse Dow Jones for the screw up and misquote, or all the tech sites for following along and not doing their due diligence to get the facts?
Click to expand...
If everyone quotes one source, it must be true? :rolleyes:

It is distressing to see how far "everyday is repost day" is turning into the standard just to grab hits from the local community.
 
Eidorian said:
>yahoofinance

Are we talking about Semiaccurate level news being passed off into the financial feeds? This is really unsettling. I brought it up the last time Charlie was on Page 1 of Macrumors.
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That link is a NYTimes article about how the top 1% of users take up 50% of data usage. Not sure what you are getting at with your question?

This is very relevant, even though we now learn that the lead post on this thread was a mistake, to the issue. "The 99% (TM)" would argue that any time a small part of the population takes up such a huge proportion of resources, there is a problem. In this case it is actually true. The 99% are paying higher fees simply to support a porn/movie piracy/youtube habit of the 1%. That should stop, and the sooner it does, the sooner the economics of wireless bandwith will become normal and possible.
 
cameronjpu said:
This is very relevant, even though we now learn that the lead post on this thread was a mistake, to the issue. "The 99% (TM)" would argue that any time a small part of the population takes up such a huge proportion of resources, there is a problem. In this case it is actually true. The 99% are paying higher fees simply to support a porn/movie piracy/youtube habit of the 1%. That should stop, and the sooner it does, the sooner the economics of wireless bandwith will become normal and possible.
Click to expand...
I am sure we could easily spin this into consumption in general...

I doubt you can answer my question but thanks. I have just been assimilating too much information lately.
 
kdarling said:
In other news that might shock many of the same people who cannot believe that "unlimited data" doesn't mean your data speed is also unlimited...

  • "All you can eat" does NOT literally mean you can keep eating forever.
  • "Healthy food" does NOT mean you'll get healthy eating tons of it.
  • "Money back guarantee" does NOT apply to every situation.
  • "Learn a skill" in the military does NOT usually mean something that applies to civilan life.
  • "Plus! If you call and order now..." does NOT mean you're getting a special deal by calling right away.
  • "And boy did we patent it" does NOT mean the patents will stop anyone else.
Click to expand...
Way to support misleading advertising. :rolleyes:
 
T-Mobile is ok with me

I don't know if it's unlimited, but I did 6 gigs of T-Mobile data last month, albeit at Edge speed. No Mr. Throttle. $50/month flat fee on an unlocked iPhone.
 
vitzr said:
It was only a matter of time. Sprint just doesn't have the resources. They're in over their heads.
Click to expand...

I'm laughing at you... and the other 100 posts before they updated the article.

When will anyone ever learn to fact check? No offense to macrumors, but it's essentially a big blog. MR doesn't claim to be a journalistic site, but the places they quote do... and they're often in error or wrong.

----------
pmz said:
Well one of the lines on my account uses about 10 GB a month and they are being throttled constantly.
Click to expand...

AT&T throttles the top 5% of data consumers. They don't hide the fact. If you're getting throttled, you really are a data hog considering they have what, close to 100 million subscribers?

Are you using it as your only internet source or something? Because that's a lot of data for a mobile device.

I don't get why a wireless company can't provide unlimited data aside from the greed factor though. Yeah, spectrum and congestion can be issues... but LTE has the potential to be a one stop internet source. I think people would highly consider dropping DSL or something for unlimited LTE if the coverage were good where they lived. It really doesn't cost them the money they cry and claim it does.
 
This really should be no surprise to anyone.

My questions are why so soon? Are they really already having issues?
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/9A405)

Update: As pointed out by TechCrunch, Dow Jones seems to have misinterpreted Hesse. The throttling only applies to customers who use excessive data while roaming on partnered networks -- "a guy in his house in rural Montana" for example. Sprint's fine print notes the carrier will begin throttling after 300 MB of "off-network" data usage.

I don't see why people are having a fit. If you purposely take advantage of anything you're going to have consequences. Also it clearly states that you have to be roaming and watching multiple Netflix movies (etc.) to be throttled.
 
It's still unlimited. Throttling the data speed doesn't change that. You just get to unlimited slower. They still aren't charging you for going over. The whole point of the plan.


Unless some carrier starts advertising "Unlimited Data at 5mbs" no one has a place to complain.

Get over it.
 
MacAddict1978 said:
1) I'm laughing at you...

2) When will anyone ever learn to fact check?

3) No offense to macrumors, but it's essentially a big blog.

4) MR doesn't claim to be a journalistic site, but the places they quote do... and they're often in error or wrong.
Click to expand...

1a) I'm flattered, at least you have a sense of humor.

2a) Fact Check, oh heck that takes all the fun out of it.

3a) Say whatever you want, but I find MacRumors a terrific site.

4a) No one is perfect, besides it'd be very boring if they were.
 
Random open or guessable wifi networks = truly unlimited data :D
Seriously, phone companies are ripoff artists. Pay for tethering? I already have to pay for the data, fool, so I want to use it! Pay extra/separate for texting? Why does it cost so much (sometimes more than 3G) to send a few bytes of text?
 
"T-Mobile claims they're unlimited, but use your phone a lot and they slow down your data speed. With Sprint you don't get charged extra, you DON'T SLOW DOWN"

Even 1% means that you COULD get slowed down. Hope they get charged with false advertisement.
 
george-brooks said:
"T-Mobile claims they're unlimited, but use your phone a lot and they slow down your data speed. With Sprint you don't get charged extra, you DON'T SLOW DOWN"

Even 1% means that you COULD get slowed down. Hope they get charged with false advertisement.
Click to expand...

Slowed down is still unlimited. The MR title for this thread is just an attention-grabber and is shameful.
 
faroZ06 said:
Slowed down is still unlimited. The MR title for this thread is just an attention-grabber and is shameful.
Click to expand...

Sure it is, Sprint is the underdog and doesn't deserve too much s*** for doing something the big boys do every day. But if you're gunna say that in an ad, you better back it up. This ad has been on the air for a while now, but I don't think it should stay on air with this new news.
 
george-brooks said:
Sure it is, Sprint is the underdog and doesn't deserve too much s*** for doing something the big boys do every day. But if you're gunna say that in an ad, you better back it up. This ad has been on the air for a while now, but I don't think it should stay on air with this new news.
Click to expand...

What ad, "truly unlimited"? It IS unlimited (but it sucks).
Or did they claim that they do not throttle?
 
abbstrack said:
anyody think we don't need a consumer advocate?
Click to expand...

This is good news for most consumers. Those guys slowing us all down with YouTube and stuff are going to be limited on their data usage. By "us", I mean Sprint users, which I am not, but I'm speaking (advocating) for them.

Now we need to get our school to block Skype...stupid p2p...
 
Roofy. said:
NOPE. I have ATT, have been grandfathered in from the 3GS with unlimited, and they are throttling my data. I used to get 3-4 megs on the speed test app. Now my download is at .1-.15 megs. That is ridiculous. Needless to say I am furious with them. Going to drop their ****** network when the 5 comes out, refuse to pay their ****** cancelation fee and jump to Verizon who atleast allows a better plan.

ATT starts throttling at a pathetic 2 gigs a month. Verizon has data plans of 2,5, and 10 gigs. That is much better than the measly 2 gigs from ATT.
Click to expand...

I've been reading a lot recently that AT&T is throttling unlimited plans around 2 gigs. Isn't it interesting that their new top tier just happens to be 2 gigs? They can't cancel your 'unlimited' contract so they just throttle you back to the same limits.
 
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