Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Top five percent of AT&T smartphone usage and Bandwidth throttling
- Thread starter boredandlonely
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
- Status
Of course they do. Why wouldn't they? It would help AT&T and keep their number lower.
Not to mention, it actually ADDs to AT&T's credibility if they are included since they could then say compared to compared to ALL data users instead of just a select few.
But then, if you have a problem if they count the 200MB tier users, wouldn't you have the same complaints with those on any of the tiers? After all, they'll still on restricted and limiting plans being used to throttle an (originally) unrestricted plan.
Call ATT and ask for some sort of compensation for the throttling.
I called ATT a couple of night ago, after my wife got her third throttle warning in three months.
I told the rep about the throttling, at around 2GB per month. She checked it and agreed that it was too low of a point to throttle. I also told her that I average less a 1 GB a month for my whole 3 years with ATT.
The rep suprised me by offering to put unlimited family texting, with mobile to any mobile, at the account level, for only $20. The regular price is $30. That is a $10 a month savings for as long as I'm an ATT customer. There is no expiration date on it.
Here is a pic of it of my online account manager after the change.
Henry
I called ATT a couple of night ago, after my wife got her third throttle warning in three months.
I told the rep about the throttling, at around 2GB per month. She checked it and agreed that it was too low of a point to throttle. I also told her that I average less a 1 GB a month for my whole 3 years with ATT.
The rep suprised me by offering to put unlimited family texting, with mobile to any mobile, at the account level, for only $20. The regular price is $30. That is a $10 a month savings for as long as I'm an ATT customer. There is no expiration date on it.
Here is a pic of it of my online account manager after the change.
Henry
Very cool that they were willing to give you the discount. It's just unfortunate that it doesn't change anything about your wife continuing to be throttled each month.
Sad, but AT&T likely sees the $10 as an even swap since you're paying more than someone with a 2GB plan, but use about the same (or less).
Probably not true. If by average user you mean the arithmetic mean of everybody's usage, it's very likely a large number since the arithmetic mean is not robust to extreme outliers. It's heavily biased towards the largest numbers. Now if you are talking about the median, then it would probably be true. Anyway this is about the top %5, not the average. You sort everybody's usage in descending order and look at the usage that bounds from the bottom the top 5%.
My wife wants to change over to the 4GB for $45 or 5GB for $50 plan but I've been trying to stop her because I would feel real stupid if I changed over to one of those plans and ATT raised the throttle point.
I have a 3GB MiFi 4G hotspot that I'm letting her use after she gets throttled. I hope that holds her for a little bit.
Henry
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A406 Safari/7534.48.3)
Cyks, If a train traveling westbound leaves the Kansas City, Missouri station at 1:09AM on Thursday morning traveling at an average speed of 90.3 MPH; what time will it arrive in Miami, Florida?
Cyks, If a train traveling westbound leaves the Kansas City, Missouri station at 1:09AM on Thursday morning traveling at an average speed of 90.3 MPH; what time will it arrive in Miami, Florida?
can't even load MAPS to get directions they've slowed it so much. spent 3 hours with the data center and customer support getting the run around. i asked for one of the three things
1 remove the data block so i don't have to go buy a new phone monday so i can use my phone for work (will not be removed before feb 2nd end of billing cycle)
2 let me out of my contract without the early termination fee so that i can go get a phone that isn't restricted so i can resume work.
3. send me a letter or any other form of confirmation, even a text, that they are, indeed, doing this to me. not that they MAY do this to me, but that i am being effected for having used 2.4 gb of data.
they will do none of them. they say 'they cannot' to which i say send me to someone who can do something, and they say no such person exists. anyone know who i can talk to? how to join the class action lawsuit?
they did offer me $25. ****. that.
1 remove the data block so i don't have to go buy a new phone monday so i can use my phone for work (will not be removed before feb 2nd end of billing cycle)
2 let me out of my contract without the early termination fee so that i can go get a phone that isn't restricted so i can resume work.
3. send me a letter or any other form of confirmation, even a text, that they are, indeed, doing this to me. not that they MAY do this to me, but that i am being effected for having used 2.4 gb of data.
they will do none of them. they say 'they cannot' to which i say send me to someone who can do something, and they say no such person exists. anyone know who i can talk to? how to join the class action lawsuit?
they did offer me $25. ****. that.
Ok to clarify.
Based on what the AT&T rep told me when I was talking to her the other night, we are not compared to users on tiered plans. users on on unlimited plans are only being compared to those on unlimited plans. so if there are 100 people remaining on unlimited plans and 95% of those people use less than 100MB then the throttling will begin at 100MB regardless if we are able to download 10GB for the remaining month or not.
Additionally the throttling is to prevent streaming not jailbreak data usage.She said the phone is not designed to stream video continuously on their network (because we all know the AT&T network cannot really support high bandwidth anyways.)
My point about downloading as much data as I can from AT&T is to promote change. If I cannot use my phone to stream Pandora(an Approved app) and use about 3GB-4GB a month then I am going to use more. I am getting screwed I am going to screw them. That was my point. It costs them more money to use 10GB a month for my Bandwidth than 4GB.
And what about those scare tactics with texts warning users approaching 5% if everyone gets that at 1.5GB and 95% stop using their data for fear of throttling and not being able to use it when they need it, but people like us continue we are forced into that 5%. And why the cutoff at 2gb that seems like such an arbitrary number. And now a 3GB plan is available at $30
hmm starts to smell a little fishy. Lets see I am throttled at 2GB so I cannot really download more data, then my usage never goes above 2.5GB and AT&T magically convinces me to switch stating something like "you would be paying the same price and you would not be throttled." Great! Miracle, then I magically start using more data and no more throttling, and all of the sudden I use 3.1GB so I get moved up a tier and whoops $50 for something that used to be $30 and AT&T makes more money.
Always follow the money.
I personally am going to show AT&T that regardless how much they throttle my phone i will still use 10GB a month. F-them
Based on what the AT&T rep told me when I was talking to her the other night, we are not compared to users on tiered plans. users on on unlimited plans are only being compared to those on unlimited plans. so if there are 100 people remaining on unlimited plans and 95% of those people use less than 100MB then the throttling will begin at 100MB regardless if we are able to download 10GB for the remaining month or not.
Additionally the throttling is to prevent streaming not jailbreak data usage.She said the phone is not designed to stream video continuously on their network (because we all know the AT&T network cannot really support high bandwidth anyways.)
My point about downloading as much data as I can from AT&T is to promote change. If I cannot use my phone to stream Pandora(an Approved app) and use about 3GB-4GB a month then I am going to use more. I am getting screwed I am going to screw them. That was my point. It costs them more money to use 10GB a month for my Bandwidth than 4GB.
And what about those scare tactics with texts warning users approaching 5% if everyone gets that at 1.5GB and 95% stop using their data for fear of throttling and not being able to use it when they need it, but people like us continue we are forced into that 5%. And why the cutoff at 2gb that seems like such an arbitrary number. And now a 3GB plan is available at $30
hmm starts to smell a little fishy. Lets see I am throttled at 2GB so I cannot really download more data, then my usage never goes above 2.5GB and AT&T magically convinces me to switch stating something like "you would be paying the same price and you would not be throttled." Great! Miracle, then I magically start using more data and no more throttling, and all of the sudden I use 3.1GB so I get moved up a tier and whoops $50 for something that used to be $30 and AT&T makes more money.
Always follow the money.
I personally am going to show AT&T that regardless how much they throttle my phone i will still use 10GB a month. F-them
Yes Pandora is my culprit too. And Like you Pandora will still play, Barely. Why I am so aggravated is now when I try to use youtube or anything else that uses higher bandwidth I cannot.
That is why I am letting my phone explode with data usage. I was throttled at 2GB yesterday with one week left in my billing cycle. This morning I checked my data usage and I am close to 3GB.
"Unlimited" means "unlimited" regardless of how we use our phones. I commend those that use 20GB by streaming netflix and Hulu+, They are taking advantage of unlimited service. And even people like them should not be throttled. "Unlimited" means "unlimited"
If they wont let me use my phone without this throttling, I will run Netflix and Download huge files all night until They either fix their network problem, remove throttling or allow me to switch to another carrier without any fees.
I urge you to file a complaint with the FCC ... please phone the number listed in the first post on this thread.
~Vaughn~
I think the secret to the best complaint is to say, they oversold their network. They should not be allowed to sign new subscribers until they can survive the existing subscribers.
Since Verizon is also throttling, they shouldn't be allowed to sign new customers either... and since other cellular companies occasionally use their towers, they shouldn't be able to sign new subscribers either. So, basically, your plan would mean that anyone who doesn't currently have a cell phone wouldn't be able to get one nor would anyone with a basic phone be allowed to upgrade to one with a data plan.
Great plan.
That's easy. It will arrive in time to bury the survivors of a plane crash on the Canadian / US border.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A406 Safari/7534.48.3)
Cyks, How are those milk & cookies?
Cyks, How are those milk & cookies?
I don't know what you're smoking but he makes an excellent point. I'm sitting here cracking up reading how all you people are going to contact the FCC on this knowing its not going to get you anywhere. I really don't know what's so hard to comprehend about the fact that AT&T had this in their terms and conditions from day one. And what's even more hard to understand is if you people dislike slow speeds so much then why not switch to a tiered plan or another provider? I'd really love to know how old most of you are... 15, 16, 17? Probably not even paying your own bill. It's not like AT&T just implemented the throttling this week or last month. Its been publicly acknowledged since July???
Seriously - these threads are so pointless and serve NO RELEVANT discussion to the iPhone. Why not post on the AT&T forums where THEY can actually read what you have to say.
I don't know what you're smoking but he makes an excellent point. I'm sitting here cracking up reading how all you people are going to contact the FCC on this knowing its not going to get you anywhere. I really don't know what's so hard to comprehend about the fact that AT&T had this in their terms and conditions from day one. And what's even more hard to understand is if you people dislike slow speeds so much then why not switch to a tiered plan or another provider? I'd really love to know how old most of you are... 15, 16, 17? Probably not even paying your own bill. It's not like AT&T just implemented the throttling this week or last month. Its been publicly acknowledged since July???
Seriously - these threads are so pointless and serve NO RELEVANT discussion to the iPhone. Why not post on the AT&T forums where THEY can actually read what you have to say.
and people like u will sit back and take u know what from att. If enough people bitch about this something will be done but if you passively sit there sucking your thumb then ATT and other carriers will walk all over you and will nickel and dime u to death. But sure go ahead and sit there enjoying your ride into oblivion while others are actually trying to do something about this idiotic policy
I have the unlimited plan and I am obviously fully aware of the throttling and its never an issue. What exactly am I taking from AT&T? And you must be very nieve because every US cell phone provider has millions of angry customers no matter what!!!! Everyone on here fails to mention that Verizon throttles people too.
Idiotic policy??? I actually think its NECESSARY, YES NECESSARY (so go ahead and chew me out) because it stops all these people from downloading 100+GB's a month and ensures a better network experience for me and the other guy not abusing it. Now you'll say well how is 2GB's abusing it? That I agree with you on. In my opinion they should throttle everyone at the same point. For example, everyone everywhere gets throttled at 5GB or 10GB PERIOD. Now you know as well as I do that it was never intended for customers to downloads tons of gigabytes each month.
Once again, if its such an issue SWITCH TO A TIERED PLAN. What is so hard about that? If you don't like how something is, you have the power to change it. You have options.
I don't know what you're smoking but he makes an excellent point. I'm sitting here cracking up reading how all you people are going to contact the FCC on this knowing its not going to get you anywhere. I really don't know what's so hard to comprehend about the fact that AT&T had this in their terms and conditions from day one. And what's even more hard to understand is if you people dislike slow speeds so much then why not switch to a tiered plan or another provider? I'd really love to know how old most of you are... 15, 16, 17? Probably not even paying your own bill. It's not like AT&T just implemented the throttling this week or last month. Its been publicly acknowledged since July???
Seriously - these threads are so pointless and serve NO RELEVANT discussion to the iPhone. Why not post on the AT&T forums where THEY can actually read what you have to say.
I hear you man, minus maybe the age thing, because I don't really know. At absolute best ATT will let those few people left on their unlimited plan cancel without an ETF, maybe also pay out a couple bucks to each of those people. These people can likely welcome being blacklisted from ATT's network for life and then move onto any of the other carriers that now only offer tiered plans. Or, of course, move to Sprint, which is just a terrible thought, coming from personal experience.
Seriously - these threads are so pointless and serve NO RELEVANT discussion to the iPhone.
No ... it's relevant to the iPhone. And as for pointless, tell it to the 4,000+ people reading this post.
No ... it's relevant to the iPhone. And as for pointless, tell it to the 4,000+ people reading this post.
AT&T has got to have "some" point at which they limit their users or some would take advantage to the point the network would be unusable for use all. No doubt that you feel that AT&T is mistreating you but a limit has got to be established at some point.
Slowing the top 5% of the bandwidth users down just does not seem that unfair. This means that 95% are using less than YOU are , take it as a hint!
----------
Sprint is a bottom feeder doing what it can to elevate it's numbers. "Truely Unlimited will NOT last forever. It matters not to me as when I had Sprint I lost service outside of any city. Not going to enjoy unlimited data then!
----------
You really must be living in a rose garden. Life is not so simple. You need to read your contract again or have someone do it for you and explain what it means.
Are you guys kidding me, ATT is feeding all of you kool-aid. They have the most unused spectrum and have not increased their backhaul as they should. They are the ones not keeping up with demand. 2gb throttling is ridiculous and is a crock. I agree that 10g is just overkill but don't blame the users for not keeping your network in top shape. Record numbers every quarter so hey instead of thinking your going to piggy back off by buying T-Mobile just improve your own infrastructure. When iPhone becomes LTE thats when the playing field becomes level. ATT has enjoyed the luxury of being the only gsm carrier in the states but I imagine things will change soon enough if they don't take care of their revenue(i.e. customers).
Isn't the unused spectrum that AT&T's sitting all 700mhz, and of no use to current generation HSPDA devices like the iPhone?
Can't speak for the other people, but I'm only here to see how much longer it will be before you get banned.
so i been throttled but my usage still not available to view for this month..i called them asked when i get throttled on my unlimited data they said when i hit 5GB of data use.. i got text/email same day and i didnt get a warning just wham..
anyone get same answer that 5GB is when you get throttled on unlimited data? i hear its at 2GB?
its all good 5GB seem to be good enough for me i use that much plus my speeds are kind of good/bad sometimes..i use pandora like crazy at work/car/ect.. its holding up pretty good..just video streaming sucks sometimes..need more testing..i do have wifi at work but eh why not get the most of my unlimited use..i use wifi mostly to save battery/testing out this throttling thing..
anyone get same answer that 5GB is when you get throttled on unlimited data? i hear its at 2GB?
its all good 5GB seem to be good enough for me i use that much plus my speeds are kind of good/bad sometimes..i use pandora like crazy at work/car/ect.. its holding up pretty good..just video streaming sucks sometimes..need more testing..i do have wifi at work but eh why not get the most of my unlimited use..i use wifi mostly to save battery/testing out this throttling thing..
- Status