Iphone, IPad AT&T unlimited data plan gone

danger boy

Ok.. so I was planning to get the new 4G IPhone when it's released.. now AT&T announced it will end it's unlimited data plan on Monday. Current users have until their contract exprires.

they have two levels now.. $15 a month of low data users (they are not saying what low is exactly)

heavy data users will pay $25 per month..

AND if you go over on your plan. you get your **** kicked and you go to jail :mad:

bobman1235

They actually did say what low and high are :

low : 200MB / month

high : 2GB / month

This article outlines everything pretty well : http://gizmodo.com/5553418/att-just-killed-unlimited-wireless-data-and-screwed-everybody-in-the-process

While I'm also pissed about it, I wouldn't jump ship from AT&T just yet, if only because usually when one does it, they all do. Expect announcements from Verizon et al soon (though I hope not).


By the way, as someone who has an iPhone 3G and is on it CONSTANTLY, and considers himself a very data-heavy user... looking back on my past months I only twice went over 200MB, and even then the most I used in a month was 236MB. I was kind of surprised by that.

thsmith

I doubt VzW or Sprint will follow suit. AT&T is not solving anything, they need to increase their capacity in their data network.

The small percentage of users that are using 40% of the bandwidth already have unlimited plans, how does this change fix anything.

I would be with AT&T and iPhone already but their network is crappy and blocks and drops alot of call here in DFW according to 4 friends that have AT&T and iPhones.

danger boy

well if the IPhone goes with Verizon, i am going there instead.. i'm done with AT$T AT$T :mad:

AsSiMiLaTeD

I think it's a great idea, and am all for at. I love the concept of people actually paying for what they use, instead of everyone paying the same high fee. I remember reading somewhere that something like 2% of their people use 40% of the bandwidth.

Yeah I know it's just another way for AT&T to make money, but really what's so upsetting about people paying proportionality to how much service they're using? It's been that way on cell phone minutes now for years, I just don't think they ever anticipated the data usage or they'd have likely done this from the start and people wouldn't be freaking out so much.

Also, it's easy for me not to be pissed, because I'm going to be saving $15 a month on each of my lines, as I use about 150MB a month on average, and that's with tethering my laptop. You'd be surprised how much bandwidth you DON'T use if you don't do alot of actual downloading.

sgazda

I've had my iPhone for 2 years and wanted to check into this. An ATT rep told me that my unlimited data plan ($30) "grandfathers in". The change only affects new data plan customers. Also, I use my data plan regularly and never went over 250 MB/month in 2 years. Everyone's different, of course, but I'm not sweatin it.

I have no doubt Verizon will follow suit when they get the phone later this year.

AsSiMiLaTeD

thsmith wrote: »

The small percentage of users that are using 40% of the bandwidth already have unlimited plans, how does this change fix anything.

.

Because there will no longer be any 'unlimited' plans. They have plans up to 2GB, beyond that you're gonna pay out the **** on a per GB basis.

As a result of this change, people are going to fall into 4 groups.

1 - People like me who aren't trying to download the entire interwebs on their iphone and are going to save money each month.
2 - People who are heavy utilizers and as a result don't want to pay the steep fees and will move to another network - fine by me, just frees up the network for me
3 - People who are heavy utilizers and decide to stay with AT&T and have to pay more - fine by me, they should pay more, why should I have to pay the same as them when I don't use as much, and maybe AT&T will take the extra money and beef up the network
4 - People who are just going to leave on principle alone - doesn't really affect me except I'm left in a network with a bunch of sheeple, it's a cell phone provider, not the defining trait of my personality or character

Apparently I'm alone because guys at work here have been bitching all day, but I truly don't see the big deal.

danger boy

this also affects email FYI

ryanjoachim

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

Because there will no longer be any 'unlimited' plans. They have plans up to 2GB, beyond that you're gonna pay out the **** on a per GB basis.

As a result of this change, people are going to fall into 4 groups.

1 - People like me who aren't trying to download the entire interwebs on their iphone and are going to save money each month.
2 - People who are heavy utilizers and as a result don't want to pay the steep fees and will move to another network - fine by me, just frees up the network for me
3 - People who are heavy utilizers and decide to stay with AT&T and have to pay more - fine by me, they should pay more, why should I have to pay the same as them when I don't use as much, and maybe AT&T will take the extra money and beef up the network
4 - People who are just going to leave on principle alone - doesn't really affect me except I'm left in a network with a bunch of sheeple, it's a cell phone provider, not the defining trait of my personality or character

Apparently I'm alone because guys at work here have been bitching all day, but I truly don't see the big deal.

Well put.

I've got Verizon's "unlimited" play (they shouldn't be allowed to call it that imo), and even though I do quite a bit of web browsing and facebooking and emailing I don't really use anywhere near the 5GB cap.

Those people who use a crap-ton of data are generally people who download thousands of apps, or use data-intensive web features.

I see this as a good way for people to save money. I hope Verizon does something similar to this, although with higher limits...for those months where I download things like crazy!

AsSiMiLaTeD

Yep, looks to be all data services, only texts would not be included since those are separate anyways

cstmar01

honestly at first I was like oh crap I'm going to get hit hard. Then I looked at my usage. I am probably on my phone for online and emails every day for at least 2-4 hours a day. I have never crack the 200 except once when my internet went down at my place and I was using it ALL the time for video, ect. I don't think its that bad because now I can get my bill down to pretty low and its cheaper than the verizon plan for what it would be compared to.

sgazda

danger boy wrote: »

this also affects email FYI

Barely impacts email, actually. As I stated earlier, I barely hit 250 and I run multiple emails accounts, browsers, FB, Pandora, etc. on a consistent daily basis.

I guess you have to own and use an iPhone to really understand that this data plan change has no impact. Unless, of course, you're a new customer, streaming movies and downloading massive files every day (all day).

EDIT: If anything, I think this nudges higher wifi usage. I also think the change works to everyone's benefit, particularly those who fall into the less than 250 category. Why should I pay for another's usage that's slowing the network down?!

concealer404

$10/gb is hardly "out the ****" when you look at just how much content it takes to even hit the initial 2gb.

Move away on principle, but it's amusing that 99.9% of the people complaining about this are affected only by the fact that ATT is saving them $60 a year.

The people that use over 2gb consistently already have the unlimited plan, and they'll just keep it, since ATT is forcing NOBODY to move away from their existing plan. The unlimited will carry on, just no new enrollments will be allowed.

Demiurge

I didn't read all of this, but is AT & T only requiring a $15.99 data plan to use the iPhone on their network in addition to their regular service or is that incorrect? Verizon requires a $29.99 or higher data plan for their "smart phones" to use them on their network (which would bring my monthly bill to $80+/mo.), which I find laughable to the point of not being able to justify it even though I would benefit from the increased connectivity.

I would consider switching to AT & T if that's the case.

Polk user

Whatever you do, DON'T email the boss at ATT and complain....


http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/02/atandt-warns-customer-that-emailing-the-ceo-will-result-in-a-cease/

danger boy

Polk user wrote: »

Whatever you do, DON'T email the boss at ATT and complain....


http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/02/atandt-warns-customer-that-emailing-the-ceo-will-result-in-a-cease/

good Lord!

I'm sure he "just wants his life back" too

reberly

I feel bad for people who are mislead by the media into thinking the economy is sound enough for you to spend $90+/mo for cellphone service when we are headed into a depression. TV service $100/mo, internet $50/mo, cellphone $90/mo. Ever wonder why you can't ahead?

unc2701

I'm w/ bobman and AsSiMiLaTeD on this. I use the crap out of my Iphone and never crossed 2gb. So, I'll save at least $5 a month. On the flip side of this, as new devices come out, people are going to be pulling more and more bandwidth, so they're going to need to scale the plans to keep up with that. 2GB used to be an entire building of servers, now 2% of AT&T customers use more than that in an average month.

On the flipside, I think it's stupid of AT&T to yank the unlimited option, because you know their competitors are going to nail them on that- I'm amazed I haven't seen an ad already. Of course in a few months, they'll pull the same thing.

My other question is: how much weight is in that 2% tail? If they're making up for 50% of the bandwidth, then yeah, it makes sense that they get charged more and given my usage, I don't want to be subsidizing them.


Oh yeah, and the tethering charge is retarded... they're definitely going to get reamed on that (tethering adds no cost to them and the MB come from the same bucket, any other company would be stupid not to run a free tethering television spot starting immediately).

danger boy

who wins in this new deal? AT&T or the customer?

now that I have heard from several people.... 200 MB's is alot.. and some of my friends say they are usually under that much.

but if you go over.. you get your hole punched.. at least with the unlimited plan, you didn't have to worry about ever going over and getting sucked punched with high per kb usuage. it was unlimited.

but i do get it though.. i'm sure some of the customers who use up way more bandwidth than the majority of the rest...

unc2701

danger boy wrote: »

who wins in this new deal? AT&T or the customer?

now that I have heard from several people.... 200 MB's is alot.. and some of my friends say they are usually under that much.

but if you go over.. you get your hole punched.. at least with the unlimited plan, you didn't have to worry about ever going over and getting sucked punched with high per kb usuage. it was unlimited.

but i do get it though.. i'm sure some of the customers who use up way more bandwidth than the majority of the rest...

Not so much- go over and they just sell you another 200 MB for the same price- so up to 400mb and you're still cheaper or the same as the unlimited. Go way over and you can retroactively switch to the higher plan- which is $5 less than the unlimited. This only reams people using more than 2GB, which is probably exactly what they intended (and also the logic behind the dumbass tethering charge).

What they probably didn't think of is that the gadget press is solidly in that demographic.

bobman1235

reberly wrote: »

I feel bad for people who are mislead by the media into thinking the economy is sound enough for you to spend $90+/mo for cellphone service when we are headed into a depression. TV service $100/mo, internet $50/mo, cellphone $90/mo. Ever wonder why you can't ahead?

The economy doesn't drive all of my personal spending decisions, my own financial situation does. Any smart person is always ready for a bad turn in their own personal economic situation and spends accordingly. I'm not going to stuff all my money under my mattress just because the economy isn't good.

bobman1235

thsmith wrote: »

I doubt VzW or Sprint will follow suit.

Well, it didn't take long to prove you wrong : http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=102352

AsSiMiLaTeD

thsmith wrote: »

I doubt VzW or Sprint will follow suit. AT&T is not solving anything, they need to increase their capacity in their data network.

The small percentage of users that are using 40% of the bandwidth already have unlimited plans, how does this change fix anything.

I would be with AT&T and iPhone already but their network is crappy and blocks and drops alot of call here in DFW according to 4 friends that have AT&T and iPhones.

Looks liek Verizon is following suit...

http://www.pcworld.com/article/197417/verizon_wirelesss_new_plan_so_long_unlimited_data_hello_buckets.html

thsmith

yep, wrong again

AsSiMiLaTeD

oops, didn't see Bob's post right above mine

mutelight

If I wasn't grandfathered in with the unlimited data, my work buildings didn't have repeaters inside of them, and get a nice corporate discount every month, I would consider going to another carrier.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Who are you gonna go with? Verizon has already switched, and I'm sure Sprint will soon follow suit and ditch their unlimited plans.

Actually, being in SF you're in one the the areas that should benefit the most from this, as I've heard it's primarily SF and the NE that suffer the most from network bandwidth issues...

maximillian

200mB per month is nothing. I do most of my downloading off of cable and a laptop so this doesn't affect me. However, 200mB per month is nothing. If you watch only 3 YouTube videos a day you will easily pass this limit in a month. For a phone some people may say, who cares. However, if this plan applies to the iPad, then iPad users can only do limited Internet use on a cell network. That means iPad users must access the Internet using Wifi networks. That's OK as long as they understand this.

2GB is also not a lot for laptop users on a regular broadband connection. I watched a 40 minute lecture recently on YouTube. I liked it so much that I downloaded the file - 450MB.

If you're stuck in an airport with your iPhone and you want to watch some TV, make sure it's over Wifi or you could easily break your limit.

mutelight

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

Who are you gonna go with? Verizon has already switched, and I'm sure Sprint will soon follow suit and ditch their unlimited plans.

Actually, being in SF you're in one the the areas that should benefit the most from this, as I've heard it's primarily SF and the NE that suffer the most from network bandwidth issues...

If I didn't have all the perks of staying with AT&T I would switch but since I have those I listed, I don't plan on it.

bobman1235

While I agree that for a computer 200MB is nothing,b ut most things designed for a phone are HEAVILY compressed. Again, like assimilated, I thought I'd be WAY over this number, but only twice ni the past six months did I even come close to 200MB, and I use my iPhone for EVERYTHING.

It helps that it's on WiFi a lot, but still.

unc2701

Same here, I went back & looked and I average around 300MB and my max was around 1.5gb when I was traveling, downloading large PDFs to review (not fun on an iPhone, btw) and uploading pics.

Way I see it, I'm saving $5 a month & my wife is saving $15.

Put differently, do you go to the all-you-can-eat on a full stomach? Why pay for that?

From a business perspective, though, I really don't get why Verizon is following AT&T so fast. This is a big opportunity for them to pick up a bunch of pissed off customers... even if they do make the same switch in a few months.