So I am the 5%... REALLY AT&T ????

unc2701

4G just makes me go "Meh". 99% of the time, it's back-end bandwidth, not 3G that slows things down. I'm never sitting around going "this is SO slow over 3G"... except when I'm at a basketball game and 20,000 people are checking Facebook.

3G is plenty fast, they just need to get their network to the point that it can handle their subscribers.

SolidSqual

Can anyone imagine how fast the internet would be without **** clogging up all the servers? What a double edged sword.

Drenis

SolidSqual wrote: »

Can anyone imagine how fast the internet would be without torrents and all illegal pirated data clogging up all the servers? What a double edged sword.

Fixed.

It's really a two way street. You could put anything in there. I don't think bandwidth is the issue.

SolidSqual

Haha, you know I don't even know anything about torrents. It took me forever to download a Nine Inch Nails album from a completely LEGAL torrent once. NIN was giving away one of their albums in HiRez. It took me forever to figure it all out.

ryanjoachim

mantis wrote: »

If you have an unlimited plan , then by definition you can use all you want.

Not by their definition. Technically (in their fine print) the "unlimited" is referring to what you can access, not how much data you can use. It's an "unlimited" plan, with a monthly limit on how MUCH data you can use.

ryanjoachim

SolidSqual wrote: »

Can anyone imagine how fast the internet would be without **** clogging up all the servers? What a double edged sword.

I'm assuming this is sarcasm...but just in case it's not...

Torrenting has no effect on the overall speed of the Internet. The speed is managed by the backbone, which is itself managed by Cisco (mostly). The speeds you get are completely managed by your ISP, and there is more than enough bandwidth to go around. It's been proven over and over again that supply FAR outstrips demand for bandwidth with current technology, and is only going to get faster in the future. Mobile networks are a different beast than home, and thus need a different approach.

There is no technological reason for companies to limit your speeds (at home), except for those times when it would negatively impact those on your node. In those cases, QoS is more than capable of handling things, but charging you for slow-**** speeds is more business-savy I suppose.

gdpeck

Here's an interesting article to feed this conversation: http://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/2012/02/23/throttling-unlimited-mobile-data-plans-pointless-study/

No surprises here, but some good data points regarding actual usage. I also have an "unlimited" data plan on my iPhone, and have seen how eager AT&T is to move me to something that isn't unlimited.

Syndil

gdpeck wrote: »

Here's an interesting article to feed this conversation: http://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/2012/02/23/throttling-unlimited-mobile-data-plans-pointless-study/

Relevant take-away from that article:

After all, Sprint does seemingly fine maintaining non-throttled unlimited data for its customers.

Sprint isn't lying when they advertise their truly unlimited plans.

obieone

I still don't see why people NEED a smart phone, unless your a field technician of some sort, and need to look up tech manuals or get support.
Paying $30/ month to stream music to your phone seems silly to me. $30/ month for satelite radio makes more sense?

heiney9

Convenience.

I was cd shopping the other day, used cd's. Looked up several titles on Amazon to see if it was a good deal or not. Whenever I'm out shopping I tend to look things up, like consumer ratings, prices, etc. I've even bought stuff off Amazon while standing in the store when they wouldn't deal.

Anytime I travel even just out of town, I use the net or GPS. I used to think the same way until I bought one and now I can't imagine not having many, many resources at your finger tips.

Was in Milwaukee WI not too long ago, needed to find a place to eat (impromtu). Used my phone to find out locations, ratings, menu's, hours of operation, types of food, etc.

H9

soundfreak1

Was just notified i used over 2mb in tje first two weeks on my tmonile acc.

soundfreak1

Was just notified i used over 2kmb in tje first two weeks on my tmonile acc.

mdaudioguy

obieone wrote: »

I still don't see why people NEED a smart phone, unless your a field technician of some sort, and need to look up tech manuals or get support.
Paying $30/ month to stream music to your phone seems silly to me. $30/ month for satelite radio makes more sense?

Streaming music isn't why I have it. I browse the internet in doctor's offices while others like to read magazines. I like mobile email. The free Google Navigation app is awesome - monitoring traffic allows me to choose more efficient routes. Like H9 said, it's convenience. I signed a contract for unlimited data, so that I wouldn't have to worry about going over a ceiling. So much for that.

AT&T is harassing some of its customers for no legitimate reason. I've never used more data than the 3GB cap on their current $30 plan. I've got 5 phones on my account, and I always pay my bill on time. They will lose me if they don't change their approach here. Essentially, they're attempting to harass me into agreeing on a new data plan, because they don't want to live up to the terms of our previous agreement. Unfortunately, I don't have the same amount of clout that they do...

ryanjoachim

mdaudioguy wrote: »

AT&T is harassing some of its customers for no legitimate reason. I've never used more data than the 3GB cap on their current $30 plan.

This is the important part. You need to read your fine print a little closer.

The $30 "unlimited" plan has a 3GB limit, but anything over 2GB is grounds for limiting and warning.

mdaudioguy

nspindel wrote: »

It's not really go to matter for all that much longer anyway. iPhone 5 will come out at some point this year with 4G. Guaranteed that if you want 4G, you will need to give up your unlimited plan. And 4G really is that much better. My wife has a Verizon 4G hotspot through her work, and it flies.

Actually, I'm on a 4G plan right now.They grandfathered me in when I purchased my last phone. How nice of them. Here's the description:

SmartPhone Personal
Data Plan for SmartPhones. Unlimited domestic data usage. Only available for upgrades. Requires customers to be on a "Gold List" SmartPhone Plan prior to upgrade to 4G device.

Really treating me like "gold", huh?

mdaudioguy

ryanjoachim wrote: »

This is the important part. You need to read your fine print a little closer.

The $30 "unlimited" plan has a 3GB limit, but anything over 2GB is grounds for limiting and warning.

Fine print sucks. Do you read all of your EULAs when you install or update software? Just saying...

mdaudioguy

Syndil wrote: »

4G is only useful if 4G service is offered in your area. Otherwise having the capability on your phone does absolutely nothing for you. In the Louisville, KY area where I live, all of the providers advertise 4G phones, plans and speeds, but only VZW actually provides 4G LTE service. There are very few markets where 4G is available, and AT&T has the least 4G coverage of the big three.

http://www.att.com/network/

I second the suggestion to switch to Sprint.

I have a friend on Verizon. He disables his 4G in favor of 3G... Faster data eventually leads to more data, which leads to him pushing his limit. One's as bad as the other. I'm not sure how good Sprint would be for me, but I'm probably going to start researching.

cfrizz

mdaudioguy wrote: »

Fine print sucks. Do you read all of your EULAs when you install or update software? Just saying...

It might suck, but this is where they give themselves all the wiggle room to come back to bite you later on. Since most DON'T bother to read it, they end up on boards like this moaning & groaning about the unfair harrassment they think they are getting.

But now you know, so you just have to make a choice of cutting back on your usage or paying more money.

Yeah you might be able to jump to another company, but I can guarantee, that they will ALL start doing this eventually.

tonyb

cfrizz wrote: »

But now you know, so you just have to make a choice of cutting back on your usage or paying more money..

Yep, made that point early on too. I was thinking about that "fine print", and your right, nobody ever reads it. Know why ? They don't care, they just want the service period. Then again, if they did read it, you'd have to bring a lawyer with you to decipher it all. Fine print is always ment to protect the other party, not you.

Maybe Mickey D's should start putting "fine print" on their coffee cups to save some future litigation.

decal

mrendrison wrote: »

Well, if you are looking for girls, join the yoga club, I found tons of hot girls that hung out with. If all else fails, there is plentyoffish.com

^^^^ reported ^^^^

devani

or go to Small claims court...

http://news.yahoo.com/judge-awards-iphone-user-850-throttling-case-195042925.html

nspindel

that's crazy, huh? jury trials and class actions are against your contract. only choice is small claims i guess. so if 17 million people have unlimited data plans, and the top 5% get throttled, then maybe we'll see 850,000 small claims cases against at&t

mdaudioguy

cfrizz wrote: »

It might suck, but this is where they give themselves all the wiggle room to come back to bite you later on. Since most DON'T bother to read it, they end up on boards like this moaning & groaning about the unfair harrassment they think they are getting.

From the article linked by devani, above:

When AT&T started slowing down the data service for his iPhone, Matt Spaccarelli, an unemployed truck driver and student, took the country's largest telecommunications company to small claims court. And won.

His award: $850.

Pro-tem Judge Russell Nadel found in favor of Spaccarelli in Ventura Superior Court in Simi Valley on Friday, saying it wasn't fair for the company to purposely slow down his iPhone, when it had sold him an "unlimited data" plan.

Well, at least somebody agrees with me, fine print or not! :razz:

mdaudioguy

ryanjoachim wrote: »

This is the important part. You need to read your fine print a little closer.

The $30 "unlimited" plan has a 3GB limit, but anything over 2GB is grounds for limiting and warning.

Well, first I need to find it... spent some time noodling around their site and it ain't easy to run across the specific terms of my agreement. Yeah, the part where they (re)define "unlimited".

mdaudioguy

Btw, the first text was just a warning and no throttling will occur this month, however, next time it happens, they'll be coming down hard on me. This was explained to me in an email they sent. :twisted:

jbooker82

Cell Phone contract is a one sided deal. It is a contract for you to pay for it, not for the cell phone company to provide services.

nguyendot

ryanjoachim wrote: »

Not by their definition. Technically (in their fine print) the "unlimited" is referring to what you can access, not how much data you can use. It's an "unlimited" plan, with a monthly limit on how MUCH data you can use.

I think you have it all wrong. They give you unlimited data... they just don't guarantee how fast it will be.

Kind of like the analogy they used in their interview... They give you a 10 lane highway, and you can use it as much as you want. You have to go at their speed limit though.

As for Sprint... talk about a craptacular network. I've had them for 10 years now. Their 3G was actually one of the fastest data networks up until March of last year when they started "upgrading" and it went down the drain. Sure their data is truly unlimited, but like AT&T...what good is unlimited if the fastest you can get is like 200kbps? I used to hit 3mb+ down on their 3G and kill off 8 gigs of data a month with no problem. Now if i get on and launch a speed test, it just laughs at me and replies with double digit speeds. I've had their "4G" and the wimax speeds are abysmal. I only keep them because the wife is on it, and it's relatively cheap.

My AT&T phone - last month I did 10 gigs in 1 day and of course got a warning about 10 days later. The next month I got a warning as well. I guess that's what I get for living so close to a rural 4G LTE tower that gives 35mb down and 12 up
My brother got the warning as well on his iPhone - using only 2.2gb.

BeefJerky

nguyendot wrote: »

I think you have it all wrong. They give you unlimited data... they just don't guarantee how fast it will be.

Kind of like the analogy they used in their interview... They give you a 10 lane highway, and you can use it as much as you want. You have to go at their speed limit though.

As for Sprint... talk about a craptacular network. I've had them for 10 years now. Their 3G was actually one of the fastest data networks up until March of last year when they started "upgrading" and it went down the drain. Sure their data is truly unlimited, but like AT&T...what good is unlimited if the fastest you can get is like 200kbps? I used to hit 3mb+ down on their 3G and kill off 8 gigs of data a month with no problem. Now if i get on and launch a speed test, it just laughs at me and replies with double digit speeds. I've had their "4G" and the wimax speeds are abysmal. I only keep them because the wife is on it, and it's relatively cheap.

My AT&T phone - last month I did 10 gigs in 1 day and of course got a warning about 10 days later. The next month I got a warning as well. I guess that's what I get for living so close to a rural 4G LTE tower that gives 35mb down and 12 up
My brother got the warning as well on his iPhone - using only 2.2gb.

Yep, LTE is the way to go. I think that Sprint made a big mistake by going with WiMax, but what's done is done. Now they have to redo their network again to be able to compete. I have Verizon 4G LTE and love it. Even rural, I don't think your 35/12 speed will last once more people get LTE.

At any rate, I like the 5-10Mbps down and 1-5Mbps up that I get on average with my Verizon 4G. I've also seen speeds up to 35Mbps down and 30Mbps up, but mainly when it was first launched. Slowest I've gotten is around 3Mbps down and 800Kbps up. Thankfully I'm on the "unlimited" plan, but we'll see how that pans out if I start using a lot of data.

nguyendot

BeefJerky wrote: »

Yep, LTE is the way to go. I think that Sprint made a big mistake by going with WiMax, but what's done is done. Now they have to redo their network again to be able to compete. I have Verizon 4G LTE and love it. Even rural, I don't think your 35/12 speed will last once more people get LTE.

At any rate, I like the 5-10Mbps down and 1-5Mbps up that I get on average with my Verizon 4G. I've also seen speeds up to 35Mbps down and 30Mbps up, but mainly when it was first launched. Slowest I've gotten is around 3Mbps down and 800Kbps up. Thankfully I'm on the "unlimited" plan, but we'll see how that pans out if I start using a lot of data.

]

I have no delusions that it will last. Downtown yesterday I got 25/5 - and that's a pretty heavily populated area. Luckily right now this tower serves just one neighborhood...mine lol. I think they're planning for more neighborhoods to pop up. My neighborhood is probably 70 homes at the most.

Syndil

With what the OP is doing speed is not that important, it's just the quantity of data being consumed. I would think that would be true for most people that aren't tethering their smartphone (using it as a modem for a PC). It just doesn't require much bandwidth to check email, browse the web or stream stuff. Just tested my Sprint Palm Pixi (EVDO Rev. A) and got 775kbps down. Not blistering and nowhere near 4G speeds, but more than adequate.