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AT&T to limit iPhone bandwidth of heavy users
- Thread starter Wiss
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Not shocked to see this happening--and really, I don't mind--as long as they only enforce the new rules on new contracts, and the FTC forces them to stop using the term "unlimited." Yes, their network is crap by world standards, and I'd love to see them make it even halfway decent. Ultimately, I don't think anybody saw the flood of data usage coming that came with the iPhone--especially when it went 3G. Should they have? Sure, especially given that the sales pitch has always been about the unlimited web experience. Especially with the rumors flying about the US iPhone exclusivity ending soon, they cannot afford to tick off the current customers--so if they've got half a brain, they won't tweak the current subscriber plans.
At the end of the day, though, I don't see myself leaving ATT anytime soon--I've got a fantastic old family plan that simply can't be beat on $+features/month by anything out there now...and I love having the freedom on a GSM carrier to swap phones without any carrier approval etc. T-Mobile would be fine, but their proprietary 3G bands and even smaller 3G coverage than ATT makes them a no-go, anyways.
At the end of the day, though, I don't see myself leaving ATT anytime soon--I've got a fantastic old family plan that simply can't be beat on $+features/month by anything out there now...and I love having the freedom on a GSM carrier to swap phones without any carrier approval etc. T-Mobile would be fine, but their proprietary 3G bands and even smaller 3G coverage than ATT makes them a no-go, anyways.
If they attempt to get more money than my present unlimited, it will be time to look at Verizon and the Droid.
I doubt you'll be saving money with Big Red, but the service and the phone both do look compelling...
I don't think you are one of the customers they're talking about. I think they're talking about people who use significantly more data than you, probably over 5 GB.
In any case, they can do whatever they want with data for new customers, but they'll see a lot of early terminations if they try to make the changes retro-active. I actually envision them eliminating 'unlimited' data plans and replacing them with plans like their international plans; probably 5GB with a reduced rate per KB for overage. Personally, I think it'd be nice if they created a cheaper 1 or 2 GB plan for those of us who use little or no data. I'm on WiFi both at home and at work, so I rarely use 100 MB.
In other news, Sizzler has put a limit on the amount of food you can eat at their "all you can eat buffet" citing that the increase of food consumption by customers has put a strain on their chefs 
I have no problem with this crack down. I bet AT&T will be targeting people sucking down over 5 gigs in a month since that is the problem people.
It has already been decided in US courts advertising Unlimited does not mean unlimited. The excessive use clause gives AT&T the legal out.
I can tell you that I can tell colleges are letting out for the holidays as drop calls for me have greatly increased in the past week. Reason why is one of your biggest age groups of wireless data users are coming home for the holiday so the data demand has now spike.
This week at most major university they are starting to turn into ghost towns.
It has already been decided in US courts advertising Unlimited does not mean unlimited. The excessive use clause gives AT&T the legal out.
I can tell you that I can tell colleges are letting out for the holidays as drop calls for me have greatly increased in the past week. Reason why is one of your biggest age groups of wireless data users are coming home for the holiday so the data demand has now spike.
This week at most major university they are starting to turn into ghost towns.
You're merged in now. Your attempts to search in the future are appreciated in advance.
This is why this exclusive agreement between Apple & ATT most be dropped. If the iPhone can be on all major U.S networks T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon, & Att then the stress load of bandwidth can be spread across 4 networks and not just 1. ATT is afraid of letting the iPhone go to other networks because they know many of there costumers will terminate there ATT iPhone contract and move to there desired network they wanted in the first place.
The wireless information superhighway is clogging up I suppose, but it seems like there are no shortages of devices that are being marketed to access it, like the MiFi personal hot spots; telcom branded netbooks; even next month, my Time Warner cable company will be offering subscription wi-fi USB broadband dongles for portable computers.
If nothing else, they have a far larger, more established 3G network. That bodes well. Also, spreading the load across multiple carriers will help, bigtime....it's not like the day ATT loses exclusivity, every singe ATT iPhone will be turned off.
Verizon is a very different "land" in some critical ways.
Their voice and 3G data connections are separate, so a heavy data load simply slows down everyone using data on that cell... without dropping the voice users as ATT's network can do.
Plus Verizon designed their cells for 3G CDMA from the start. ATT did not, and as a result, backfitting their old cells with 3G WCDMA isn't an optimum setup. Which is partly why they're having to add more towers.
Both carriers suffered from lack of decent backhaul at first, but are scrambling to update.
Owned
Hahahahahaha, this commercial is by Ally but it totally sums up this situation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suBGbef5p3g
Hahahahahaha, this commercial is by Ally but it totally sums up this situation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suBGbef5p3g
Mind showing me some references that support your claim? I'm genuine curious as to how the U.S. courts can agree that "unlimited" does not have to mean "unlimited."
And I disagree that those who use over 5GB per month are the problem. Why would they be? In everyday terms, if you pay $30 for "unlimited" data access, should you not expect to be able to use "unlimited" data?
I have a couple thoughts on this. First of all, its interesting to me that they advertise the data package as "unlimited" when it really isn't. All cell phone companies have gotten away with a lot of shady stuff in contracts and advertising and that probably won't change any time soon.
Now, to me it seems very clear who they are targetting with this announcement and thats the jailbreakers. I thought I used my phone a lot but I just looked at my bill and saw that this month I'll be right around 500MB, 10% of their limit. I would almost guarantee that the 3% of users they are talking about are using jailbroken phones. They are probably tethering.
In a perfect world AT&T should be able to support every iPhone user using all 5GB of data that their limit allows, because technically that is what they advertise. But I think we all know that AT&T Headquarters would explode if that much data was going through their system. We couldn't even have picture messaging becuase their network couldn't handle it!
Anyway, I'm not saying Apple had a hand in this but I think jailbrekers are the obvious target
Now, to me it seems very clear who they are targetting with this announcement and thats the jailbreakers. I thought I used my phone a lot but I just looked at my bill and saw that this month I'll be right around 500MB, 10% of their limit. I would almost guarantee that the 3% of users they are talking about are using jailbroken phones. They are probably tethering.
In a perfect world AT&T should be able to support every iPhone user using all 5GB of data that their limit allows, because technically that is what they advertise. But I think we all know that AT&T Headquarters would explode if that much data was going through their system. We couldn't even have picture messaging becuase their network couldn't handle it!
Anyway, I'm not saying Apple had a hand in this but I think jailbrekers are the obvious target
Everyone that is threatening to terminate their contracts, because they won't be be able to use "unlimited" data go ahead and do it. Then sign up with Verizon, pay more money for voice service, pay the same $30 for "limited" data, and see what happens when you try to download 50GB of data.
You guys realize even regular ISPs like comcast have caps to the amount of data you can use in a month, it's just higher obviously because people use their computer for a lot more data intense stuff. The fact is AT&T has every right to deny service to people that are abusing the network. There's no way you can use 50gb of data a month on just the phone, you're tethering, it's against the terms of your contract. If you think you're somehow sticking it to AT&T by trying to use as much data as possible you're not you're just ruining it for everyone else.
If it's anything like the UK, it's called unlimited, but is subject to a fair use policy. That is, if they deem your usage to be excessive enough that it is deteriorating the experience of other customers, they can take action against you. So although they place no restriction on the amount of data you can use, they do place a moral restriction on you to not hog the services at the disadvantage of other customers. I don't think any service could be truly unlimited as bandwidth has to be paid for in one way or another, and it wouldn't be economically viable to have something as unlimited with absolutely no restrictions as some customers would take unfair advantage of that at the expense of other people paying for the same service.
But if they change their service, they need to notify their users; then users have the option to opt-out and that means out of contract and no ETF.