Are you of the top 5% of the AT&T data hogs ?

[DisgruntledVirus]

tethering is a business feature which means it has to be a money maker. and tethering can use more data. the data for the phone is limited by the resolution. will netflix stream 1080p to a phone? if it's tethered then you can in theory use as much data as your laptop can consume

and carriers can't just build towers. other than zoning issues you have to make sure it won't interfere with existing towers in the area so in some places you can't build anymore

It's not limited by the resolution. Also phones can play HD Netflix.

However, once again... I could create a script to just download files 24/7 and resolution wouldn't be relevant. So, tethering vs data on the phone is irrelevant because I can consume the same amount of data on either. Hell if I really wanted to I could develop a torrenting application for my phone...

 

[Red Storm]

It's not limited by the resolution. Also phones can play HD Netflix.

However, once again... I could create a script to just download files 24/7 and resolution wouldn't be relevant. So, tethering vs data on the phone is irrelevant because I can consume the same amount of data on either. Hell if I really wanted to I could develop a torrenting application for my phone...

It's just because the carriers want you to pay for things that should already be part of the package. It wasn't too long ago you had to pay an additional $10-$20 on top of your existing data plan just to sync an Exchange mailbox to your phone (at least I'm 99% sure that was case, back then I didn't have a corporate mailbox).

They have these mobile hotspots that come with their own data plan charge, and they want you to have to buy that instead of tethering off of your phone.

 

[alent1234]

at&t never enforced it, only RIM from what i remember. and that was only because it was linked to their cloud and the corporate BES server

 

[shortylickens]

But unlimited data was. And many people, myself included, fail to see why it matters what end device is using the data.

I have unlimited data, so if I develop a program for my phone that just sits here and uses my data 100% of capacity 24/7 that's apparently ok. However if I tether my phone to my laptop and browse the web, that isn't according to carriers. As I stated before I have used 10+ gb since getting 4G 2 months ago on my phone. I haven't tethered at all. But previously on my Milestone, I would tether all the time and only use ~3-4 gb's month at most. Carriers are bitching about data usage and how expensive it is for them, but then take actions that do not support that stance. I would get a C&D type letter (or just tethering added to my bill) if the carrier discovered I was tethering my Milestone, but streaming 12 gb's of Netflix last month was cool by them.

If you ever actually get close to your max data then they get upset. That 5 gigs they advertise? Thats all bullshit marketing. They dont want you to use anywhere near that much.
And people who tether tend to hit the max more frequently than those who dont.
Thats also why they werent keen on Youtube, Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon video apps. If you stream all day you are definitely killing their network.

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

If you ever actually get close to your max data then they get upset. That 5 gigs they advertise? Thats all bullshit marketing. They dont want you to use anywhere near that much.
And people who tether tend to hit the max more frequently than those who dont.
Thats also why they werent keen on Youtube, Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon video apps. If you stream all day you are definitely killing their network.

You're missing the point. If you aren't going to offer unlimited data because it will kill the network, then don't go advertising it.

They weren't keen on that stuff sure, nor were they happy with Android/iOS phones that they didn't have control over (remember VZ Navigator vs Google Maps and VZW locking phones GPS down so you couldn't use it unless it was with VZN? I do). But my phone is unlimited 4G data. That means that I can use as much as I want, because it's what I pay for. Am I using more than they would like? Definitely. Ideally I would use no data and pay for it still if carriers had it their way.

 

[shortylickens]

You're missing the point. If you aren't going to offer unlimited data because it will kill the network, then don't go advertising it.

They weren't keen on that stuff sure, nor were they happy with Android/iOS phones that they didn't have control over (remember VZ Navigator vs Google Maps and VZW locking phones GPS down so you couldn't use it unless it was with VZN? I do). But my phone is unlimited 4G data. That means that I can use as much as I want, because it's what I pay for. Am I using more than they would like? Definitely. Ideally I would use no data and pay for it still if carriers had it their way.

I got your point and tried to show you why you're wrong.

Me thinks you have no idea how American business actually works. Its all about bullshitting the customer.
If you really cant deal with it, get a class action going. Thats the only way you even have a small chance of enacting change. Hell I'd sign your claim right now but I dont currently have AT&T, only kept them for a couple weeks cuz I dont like their policies.
Why do you think I'm doing month-to-month on Tmobile? Its the least irritating anal ream in cellular service these days.

 

[Ns1]

i'm on grandfathered ATT unlimited


I've only gone over the 2gb cap twice

I'm thinking about downgrading and just saving the $5/mo. (no netflix and pandora/spotify doesn't seem to be sucking up as much data as I thought)

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

I got your point and tried to show you why you're wrong.

Me thinks you have no idea how American business actually works. Its all about bullshitting the customer.
If you really cant deal with it, get a class action going. Thats the only way you even have a small chance of enacting change. Hell I'd sign your claim right now but I dont currently have AT&T, only kept them for a couple weeks cuz I dont like their policies.
Why do you think I'm doing month-to-month on Tmobile? Its the least irritating anal ream in cellular service these days.

I understand the business. Especially with VZW, it's setup to make as much profit as possible out of the customer base. The carriers don't really care how 5 gb of data is used. To their network 5 gb is 5 gb regardless of how it's used. However, they realize that they can reap additional profits through separation of tethering and just phone use. Basically the carriers are "double dipping" into their customers pockets. It makes business sense, especially when there are only 2 major carriers and 4 total options (excluding regional ones). It's pretty easy when your only major competitor does the same as you...

 

[shortylickens]

So we are agreed? Nuke Verizon at dawn!!

 

[Brian Stirling]

If you only streamed the much lower bit rate music from Pandora or similar you could in theory eat over 20GB/month just doing that! Now if you like to stream video content you could easily go through 50GB or even 100GB per month. Add in a bunch of Rapidshare/bittorrent/fileshare downloads and you could, in theory, go through 150GB/month when the average user is probably less that 150MB/month.

The carriers play the marketing game of unlimited data with the knowledge that there never was really unlimited data and many of us users play the game of pretending our very high usage is justified because the carriers said I had unlimited data. Both sides are lying and they both know it...

As has been mentioned before the carriers have a limited range of options when data use goes beyond a certain point and cellular network will never come anywhere near the capacity of cable let alone fiber. They can add more cell towers/sites so fewer people are on each but there are obvious limits on how close you can put them not to mention the cost. The other route is to throttle the speed or charge you so much more for going over a certain amount that you reduce your usage to keep from going broke.

I've said it a million times before but sooner or later the carriers will be forced to move to metered billing. They don't want to do this for a whole host of reasons, but at some point they may have no other way to constrain usage.

I think we will see the deployment of hundreds of thousands of micro cells (femtocells) so that each floor of an office building will have one or more of these wifi like sites to handle the high density areas and offload capacity requirements. If this happens, and I think it will, then we could see an easing of the limits particularly if you have and use a femtocell in your home and business thereby reducing the carriers wireless bandwidth usage.


Brian

 

[alent1234]

i used to stream pandora most of the day a few years ago and it came out to 100MB per day on average. now the question then becomes who streams it 24x7?

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

i used to stream pandora most of the day a few years ago and it came out to 100MB per day on average. now the question then becomes who streams it 24x7?

I rewatched SG:A last month, and am now rewatching BSG both through Netflix. I would watch at home and at work. Each episode is about 250 mb, and depending on the day I've watched as many as 6 on my phone. However the time I'm not at work, I don't use much data at all because I'm on wifi or doing other things on a computer with internet already.

 

[That bites]

I'm in the top 5 I want to b #1 I've been throttled for this month so now I'm going 24 7 data download

 

[the DRIZZLE]

I'd say it's the carrier's fault because they advertised these plans as "unlimited". If they clearly stated from the get go that there is a limit, and going over the limit results in throttled speeds, we wouldn't have this problem. But nope, they had to be greedy with their marketing.

Not to say the data hog users aren't at fault as well, but I think the carriers are more at fault.

I don't disagree that there is a dishonest marketing/ breach of contract issue here. They do have clauses in the contract that let them do this but it would be more fair if they only applied it to new contracts. Does anyone know if the language for people grandfathered into unlimited plans changed when they renewed or did they keep the old terms? My point is that is that if everyone used 10gb per month we would need a lot more infrastructure and prices would have to be quite a bit higher.