AT&T: Using more than 2GB/month on your phone = abusing service

[cubby1223]

In related news: In Russia, downloading 419GB over 3G in one week wins you a $5000 vacation!

When you factor in there are only 3 cell phone owners in all of Russia, a cellular carrier encouraging unlimited data there is in a different situation than carriers in the United States.

 

[Raduque]

wtf can anyone possibly be doing on a phone that takes up 2-6 GB or more a month?

wait until you get home to watch porn....


I don't get it.

Streaming radio, Netflix and tethering.

 

[allenk09]

I thought they were already doing this? Throttling after 2gigs is pretty damn weak.

It's because of the people who abuse it and download 10GB torrents every day on their phones. Virgin mobile just sent out a message saying they'd be throttling after 2.5G in May (I think May). Still, I don't use 2.5G per month so I'm not complaining. I put music on my phone instead of letting a stupid program try to pick what I like.

 

[CZroe]

You didn't buy unlimited because you intended to use it. You bought unlimited because that was all AT&T offered on smartphones until they tiered the plans in 2010.

Wrong. I first bought it in 2008 and I based my purchase decision based on the fact that "Unlimited" was available and I continued paying for "Unlimited" after it became non-mandatory because I always expected to use it for location-shifting TV/DVR, streaming Hulu and Netflix, and remoting into other systems, since even before those applications were available. Changing usage statistics are no excuse when a power user expected to be able to do those things and was prevented (Sling Player not working on cellular data, Hava player not launching when expected in 2009, etc). I was always miffed that my iPhone 3G would load a lower bandwidth version of the YouTube video I needed while on cellular networks vs. WiFi, especially when I needed the higher bandwidth version to read text. I was paying for the pipe and they manipulated it to my detriment for their benefit with no permission so as to continue over-promising and under-delivering without needing to invest in as much network capacity. Their 3G roll-out was laughable because they started upgrading cities (HSPA+ with enhanced backhaul, LTE, etc) before they even had basic 3G service rolled out. They didn't even add 3G towers to Newnan, GA beyond the Interstate highway until early 2011/late 2010 and it is metro Atlanta. I figured that the only reason it was finally being done was that it was just leftover equipment after upgrading other areas.

 

[oynaz]

The FCC and the distance in which people are spread out.

Take the asian countries for example, you install fiber into 100 miles of territory and you now service several million people, here in the states, you need three times that to hit the number. We only have pockets here and there that are really dense as far as total number of customers. Also, a lot of the other infrastructures are government subsidized, so that won't work well here either as people will start shouting socialism.

That sounds good on paper, until you consider countries like Sweden and Finland which has quite a lower population density than the US, but still manage a very good cellular service.

But your last sentence probably nails it

 

[brainhulk]

wtf can anyone possibly be doing on a phone that takes up 2-6 GB or more a month?

wait until you get home to watch porn....


I don't get it.

i use it to stream pandora. i don't know if that will make me hit 2 gb though. I have sprint unlimited

 

[alent1234]

That sounds good on paper, until you consider countries like Sweden and Finland which has quite a lower population density than the US, but still manage a very good cellular service.

But your last sentence probably nails it

sweden and finland have most people concentrated in a few cities

in the US we have these things called suburbs. as an example NYC has a population of 8 million people but 20 million during the workday. these people come in from nassau/suffolk counties, westchester, NJ and connecticut to work.

some people live almost 100 miles away

 

[sdifox]

sweden and finland have most people concentrated in a few cities

in the US we have these things called suburbs. as an example NYC has a population of 8 million people but 20 million during the workday. these people come in from nassau/suffolk counties, westchester, NJ and connecticut to work.

some people live almost 100 miles away

there is enough density in North East US to warrant ftth deployment. There is just no interest in losing income :biggrin:

 

[alent1234]

FIOS is going all out in the North East. i know people that have it and it's close to where i live now.

it's just that it's very EXPENSIVE to run

time warner cable has fiber everywhere but not inside residences. no need since they can get 50mbps over copper right now. especially now that the NYC let them turn off the old analog cable and it freed up a lot of bandwidth

 

[airdata]

File a BBB complaint if you're throttled. AT&T responds pretty quick to those. Not sure that they'll do anything about your service or not, but if enough people file complaints they may rethink their horrible throttling strategy.

The ceiling is actually 3GB though. As I posted in another thread, we were told first hand at the AT&T store that one of our lines was approaching the 3GB mark. When we mentioned the unlimited data plan they were very quick to spout off that the data was still unlimited, just not the speed.

It seems like they're obligated to keep the unlimited user and they're turning to under-handed tactics to force people to pay more per month for data. If you're hitting 3GB and getting throttled, you can pay $20 more per month and get the 5GB plan, which still if you went over you'd be paying $60+ for data.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I stream Netflix on my phone all day at work. Hit 4gb in two days lol. I'm now throttled for the rest of the month.
I have no reason to upgrade my phone as data restrictions hold me back much more than my almost 3 year old iPhone.
I really am considering prepaid at this point. I'll have to look into it more. F@ck AT&T.

 

[airdata]

I stream Netflix on my phone all day at work. Hit 4gb in two days lol. I'm now throttled for the rest of the month.
I have no reason to upgrade my phone as data restrictions hold me back much more than my almost 3 year old iPhone.
I really am considering prepaid at this point. I'll have to look into it more. F@ck AT&T.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW5aEQzTcW0

Check this out... they test throttled vs non throttled and sometimes the throttled one is as low as .06Mbps.

I'd file a complaint personally... you're paying for a service and they're not providing the service you're paying for.

When I had HBO GO back in september / october I used something like 16GB 2 months in a row.

 

[alent1234]

how are they not providing a service? in the contract it says they can throttle you or you can just go to another carrier

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

how are they not providing a service? in the contract it says they can throttle you or you can just go to another carrier

You probably signed a similar agreement when you signed up for your home Internet service. Would you be okay with them throttling you back to dial up speeds caused they deemed you to be in the top 5% of users?
What's even worse is they don't give any info as to how they come about figuring who is the top 5%.

 

[airdata]

how are they not providing a service? in the contract it says they can throttle you or you can just go to another carrier

I can't confirm or deny whether or not that was in my original contract. It's just assumed that if I'm paying for unlimited data that I will be able to use unlimited data.

Oilfieldtrash : is your internet completely unusable now?

 

[alent1234]

You probably signed a similar agreement when you signed up for your home Internet service. Would you be okay with them throttling you back to dial up speeds caused they deemed you to be in the top 5% of users?
What's even worse is they don't give any info as to how they come about figuring who is the top 5%.

since i don't use any p2p, if there were a few jokers sucking up everyone else's bandwidth and slowing me down when i need speed i wouldn't care. same thing with wireless. NYC the data speeds are slow in the day because it's always the same few people who hog up the networks. so no, i don't care if they throttle you back to dial up speeds. in fact i hope they do because it will make my service faster

and wired internet is completely different from wireless and is A LOT cheaper to deliver and support

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I can't confirm or deny whether or not that was in my original contract. It's just assumed that if I'm paying for unlimited data that I will be able to use unlimited data.

Oilfieldtrash : is your internet completely unusable now?

Streaming vids is out of the question. Some web pages pull up, some just time out, can still stream Pandora and espn. I just wish they'd let me have 1mb speeds so I could stream video. Arghhh! I'm currently at .1mb speeds. The more I think about it the more I want to cancel.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

since i don't use any p2p, if there were a few jokers sucking up everyone else's bandwidth and slowing me down when i need speed i wouldn't care. same thing with wireless. NYC the data speeds are slow in the day because it's always the same few people who hog up the networks. so no, i don't care if they throttle you back to dial up speeds. in fact i hope they do because it will make my service faster

and wired internet is completely different from wireless and is A LOT cheaper to deliver and support

I don't use p2p or anything like that so please don't bring that into the argument. I stream Netflix which I pay for, on an iPhone I paid for, with an unlimited data plan I pay for. Yet I can't use the services I paid for.

 

[alent1234]

you're one person, 90% of the bandwidth is not yours to use

there has never and never will be an organization or service provider that can deliver 100% of promised bandwidth to 100% of its customers or users all the time. not even back in the days of land line telephones

 

[airdata]

you're one person, 90% of the bandwidth is not yours to use

there has never and never will be an organization or service provider that can deliver 100% of promised bandwidth to 100% of its customers or users all the time. not even back in the days of land line telephones

The problem with that reasoning is that no transparency exists to actually show what usage is.

What is the top 5% ? Have they gotten 75% of their users to use the cheapest data plan of 200-500MB, and therefore if you use 4-5 times what they use, you shouldn't be able to load web pages or maps once you've passed 3GB?

 

[bearxor]

Wrong. I first bought it in 2008 and I based my purchase decision based on the fact that "Unlimited" was available and I continued paying for "Unlimited" after it became non-mandatory because I always expected to use it for location-shifting TV/DVR, streaming Hulu and Netflix, and remoting into other systems, since even before those applications were available. Changing usage statistics are no excuse when a power user expected to be able to do those things and was prevented (Sling Player not working on cellular data, Hava player not launching when expected in 2009, etc). I was always miffed that my iPhone 3G would load a lower bandwidth version of the YouTube video I needed while on cellular networks vs. WiFi, especially when I needed the higher bandwidth version to read text. I was paying for the pipe and they manipulated it to my detriment for their benefit with no permission so as to continue over-promising and under-delivering without needing to invest in as much network capacity. Their 3G roll-out was laughable because they started upgrading cities (HSPA+ with enhanced backhaul, LTE, etc) before they even had basic 3G service rolled out. They didn't even add 3G towers to Newnan, GA beyond the Interstate highway until early 2011/late 2010 and it is metro Atlanta. I figured that the only reason it was finally being done was that it was just leftover equipment after upgrading other areas.

None of that changes the fact that, when you signed up for service in 2008, there was no choice but the unlimited $30/mo plan. Again, the reason you signed up for it wasn't because you intended to use it, it was because you didn't have a choice. You wanted a iPhone on AT&T, you were getting the $30/mo unlimited data plan.

Just because you had ideas about what you were going to do with it doesn't matter.

 

[LiuKangBakinPie]

When you factor in there are only 3 cell phone owners in all of Russia, a cellular carrier encouraging unlimited data there is in a different situation than carriers in the United States.

We have 3 ISP's and one 1 controlling the hard lines here as well.

 

[LiuKangBakinPie]

you're one person, 90% of the bandwidth is not yours to use

there has never and never will be an organization or service provider that can deliver 100% of promised bandwidth to 100% of its customers or users all the time. not even back in the days of land line telephones

bandwidth or throughput?

 

[spacejamz]

I stream Netflix on my phone all day at work. Hit 4gb in two days lol. I'm now throttled for the rest of the month.
I have no reason to upgrade my phone as data restrictions hold me back much more than my almost 3 year old iPhone.
I really am considering prepaid at this point. I'll have to look into it more. F@ck AT&T.

Just curious what kind of job you have where you can watch Netflix all day at work....

 

[bearxor]

If I'm not mistaken AT&T is in talks with T-mo to use and license out some of their spectrum. And visa-versa. I could be mistaken though.

Do you happen to know what bands the AT&T and Verizon LTE are going to run at? Any chance they might be somewhat compatible.

You're right, except opposite. As punishment for the deal falling through, AT&T had to sign over chunks of its AWS spectrum it had planned to use for LTE over to TMobile.

Verizon's LTE runs in one of the 700mhz bands. AT&T was going to use a combination of 700mhz and AWS since they couldn't get all of the 700mhz they wanted. They dont have a lot of AWS either, which was the main driver behibd the TMo deal, because TMo has spectrum to spare for the most part. AFAIK, that's still the plan. The radio chips should be compatible with both networks, but I'd suspect the firmware will lock it to each carrier. Sprint will be using its 850mhz spectrum acquired from Nextel. I don't think the 2.5ghz or 1.6ghz is going to work out for them.

There's a good spectrum article that explains all of this somewhere, let me see if I can find it.
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2012/012312-lte-spectrum-255122.html?page=1