All you punks out there watching Internet video and downloading monkey porn had better stop! There’s a current 5 gigabyte cap on laptop data use right now but soon, friends, AT&T is going to close up that “unlimited” plan and hopes to educate the consumer on proper data use.
This, interestingly enough, is absolute bullshit. The idea that 5GB can be considered unlimited and that the punks at AT&T can’t handle “3 percent of users using 40 percent network capacity” is even bigger bullshit. Listen: mobile is how we’re going to be using the Internet in the next decade. The fact that AT&T can’t handle that and isn’t ready for it is highly disconcerting. Considering all the recent excitement about their call quality sucking, this can’t be good for the company.
People don’t need to be educated to use less data. They need to be educated as to which carrier can handle the coming mobile data glut.
AT&T responds.
There’s a 5 GB limit on Laptop Connect plans (you can use more, but are charged), but not on smartphone plans. Those are unlimited.
Also, we have announced no plans to make changes – here are two excepts from Ralph de la Vega’s talk yesterday, in response to a question about how the industry will deal with increasing data use. You can judge whether “soon, friends, AT&T *is* going to…” is too strong:
“But what we’re doing now is making sure that we do focus groups to understand what customers are doing and how customers are likely to behave in the future. And the interesting thing is that customers are not aware, fully aware, of how they are driving traffic and what constitutes high traffic or not. For example, when we do focus groups, some customers may think that because they have a lot of e-mail traffic, that causes a lot of data. That is not the case.
What’s driving usage on the network and driving these high usage situations are things like video, or audio that keeps playing around the clock. And so we’ve got to get to those customers and have them recognize that they need to change their pattern, or there will be other things that they are going to have to do to reduce their usage.”
“I think one of the first things that we need to do is we need to educate the customers. And it’s something that customers today have not been used to doing, so we’ve got to get them to understand what represents a megabyte of data.
And so what we’re doing now is we’re improving all of our systems so that we can begin to give customers real-time information about their data usage and begin to get customers educated. And I think longer-term, there’s got to be some sort of a pricing scheme that addresses the usage, but that’s going to be determined by industry competitive factors, regulatory factors and customer [successes]. So I can’t give you a prediction, other than our first area of focus is to get the information to the customers so they know their own patterns of usage.”
its a lot more complicated then you keyboard jockeys could understand, why dont you get inside att and talk with someone who can teach you, so you can stop spewing crap, and actually post something with worthy information
and FYI, not one mobile carrier can handle the influx of increased mobile data usage right, now go ahead, give the iphone to any other carrier – and they will have the same issues
Would love to get inside ATT and talk to someone, but apple get’s all handsey with it’s little fiefdomn of idiocy it’s built up with you isheep, so ill stick with my keyboard jocky’ing thanks.
I think the bigger issue is that ATT is going to start calling 5GB of data “Unlimited”
Say all you want about network infrastructure and capacity issues, nothing can really be proved because the iPhone ISN’T on any other network.
But calling it “Unlimited” is false advertising and should be stopped.
So there are exclusive agreements for the iPhone in other countries. Are any of those carriers experiencing similar issues? If so, I haven’t heard of it. Face it, AT&T was ill-prepared for this and will be playing catch-up for a while.
Do I have to pick one in the US or can I point to any number of the overseas carriers who don’t seam to have issues, are running faster networks, and don’t assume their customers are all dumb sacks of money to be emptied as quickly as possible?
i dropped called 5 times last night in a single conversation (i dn’t have an iphone). they wanted exclusivity with a product they were ill-prepared to handle, and now are blaming their customers? fuck ATT.
The demand is higher than the offering, what do to? Increase the price for God’s sake!
This is microeconomics 101
Well, that sucks. I guess there will be a lot of Droid sales coming up here shortly? Last I checked, that’s a change in the contract agreement and thus, you can cancel the contract agreement completely free of charge. You also get to keep your phone.
This isn’t going to happen with Verizon by the way. Verizon won’t ever get such a huge following like what AT&T has. That, or they will, but it won’t be like a flash flood like what happened to AT&T. Also, this happened to AT&T mainly because they were the only ones offering the iPhone. Now we have the Droid, so the market share will be better spread out. Another also is that Verizon wasn’t some tiny ass retard company when they got their flagship phone, they’ve been pretty big for quite some time now, so they could handle a “flash flood” a bit better, although probably with similar outcomes. But, the outcome for Verizon won’t be the same for all the previous reasons listed.
The real question is, can Apple get out of its exclusivity contract with AT&T?
VZW is of no use to the iphone….without the ability to use both voice and data simultaneously…
John is right “mobile is how we’re going to be using the Internet in the next decade”.
at&t tshould stop trying to shift blame to – 3% – of users and upgrade the crappy network to handle the current data usage and more….
The results of this will be twofold as it will get them ready for more data gulping devices and help them keep current customers.
I, for one, would not have gotten the iPhone if data was not ‘unlimited’ not that I constantly use a lot of data….just that I like not having to worry about overages when I do use it…
+1 ;)
I’m on cdma sprint with no voice & data simultaneosly with a Pre (unless I have wifi).
The number of times that has mattered is insignificant. Besides, the iphone can’t even multitask. So I can use data in 10 apps at the same time where you can only do one at a time (trapster/pandora/email anybody??)
Most iphone users i’ve seen have the phone to their ear when they talk so data is mute. When in the car, I don’t want to be anywhere near you if you are talking on your iphone via bluetooth and using data while driving.
About the only scenario is when on AT&T making a voice call via a blutooth headset while using data. (but shouldn’t you pay attention to the person you are talking to instead?)
Plus, you’ll be too tied up trying to recall the person when AT&T’s crappy network drops your voice call or throwing your phone against the wall when AT&T’s data is slow because their 3g coverage is very spotty.,
Haha “…tiny ass retard company…” Great line.
That’s exactly what I thought of At&t at the time the iPhone was announced. Though they’ve proven themselves a bit better than that. Not by much but still your comment was right on the money.
Can anyone link to an official statement about this? Assuming there is one already, i’m sure they’re still ‘preparing’ it, and this is just closer to speculation for now.
official-enough link: http://venturebeat.com/2009/12/09/att/
That’s cool, if you want me to use a phone just for voice I can switch to a pre-paid phone plan. I bet I could get by on about $30-$40 a YEAR if I just use my phone for talking.
i plan to switch to who ever is getting the HTC HD2 in 2010… i’ve had an unlimited plan for 3 years with ATT so i have a pretty decent grandfathered plan but i pray to god they dont change this ish up cause i am extremely happy w. my current plan and i wouldnt want to have to change =(
Does the Droid sync with itunes? No? I guess I will deal with bandwidth charges then.
Wow, really? Does it sync with itunes is your standard requirement even though Apple is trying to ensure you will never get another device to sync with itunes? that’s your call, that’s what free market is about I guess, but statements like that is why AT&T isn’t worried about raising rates if they lose customers they’ll just raise the rates on all the itunes douches.
+1
I have one URL for you: http://www.doubletwist.com
I for the life of me can not figure our how they are allowed to call it Unlimited Data. I am still pissed that they think they can charge me twice for the same data with this tethering add on
How Sprint doesnt drop the data cap, file a law suit, and start putting out adds about the “SURPRISE” overage charges to put the fear of god into ATT and Verizon users is beyond me.
No added fees for tethering with T-Mobile on the unlimited data plan
Just go to T-mobile in Chicago and by the end of the year everywhere and were getting HSPA 7.2 speeds. Their “unlimited” plan is 10gb with a soft caps aka no overages charges. The just claim the right to slow you down once you hit that 10gigs. These are my speed test results ->
http://i50.tinypic.com/2eof86q.png
It does look bad that AT&T is the only one saying this. Mobile browsing will match that of the PC in only a few years, so AT&T better get its network together.
If AT&T knew that iPhone was going to cause issues, why didn’t it open up WiFi hotspots earlier to iPhone users? Why doesn’t AT&T put in repeaters and femtocells – or more hotspots? I’m constantly using my iPhone browser, but more than half the time I’m at work or home using WiFi. Don’t bitch at me when I’m paying $100 a month for sh*t coverage.
Why boast about the fastest 3G network, when it doesn’t perform or reach as many users?
I’m switching to the VZW iPhone in 6 months.
Where is you source John? Well, I found one…
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200912091418DOWJONESDJONLINE000567_FORTUNE5.htm
ATT’s GSM /3G is crap compared to Sprint or Verizon’s CDMA which is more equipped for data. I had Sprint for 5 years, switched to ATT for a year and back to Sprint. ATT was horrible. It was worth paying the ETF’s to avoid more dropped calls in more places. I’m sure apple is counting the days for that exclusivity agreement to expire. Verizon or Sprint would provide a much better domestic user experience.
too much bandwidth?!?! haha. I pay enough for the stupid thing monthly.. They should give me 100gb cap
or just give up unlimited data, since that’s what they call it.
To Jason at the beginning of this thread:
Are you kidding me? Regardless of our understanding, we have other examples of providers that, presumably, know quite a bit more than you or I about wireless networks.
Those providers all have MMS and have had for YEARS; AT&T /just/ allowed it on the iPhone.
Those providers allow tethering, some at no cost, because their networks are robust enough to support it: AT&T does not even offer this, as they themselves admit their network is not ready. The phone supports it already, and has for 9 months.
( http://mashable.com/2009/10/08/iphone-tethering/ )
Regardless of what you or I(the uninformed unwashed masses) think, it does not matter.
Other networks are much better for the 21st century. F-A-C-T
Don’t be a dumbass. I’m not even gonna get into the idiotic network capacity argument. AT&T needs to get their shit together and realize that people will not accept a digressive path for cellular data speeds/pricing. With LTE/Wimax on the horizon, no WISP should have any vision less than faster, cheaper and more “ubiquitous” access. This idea of going after early adopters of cellular data for all things Internet instead of just tiny mobile web crap page loads is retarded. They want to cap @ 5 GB/mo, fine. Call it 5 GB/mo service. And don’t go after people who dare to use all those 5 gigs. This type of model may work when the majority of people are still using dumb phones on EDGE tech. But when LTE is sold as a replacement, not a complement to cable/DSL Internet, good luck competing using these douchey pricing models.
Here is what AT&T is up to: they spent ridiculous sums of money on 3G spectrum. Now that they are finally rolling out 850 MHz, the awesome propogation and throughput characteristics of which I have seen firsthand here in CO, they want $. That’s right if they are gonna give us that sweet, ace-in-the-hole, beach front spectrum and 5 gigs of it a month, they want a little something extra. Like, we can use it, and even under net neutral terms (gee, thanks fuckers), butcits gonna cost more. Why? Well because VZ has a better network and you pain in add customers want something to match so if we have to roll out 850 MHz radios and more towers, well then fuck you. Pay up since we didn’t build a 3G only network and it costs more to deploy our technology. What, it’s our fault we chose a more expensive technology and marketed the high holy shit out of a phone that uses a lot of data? That’s AT&T’s fault? Sarcasm aside, AT&T backed themselves into a corner where they are caught between getting 3/3.5G to actually work right and their next huge capital expense of LTE and they think the customer should pay because they can’t do market forecasting correctly. Well, fuck that and fuck them.
You know, I am sitting here and looking at the word “unlimited” in the dictionary…it’s odd, it doesnt seem to mention a 5gb cap, or ANY cap for the matter. Dictionary dot com defines it as
–adjective
1. not limited; unrestricted; unconfined: unlimited trade.
2. boundless; infinite; vast: the unlimited skies.
3. without any qualification or exception; unconditional.
So, where does that leave AT&T users? In the fine print that’s where! How do they not realize that with the way gadgets are today AND the release of internet capable phones, ipods and other devices they would need to step up their game to accomodate the data transfers? Maybe they just need an english lesson to reword their names of plans. Somebody should sue and FORCE them to reword it. Example: guard rails are now called guide rails, because they dont guard squat! Somebody sued the DOT over that word and won hella $$$, they got renamed.
Remember it is a shared technology. So go with Sprint for data less people to share with.
I run an unlocked HTC Dream on ATT, even though my contract is almost up I have no problems with the network coverage and never had a dropped call.
However, just to prove a point I will start tethering and downloading like crazy, on the EDGE connection mind you. My previous monthly record is 290MB, let’s see if I can beat that.
I see lawsuits in ATT’s future….