AT&T now throttling unlimited data plans at 22GB instead of 5GB

[Yuhfhrh]

http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/09/att-now-throttles-unlimited-data-after-22gb-instead-of-5gb/

 

In the latest iteration, customers can use 22GB of data during a monthly billing period without any speed reductions. After that, "speed reductions will occur only when the customer is using his or her device at times and in areas where there is network congestion and only for the remainder of the current billing cycle," AT&T says.

 

I guess they wanted to match T-Mobile?

[jamisonshaw125]

Eh.

[nick]

http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/09/att-now-throttles-unlimited-data-after-22gb-instead-of-5gb/

 

 

I guess they wanted to match T-Mobile?

the problem is anyone who would want to use that much data probably already left the unlimited plan(or att), after that old 5 gig throttle the phone was next to useless data wise....  I know a few people left on the unlimited plan from att, they barely use the phone probably use less than 1 gig, they are just afraid/resistant to change.  verizon grandfathered unlimited plans however, i know a few people on those that use over 50 gigs in a month. 

[cortney]

http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/09/att-now-throttles-unlimited-data-after-22gb-instead-of-5gb/

 

 

I guess they wanted to match T-Mobile?

 

I guess so. But really, even if you're on an "unlimited" plan, you shouldn't be entitled to all you can eat high-speed data 24/7. That's why the "unlimited" titling has to go, because this is indeed a misnomer. That's the only problem with this. It is not any different than T-Mobile's "unlimited" 2G plans with an amount of high speed data. But if it's in the fine print however, I don't think AT&T is any more guilty than T-Mobile. 

 

Verizon users, like T-Mobile and some Sprint users on unlimited plans seem to feel this entitlement and I've seen screenshots of like 80-120+ GB a month use, continuous speed tests, streaming and tethering, and one wonders why VZW's LTE is useless in many areas.

 

If the AT&T Unlimited users don't like it, they can leave.  If 22GB of unthrottled data isn't good enough for you, leave and go to T-Mobile and Verizon like many people threaten. Do it! Same goes to VZW users if Verizon finally boots their plans or adds a throttle, and the other two when they get rid of it as well.

[Deval]

the problem is anyone who would want to use that much data probably already left the unlimited plan(or att), after that old 5 gig throttle the phone was next to useless data wise....  I know a few people left on the unlimited plan from att, they barely use the phone probably use less than 1 gig, they are just afraid/resistant to change.  verizon grandfathered unlimited plans however, i know a few people on those that use over 50 gigs in a month. 

 

One my friends on T-Mobile just had one of his friends post on Facebook an average of 136GB a month on T-Mo...that's insane.

[nick]

One my friends on T-Mobile just had one of his friends post on Facebook an average of 136GB a month on T-Mo...that's insane.

that would be difficult to consume that much data on the phone Alone, not impossible mind you.... Just difficult. That's like 60 some Netflix movies, almost two per day.... I my opinion doing that every month is excessive and will contribute to the end of unlimited... Imagine if everyone consumed that much early month. But hey it's he pays for unlimited, so long as he is staying within his terms of service I say have at it, last month i used 35 gigs on my phone only.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Fraydog]

I like 3's terminology in the UK:

 

http://store.three.co.uk/mobile/view/searchTariff?deviceType=SIM_ONLY&priceplan=PAY_MONTHLY&site=m

 

All you can eat.

 

Look for Uncarrier 10 to introduce Data Smorgasboard soon. ????

[Arysyn]

I figured I'd add my opinion on the data usage issue, in case some of the newer members here haven't seen my postings mentioning it, or if any of the members haven't either.

 

I really do not fault people who use a lot of data, as long as they are not violating the terms of service of their agreements with their carriers. Rather, I blame the carriers for having such services which allow people to legitimately use so much data to the point it negatively affects the networks and the experiences on those networks for other customers. When reading about the issue, I often think of the saying, "Don't hate the player, hate the game". Or in this case, I suppose it might be "Hate the game master".

 

There also are others to blame for this as well. Back around when LTE was being introduced, many in the media were acting as the precursor to John Legere, by saying how LTE would allow people vast amounts of internet usage, such as gaming, streaming, surfing, etc., with plenty of space for unlimited usage. Some in the media went even further in their words by claiming 4g technology, such as WiMax and LTE could provide people with full replacement of in-home internet done wirelessly, no longer needing DSL and cable connections. Then there was Clear...

 

So, when people were told all of this, they went at it, using it as it was told they could use it. Then after awhile, the carriers realized this just wasn't feasible. Not because people were "abusing" the services, but because there were so many people using the services the way they were offered. The carriers changed their policies so that many of these usages became against the terms of service. Many people didn't comply with these changes, therefore became abusive of the networks by violating the terms of service. Ultimately, the carriers responded by eliminating unlimited data, all except for Sprint and T-Mobile which to this day have users who do and do not violate the terms of service.

 

Anyways, I apologize for this lengthy explanation of my opinion. Also, I want to let everyone here know that I'm not condoning heavy data usage just because I think this way. Instead, I believe that rather than going over the issue of data amounts and what people think is abuse or not within the guidelines of the terms of service, better to put some pressure on the carriers to eliminate unlimited, then create a fair, affordable, across-the-board flat per GB rate plan, one which unlimited data users can afford, but retains them from straining the network.

 

Although, I prefer not to use this as some sort of tool for guilt against them, since many use unlimited data legitimately, even if their data usage seems like a lot (for more ideas on that, please read my thread regarding my variable network speed cap idea, which is nowhere near as restrictive as Sprint's cancelled speed cap idea from earlier this year.

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/7074-my-new-plan-idea-with-a-network-variable-speed-cap/page-2&do=findComment&comment=431674

[joshnys8913]

Better at 22

[stuckinohio1]

You guys are forgetting that you can connect your phone to an HDMI cable then to a TV or computer monitor and use a bluetooth keyboard and mouse. when i upgrade to a new phone i plan on using my Note 3 as a portable computer.

 

Using your phone as your home PC over sprints network i could easily see 300GB/mo with netflix/youtube/email/web browsing.

 

and since add block plus doesn't work on the phone unless you load a custom OS you get even more data usage with all of the adds loading up.

[S4GRU]

You guys are forgetting that you can connect your phone to an HDMI cable then to a TV or computer monitor and use a bluetooth keyboard and mouse. when i upgrade to a new phone i plan on using my Note 3 as a portable computer.

 

Using your phone as your home PC over sprints network i could easily see 300GB/mo with netflix/youtube/email/web browsing.

 

and since add block plus doesn't work on the phone unless you load a custom OS you get even more data usage with all of the adds loading up.

Sprint isn't forgetting. They'll crack down on these types next, if it becomes a problem for them. If you're the type that wants to try to go without having a home ISP and use Sprint unlimited in a way it's not intended, I wouldn't recommend explaining and encouraging others to do it. The more people who do it, means the sooner it will become a problem and the sooner of has to be dealt with.

 

One plane can fly under the radar. But it's much harder to do that with millions of planes.

 

Using Tapatalk on BlackBerry Z30

[Camcroz]

Sprint isn't forgetting. They'll crack down on these types next, if it becomes a problem for them. If you're the type that wants to try to go without having a home ISP and use Sprint unlimited in a way it's not intended, I wouldn't recommend explaining and encouraging others to do it. The more people who do it, means the sooner it will become a problem and the sooner of has to be dealt with.

 

One plane can fly under the radar. But it's much harder to do that with millions of planes.

 

Using Tapatalk on BlackBerry Z30

So is using ur phone through a tv against the rules? It's not tethering or anything and ur only using the data on your phone. I've got a perfectly working computer with wifi so I'm good but i was just wondering if sprint can do anything about the customers on unlimited that do that

 

Sent from my SM-G925P using Tapatalk

[cortney]

Better at 22

 

[Arysyn]

So is using ur phone through a tv against the rules? It's not tethering or anything and ur only using the data on your phone. I've got a perfectly working computer with wifi so I'm good but i was just wondering if sprint can do anything about the customers on unlimited that do that

 

Sent from my SM-G925P using Tapatalk

It basically is a form of tethering. For instance, as it allows people to view video through the mobile internet which Sprint intends only to be for smartphone viewing on unlimited plans, essentially it is violating the rules Sprint has in place. As we know, Sprint has per gb data plans for such usage that is more expensive than unlimited in the higher data usage plans suited for tethering video and sharing data among multiple users.

 

Now if the poster had mentioned T-Mobile, despite John Legere fighting against tethering work around to their tethering limit, I still view the idea of it being against the rules in that situation differently, as tethering is allowed and if the form of cabling the person uses somehow were to override the speed limit for the allowed unlimited tethering T-Mobile now offers, granted if that isn't the intention of the user but happens anyway, I'd say it's the fault of T-Mobile for not having their system ensuring the speed limit on those forms of cabling.

 

Although, I'm not an expert on cabling, and it is very well that cabling will be viewed the same in T-Mobile's system as USB, but if not, then since T-Mobile is offering unlimited tethering with a speed cap over the initial high speed limit, it is T-Mobile's responsibility to fix that. However, I'm not condoning any intentional workaround, which as long as its in the terms of service, I view it as wrong. Yet, a user simply plugging in their choice of cable while the service they intend to use it for is allowed, then it sounds fine.

 

Again though, this isn't the case with Sprint, which is wise of Sprint to have tethering as a separate fee and not given as unlimited usage with a bunch of different policies thrown in whenever John Legere has a fit over the FCC not cooperating with him and giving him what he wants.

[Camcroz]

It basically is a form of tethering. For instance, as it allows people to view video through the mobile internet which Sprint intends only to be for smartphone viewing on unlimited plans, essentially it is violating the rules Sprint has in place. As we know, Sprint has per gb data plans for such usage that is more expensive than unlimited in the higher data usage plans suited for tethering video and sharing data among multiple users.

 

Now if the poster had mentioned T-Mobile, despite John Legere fighting against tethering work around to their tethering limit, I still view the idea of it being against the rules in that situation differently, as tethering is allowed and if the form of cabling the person uses somehow were to override the speed limit for the allowed unlimited tethering T-Mobile now offers, granted if that isn't the intention of the user but happens anyway, I'd say it's the fault of T-Mobile for not having their system ensuring the speed limit on those forms of cabling.

 

Although, I'm not an expert on cabling, and it is very well that cabling will be viewed the same in T-Mobile's system as USB, but if not, then since T-Mobile is offering unlimited tethering with a speed cap over the initial high speed limit, it is T-Mobile's responsibility to fix that. However, I'm not condoning any intentional workaround, which as long as its in the terms of service, I view it as wrong. Yet, a user simply plugging in their choice of cable while the service they intend to use it for is allowed, then it sounds fine.

 

Again though, this isn't the case with Sprint, which is wise of Sprint to have tethering as a separate fee and not given as unlimited usage with a bunch of different policies thrown in whenever John Legere has a fit over the FCC not cooperating with him and giving him what he wants.

I see ur point of view. But isnt this a little different then tethering. Your not sharing your connection with other devices, your just using a tv to enhance the view of ur screen. Your still only using the data on just your phone and your phone only. I dont recall if that is against the T&M's but i could be wrong.

 

Sent from my SM-G925P using Tapatalk

[stuckinohio1]

the issue is i have always seen people talk about illegal tethering and using your phone as your home ISP.

 

but no one has EVER talked about just using your phone connected to a TV with a keyboard and mouse and just using it as a PC alone.

 

Also i have never read anything in sprints TOS that states you cannot do this not to mention this feature has been built into phones for years now.

[Fraydog]

the issue is i have always seen people talk about illegal tethering and using your phone as your home ISP.

 

but no one has EVER talked about just using your phone connected to a TV with a keyboard and mouse and just using it as a PC alone.

 

Also i have never read anything in sprints TOS that states you cannot do this not to mention this feature has been built into phones for years now.

Well, you're welcome to do that as long as it is within a tethering allowance. If you take measures to subvert that and pass off such usage as smartphone usage, then Sprint has the right to lay the smack down.

[Arysyn]

I see ur point of view. But isnt this a little different then tethering. Your not sharing your connection with other devices, your just using a tv to enhance the view of ur screen. Your still only using the data on just your phone and your phone only. I dont recall if that is against the T&M's but i could be wrong.

 

Sent from my SM-G925P using Tapatalk

I should have clarified a bit more in my previous post here that what I said about using these cables is not so much my personal viewpoint, though my viewpoint on how these carriers see it.

 

The carriers think that any means of using their network on another device, is tethering, at least it seems they think this way by the policies they put in place or decide to claim is in place.

 

To me though, it depends on if it is going to use more data by doing this, say for example, video streaming. If video is being streamed to the smartphone and someone were to simply connect cables to view that video on a larger screen, if that doesn't use more data, wouldn't it degrade the picture quality?

 

I suppose if it doesn't use more data than on a smartphone, then that might be okay, but using more data to match the same video quality, is iffy. I generally try to avoid discussions regarding the issue of "data ubuse", as I'm conflicted by it, a bit. I'm understanding of people who have the viewpoint they ought to be able to use the service they are paying for as they see fit, as long as it isn't violating the terms of service.

 

Then again, large usage of the network isn't good when it negatively affects the network experience for other customers. I blame the carriers for not having an affordable, inexpensive per gb data plan that would replace unlimited data and all the potential " data abuse" associated with unlimited data. By having a single per gb data plan like this would put an end to all issues associated with tethering issues, as all data would be viewed the same, at the same per gb data rate, no matter on what screen the data is being viewed on.

[Arysyn]

Well, you're welcome to do that as long as it is within a tethering allowance. If you take measures to subvert that and pass off such usage as smartphone usage, then Sprint has the right to lay the smack down.

It sounds to me that it might be smartphone-sized usage being "mirrored" on another screen, which may mean no larger sized data is being used than what is being delivered to the smartphone, rather than typical larger data usage amounts for larger screens associated with tethering, from what I've read about online.

 

Although, this is an interesting situation I asked questions about in my previous post here.

[Camcroz]

I should have clarified a bit more in my previous post here that what I said about using these cables is not so much my personal viewpoint, though my viewpoint on how these carriers see it.

 

The carriers think that any means of using their network on another device, is tethering, at least it seems they think this way by the policies they put in place or decide to claim is in place.

 

To me though, it depends on if it is going to use more data by doing this, say for example, video streaming. If video is being streamed to the smartphone and someone were to simply connect cables to view that video on a larger screen, if that doesn't use more data, wouldn't it degrade the picture quality?

 

I suppose if it doesn't use more data than on a smartphone, then that might be okay, but using more data to match the same video quality, is iffy. I generally try to avoid discussions regarding the issue of "data ubuse", as I'm conflicted by it, a bit. I'm understanding of people who have the viewpoint they ought to be able to use the service they are paying for as they see fit, as long as it isn't violating the terms of service.

 

Then again, large usage of the network isn't good when it negatively affects the network experience for other customers. I blame the carriers for not having an affordable, inexpensive per gb data plan that would replace unlimited data and all the potential " data abuse" associated with unlimited data. By having a single per gb data plan like this would put an end to all issues associated with tethering issues, as all data would be viewed the same, at the same per gb data rate, no matter on what screen the data is being viewed on.

Im kind of conflicted about unlimited too. I have the 1500 minuets unlimited plan and i like the unlimited. I think of your using the data you pay for no matter how much that is then u shouldn't be judged for it. However those people that use hundreds of GBs without tethering, i think that's a little much and constitutes abuse. If a carrier is gonna have a truly unlimited plan, then there gonna suffer the consequences of abusers. Look at how much tmobile has slowed down from it

 

Sent from my SM-G925P using Tapatalk

[Yuhfhrh]

Well, you're welcome to do that as long as it is within a tethering allowance. If you take measures to subvert that and pass off such usage as smartphone usage, then Sprint has the right to lay the smack down.

 

Sprint doesn't require a tethering allowance to use MHL on our devices.

[WiWavelength]

Sprint doesn't require a tethering allowance to use MHL on our devices.

 

And that is part of why "unlimited" data needs to die, die, die.  When people can watch video on TV screens, they will consume more and longer than they will on even outrageously large handset screens.

 

AJ

[Arysyn]

Im kind of conflicted about unlimited too. I have the 1500 minuets unlimited plan and i like the unlimited. I think of your using the data you pay for no matter how much that is then u shouldn't be judged for it. However those people that use hundreds of GBs without tethering, i think that's a little much and constitutes abuse. If a carrier is gonna have a truly unlimited plan, then there gonna suffer the consequences of abusers. Look at how much tmobile has slowed down from it

 

Sent from my SM-G925P using Tapatalk

Even though I've only been a registered member of S4GRU since this Spring 2015, I've been a reader here on this site for over a year, maybe a year and a half or so prior to my registering for membership on this great, very informative site. Also, I've been reading HowardForums on/off since 2005/2006-ish, and I recently registered there, though I haven't posted there yet. Then there is TmoNews I've been reading for many years, though I've never posted there.

 

In all this time up until the plague I call "Legerennaires Disease", most people posting on these sites were not fanboys/fangirls of the carriers to the extent they are now. They cared more about if the carrier they subscribed to was treating them well or not than how many people do nowadays. Certainly there is a difference nowadays with these fans than with the regular user, but I also acknowledge the difference between the fans and network-caring people on S4GRU and some other technical-minded sites.

 

I understand that many people here on S4GRU can be upset or annoyed by someone using alot of data to the point where their knowledge of wireless networks show a high likelihood that amount of usage strained the network and very likely caused a loss of quality in the network experience for others. They aren't angered just because someone wanted to use their service, despite it being high usage. If the networks could handle the data without any loss to the network quality experienced by others, there wouldn't be any complaints about tethering and other network usage issues.

 

That there is another problem; networks can't handle much traffic without there being an impact on user experience with network quality and even network availability. However, carriers often promise such excellent network quality based on their promotion of 4G and mass availability of it, despite there being way to many dropoffs to older technologies that are far from being anything like 4G and what they advertise of it. Despite that, when people find out about this through their network experience, they often are directed to the small amount given by carriers in the fine print, which often greatly differs from what is experienced on their networks.

 

Yet despite all of this, there are different opinions to these issues which sides of people form groups over these opinions. As noted earlier, there are those who regular users, the network-minded users, and then since John Legere grew his following, there began an immense growth to what was much smaller in the wireless market in these fan groups. What also changed with these fan groups besides population, is in the growth of their immensely defensive nature in defending their beloved carrier against complaints and criticism. Even if those complaints and criticism were valid in defending the rights of the consumer again carrier wrongdoing.

 

This leads back to the "network abuse" issue, where there clearly is a difference between these fans and the network-caring people. The T-Mobile fans defending the carrier against supposed "misuse" of the network, along with the uproar against those heavy data users all brought up by John Legere, are the same people who became fans of T-Mobile because of John Legere and all of his advocations and promotions of heavy data use. With them, it is pure hypocrisy, a complete contradiction of themselves. Whereas, people here on S4GRU who are network-caring, are genuine in their concerns over network usage, unlike those who have lost their sense of reason by defending a CEO who is running the company he keeps changing policy of without care for the customers he falsely advertised T-Mobile's services to.

 

So before I go much more into a rant, which I know I need to try working on condensing my posts better as I was doing until recently, I'll end this post by saying this. There are differences in opinion of what constitutes data abuse. I've tried to give my opinion of what I see of it to the best of my ability, though ultimately it is up to these carriers to decide. They are responsible for what they offer, what they give, what their customers use, and what to do about it.