AT&T Bandwidth Cap Text Message Notice (Even Though I'm WAY Under Limit?)

iphone43214 · ‎07-16-2012

Anyone had this happen? I'm on an iPhone 4 with unlimited data and I got a text message the past 2 months saying I used over 3gb and that my data will be throttled. Here's the problem: there's no way I'm even close to using that much bandwidth. Anyone know why this would happen? I'm a bit concerned by it.

jii · ‎11-12-2007

It's just AT&T screwing with people that still have the unlimmy data locked in. By "throttled" they mean that your connection speeds will be lower than usual until the next billing cycle. As for the 3gb deal, just how sure are you that you're not going over that threshold?

cpanderou · ‎04-13-2011

This message is from my iPhone 4S connected on wifi via my Verizon Mifi due to AT&T's "throttling" of data speed. This has become a ridiculous headache!

Expect future throttling of data speeds to cripple your iPhone to "you've got mail" speeds. Seriously. Best speeds are .27mbps download to same upload. That's not a typo. "Unlimited" means unlimited headaches!

renewedpurpose · ‎05-05-2007

I believe they send that warning message to you when you are approaching close to 3GB. You don't necessarily need to have gone over 3GB to get the warning text message. I can speak from experience that the throttling speeds are ridiculously slow! Just try to stay under 100MB a day and your data plan should last you the entire month.

iphone43214 · ‎07-16-2012

Thanks for the responses. I think my main concern is that I'm not using ANYTHING on my iPhone that should be consuming this much bandwidth, even if I am approaching 3gb (but still under it). I'm on Wifi most of the time and the only semi-bandwidth intensive applications I use would be Pandora. I'm just a bit worried there's possibly an app running in the background that's sending/receiving data (possible maliciously), maybe I'm just being paranoid though.

renewedpurpose · ‎05-05-2007

According to the Daily Wireless website Pandora uses approximately 60MB of data every hour. So if your using Pandora for one hour everyday (30 hours a month) that comes to about 1.76GB of data usage every month. You can read the article for yourself online at http://www.dailywireless.org/2012/03/19/data-hog-apps/

FallenAnjel · ‎03-05-2012

I have a post on this forum about this. I got my iPHone 4s on March 1st. Supposedly in June, I used 1.8 GB of data. Up until then my average data usage was 360 mb and the only reason it was that high was because in May I left data on 24/7 for the last 2 weeks just to see how much I would use.

The best part of all this?? the 1.6GB of data showed up on THE FIRST DAY OF MY USAGE MONTH! Supposedly "I used" 1.6gb at 12:34 am while I was sleeping! lol lol

I was livid and spent 2 hours on the phone with ATT. They gave me every story under the sun and I knew it was all crap. I had done not one thing different with my phone. I have wifi at home, at work and at 75% of the places around town. I don't drive so I don't go anywhere to warrant data usage like that.

Well, surprise, surprise-- July's Data Usage was 290MB and so far for August I've used 113MB with 16 days remaining. It prob won't be more than 250mb and that's prob even excessive.

March: 258mb

April: 219mb

May: 602mb

June: 1800mb

July: 290mb

Aug: 250mb (estimated)

Average w/o June: 323mb/month

Average w/ June : 563mb/month

Average w/ June adjusted: 323/month

Sounds Legit.

Download and use the app My Data Manager. It's free from the app store. It shows you how much data/roaming/cellular that your phone uses. It shows you how much each app uses on each, or all three combined. It can show you how much data used by hour, day, month and plan. It also shows you a map and how much data used used where. (200mb at the park on wifi for instance) I just don't think there's a way to d/l any of the info so when one month is over, you can't get that info back. I'd gladly pay for a CSV or Excel d/l option

There's no way in God's creation that I used 1.8 gb's of data in June.

iphone43214 · ‎07-16-2012

Thanks for posting that, that's super interesting. I'm going to try that free app and see what it says. The only thing I can think of that could be happening is...

a.) Something like Pandora or some other data intensive app is running more than I think it is and I'm just not acknowledging it.

b.) Something is sending/receiving data even when nothing is running, which seems unlikely but I don't know what else could do it.

iphone3ger · ‎08-07-2008

I think my main concern is that I'm not using ANYTHING on my iPhone that should be consuming this much bandwidth, even if I am approaching 3gb (but still under it).

-- the iphone reverts to 3g when it sleeps... so if you have anything running (like skype etc) on wifi as soon as the phone sleeps the wifi gets shut off and presto your using the 3g data connection

-- the iphone sends diagnostics dumps to apple every now and again... also usually while the phone is asleep so that could be the source as well

Go reset your data counter at the start of your bill cycle (Settings, General, Usage, Cellular Usage) so you can see how much is getting used when.

Also I advise you NOT to switch away from your unlimited data plan even once you get throttled.

I switched away to a tether plan and my service has been crap since the change.

I will tell you that I had no issues watching Hulu or Netflix even while I was being thottled.. it did take longer to start but once netflix/hulu adjust to your throttled speed they send a nice looking stream.