AT&T to throttle unlimited data plan users...

[wingrider01 ACE - Expert]

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cipherdiaz wrote:
I just checked with a friend of mine that works at VZW..and while they don't have unlimited anymore they are offering a "work around" for people that don't want to be throttled...they suggest you buy and LTE phone, because that network isn't congested and they DO NOT throttle LTE customers. (yet). So take notice AT&T, you should be doing the same. Those of us already on LTE with the 2 phones you have are on a non congested network, yet you are still throttling us. So I wonder if we are 5% of LTE users or 5% of 3G users....its all lies. Verizon is gonna get business outta this...good job AT&T.

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you are 100 percent corrct, they don;t throttle LTE customers, for the simple reason they are metered, ATT does not throttle metered customers either. You exceed the allocated block of data transfer, you get charged for a new block of data, you can continue this for as long as your wallet can support it..

Exactly why do you believe that verizon will get business out of this? They don;t have unlimited plans anymore, so any new customer will be locked to the metered plan, you can get the exact same thing at att by voluntarily choosing to drop the unlimited plan and take a metered plan - which by the way is cheaper then verizon's plans

[cipherdiaz]

Guess you don't understand customer loyalty..etc. People will leave if they feel they have been deceived by AT&T. People won't mind paying more with another company out of spite. Verizon is kicking AT&T's butt for a reason and when they do the double data for the same price it makes a lot of sense for people when they feel burned by AT&T for the bait and switch. You just confirmed its a bait and switch...amazing. They really should reject your membership because you are making AT&T look very bad.

Once again, and you seem to not understand this...throttling does nothing for congestion. Its all about money and the bait and switch. Its about not being able to move people off of the unlimited plan. Yes, they have a business to run, and I understand it, but don't pee on my leg and tell me its raining.

[umcpgrad]

att wants to cap everyone at 2gb eventually forcing you to give up that "unlimited"

[wingrider01 ACE - Expert]

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cipherdiaz wrote:
Guess you don't understand customer loyalty..etc. People will leave if they feel they have been deceived by AT&T. People won't mind paying more with another company out of spite. Verizon is kicking AT&T's butt for a reason and when they do the double data for the same price it makes a lot of sense for people when they feel burned by AT&T for the bait and switch. You just confirmed its a bait and switch...amazing. They really should reject your membership because you are making AT&T look very bad.

Once again, and you seem to not understand this...throttling does nothing for congestion. Its all about money and the bait and switch. Its about not being able to move people off of the unlimited plan. Yes, they have a business to run, and I understand it, but don't pee on my leg and tell me its raining.

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You do realize that "double the data for the same price" is a limited time promotion for 4G phones, and that will end soon. Their current pricing for data is higher then ATT -  2 gigabytes for $30, 5 gigabytes for $50 and 10 gigabytes for $80. Add to the fact they do not have a unlimited plan avaialble at all

Bait and switch? Not true - the limitations have been in the contractural agreement for years, it is nothing new, just the enforcement of the agreement has changed. By the way verizon is really not "kicking att's butt" if you look at the long range forecasts over the next few years, those are the ones that need to be paid attention to, not the short range forecasts that most 5tth estate websites and printed copies go for, since they are easier for everyone to understand.

[scottymnyc]

How can you say "nope" in relating to this analogy with that little tidbit? 4 plates would still be the equivalent of 8GB a month.

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wingrider01 wrote:

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scottymnyc wrote:

right... abusing it would be like 15 plates.... maybe 30 GB, maybe less, maybe even 15GB

refusing you service after 2GB, the size of one entree in my analogy, is absurd!

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 nope, had a friend asked to leave after his 4th plate of all you can eat snow crab legs.

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[scottymnyc]

Because if they throttle the to 5 % every month ( and they dont defiine exactly what to 5% means which is SHADY) then customers will not be able to consume as much data as they did previously. That will make the threshold for top 5% lower in the future. Its a very real possibility that the "top 5% would be below 2GB a month. Will they then throttle us for less?

What does ATT pay you to defend them here?

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why are you claiming that very month the cap will go lower and lower? Looks like you don;t understand what is happening - the user that exceeds the top 5 percent for that billing cycle is capped, once the billing cycle has ended and the new one starts the cap is removed until that user exceeds the cap again, so it will never go lower and lower as you claim.

In no way shape or form is it shady, pull up the terms of service and fair use policy that has been in affect for years and that you agreed to either electronicly or phoysically when you got your device - it is all stated in there, so that elimitates your claim of "shady", arbitrary, now that I agree with - their infrastructure, their towers play by their rules or go to another carrier - if you can find one that does not have a fair use policy and the simple fact of still offering a unlimited data plan Of the top 3 carriers - Sprint is the only one that is left - if you review their policies you will see they have similiar rules in affect AND it is being reported that with the new bandwidht technology that is starting to roll out their unlimited plans may die also. One ofhter thing to factor in - tests have shown that even the throttled att users get better bandwidth speeds then sprint users get nornally.

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[cipherdiaz]

AT&T just named the worst provider by Consumer Reports..ouch. I'm sure this throttling doesn't help.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-57337424-17/at-t-rated-worst-cell-phone-carrier-for-second-year-in...

[scottymnyc]

Yes true. This fine print you speak of was never enforced before and is now being enforced far beyond the point at which any of us moderate users would agree was fair.

One of the main reasons I stuck with ATT was the unlimited data plan that I had as a reward for being an older and more loyal customer. Their service sucks, so if it werent for the unlimited data I would have switched to Verizon. Now that the unlimited plan has no benefit AT ALL over the tiered plan, I wish I would have switched. A company that treats me like that does not deserve my business.

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Bait and switch? Not true - the limitations have been in the contractural agreement for years, it is nothing new, just the enforcement of the agreement has changed. By the way verizon is really not "kicking att's butt" if you look at the long range forecasts over the next few years, those are the ones that need to be paid attention to, not the short range forecasts that most 5tth estate websites and printed copies go for, since they are easier for everyone to understand.

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[tken]

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scottymnyc wrote:

One ofhter thing to factor in - tests have shown that even the throttled att users get better bandwidth speeds then sprint users get nornally.

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I can confirm this, last month my wife's 4s was receiving slower speeds than my skyrocket on LTE.  Makes me feel so good about dumping my iphone for a big boy device with real speeds.

[wingrider01 ACE - Expert]

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cipherdiaz wrote:

AT&T just named the worst provider by Consumer Reports..ouch. I'm sure this throttling doesn't help.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-57337424-17/at-t-rated-worst-cell-phone-carrier-for-second-year-in...

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103 million people and the lowest churn rate in the industry tends to prove the validity of the 5th estate reporting again

Thottling has nothing to do with it, that report was probably generated long before the announcement as made given the lead time a article has to hitting the media

[cipherdiaz]

yeah....but figures..that might be why AT&T is terrible with customer service..too busy arguing with people on message boards instead of addressing their concerns.

[Please keep it courteous]

[schiesserrr]

 It doesn't sound as if this violates any of the contract agreement requirements.

"IF WE INCREASE THE PRICE OF ANY OF THE SERVICES TO WHICH YOU SUBSCRIBE, BEYOND THE LIMITS SET FORTH IN YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE SUMMARY, OR IF WE MATERIALLY DECREASE THE GEOGRAPHICAL AREA IN WHICH YOUR AIRTIME RATE APPLIES (OTHER THAN A TEMPORARY DECREASE FOR REPAIRS OR MAINTENANCE), WE'LL DISCLOSE THE CHANGE AT LEAST ONE BILLING CYCLE IN ADVANCE (EITHER THROUGH A NOTICE WITH YOUR BILL, A TEXT MESSAGE TO YOUR DEVICE, OR OTHERWISE), AND YOU MAY TERMINATE THIS AGREEMENT WITHOUT PAYING AN EARLY TERMINATION FEE OR RETURNING OR PAYING FOR ANY PROMOTIONAL ITEMS, PROVIDED YOUR NOTICE OF TERMINATION IS DELIVERED TO US WITHIN THIRTY (30) DAYS AFTER THE FIRST BILL REFLECTING THE CHANGE."

Decreasing data speeds does not affect the price nor does it affect the geographical area of the original service agreement. Hope this helps.

"I am an AT&T employee and the postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent AT&T’s positions, strategies or opinions."

[Z3950]

I agree that AT&T wants to force people into paying more money (although they won't admit it)  - they are starting to throttle people over 2GB, yet they  tell you that if you are in 4GB plan, no throttling (just higher fees when you go over the limit) . To me, this represents AT&T's Netflix moment; I dropped Netflix like a hot potato when they raised my subscription by 65% overnight, and I will do the same with AT&T if this becomes a problem. And I won't give them a "grace period" either. :-0

[racerx7700]

Well this is happening to me and now it seems like the only thing my phone can do is make call and text message.

I'm not sure if it's the Siriusxm app or the throttle but even on wifi I can stream the music.  So what the point of having AT&T now.  The only reason I stayed was because I had the unlimited plan but for this F that.  Looks like sprint may get 2 more customers.

[JFizDaWiz]

Sprint may not be your best choice. I was using Sprint until a month ago and on a good day is get 75KB/s on 3G, their 4G is as fast as AT&T 3G and it'll kill you're battery in about 2 hours. Also I live in a pretty goods coverage area for Sprint.

[wingrider01 ACE - Expert]

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Z3950 wrote:

I agree that AT&T wants to force people into paying more money (although they won't admit it)  - they are starting to throttle people over 2GB, yet they  tell you that if you are in 4GB plan, no throttling (just higher fees when you go over the limit) . To me, this represents AT&T's Netflix moment; I dropped Netflix like a hot potato when they raised my subscription by 65% overnight, and I will do the same with AT&T if this becomes a problem. And I won't give them a "grace period" either. :-0

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Which of the other two carriers are you going to go to? Verizon = no unlimited, Sprint = unlimited with a enforced fair use policy and worse data speeds then ATT's when you are throttled or on the low end cicket that has unlimited data with a strictly enforced fair use policy? Also with Sprint the 5th estate is pushing rumors that unlimited data with them maybe a thing of the past also.

[spd2demun ACE - Expert]

Remember the grass is not always greener on the other side. :smileywink.  Eventually the other carrier will do something to upset you, and where will you run (back to).  Just sayin'. 

[scottymnyc]

Verizon. At least I'll get what I signed up  for and I wont have to deal with ATT'S horrible service.

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Which of the other two carriers are you going to go to? Verizon = no unlimited, Sprint = unlimited with a enforced fair use policy and worse data speeds then ATT's when you are throttled or on the low end cicket that has unlimited data with a strictly enforced fair use policy? Also with Sprint the 5th estate is pushing rumors that unlimited data with them maybe a thing of the past also.

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[Z3950]

Which of the other two carriers are you going to go to? Verizon = no unlimited, Sprint = unlimited with a enforced fair use policy and worse data speeds then ATT's when you are throttled or on the low end cicket that has unlimited data with a strictly enforced fair use policy? Also with Sprint the 5th estate is pushing rumors that unlimited data with them maybe a thing of the past also.

>>> Excellent point. I have to admit - AT&T data speeds are really good for me - which is why throttling concerns me. Anyway, I will see what next month brings! It is just hard to believe 2GBs put me in the top 5% and deserve throttling.

[wingrider01 ACE - Expert]

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scottymnyc wrote:

Verizon. At least I'll get what I signed up  for and I wont have to deal with ATT'S horrible service.

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Which of the other two carriers are you going to go to? Verizon = no unlimited, Sprint = unlimited with a enforced fair use policy and worse data speeds then ATT's when you are throttled or on the low end cicket that has unlimited data with a strictly enforced fair use policy? Also with Sprint the 5th estate is pushing rumors that unlimited data with them maybe a thing of the past also.

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 might want to read their forums for a few weeks, you can get the exact same type of data plan from att - for less money unless you get in on the limited time promotion for the new 4G phones from verizon. change to the tiered plan on ATT and like verizon has and you will get what you pay for here also. Tiered plans in both cases cost you additional for a new block of data, not throttled on either ATT or Verizon, although you may have some difficulty adapting to the CDMA limitations with voice and data usage concurrently

[Wild Banchi ACE - Master]

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cipherdiaz wrote:

AT&T just named the worst provider by Consumer Reports..ouch. I'm sure this throttling doesn't help.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-57337424-17/at-t-rated-worst-cell-phone-carrier-for-second-year-in...

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I am fully aware of the problems that AT&T customers may face, whether it be poor network coverage or a rotten customer service experience. Unfortunately, Consumer Reports surveys are so biased that it's not even funny. They don't even take the time (because they don't have the power) to survey every last AT&T subscriber in the U.S. Instead, they just survey a handful people of people in different areas, who are more than likely just nay-sayers.

AT&T may be ranked the "worst carrier in America", but they seem to be doing something right with over 90+ million customers. I know I wouldn't trade my AT&T prepaid service for anything else at the moment.

[Wild Banchi ACE - Master]

Users who do not have the AT&T employee disclaimer attached to the bottom of their posts are NOT AT&T employees or kool-aid drinkers, neither. They are regular, everyday customers, just like the rest of you and I.

[cipherdiaz]

I find it odd you have to point that out..wonder why?

[Wild Banchi ACE - Master]

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cipherdiaz wrote:
I find it odd you have to point that out..wonder why?

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What's so odd about that?

I posted that because there have been several people (including yourself) throughout this thread asking if non-AT&T employees were employees. I am stating that for clarification, in hopes that people will get the hint and not incorrectly assume things based on one's ideas or opinions.

[dannytheman]

I think you might have mixed up something here.

most phones will always get higher speeds then the iphone, its the way AT&T has it designed. Take any android or blackberry, on the same 3G network, in the same place, at the same time as an iphone 4s and im willing to bet the other phone will always get faster speeds then the iphone. (3-5x faster)

your skyrocket is also an LTE phone which the iphone is not (iphone is 3G).... 

but either way if both of you were on the same 3g network (in an area without LTE) - you would eaisily be 3x faster and prob closer to 5x faster.

[Stryderjess]

At this point I would be happier with cricket, sure the network isn't nearly as good but at least I would get unlimited everything for $55 a month, and if I was throttled it wouldn't be as upsetting because I pay a fraction of what I pay now.

But I'm interested in sprint, they advertise $79 unlimited everything on a better network than cricket, and they advertise no throttling, which is still a lot less than I'm paying AT&T. My friend has sprint and he streams YouTube just fine, I will see how netflix works for him. I'm going to check sprint out and look into the fine print first time I have a free afternoon.

[wingrider01 ACE - Expert]

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Stryderjess wrote:
At this point I would be happier with cricket, sure the network isn't nearly as good but at least I would get unlimited everything for $55 a month, and if I was throttled it wouldn't be as upsetting because I pay a fraction of what I pay now.

But I'm interested in sprint, they advertise $79 unlimited everything on a better network than cricket, and they advertise no throttling, which is still a lot less than I'm paying AT&T. My friend has sprint and he streams YouTube just fine, I will see how netflix works for him. I'm going to check sprint out and look into the fine print first time I have a free afternoon.

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No you won;t cricket strictly follows throttling, if you exceed the allocation your connection is throttled.

Don;t go by adverstising on "unlimited plans" actuially dig down through their terms of service and locate teh fair use policy, add to the fact sprit always goes in last when the perfomance of their mobile broadband is tested.

[coolstorybro]

If you go to sprint you might be even more dissapointed if it's about data speeds.  At&t 3g is practically like sprints 4g.  if you leave and decide to come back you won't have to worry about att throttling your data because the unlimited data plan will not be available to you.   good luck

[Kspang]

I believe I've been throttled. I received texts saying I was in the top 5%. Now Everything i do using data is slower. I can't watch a single video on youtube. I can still use pandora and I have 3 weeks until my next bill cycle. So I guess im just gonna leave pandora on and try to hit 30gb's before the month. Thanks AT&T

[Kspang]

What's work around? I noticed my data has been throttled. Got texts saying im in the top 5%. Can't watch youtube. That's the main problem that's come of this. Only one week into my pay period too. Pretty upsetting. Since pandora still works im just gonna leave it on for the rest of my bill cycle. Top 1%