AT&T Throttling Unlimited Plans after 2GB Data Use • Hacker News Board

Re: AT&T Throttling Unlimited Plans after 2GB Data Use

#31

Post by X-Istence » Sat, Feb 04, 2012, 10:30 PM UTC

rmc wrote: post #10

Part of the shock the OP had is their suprise at 2.1GB putting them in the top 5%. That seems believable to me. I worked in a residential ISP and once ran the numbers on about how much data people use. Something like 90% of people didn't go above 5GB or so. And this was on residential DSL, not on mobile internet. Of course in theory this is going to reduce the average usage of AT&T users, since someone is always on t…

5 GB makes the 250 GB Comcast cap look overly generous, when I can tell you from experience that 250 GB with two people using the Internet on a daily basis is too little.

New games come in at 10 GB or more when you are downloading them from places like Steam, add in two people downloading new games and you can easily see 100's of GB's going to just gaming. If I rebuild my Windows desktop and have Steam re-download all of the games I tend to keep locally I myself use about 150 GB of transfer. On top of that comes watching TV Shows (on Hulu/NetFlix) and movies (iTunes/NetFlix/Hulu) and various other downloads. The latest Mac OS X update weighed in at a hefty 1.38 GB, split across 4 devices.

Granted, I am a technology person, I am a programmer, I spend more time behind a computer than doing almost anything else (including sleep). My usage pattern is going to be vastly different compared to grandma and grandpa that check their email. The thing is though that I want higher quality content delivered to me instantly, Hulu's 480 is nice and all, but I would love to have it in 720p or 1080p for my large TV. All of this uses up bandwidth/transfer.

As for mobile data, I don't tend to do a lot of streaming of music and the like, so far I haven't had any issues with going over the allotted 2 GB from AT&T, that and when I do want to stream I am near Wifi.

Re: AT&T Throttling Unlimited Plans after 2GB Data Use

#32

Post by jcnnghm » Sat, Feb 04, 2012, 10:30 PM UTC

tomjen3 wrote: post #9

ineedtosleep wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? > …You may also consider switching to a tiered data plan if speed is more important to you [...] Customers on tiered plans can pay for more data if they need it, and will not see reduced speeds. (from the blog post) That's why. AT&T has shown that nearly every move they make is for the sole purpose of squeezing out all the money they can from their users.

They are a company and as such is in the business of making money. Of course they want to squeeze every last bit out. In this case the problem is that they offered an unlimited plan and then did stick with their offer.

They didn't stick with the offer. I've been paying for unlimited data for years without throttling. They are changing the deal. They should be forced to give everyone that has been paying for unlimited substantial refunds for the last several years, where usage has been low. They are trying to force everyone away from unlimited data now that it is obvious that wireless data demand is going to increase at least an order of magnitude in the next decade.

Re: AT&T Throttling Unlimited Plans after 2GB Data Use

#33

Post by JonWood » Sat, Feb 04, 2012, 10:31 PM UTC

seanp2k2 wrote: post #21

lancewiggs wrote: post #16

While the main thrust of the story is concerning, what really makes me feel ill are the scripted responses. The service agents are just picking responses from a list and hitting send. They appear to have no ability to apply thought to the process, and no authority to delegate up. I'm sure the staff are smart and frustrated, and I'm reasonably sure that they are constrained by their systems and processes. But how good…

All that sounds great and I agree with you 100%...however, since they're a public company, their first priority is to maximize profits, and that is exactly what they're doing here. Since USA citizens are so lazy that they let telco lobbyist groups write the laws and don't riot over them when they're passed by bought politicians, we have to deal with idiotic support as described above. This is also the reason that the…

Is causing your customers to think you're ripping them of, and making them look elsewhere for service actually maximising profit though?

Given the cost of acquiring a customer they should be bending over backwards to keep existing customers.

Re: AT&T Throttling Unlimited Plans after 2GB Data Use

#34

Post by nitrogen » Sat, Feb 04, 2012, 10:33 PM UTC

seanp2k2 wrote: post #21

lancewiggs wrote: post #16

While the main thrust of the story is concerning, what really makes me feel ill are the scripted responses. The service agents are just picking responses from a list and hitting send. They appear to have no ability to apply thought to the process, and no authority to delegate up. I'm sure the staff are smart and frustrated, and I'm reasonably sure that they are constrained by their systems and processes. But how good…

All that sounds great and I agree with you 100%...however, since they're a public company, their first priority is to maximize profits, and that is exactly what they're doing here. Since USA citizens are so lazy that they let telco lobbyist groups write the laws and don't riot over them when they're passed by bought politicians, we have to deal with idiotic support as described above. This is also the reason that the…

I think it is unreasonable to expect the masses to "riot over" any issue that doesn't go their way. After all, the various industry associations didn't have to start any riots, blackout any web sites, or send hundreds of thousands of messages to get their laws passed. There must be a better way.

Re: AT&T Throttling Unlimited Plans after 2GB Data Use

#35

Post by shareme » Sat, Feb 04, 2012, 10:39 PM UTC

bryanh wrote: post #7

Anyone have any experience in the process of switching an AT&T iPhone to Verizon? Worth it? Any gotchas?

Go to verizon ask them if they have a switch bonus..google for the right term to use before talking to the CSR person..that might get you anew iPhone and keeping your same number as part of the free gifts on coming over to Verizon..

Re: AT&T Throttling Unlimited Plans after 2GB Data Use

#36

Post by executive » Sat, Feb 04, 2012, 10:39 PM UTC

facepalm.jpg

Re: AT&T Throttling Unlimited Plans after 2GB Data Use

#37

Post by potater » Sat, Feb 04, 2012, 10:45 PM UTC

tomjen3 wrote: post #9

ineedtosleep wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? > …You may also consider switching to a tiered data plan if speed is more important to you [...] Customers on tiered plans can pay for more data if they need it, and will not see reduced speeds. (from the blog post) That's why. AT&T has shown that nearly every move they make is for the sole purpose of squeezing out all the money they can from their users.

They are a company and as such is in the business of making money. Of course they want to squeeze every last bit out. In this case the problem is that they offered an unlimited plan and then did stick with their offer.

While I certainly can't fault an organization for attempting to maximize revenue, I think there comes a point when they seem to be focusing solely on short term numbers to the extent that it may actually harm them in the longterm should customers decide they've had enough and start taking their business elsewhere.

Of course, customer switching is less likely for service providers where there are real barriers in place that effectively prevent users from actively doing so (e.g., coverage issues, other networks with similar policies, etc)

It's the whole "yeah, we're taking advantage of you, but it's not like you have any other real options here, so sit back and like it." thing that just makes me sad.

Re: AT&T Throttling Unlimited Plans after 2GB Data Use

#38

Post by ilmare » Sat, Feb 04, 2012, 10:45 PM UTC

JonWood wrote: post #33

seanp2k2 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All that sounds great and I agree with you 100%...however, since they're a public company, their first priority is to maximize profits, and that is exactly what they're doing here. Since USA citizens are so lazy that they let telco lobbyist groups write the laws and don't riot over them when they're passed by bought politicians, we have to deal with idiotic support as described above. This is also the reason that the…

Is causing your customers to think you're ripping them of, and making them look elsewhere for service actually maximising profit though? Given the cost of acquiring a customer they should be bending over backwards to keep existing customers.

Yes, since they know customers have nowhere else to go.

Re: AT&T Throttling Unlimited Plans after 2GB Data Use

#39

Post by Zakharov » Sat, Feb 04, 2012, 11:10 PM UTC

evolve2k wrote: post #22

I would suggest that 'Unlimited' has a very clear meaning to the reasonable person and that they are now breaching their contract as it was initially advertised to the public. Assuming it was initially advertised as 'Unlimited' with relation to speed and data. Of note; Lets say you were in Australia you could take this case straight to the ACCC or the Communications Ombudsman and from experience I would be fairly con…

Are you sure? Most companies here offer "unlimited" home Internet plans that are still capped.

Re: AT&T Throttling Unlimited Plans after 2GB Data Use

#40

Post by brianpan » Sat, Feb 04, 2012, 11:19 PM UTC

ghshephard wrote: post #13

I tried to finish - but the author was either being dense or argumentative. I think AT&T has made their position pretty clear - Unlimited doesn't have overage charges, but you get rate limited when you hit the top 5% of usage (currently 2 Gigabytes). AT&T also offers 2 Gigabyte and 3 Gigabyte plans, with overage charges. Happily, AT&T has been prevented from taking over T-Mobile, so we still have at least four provid…

There's a 3 gig plan for $30 and he's being throttled at 2.1G. I think he makes a good point. Are 3 gig plan users also being throttled when they hit the "top 5%"?