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

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

#71

Post by mikeash » Sun, Feb 05, 2012, 8:58 PM UTC

jff wrote: post #62

X-Istence wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 al…

Yet as another anecdote, even when watching Netflix streaming basically every night, and downloading the occasional Steam game, I have never once passed my 250 GB Comcast limit. Much as I dislike these kind of caps, it is pretty damn hard to go over 250 GB. That's, what, 200 hours of reasonably high-quality streaming video? 300+ Linux ISOs (the only reason you run bittorrent, right?)? Sadly, I don't think "unlimited"…

I see no problem with having the monthly plan include 250GB of data. Where it gets stupid is what happens when you go over. Rather than charge you extra, they give you a warning and then cut off your service entirely.

This completely baffles me. Why pass on the opportunity to collect more cash?

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

#72

Post by sliverstorm » Sun, Feb 05, 2012, 9:19 PM UTC

mikeash wrote: post #70

sliverstorm wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I see it there are three reasons the tech community hates usage-based billing. - First, any time a company tries usage-based data billing, they charge absolutely criminal rates. If you paid attention to usage-based cell service over the years, you'd know what I speak of. - Second, in an "unlimited" model, some users use more, some use less. In general the tech community will be the ones using more- so they benefit…

AT&T's overage rates are pretty reasonable. They charge $10/GB, which is about what you pay for the initial monthly data plan anyway. Of course, there's probably leftover sentiment from times when overages were much less reasonable, and there are still plenty of such places remaining. The second two I agree with, but they're sad reasons.

Rates have gotten better, I agree.

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

#73

Post by warfangle » Tue, Feb 07, 2012, 5:39 PM UTC

damptrousers wrote: post #66

warfangle wrote: post #65

My virgin mobile (35 per month) unlimited data plan will start getting throttled in march - after 2.5gb. I'm so glad I left ATT behind. Sure it's a little slower, and I can't get an iphone or the latest or greatest android phone. But it's one of the best values out there, and I didn't need to sign a freaking lock in contract.

So it starts throttling at a half gig later? And you have to deal with crappy phones? Great deal you got there.

At a third of the price. Price-to-value ratio is much better.

And while the LG Optimus Slider has a smallish screen, it still runs android 2.3. And with a slide-out keyboard, SSH sessions are a lot easier. It's "good enough."