AT&T Tightens Limits On Unlimited Data Plans

AuntPeggy

AuntPeggy

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Namaste
got a notice today that my home network is now limited to 150gb/month. ??
 
AT&T, a once great company, is now run by lowlifes and crooks. It is a sleazy con job that should be shut down.

John
 
They were just a different kind of crook when they held the monopoly.

Top notch engineering, but it was $1.50/minute to call another area code, and government propped them up with huge tariffs.

Bell Labs did some amazing work though with all that money. The bomb proof cold war era COs are impressive engineering. I even have a copy of the engineering specs for the AT&T approved outhouse for remote locations stashed somewhere on a drive here as a testament to their standardization process. Decades before anyone uttered the phrase "ISO 9000", AT&T had the "there's the right way, there's the wrong way, and there's the Bell System way of doing things" ingrained as an immovable object in their Corporate culture.

From a purely technical standpoint, Verizon "gets it" far better than AT&T these days. AT&T is hobbled by maintenance on legacy networks and gear throughout their network.

But I don't think that 135+ year old company is going anywhere anytime soon. Too many Government contracts for massive amounts of data and voice traffic.
 
Most of the interesting parts of ATT were divested years ago: the RBOCs are gone, the interesting parts of Western Electric are now owned by Alcatel, etc... Even the wireless department was sold off to Cingular and pretty much just came back under name and financial control only. They do not operate with the rest of the ATT as a cohesive entity.

I still remember getting one of the early UNIX releases and finding a program called "1" on it.

If you typed 1 at the command prompt it printed "One Bell System, It Works."

Anyhow, AT&T is scared of unlimited these days. It took them years to put an unlimited text plan in and only relented because every single other carrier offered it. The people getting throttled on the unlimited plans are getting throttled at rates lower lower than cheaper limited plans. It makes bad economic sense to drive someone paying more per month to a cheaper throttled plan.
 
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Take a look at Sprint's "Unlimited Data" plan...they cap you at a certain amount of 4G per month, then the rest is slower.
 
flyingron said:
Most of the interesting parts of ATT were divested years ago: the RBOCs are gone, the interesting parts of Western Electric are now owned by Alcatel, etc... Even the wireless department was sold off to Cingular and pretty much just came back under name and financial control only. They do not operate with the rest of the ATT as a cohesive entity.
...
Click to expand...

*cough* AT&T today is effectively IS one of the RBOCs combined with 4 others and what was left of legacy AT&T and Cingular, which is now AT&T Wireless.

The family tree is very complicated. Mostly it was all acquired/merged by SBC and renamed AT&T to use the name with the most legacy.
 
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Given the staggering sums expended in the whole Bell System monopoly litigation in the late 70s, and the remarkable expense of breaking it up, the irony of little ol' Southwestern Bell acquiring most of the other RBOCs, and AT&T, and renaming the whole shootin' match, "ATT" - remarkable.

mikea said:
*cough* AT&T today is effectively IS one of the RBOCs combined with 4 others what was left of legacy AT&T and Cingular, which is now AT&T Wireless.

The family tree is very complicated. Mostly it was all acquired/merged by SBC and renamed AT&T to use the name with the most legacy.
Click to expand...
 
SCCutler said:
Given the staggering sums expended in the whole Bell System monopoly litigation in the late 70s, and the remarkable expense of breaking it up, the irony of little ol' Southwestern Bell acquiring most of the other RBOCs, and AT&T, and renaming the whole shootin' match, "ATT" - remarkable.
Click to expand...

Especially considering that it was known for decades as one of the worst RBOCs.

A friend predicted the day Judge Greene broke up Bell that they'd re-form as three vertical companies after acquisitions and failures. They're close.

Some resorted to illegal activity to survive (cough Qwest, cough), which he probably didn't factor into his prediction which I've agreed with since I first heard it around 1992 or so.
 
This is not limited to ATT.

My boyfriend has T-Mobile and thought he had a grandfathered in unlimited data plan, so he's been "tethering" his cell phone to my iPad when he is bored. He got a letter from them, something about "non T-Mobile networks" (I guess when he tethers it uses ATT?)

Regardless, they basically said they are "limiting" his "unlimited" data.
 
I don't understand how it they get by with forming a contract with someone and offer them unlimited data for x dollars a month, and then limit the amount of data by slowing the download rate. I read that one guy went to small claims court and was awarded a few dollars, but it wasn't nearly enough.
 
Does it say any were in the contract what the speed will be? My guess is this is how they are getting arouns the contract part.
You still have unlimited use even if they cut the speed in half it just takes you longer.
 
ron22 said:
Does it say any were in the contract what the speed will be? My guess is this is how they are getting arouns the contract part.
You still have unlimited use even if they cut the speed in half it just takes you longer.
Click to expand...

I would be shocked if a consumer plan had a CIR (Committed Information Rate) in the contract.
 
AuntPeggy said:
Naively, I had thought this was dead.

Under a new policy, AT&T will slow download speeds for unlimited smartphone customers who in a month exceed 3 gigabytes --
http://www.4-traders.com/AT-T-INC-14324/news/AT-T-Tightens-Limits-On-Unlimited-Data-Plans-14158607/
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This is actually a "loosening" believe it or not. The argument, in the story below, is that AT&T was throttling iPhone users on unlimited plans at the 2GB mark. AT&T is now selling 3GB iPhone plans for $30 (same price as the grandfathered unlimited iPhone plan). However, they were not throttling those 3GB plan users once they hit the 2GB mark. They couldn't; customers were paying for 3GB. And people cried foul, because the two were the same thing.

Gerhardt said:
I don't understand how it they get by with forming a contract with someone and offer them unlimited data for x dollars a month, and then limit the amount of data by slowing the download rate. I read that one guy went to small claims court and was awarded a few dollars, but it wasn't nearly enough.
Click to expand...

This guy.
 
rpadula said:
This is actually a "loosening" believe it or not. The argument, in the story below, is that AT&T was throttling iPhone users on unlimited plans at the 2GB mark. AT&T is now selling 3GB iPhone plans for $30 (same price as the grandfathered unlimited iPhone plan). However, they were not throttling those 3GB plan users once they hit the 2GB mark. They couldn't; customers were paying for 3GB. And people cried foul, because the two were the same thing.
Click to expand...

As I understand it, that's not quite the full story, Rich.

On the unlimited plans, AT&T started throttling the top 5% of the data users. Once throttled, you stay at reduced data rates for the rest of your billing monnth (Verizon is dramatically better in that respect because it only throttles when the area you're in is "congested" and eliminates the throttling once the congestion lets up). In some areas that top 5% meant 2 GB, in others it meant 5 GB. YMMV.

ATT got complaints (naturally) and changed the limit to 3 or 5 GB at which they start throttling. Once throttled, you stay throttled.

However, under the "new" plans, one buys 3 GB of data and then pays $10/1 GB above that. No apparent limit or throttle.

Seems to me this is a not-so-transparent means to force people onto the newer metered plans (for more $$$$).

I also note that ATT is trying to push people off of 2G. I suspect that will become like the old Blue system where they reduced TDMA's coverage to the point that folks were basically forced to move.
 
Part of the reason I'm happy I still have my four year old world-phone blackberry. It does all I need it to do and I have unlimited international AND domestic plans and no one has bothered me about it.
 
woodstock said:
Part of the reason I'm happy I still have my four year old world-phone blackberry. It does all I need it to do and I have unlimited international AND domestic plans and no one has bothered me about it.
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Unlimited international. That would be nice.
 
I'm almost afraid that I'll jinx myself, but I actually have an unlimited Verizon plan that was spun off from an unlimited Alltel plan. My 3G MiFi sometimes limps along, but they've already told me that if I upgrade, I'll lose the unlimited plan. So, I won't upgrade until my dear MiFi that I baby, completely dies.
 
Ghery said:
Unlimited international. That would be nice.
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Yep! A few years ago I posted here on POA while sitting on a mountain roadside, waiting for the Tour de France riders to whiz by. I can get on the web just fine. The screen is smaller than an iPhone, but who cares.
 
JeffDG said:
Take a look at Sprint's "Unlimited Data" plan...they cap you at a certain amount of 4G per month, then the rest is slower.
Click to expand...

That's not what they did to me, after 5GB it went to $50/GB:eek:. They used to be unlimited 4G.
 
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