AT&T warns of coming clamp-down on iPhone data hogs - Page 2

This is what people dont understand. I dont approve of AT&T trying to deny apps from using 3G (remember all that FCC crap earlier this year?) but when your constantly tearing through GBs upon GBs of data just in ONE DAY, there needs to be a limit.

If my roommate was constantly downloading stuff over our wifi connection so much that i cant even use it, guess who the hell is going to pay more for the monthly bill, he is.

Streaming Pandora, web usage (an hour or two) maybe some google maps is only going to eat a few hundred megs not counting emails. When you start going on streaming binges everyday or are using jailbroken tethering and consumer 10-15gb a day wtf are you smoking, you've been getting a steal all along, its time you man up to pay for what you use.

Who needs a data cap? I can't load a webpage in under 3 minutes on their edge network and 3g doesn't exist in 99% of the area here.

Those people are taking no more than what they have already bought and paid for. Why do you call them greedy?

Would you be happy if a bus company dropped you off 100 miles from your destination? If other people wanted your seat, would you be greedy in expecting to get what you paid for?

Data usage on the AT&T network has increased 5000% since the iPhone was introduced. Yeah, I'm sure you anticipated that too. If the iPhone had landed exclusively on the Verizon network Verizon would have been in the same boat. Get real.

I don't have time to find it right now, but I know I read that they have the right to disconnect your service should they chose to do so. I would highly doubt that would happen the first time you ran over, however, repeat 'offenders' may be disconnected...

Just where are you?

You're on a roll with the name calling and judging others. Way to be the coolest forum frequenter.

AT&T gives you $30 unlimited data. Now that the devices are capable of hogging bandwidth, AT&T needs to change their contracts when they renew. It's that simple; they, like every other service provider, cannot do unlimited data for everyone at that price point.

It will be really childish whining when the plans are 500MB per month for $30, and up from there. Then the real crying begins.

The article doesn't say they plan to do anything like that. You sound like a troll when you repeat that over and over when AT&T hasn't said anything of the sort.

They plan to offer "incentives" to get data hogs to change their ways. I'll guess that means free stuff, but whatever -- it certainly doesn't mean breaching contracts.

Let me be real frank here. There will not be any monetary compensation for AT&T changing contract terms with your notice AND approval (as in, you dont say anything and continue to pay your bill every month = you saying i approve).

IF AT&T changes anything within the contract of service within the duration of the contract, you are legally able to leave AT&T without incurring any Early Termination Fees due to breach of contract if you do not approve. I know people who have done this with Verizon Wireless.

If your expecting them to pay you for service you haven't used you are out of mind. That is AT&Ts loss of your business which would hurt them already.

Sure...jump to Verizon, all you Verizon fanboys, and get whacked with 5GB cap and NO concurrent data/voice.

AT&T is not going to change any existing contract....they can't.....that's why we signed contracts. If they offer tier pricing, it will be for new contracts.

Get used to caps....all the jailbreaked iPhones ruined it for the rest of us.

You know that 1 MB transferred by cable network costs a fraction of 1 MB transferred by mobile network?

I updated my internet line from 10 to 100 Mbit this summer.
While waiting in the queue at my local provider the man in front of me cried like mad at the poor employee.

The reason was that in contrast to the old contracts the new one is limited to 300 GB / month.

I asked the employee why they did this and he said, that they are building new lines, but at the moment the net transfer rate to the backbone is about 1 GBit.
If I demand the 100 MBit 24/7 then 1 user takes 10% of the bandwidth.

Without a cap they would not be able to sell 100 Mbit and guaranty at least 20 Mbit in average. They will increase the limit, when they feel prepared.

I can take this argumentation having > 50 Mbit in average being far away from the 300 GB limit.

Hard to compare this with AT&T. I didn't "enjoy" their service yet and I'm glad to have a pretty fast 3G network in my country.

Investing in their network while asking users to use bandwidth sensible seems not to be the worst strategy to solve their problems in a reasonable time as long as they set caps or limits reasonable and don't try to rip-off loyal customers.

Some of you need to understand the use of the word unlimited. There are many ways in which it can be used and the fine print of the contract you sign does specify certain limitations to that data usage.

I have not heard of anyone being throttled by AT&T, having their contract canceled or requested to reduce usage. If they did do that I’d likely be the first to know since I’m a huge abuser of AT&T’s network with my tethered iPhone. If they cancel me oh well, I’m taking that risk by violating my contract, but I think I’m pretty safe.

5GB is plenty of data on a mobile device unless you seriously sit on your phone 24/7.

AT&T can easily do what ive been saying and change terms, if you dont like it then leave...but who you gonna take your iPhone to, Tmo or Verizon?

If i was to bet on it very few people would jump ship to another carrier simply due to the devotion people have for the iPhone.

Also someone else was saying something about a 5GB cap on the iPhone, that isnt for the iphone its for their mobile network cards the iPhone is unlimited currently.

@DanielSW - You work for AT&T, yes?



AT&T doesn't pay extra for extravagant over-use of their network, other than in losing dissatisfied customers and bad PR that prevents them from bringing in as many new customers as they'd like. However, hardware is hardware. They paid for it at one point and no matter how heavy it is utilized, it doesn't cost them any more than their initial investment to run. You call everyone on here a "moron" or "childish" - why not reinforce your argument with FACTS instead of name-calling? Clearly, you do not understand how networks operate, nor the business model implemented by AT&T.



No, you get what you pay for ACCORDING TO THE TERMS OF YOUR CONTRACT. If the contract states "Unlimited", that means NO LIMIT. These users - the occasional user and the traffic hog alike -- are paying for unlimited bandwidth, something that AT&T could not possibly offer to them all. AT&T made the mistake here - they should not have offered unlimited. If they find a loophole which allows them to modify the contract without breaking it, then it will be a crime. Beware "unlimited" in any kind of deal ... except at the Chinese buffet down the street, perhaps.




Apparently, you are the one who clearly does not understand what is going on here. AT&T enforces their contracts with their customers. If you break the contract, they make you pay. If you break their rules, they make you pay. If you are late paying your bill, they make you pay the bill PLUS a late fee. But, if THEY don't honor the contract, which states UNLIMITED BANDWIDTH for $30/month, then does the customer get to penalize AT&T?

As for the planning, permitting, etc... clearly AT&T didn't properly plan for offering "Unlimited" bandwidth. The employee who originally suggested it, as well as all of the management that signed off on such a deal, should all be terminated. This is just another in a long list of black eyes for AT&T and is the very reason why I don't own an iPhone until it goes to a respectable cell carrier, like Verizon.

AT&T is going to have to grin and bear it for their existing customers. Perhaps they can eliminate "Unlimited" for new customers, but those with a 2-year agreement that is still in effect should be grandfathered or allowed out of their contracts. Either way, AT&T loses - they'll be trudging along with a saturated network for up to another 2 years, or they'll lose a significant number of customers, or both.

WOW! This is really a slap in the face to me as a 2G user who has seen his cell coverage go from 3 bars to 2 bars and now to 1/0 bars in the past year and a half and now in the past month, has seen his EDGE network degrade. So what will AT$T do about that for pricing?! I think I should only pay them half because they're giving me only half the service I had when I signed up!

I would really hope Apple is listening to their users and just counting down the days until their contract is up with AT$T and will at least add another carrier/choice to the mix!

My post was in response to folks who imagined it would have been fair for ATT to do exactly what I was objecting to. I realize that ATT has no option to unilaterally change the contract.

Are those quotes per month? I consider myself a heavy iPhone user, and have used 730 MBs since July. I'd love a 2.5 GB per year for $15 plan. Sign me up!

You pay a "premium"? ATTs prices are the same or lower than similar plans with Verizon, so where is the "premium" you are paying over competitors prices? And did you really not see this coming?

I'm averaging 100MB/month myself so this certainly doesn't bother me at all. I think I'd have to agree with the sentiment here that many who are whining about this announcement are probably in that 3% who use a significant amount of their "unlimited" data plans. That's all fine and good, the data plan for the iPhone is advertised as being "unlimited". However, I do feel that those who are illegally tethering their iPhones and using substantial amounts of data or bandwidth in the process should be the ones capped or surcharged.

T Mobile. They are cheaper. Am I correct that the iPhone works on T-Mobile?

You mean wireless internet access on the iPhone is more than a tempermental novelty!? :O THE IDEA!!

Screw AT&T. I'll just stick with my Sprint UNLIMITED data plan for my EVDO card long after the contract runs out in March. For Cell service I'll stick with Boost, at around $10 a month and 10 cents a message. For home phone service I'll stay with Skype In/Out ($30 per year for the phone number), 11 cents message, and free long distance anywhere in the US and Canada.

Savings = ~$500/year over AT&T, and I can stream as much video, tv, music or whatever, as I want.

They're also the smallest of the providers. My brother-in-law switched from T-Mobile to AT&T because his coverage sucked with T-Moble and he wanted the iPhone. And that's in NJ where you'd expect good coverage.

Yes, on GSM (GPRS/EDGE). They are cheaper for a reason, just like Sprint. If T-Mobile gets the iPhone next year Id wager it would be the same price for unlimited data as AT&T and Verizon. The only added bonus would likely be included SMS.

Oh, so now it's jailbreakers' fault for all of this?

Verizon would be the one crying now if Apple had went with them instead of AT&T. Neither could predict the success of the iPhone and then later the App store. Verizon would have had to pull their "Most Reliable 3G Network" tag then.

And yet it's not wrong and abusive to charge someone who uses 10x less data than you the same rate you are paying? How about we charge everyone the same monthly price for electricity, too, regardless of how much they use? I love how people seem to think that internet access is some entitlement or inalienable right and that it's an inexhausable resource not subject to supply-and-demand.

And it's only a matter of time before the home broadband providers start similar pricing. As more and more people get their TV over the internet and move to lower priced cable plans, or no cable at all, they will be looking for ways to make up for lost revenue.


Nobody said anything of modifying the terms of existing contracts. In fact, they may not even try to modify your terms after your contact is up. They may, however, change the terms if you upgrade your equipment.

What a stupid argument. I bet you are one of those sucking all the data.

In the first place there are already caps on the data. There isn't an "unlimited" plan in existence in any country that's truly unlimited.

Secondly, why should someone who just gets email have to pay the same amount as someone who is watching live TV 24/7? This isn't a penalty on high data users more than it is a return to sanity in pricing.

My contract allows for 6 Gigabytes of data a month for $30.00 plus hidden fees and taxes. This is a very generous plan by most standards, but I only use perhaps 20 or 30 Megabytes of data myself. Anyone streaming more than 6 Gigs of data a month certainly deserves to pay more, and people like myself who need a data contract, but only need a few hundred MBs should pay substantially less. This is just common sense and fairness.

Behaviour won't be modified if there is no cost to said behaviour. Some assh*le abusing the bandwidth won't stop doing it if there is no cost to him.

Comcast has been lying about the existence of data hogs.

http://gizmodo.com/5419179/is-the-bandwidth-hog-a-myth

How do we know that AT&T isn't lying too. And what about iPhone users that use almost no data like my wife? AT&T is welcome to write a fat check to us as soon as they tax the 'data hogs.'

The problem lies with the 3%. Many of them are tethering to their computers! They are hurting the rest of us. We need tiered pricing. Why should someone who only uses 500MB pay the same as someone using 10GB? The lighter users would love to pay $15/mo for data...

I don't agree with any of that. It does cost AT&T more, because they have to invest in upgrading the network due to the massive amount of data some people use. Network problems from congestion result, which costs AT&T money...if not in the short run, then in the long run.

Now don't me wrong, I think AT&T frankly sucks. They weren't up to the task of taking on the iPhone exclusively and grossly underestimated that impact it would have on their network. Then, after making millions on iPhone users, they complain about how much data they use. Ridiculous.

As for tiered pricing, I don't like it. I'd be OK with maximum cap and then reasonable overage rate. As long as it doesn't impact the average or even more than average downloader/user, I don't see a problem. Comcast currently does the same thing. Yes, I think they suck too.

Your right and wrong, it doesnt cost AT&T much at all, but it costs the end users who cant even get decent quality from their phone network due to people hoarding all the bandwith from other users. Higher prices for people with higher usages is just common sense. The iPhone uses data like a Viper uses gasoline, its pretty bad. Still this is reflective of the person using the phone.


I agree, but if they change the terms of the contract you are free to leave. I know thats not what people want to hear but if your not a heavy data user you wont even be affected. Hell for all we know AT&T's incentive for users who stay under a certain amount of data a month will be a cheaper bill.


You get to leave, free of penalties thats it.


Exactly how many customers do you think will leave AT&T if they change their data structure for the iphone? I truly believe only the data hogs will be the ones crying and having a fit at the end of the day, just like they are right now. If AT&T starts doing data tiers for smartphones that will be a big plus in my book and a huge selling point PAY FOR WHAT YOU NEED, if you need to hoard a ton of data, guess what? You gotta pay for it.

Im baffled by use of the term unlimited for marketing can be so misunderstood.

Has anyone seen "unlimited/unlimited to denote time/amount?



That is how they do it.

Back in the day when everyone had land lines and AT&T was Long Lines, the phone company made sure you understood that in order for you to call from your house on the east coast to your cousin's house on the west coast, they had to wake up the closest pixie, feed them a hearty meal of gold dust and unicorn tears, strap them to the underbelly of an SR-71 and have them string a pair of wires of purest copper those 3,000 miles. And that was why it coast umpteen dollars per minute for you to say Happy Birthday.

Once the network was built out and everyone remembered the definition of "investment" and the government dusted off their anti-trust manual, this changed. Of course, that didn't stop the cell companies, the cable companies and ISPs from trying the same excuse for per-message or per-byte charges. And they had their heads handed to them too, consumer-awareness-wise speaking.

And now this. Somehow AT&T are once again trying to convince people that the data in the pipe costs money per electron, and preciously so.

The only thing that will solve this is - once again - competition. Spread iPhone usage among the big three (or is it four?) tier-1 cellular carriers and the problem should solve itself. Don't, and you're handing an unacceptable (to Apple) chunk of the future iPhone business to RIM, MOTO and everyone else.

Listening, Steve and Phil?

Let me say in advance that I'm sorry to all data hogs
But, as far as I am concerned it's high time ATT woke up and charged people more equitably based on their usage. I don't use unreasonable amounts of data and shouldn't have to pay for those who do. In addition, the reason we don't have options like tethering is that ATT is afraid that some will misuse it. And clearly some would.
I'd like to have tethering in case of an urgent need, as an example, but, I'm not idiot enough to think that I should be able to use it with out a reasonable limit. Wifi in the US is readily available and the only reason some don't pay attention to their usage is that they see their mobile data plan as a free lunch. No one will support conservation if they don't have to pay. Give me the option of buying a set amount of data and then let me use it however I want. If I use more, charge me more. But for me to pay more in support of data hogs is ridiculous. And 5GB of data per month is more then enough.
I know some will disagree but, ATT's idiotic "unlimited" data plan pricing is why service is so bad. If the data hogs leave, goodbye and good riddance. Let them go choke the life out of some other carrier. It is a prime law of business. When you have customers that you can't afford to serve, show them the door.

You might be surprised at what they can and can't do. I became a Cingular customer at the beginning of that generation, that's how old my cell phone plan is. However, when the company changed names to AT&T, they cut off my unlimited text messaging and claimed that it "wasn't part of my plan". I contacted people at the head of the company and they didn't seem to care. I still have the same grandfather plan, but now I pay extra for texting. If they really want to cut your plan, they can and will. The folks out there doing all the lawsuits on Apple for frivolous reasons need to start suing these big companies for ripping off their customers like they do.

It would seem to follow that you consider the existing ATT deal to be unfair. Is that correct?

They must be joking. They can not handle the volume and now They want to change the rules midstream. Can you say 'class action suit?' They must be joking.

Simple... because bandwidth is not an unlimited commodity. If you don't believe it, try to use wireless from AT&T (ironically) Park during a ball game. Its why they offer free wifi within the park.
Those who think that a similar load on Verizon would behave any differently under similar load are blowing smoke.
AT&T does not have a vendetta against iPhone user, trying to give them a miserable experience. Take off the tin-foil hats. They're expanding precisely as fast as $$ and resources allow.

I just checked the data usage on my phone (I encourage others to actually do this).
I've considered myself a fairly high bandwidth user, although I don't do a ton of movie downloads or streaming. I do that over wifi or sync from my Mac.
My usage for the most recent month was about half a gig. My wife' usage was 70 meg.

Expecting to use the same bandwidth over a wireless device at this point in history as you do over wifi or wired is delusional and unrealistic.

The iPhone is not a bandwidth hog, simply the first widely adopted device that makes the experience easy, and therefore heavily used.
I'm with AT&T on this, as long as they actually drop prices for moderate users, not just hike the prices for heavy users.

Don't bet on it...

A friend of mine had Altell Unlimited $49.00 way, way back when. Too many people took up on the offer and went wild on the minutes because she got a letter from Altell stating that they were changing the Plan. When she called to complain, she was told by Altell "Tough Cookies, Your Plan IS Changed!"

She canceled (without penalty since Altell breached) and went with another carrier.

Should this come to fruition, I hope you and everyone on the plan has better luck then my friend, but don't count on it. Sure you can have a class action suit followed by appeals from both sides, but I'm just passing on from what my friend experienced is all. Besides AT&T doesn't have to worry about rankings amongst the cell phone carriers since they are already last...