AT&T caps new iPhone, iPad data plans at 2GB, announces tethering - Page 8

While rereading this announcement something dawned on me... and this may have very well been brought up in one of many posts that came before this one.. so forgive me if I'm rehashing old stuff.

Apple was very quick to tout that the iPad would have a reasonably priced 3G data plan.

Now 2 months later AT&T pulls the plug on the plan.

Why?

1 - Sales on the iPad 3G were NOT as great as Apple indicated to AT&T and it was a contracted 'deal breaker' that gave AT&T the out it needed to revoke the all you can eat iPad plan to anyone not already signed up for it? I'd have a hard time believing this but who knows maybe the 3G demand (that went with the AT&T data plan) weren't as big as they though.. Remember the 3G iPad doesn't insist the user subscribes and as such lots haven't.

2 - Apple is preparing to strike out in the US market and provide iPhones for Verizon (lots of work but lots of possible payoff) and/or T-Mobile (less work but less upside too). Oh and before people misunderstand, rolling out phones for either wouldn't be a grand undertaking...

3 - AT&T and Apple were planning this all along.


Of the 3 options... #2 seems make the most sense.

I can't imagine Apple was expecting this to happen when the AT&T iPad talks were being finalized. So #3 seems highly unlikely.

Lack of iPad 3G sales? Again I was under the impression 3G sales were pretty strong and most stores were OOS on and off since it's release. However, this doesn't mean all the buyers are signing up for 3G the second they buy it. A fair number went to ebay and overseas so AT&T isn't gonna see any money from those.

Lastly.. and something that goes against my #2 option is this..

If the iPhone **IS** going to be available to Verizon and maybe even T-Mobile is THIS time time for AT&T to rase kill unlimited data AND overcharge for tethering for on a newly lobotomized data service?

Mixed signals for sure.

They should have done this two years ago. I have made plenty of money by buying iPhones at the subsidized rate and then canceling my account, paying the ETF fee as a penalty. The $325 is much closer to the actual cost difference. So again, it's my fault for taking advantage for AT&T's poor business skills.


2GB, not 2Gb nor 250MB. Why that would piss that you off is beyond me. Do you think they are lying?

Customers won't be freely allowed to tether. There is a $20 fee. Will this increase the average data usage? Absolutely, but customers will have to pay for it. Sucks that they charge for much for the "convenience" without any actual data usage increase, but that is their choice. There are 3 other carriers that would love to have your business if you don't like it. At those rates putting my Sierra Wireless 3G USB adapter back in service might be more beneficial is the 5GB is still soft-capped.


For the love of <insert your creator> please don't bring any religion into the forums.

Or how about sales on the iPad 3G were way BETTER than Apple and AT&T expected, and the projected increase in demand for bandwidth would have swamped the network, if too many users took advantage of the unlimited plan?

No, he never did.

Anybody notice that the plans start June 7th? Same day as the iPhone should be announced....I wonder if this has anything to do with the rumor of iPhone being available same day as it is announced.... Wishful thinking most likely though.

It actually makes more sense that the iPad 3G is a success and AT&T recognizes it will further tax their network. Since we know that Apple is selling the iPad as quickly as they can make them, this is far more likely than your scenario.

That has been rumoured for awhile now, but historically they went on sale on a Friday at 5pm. Also, AT&T seems to also start their yearly changes to get ready for the iPhone ahead of Apple's actual iPhone launch. Therefore the earliest I expect to see the IPhone on shelves in the Friday June 11th @ 5pm.

Was the OS update available before the new phone shipped last year?

I see what you're saying but would a contract to provide an iPad with affordable data have an out clause that said AT&T can cancel the plan if the iPad 3G plan sells too well?

Maybe... OR it could also be AT&T may not have offered Apple any assurance on the long term availability of an 'inexpensive' data plan unless Apple gave AT&T another year of exclusive iPhone access and that wasn't something Apple couldn't (wouldn't?) give them at this time. SO sure they provided a plan that Apple could use at the time of the introduction but had no intention of proving it for more than a few months - a time frame AT&T and Apple agreed upon as the minimum acceptable time frame. Hmm actually since the iPad 3G was sold after the iPad wifi ... its more like one month isn't it. That has to be one of the shortest lived plans AT&T ever rolled out...

Ah who know... the fact is, the all you can eat deal from AT&T is dead for any new iPhone or iPad 3Gs moving forward. I just wonder if you re-up AND ask/get the new iPhone this summer if you'd still be able to have the old all you can eat plan.

How about, AT&T misled Apple into believing they would actually offer data plans at those prices, then pulled a bait and switch on customers and Apple.

According to Wikipedia iPhone OS v3.0 came out Wednesday, June 17th, 2009. That could mean Tuesday, June 16th for some countries or mean Thursday, June 17th.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_..._the_iPhone_OS

I am sorry to hear that. Seriously, my customer service experience with ATT has been somewhat better than that. Hopefully, it gets better for you.

I'll just have to assume that either a) you don't own an iPad WiFi+3G or b) haven't had to use it for anything other than the briefest time on 3G. People who don't pick up their dog poop are simply bad citizens.

My opinion is most of the large telcos are in the "Jurassic age" if the y only upgraded their technology over time this king of gouging would be minimal.

I used mine on 3G for about 4 hours today- mostly reading news and e-mailing, and used 11MB.

I was in line at 5am for my 3g the day it came out and had it in my hands by 930am....did 3gs debut at 5pm? It didnt have enough upgrades for me to want to buy it so i waited until this year

Are you in the US?

It's quite possible my memory is slipping a bit...

edit: Yep, it is.

Yes, if you are stupid it *will* cost you.

Well I know for sure that the 3g was out as soon as the store opened.... but I have no clue about original or 3gs

AT&T warns customer that emailing the CEO will result in a cease and desist letter

http://engadget.com/2010/06/02/atand...lt-in-a-cease/

Stay classy AT&T. I can't wait for a Verizon iPhone so I can leave your lousy service. In fact I'll take any carrier.

Randall Stephenson, you are no Steve Jobs.

AT&T has no PR common sense. Put the email address on an auto-trash rule and/or have your emails vetted by personnel with his actual "private" email being separate. For frak's sake, AT&T, it's not that hard!

I have mixed feelings about this change.
Mostly I am at or just a little over 200MB.
only a couple times have i reached 500MB in one month.

Many people have abused there service by tethering illegally, and your defense is that you have an unlimited plan.
So now that they are going to give you the option to legally purchase tethering for the iphone people are complaining? I know you cant make everyone happy and many people just hate AT&T.

I think I will be able to save some money and drop to the 200MB plan.

At home i have DSL
At work i have a secure internet connection that blocks allot of non-work related sites.
On the go, the iPhone provides excellent service through AT&T for those moments I need internet.

AT&T has the fastest 3G network but for the life of me I cant understand why some of you will use that slow connection that much.
5GB in ONE month?!?! that is just insane for going through a Cellular network

Billing based on actual usage (and the dumping of the fake "unlimited") is long overdue!

I'm sure they will get flack for it (indeed, this thread has over 200 posts) but once again AT&T is leading the industry in realistic policy and pricing. The rates are getting more realistic - I need to look at my usage, but I think I can drop down a level. $10 a month is $10 a month!

Holy fricken waaa-baby... somebody call the waaaa..mbulance.

I don't honestly believe you can transfer 5gb of data in a single month over 3G -- and if you tried that hard to get so much crap through your phone, try harder to get a job that pays you enough to afford it. Or walk next door and suck off your neighbor's WiFi. What do you do, sit around all day in public bathrooms watching porn on your phone?

Does anyone even remember when all people did was walk around with little white earbuds stuck in their head, nodding like zombies?

Whiners, give it a rest... if you can't afford to play the digital game with the big boys, go analog and read a frickin' book.

Good. Please get off the AT&T network NOW.

I sincerely hope you and all the other bandwidth hogs bail out. Let Verizon and Sprint collapse with their unrealistic pricing models. Enjoy it while it lasts. I laughed out loud when Google proclaimed "free tethering" at their conference. I would love to have been a fly on the wall in all the telco companies offices - talk about throwing your "partners" under the bus. Google doesn't care one way or the other about tethering - they want to push Android and if they can offer something at the expense of the carriers why not - they obviously think they can get away with it. The carriers have to deal with the fallout, not Google. The carriers are now reaping the "benefits" of their partnership with Google. it couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of formerly smug jerks (looking at you, Verizon!).

AT&T is getting closer to reality. The carriers just need to drop the whole difference between data consumed on a device like an iPhone or iPad, and data that is consumed if another device is tethered - data is data. It should be usage based, period. Then if you have people who want to suck up precious airtime downloading bit torrents and other obnoxious behavior, let them do it - but let them pay for it. I don't know why people just assume radio spectrum is an infinite resource, but it's not. It's past time for the "unlimited" games to stop and this is the first healthy step to sustainability for wireless data.

And for a good reason...

Really, are people going out of their way to be this obtuse, or are people really this niggardly as to expect something for nothing?

Here is a nice Q&A about the plans that resolves many of the rational concerns I've read on this thread...

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http://www.tuaw.com/2010/06/02/candi...ne-data-plans/

People are sooo funny with their comments:

1) All the major carriers are said to be doing the same later this year. From USAToday:

Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam said last week that it would "make sense" to have such pricing later this year when his company introduces a speedy 4G service. USAToday article

2) Unless a person is data hog the average user will actually save money, $5-15.00 per month. Most people don't come close to using more than 2GB of data per month. And if you do use over 2GB per month than you should expect to or be willing to pay an extra $10. These prices will affect a very small percentage of users in a negative way, at least that's how I read it.

3) Lastly, this is for all AT&T smart phones, so the articles title is misleading. Again, VZ and others will do the same soon. You can run (switch carriers), but you can't hide (the carrier you switch to will likely do the same before the year is over).

Until their networks collapse just like AT&T's did.

Also CDMA requires fewer towers which helps Verizon get their larger coverage. But - it also means they have less aggregate bandwidth in the air.

They will be even more vulnerable to over subscription. If the data hogs start hopping on Verizon, you can expect them to change their pricing models as well.

Contrary to attitudes expressed in threads like this, wireless bandwidth is not an unlimited resource. It's long overdue for this stupid "unlimited" that isn't unlimited to just die and the pay for what you use model to come in. Will balance out much of the abuse that is currently going on and screwing us all.

Best post in the entire thread - thank you!

Quote:
Originally Posted by cameronj View Post
Didn't your dad ever tell you, life's not fair?


Yeah that explains it. Feeling like the world owes you something then?

[QUOTE=s6278m;1644404]Anybody notice that the plans start June 7th? Same day as the iPhone should be announced....I wonder if this has anything to do with the rumor of iPhone being available same day as it is announced.... Wishful thinking most likely though.

The extra charge for tethering is a bad marketing move! NO extra bandwidth at all and we pay $360/yr? That's not heavy users paying for their heavy use, that's just a rip-off. The cap is 2GB whether i tether or not? BS. Why do they care which screen i'm seeing my data on?

The iPad users just got seriously screwed. Streaming has already dealt a death blow to normal Television. (We cancelled our cable and haven't missed it at all). When streaming arrives on iPad, people's data rates will quintuple overnight. Stream a hockey game and download a couple of episodes of LOST from the iTunes Store and you're pushing your monthly limit!

Also, while I've never exceeded 1.5 GB in a month, you can bet i will now that I know how valuable my unlimited data plan is. I'm going to turn on Pandora and leave it on 24 hours a day for the rest of the year. These are the golden days of unregulated internet. Enjoy them while they last!

i agree, charging for tethering and not getting something is return is BS, ATT should at least allow for an additional 1 GB with tethering. that's not much to ask, or is it?

If you are a current customer, as you claim, you are not affected, You can still have your "unlimited" plan, as many pointed out -- if the others understood the AT&T announcement correctly. However, as also pointed out by a number of posters, they welcome the changes because most of them either belong to th 65% who wno use less than 200MB or the 98% who use less than 2GB.

Many of the current iPhone users,, as posted, and as voiced by TenoBell would save money.

Personally, while I very much like the iPhone, until carriers would offer plans like the one offered for the iPad -- enroll when needed -- I have decided not to buy an iPhone, from the very beginning. I do not like paying high fixed rates monthly -- $65 for phone usage, then another $30 for data plan and now another $20 for tethering. That is a total of $1380 a year or $2760 every two years, plus taxes and fees.

I can I stick with my cheap, no frills Sprint phone, which I have as a long term customer for $30 per month plus fees -- which would cost me about $360 per year or $720 every two years.

From the potental savings alone between the current charges for an AT&T plan and my Sprint, I could buy each year a high end iPad 3G, or almost a basic MacBook Pro, definitely a MacBook or iMac, a Mac mini server; or buy a variety of them over time. Since most of my Mac devices last for years (my 1998 iMac and 2003 iBook are still working), I could instead re-allocate such potential savings to other whims -- maybe buy a higher end Nikon to replace my old D200 or buy those expensive F2.8 lenses that I covet, splurge more on those trips I used to do, etc.

I could then use the iPad for better internet viewing, reading, etc. than be content with a puny phone screen. I could do most of these though at home (see below) since I need more reliable high speed internet connection. Buy the iPad 3G plan when really out of town for trips.

These potential savings (or not spending them to begin with) and how I could re-allocate such unspent funds for other prioties are the reason why I never bought an iPhone, no matter how I like it.

There is no reason to spend a total of $1380 a year or $2760 every two years, plus taxes and fees, if one can find alternative solutions, simply by rescheduling how and when certain activities get done. For example, unless you are really a salesperson or have needs that are time-critical, is there really a reason to check your email every minute? My perspective is that if something is really very important, the other person would call me, or I would call them.

Obviously, what I stated is not applicable to everyone.

CGC


N.B,
The Sprint plan is for 420 minutes day time, unlimited evenings after six PM and anytime weekends. [I happen to call or receive calls mostly abroad or West Coast and other time zones in the US, so the unlimited after 6 pm and anytime weekends come in handy.]

I am a high bandwidth user myself because I transfer photos and optimize them in bulk using my optimizer website over the internet. I also like to download Creative Commons Flickr images or from other sources. I also transfer a lot of files, download programs, articles, PDF versions, etc. I need reliable connections for this, so any internet connection that drops so often would not work, So, they are done usually where I have reliable connection -- at home or office.

I do not monitor exactly how many bandwidth I use each month, but it is a lot, considering that my Nikon camera storage is 8 GB and 4 GB. When I get carried away, sometimes I fill both of them in one outing.

The 98% comment may be true for smartphone users. But the iPad is a game changer. More of a different kind of data. No way AT&T has reliable iPad data use metrics yet. I used 120MB in less than 30 minutes of use. 30 minutes in which I used mail, yellowpages.com, google maps, and a youtube video.

I hope I'm wrong, and 2GB is enough... but right now I feel like the 30 dollar unlimited plan was a carrot and I'm one of a whole bunch of losers who took the bait. I'll know in 2 weeks whether AT&T has lied or not.

Perhaps turning this into a pre-pay as you go would have been better than this 60% cut in a monthly "unlimited" subscription allowance.

If the contract between Apple and AT&T has actually lapsed or Apple has found a way out, I am of the same opinion that Apple will do this. Apple has already saturated worldwide the most desirable GSM markets. If memory serves me, when Apple and AT&T terminated the "revenue sharing" it might have actually revoked the original contract. I remember the CEO mentioing that the contract has been renewed for another year. [I did not think, he meant beyond 2012, the termination date of the original 2007 agreement.]

If Apple is to continue the growth of the iPhone sales, it cannot ignore other telecommunitcation platforms that do not use "standard" GSM platform.

There is no technological impediment to prevent such a move. I would not be too surprised if next week, Apple would announce other iPhones either for other carrier(s) in the US, and other key markets abroad.

CGC

You know I love Apple as much as anyone, but I think today I witnessed the final flip flop among all the ultimate fanbois.

With a simple change of policy, all iPhone users have gone from massive data hogs tolerating AT&T's incredibly crap network due to everyone sucking down GIGS of information, to folks who don't even use 200 megs of wireless data a month.

Are these all the same guys bemoaning the fact Verizon's crappy network only gives 2 megabits per second downloads? That's only 13 minutes PER MONTH to download the entire month's worth of data use most of you claim to now use and what... that's too slow?

What about all that wonderful talking and web browsing at the same time that simply MUST occur. Not only does it need to occur, but it better damn well occur at 4-5 mbps because 1-2 mbps is too darn slow when I'm using all these massive mounts of data... to the tune of less than 200 MB per month.

How about that incredibly sucky Opera Mini browser that is just insufferable compared to Safari even though it compresses data and happens to have only been downloaded over 2.6 million times by iPhone users. (You can bet with these limits, it is going to be downloaded a whole lot more.)

I'm sensing just a bit too much bullshit even from the bullshitters this particular time. The network can't suck because all the iPhone users are slamming it constantly with huge requests for the real internet (not that compressed and nasty Opera version) yet barely even use 200 MB per month. It can't be that speed is absolutely paramount because dammit we're using these phones soooo fast (even while talking dammit, you have to talk and browse at the same time) but gee, turns out I don't even hit 200 MB in a month.

The disconnect is too large. Some of you all need to slap yourselves with something. No one can be THAT delusional.

You all don't understand 13 minutes per month to download all the data I use is WAY too much time. If I can't download all that data in 9-11 minutes on this faster network then that is intolerable. 2-4 extra minutes over the course of the month is just intolerable and thus a game changer!

Who needs 3G coverage. I never leave metro areas and I don't travel highways so I don't need to worry about 3G coverage and now apparently I don't need to worry about that either because... well because Wifi is everywhere and so I don't even use 3G either.... except for when I am and then it needs to be fast enough that I don't want an extra 3 minutes over the course of a month on downloads! That extra 45 seconds per week is ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL!!! Everyone who has to wait that 45 seconds is engaged in incredible suffering unless they are somewhere with EDGE in which case it is just fine because it isn't that often. It would never be more than one or two times a month for example.

I can't believe the same folks who declared that AT&T had to be tolerated because all the other carriers weren't moving any data capacity when everyone is sending each other .2-.5 MB picture messages now are those declaring they don't even use 200 MB a month. Their heads have to explode or something.

Even if an iPhone user is using "only" 200 MB a month, why would they want their web sites to load slower?


I've downloaded, but don't use it, yet I'm still included in that number.


I'm sensing more BS in your post. 200 MB per user multiplied by how many users? Did you know that while ants don't weigh a lot, they collectively weigh more than the human race does? Numerous studies say iPhone users use a lot more data than anyone else, deal with it.


Take your own advice, it's hilarious that you are calling others delusional.

Well let's be polite and using round numbers say that 200 MB at 100KB per page is 2000 web pages loaded in a month. We are talking about 180 seconds worth of difference across 2000 pages.

Is 9 hundredths of a second really enough to crap all over other networks about presuming optimal conditions in both cases?


I'm sure you will give it a try on EDGE and really you should. It is a great time saver in that instance, much more than .09 secs per page for sure.


Numerous studies.... have you seen any of them? This is one of those things that gets repeated until it must be true. I've never seen an actual recent study linked to on here with regard to it. Do I believe a typical iPhone user uses ten times more data than a Rarz owner. Sure. Do I think this is true above Android and others? No and I didn't think it was true even over feature phone users. Also I've seen that stat repeatedly cited, but never sourced. Can you provide the source?