AT&T throttling unlimited data users starting at 2 GB per month based on location - Page 2

First, there will always be a 'top 5%' of unlimited plan users that will be slowed. And the byte-limit (2Gb right now) just keeps getting lower and lower, because the top 5% keep getting limited to less and less data each month.

Second, from the article: “There’s a very good chance you wouldn’t be slowed,” Siegel said, noting that less than one percent of customers were affected by the policy in January.

Yes, less than 1 percent of ALL users were affected. But at least 5% of unlimited plan users were slowed. And will be slowed in the future.

another thing i was wondering. let's say i hit the top 5% in the first few days of my billing cycle and subsequently get throttled down. when i get bumped out of the top 5% by other heavy users (and that has to happen), do i get unthrottled? i'm going to go with "no". any wagers?

at&t should be sued to disclose the decision points they use to add and remove users from the top 5%.

I didn't say throttle tiered people. If they get 3 and then penalties, then at least give us unlimited customers the same 3 gb ceiling before the BS throttling.

One thing lacking here is the extent of the throttling... can he still watch youtube? can he still do everything he did before? Are web pages loading noticeably slower?

Sure, you can by symbolic and complain about something, but what's the real effect here?

So they stopped your data?
Does your agreement say that unlimited data = unlimited speed?

See, this is what blows my mind. People say crap like this.

I made the conscious decision to move from Verizon to AT&T to get the iPhone before Verizon had it. I signed the contract that agreed to UNLIMITED DATA at the speeds that they advertised in print, tv, radio, etc. If AT&T is now taking the stance of "We promised unlimited data, but not how fast", then that is misleading and should call for backlash or even a class action lawsuit.

And now you will come back with the statement "why don't you just take your business elsewhere. You don't have to stay with AT&T!". Well, technically I do. See, I signed an agreement for the services I am paying for. If and when I get throttled back, do you think that good ole AT&T will let me leave with no backlash or even legal teams involved. Umm, no.

Don't get pissy and pull the whole "convert to the tiered plan like I had to get because I didn't jump ship early enough" bull crap. We aren't whining......we are sticking to our end of the contract as AT&T would expect us to. So, don't you think they should?

Also, don't pull that bull crap line of it's not in the contract to give 3g speeds or better. You're an idiot to think that they would lay the pipe to you like this when you signed up. It's called bad business ethics. They should pony up, pay for better service/data coverage and delivery if they are going to put it in their adds to get you in the door. Plain and simple.

dumb.....just dumb. you can't vote with your wallet with etf's involved. get your head out of your...

you may not change your habits, but developers will change their content to larger format. so, to use your app won't change, but the data behind the scenes will be bigger since it can be pushed faster.

why do you think computers get faster processors and bigger RAM? your on your computer the same as you were in the 90's but the data you go through in a day is WAY more now for the same "time" involved.

If AT&T or really any carrier wanted to be fair, they would just charge $10 per gigabyte. For people on the old unlimited plan it is ridiculous to throttle at 2GB when you are paying the same $30 that people pay for 3GB. That would at least be a little more palatable to throttle after 3GB.

I actually posted a comment about this very same 2GB throttling a few months back here in this forum when AI incorrectly said Sprint was throttling (which they weren't and don't) They do limit the amount of roaming data you can use which makes sense because they have to pay other carriers for that, but as long as you stay on network you get unlimited and unthrottled data. I don't really consider myself a heavy user and average between 4 and 6GB a month but have used as much as 18GB on vacations.

I hope this gets as much bad press as Verizon did with their recent idiotic move to try and charge a fee for online payments. They backtracked but I doubt AT&T will. If enough customers leave they will get the message soon enough. Verizon often has double the data offers from 2GB to 4GB a month. In fact I think they are running that offer this month. Sprint is also an alternative. I am very happy with Sprint and in addition to unlimited data, those unlimited mobile minutes and texts also come in handy for heavy users like me.

This has turned into one of the worst-handled situations ever. I agree with AT&T that throttling is fair & reasonable. There's no reason that one guy should hog 30 Gigs of data a month (like one poster bragged about over on another thread) & expect that it has no impact on anyone else. I even think that the majority of people were behind AT&T when they decided to throttle heavy users. But to cut the cap down to 2 gigs is a really poor decision from a publicity standpoint. If only 5% of users are going over that threshold, why not give them at least 3 gigs (to match their new plan) or 4 gigs (to grandfather in those who signed up early. Then get rid of the 'unlimited' option when the transition to 4g takes place. Since only 5% of people are going over 2 gigs to begin with, you are only adding a tiny bit (maybe 10%) to your data load and you're keeping the majority of people happy (since by their own numbers only 5% of people hit the threshold, that would mean that less than 5% would hit the 3 or 4 gig thresholds.) It just seems like AT&T took a good idea (throttling the very high users to provide a better experience for the majority of users) and pushed it too far, so that now it's turned into a bad idea.

I think that if AT&T wants to throttle, they need to announce and document exact criteria and stop being vague. Something like "Use no more than 2GB and you will be throttled." Or, if they could want to be fair, "Use more than 100MB in an hour and you will be throttled for an hour."

Better yet, AT&T should probably just bite the bad-publicity bullet and announce that unlimited data plans expire on a specific date and grandfathered accounts get 3GB/month unless they are told otherwise.

Last, the throttling should apply to all data users who stream excessive amounts in short periods of time or use heavily when the network is overloaded. The latter is called load balancing and has been practiced on corporate networks for years. It could be done transparently and flexibly. Now, when the lunch crowd jumps on their smartphones, boom, the bandwidth goes away due to congestion and nobody benefits.

What they are doing right now is just pissing people off.

That said, I know a lot of iPhone users who really don't use much cell data. Heck, I know three who've not even installed apps on their phone and use it bare bones. I really can believe that using over 300MB would put you in the top 5% of data users!

Unhappy about ATT's reducing your Data Speed when you have an unlimited data plan? Do what I did and fill a complaint with the BBB.

http://www.bbb.org/atlanta/business-...le-a-complaint

I got the top 5% warning at a whopping 700 MB (as in seven hundred megabyte).

My contract expires in a few months and I will be canceling my contract with ATT. This company tries to eliminate all differentiators that are important to me. I have a monthly phone bill of ~$130 and travel internationally often, which would make ATT 3G/UMTS/GSM very attractive, technology wise, but due to the roaming fees and the SIM lock, using the phone for things like navigating in a foreign city are cost prohibitive.

So for me, why would I stay with ATT?

* UMTS? - no, the iPhone is useless overseas due to outrageous cost
* coverage? - ok, but not great
* cost? - no, ATT is among the most expensive
* service? - no, throttling an unlimited plan at 700MB+ usage is ridiculous

Verizon is basically the same (sans international compatibility) so there's Sprint, but who knows how long their unlimited plan lasts. And no, I don't want metered, especially if I pay a premium for premium service - if metered is the only realistic option left, I'll change to discount and go with an unlocked Android phone on MetroPCS.

And ATT can also kiss my $100+/month UVerse cash good bye.

Yes, its lame. Yes, they should not kick in the throttling until you hit 3GB.

But, saying they should not throttle at all because you entered an agreement and you want to leave things unchanged is not a reality. Try googling "at&T spent improve 3g" and you will be reminded that they have spent $35 billion in the Bay area, $19 billion in some other area, etc and that the 3G experience for them has gotten much better. Your unthrottled data is much faster, with much more consistent coverage and you are getting less dropped calls as a result of this investment.

So, you can't just keep getting what you signed up for unless they throttle you throughout the whole experience to the original speeds you used to get or they do as they are doing now and let you have fast speeds up to a point and then throttle you more considerably.

Either way people complain. Plus, someone who did not sign up early enough can complain about paying the same amount and getting less data just because you signed up earlier. I have been an iPhone user for around 2 years and did not have an unlimited option -- and its not like they are going to grant me one for being a great long-term customer at my 2 year mark.

Late to the responses, but if you're AT&T (or verizon or any US carrier)- there won't be a lawsuit. We're all under arbitration clauses- which means it takes the "law suit" out of the courts and a jury of our peers and puts in into an arbitration company selected by AT&T (I'm sure that won't be biased ).

Our 12th amendment rights are being stripped from us with every election. Thanks Karl rove. (for the record- im a libertarian). As much as a law suit would hold them accountable, whether you believe that to be fair or not, doesn't matter- the decision will never be decided by us, the people (jury) anymore.

Tort reform sucks. There is a reason the US chamber of commerce (big businesses) are By far the biggest backers. Don't buy the political BS.

Watch the HBO documentary "Hot Coffee". Interesting to say the least.

It really wasn't that many years ago when people thought it would be nearly impossible to exceed 200MB a month. Then came 3G and smartphones and we started talking about Gigabytes and not megabytes. LTE will change the paradigm once again allowing us download and upload even faster. And uploads are also more important now than ever with the new HD video capability of phones not to mention much larger files sizes for photos. Gone are the days when a photo was 50kb. When you watch the AT&T commercials showing "that was so 30 seconds ago" where people are uploading videos to facebook of various events that just happened it seems pretty hypocritical when you realize it wouldn't take too many of those videos to reach the 2GB limit.

LTE will naturally make us use more data, just like 3G did. As others have pointed out if you don't have to wait as long in 15 minutes you might be able to watch 5 videos instead of one or two. You have a user base that wants more and more data and carriers who want to offer less data for more money. Something will have to give eventually. They are certainly making a nice profit charging $10 per gigabyte so maybe that will eventually replace the current model. Just charge $10 per GB and be done with it. The fact that they charge $20 for their cheapest 300MB plan is pure greed. 300MB probably only cost them about 50 cents at the most if that. I realize that money is used to make up for the subsidy for the phone, but 300MB? Seems awfully miserly and quite a big jump to the next tier.

It will be interesting to see what Verizon and Sprint do this year. Currently Verizon have a double your data promo going which gives you 4GB instead of 2GB. Sprint still has unlimited. AT&T is banking on the fact that others will be as greedy and reduce their data limits or raise prices. If Verizon and Sprint don't respond in kind you might see a lot of people that have been throttled at 2GB leave AT&T once their contracts end if they can get 4GB on Verizon or unlimited on Sprint.

And caps will go from 3GB back down to 700MB a month. Mark my words.

Not only did they throttle me after exactly 2GB, they slowed my speed to 100kbps!

That's slower than Edge and made the data portion of the phone nearly unusable. It took me 10 minutes to open a 1MB email attachment!

Needless to say I'll be leaving AT&T ASAP after this policy change.

I ran a speed test last week and was getting 1.79 Mbps download. This morning I got a text message from AT&T telling me I hit the 5% of top users area. This is at 2mb of usage. Today my results of a speed test is a download speed of .14 Mbps. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's a 92% decrease in my speeds. That's not throttling, that's CHOKING!

Wouldn't it be logical if the top 5% got throttled 5% in speed? Hell, I'd still be happy at 25-30% reduction, but 92%? That's ridiculous! I re-signed with AT&T because they grandfathered me in to unlimited data, NOT telling me that in a couple months they would be throttling me 92% after using less data than the non-grandfathered users.

I'm not upset because I'm getting throttled.....I'm upset because of how much I'm getting throttled. I'm 8 days into my billing cycle (my job doesn't offer wi-fi), so I have to endure 140 Kbps for 22 days? FML

Why doesn't AT&T act like an adult by honoring the contract they entered into, edpecially if it only affects 1% of the market at most? That's called the cost of doing business. If AT&T and all their accountants, analysts, and lawyers couldn't properly guage market growth and demand, then they need to be big boys and accept that. Undermining the consumer experience to creep out the back door of a deal they structured doesn't seem very adult to me. There are options for AT&T to do right by the consumer and protect profitability, but it is easier for them to be the spoiled kid in the sandbox who wants to play by his own rules as it suits him.

I agree it's an uphill battle, except that arbitration clauses could get voided as they have in the past. http://mobile.reuters.com/article/id...00521?irpc=932
I will say that I am seriously considering moving over to Sprint or dumping the iPhone all together because I'm increasigly infuriated by the situation. I'm goin to put my money where my mouth is if something doesn't change quick. It worked with Detroit, and now they're designing and engineering differently.

Good for you.
Do one better: file an informal complaint with the FCC.


How to file an FCC complaint:

www.fcc.gov
Click Take Action.
Click Compain.
Select Wireless Telephone.
Click Next.
Select Billing, Service, Privacy, Number Portability and other issues.
Click Next.
Click "Complete the form" under Online Form - Recommended.

Hi guys,

Dvir Reznik here, head of marketing at Onavo (the data experts).

We're doing a project around throttling and its implications on mobile subscribers, and would like to include your story in it. The project will go live shortly, featuring your story along with your full name, Twitter name or an alias - your choice.

If you'd like to participate, please send your story to: info@onavo.com, mentioning 'Data throttle' in the subject line. We cannot use the stories posted here without approval.

Thanks again.

Dvir.

Never heard of, interesting. I'm from the Netherlands, and we're grandfathered with unlimited.

Regards,
PhilBoogie

Thanks Phil for replying.
Never heard of the recent AT&T move about throttling? It erupted a few weeks back, supposedly implemented to the top 5% of users. The irony is that users with unlimited plans (grandfathered, same as you), are basically not so unlimited after all..

Just goes to show that 'the worst' isn't limited to analysts, Wall St., banks and insurance companies; the telco's are just the same. A real shame, and they're getting away with it.

Um, no? Few people thought it would be nearly impossible. Most people were AFRAID to use that much because it would cost them more than a mortgage payment on their home if they did use that much data.