I hate be cynical even when it comes to AT&T but I suspect there will be two plans one with too little data for most people and one with way too much data data for most people... Both of course will be overpriced.
Honestly I expect that users will still have to pay $25/2GB/device it'll just be shared between the devices. So you'll still be paying $75 for 3 devices, but they'll get to share the 6GB pool of data... What you won't be offered is for 3 devices to share 2GB of data for $25.
Shared data plan might be nice - but roll over data would be even better - most months I don't need anywhere near 4GB of data on my primary device - but when I travel to a customer site or a conference and get stuck in a hotel with crappy WiFi I can easily use 5GB or more in a week. So if the data were to roll over the way minutes do - I could get on a shared 2GB per month plan - and 6 or 8 months out of the year - only use a few hundred MB - and have 14GB or so available to use in the couple of months when I find myself somewhere that 3G speed is superior to WiFi.
Shared data plan might be nice - but roll over data would be even better - most months I don't need anywhere near 4GB of data on my primary device - but when I travel to a customer site or a conference and get stuck in a hotel with crappy WiFi I can easily use 5GB or more in a week. So if the data were to roll over the way minutes do - I could get on a shared 2GB per month plan - and 6 or 8 months out of the year - only use a few hundred MB - and have 14GB or so available to use in the couple of months when I find myself somewhere that 3G speed is superior to WiFi.
Stop making sense. This is ATT we're talking about. \
It's odd in a funny sort of way how so many people complain about the price of a product or service, but continue to pay for it just the same.
What you don't note is that consumer choice is rapidly dwindling. All Telecomms will institute data caps in the US across cell/broadband so they can achieve the highest profits they can until the government regulates them.
I personally from a data plan side am screwed, or sitting pretty depending on how you look at it. I am grandfathered in on the old iphone unlimited plan. If I move to another provider then I get capped.
What you don't note is that consumer choice is rapidly dwindling. All Telecomms will institute data caps in the US across cell/broadband so they can achieve the highest profits they can until the government regulates them.
I personally from a data plan side am screwed, or sitting pretty depending on how you look at it. I am grandfathered in on the old iphone unlimited plan. If I move to another provider then I get capped.
Yes, it's true that choice is in some respect limited. However, the choice of carriers exists, and the choice using or not using, buying or not buying, still very much exists. Personally, I held off buying an iPhone until AT&T offered a limited data plan because I have absolutely no need for an unlimited one. They got more money out of me by offering a product I wanted. The concept that companies will attempt to achieve the highest possible profits is hardly shocking, that being the entire point of the exercise.
The only thing is that everything is going to be streaming or remote access such as slingbox also like the new service due out from Apple. And that just names a very small slice of the data usage pie. I don't have enough time to even begin listing them all. And while some may use them very little the majority will more than double their data usage. If you stop to think about these caps starting appearing just in time to curtail any problems the providers might have with their customers. Such as let's say Icloud is already out along with the already ubiquitous Netflix. Now your used to just running these two service all the time and then this cap came along and all the sudden what you thought was nothing in terms of data use is now crushing your cap. You would be livid. That's not to say people aren't already. With more and more of the services arriving the providers are getting more worried then Paris Hilton's pack mule. They're thinking that they need to nip this in the bud now. They cover this by saying that people don't use anywhere near as much as the cap they have provided. That is right now they don't use that much. They know that will change inside of the next couple of years. As much as I hate the government having to control one more thing it may be a necessary evil. Now I'm not saying the guy who posted before is wrong. There is nothing wrong with only needing a small amount of data. There are a lot of people who are surround by wifi all the time but that's where what I'm saying kicks in even more so. Think about it, your home now and you feel I don't need to use your cell carrier data plan, you have a unlimited home ISP I'm home free. Well if the businesses have there way you won't be home free even in your own home.
Comments
Honestly I expect that users will still have to pay $25/2GB/device it'll just be shared between the devices. So you'll still be paying $75 for 3 devices, but they'll get to share the 6GB pool of data... What you won't be offered is for 3 devices to share 2GB of data for $25.
Shared data plan might be nice - but roll over data would be even better - most months I don't need anywhere near 4GB of data on my primary device - but when I travel to a customer site or a conference and get stuck in a hotel with crappy WiFi I can easily use 5GB or more in a week. So if the data were to roll over the way minutes do - I could get on a shared 2GB per month plan - and 6 or 8 months out of the year - only use a few hundred MB - and have 14GB or so available to use in the couple of months when I find myself somewhere that 3G speed is superior to WiFi.
Stop making sense. This is ATT we're talking about.
It's odd in a funny sort of way how so many people complain about the price of a product or service, but continue to pay for it just the same.
What you don't note is that consumer choice is rapidly dwindling. All Telecomms will institute data caps in the US across cell/broadband so they can achieve the highest profits they can until the government regulates them.
I personally from a data plan side am screwed, or sitting pretty depending on how you look at it. I am grandfathered in on the old iphone unlimited plan. If I move to another provider then I get capped.
What you don't note is that consumer choice is rapidly dwindling. All Telecomms will institute data caps in the US across cell/broadband so they can achieve the highest profits they can until the government regulates them.
I personally from a data plan side am screwed, or sitting pretty depending on how you look at it. I am grandfathered in on the old iphone unlimited plan. If I move to another provider then I get capped.
Yes, it's true that choice is in some respect limited. However, the choice of carriers exists, and the choice using or not using, buying or not buying, still very much exists. Personally, I held off buying an iPhone until AT&T offered a limited data plan because I have absolutely no need for an unlimited one. They got more money out of me by offering a product I wanted. The concept that companies will attempt to achieve the highest possible profits is hardly shocking, that being the entire point of the exercise.