If after the 5.1 update I am now considered 4G for whatever marketing purposes or whatever, shouldn't I now be allowed 5 GB before they cut me down? I'm not sure how they can get away by calling it 4G yet they are still throttling my account at 3 GB
If after the 5.1 update I am now considered 4G for whatever marketing purposes or whatever, shouldn't I now be allowed 5 GB before they cut me down? I'm not sure how they can get away by calling it 4G yet they are still throttling my account at 3 GB
Because "4G" is just a marketing term which doesn't really mean anything at all, as you have already noted. They're setting throttling limits based upon the underlying technology, and any HSPA+ based "4G" service is still fundamentally based upon the same underlying technology as regular, run-of-the-mill 3G.
LTE is the real breakaway point where the underlying technologies fundamentally change. Unfortunately, cellular carriers were too impatient for some new catchphrase to fool customers into thinking there was something new on offer, so they decided they couldn't wait for LTE roll-out to begin in earnest before they started advertising so-called "4G" service. So they took a technology which was essentially already in place, gave it some new lipstick by applying the latest revision of the existing technology, and re-branded it.
So then the fault is AT&T's. Don't sell fraudulent "unlimited" plans and then whine when users actually use it. Especially when they are doing the things your ad claims they can do. Poor AT&T whatever will they do with themselves. As brought up before if they are so hard up for spectrum how were they able to give some away to TMobile? Why would they have even made that part of the deal if they didn't have it to spare?
Exactly! Everyone should know that a multi billion dollar companies like the telecoms do enormous planning around what they offer to their customers. When they offered unlimited data plans they KNEW what could happen with their network. Don't for a moment that they would offer that to customers with KNOWING what the consequences were to their network. They probably had the possibility of throttling in their plans the whole time. They offered unlimited data plans already knowing they would reduce throughput on high data users. It was probably part of the cost analysis and planning when they were thinking of offering unlimited data plans.
What do you think we're talking about? People's iPhones are being throttled on their PHONE'S data connection after they fall into the top 5% of data users. That means slowing down their 3G data connection's speed. Doesn't your phone use the 3G network?
That doesn't contradict what I said. ATT simply didn't cut speeds to below 3G speeds. The speeds that users were getting after being throttled are still considered 3G, and are above the speed of 2G technologies. This is not a confusing claim, I don't see why you're confused.
Actually I didn't sign anything. If I'm paying by the gig it will be for 4g/lte speeds. I'm not on an unlimited plan. I'm certainly willing to go to court as many times as I have to. Advertise 4g/lte and that's what I should get.
AT&T spends more money on advertising than other carriers when that money would've been better spent on getting their network up to snuff. Word of mouth is stronger than advertising.
If you didn't sign anything, then you don't have a valid contract & you can't hold AT&T to their end of the 'deal'. At some point, you agreed to a contract, whether by actually signing some piece of paper, or taking over someone else's contract or whatever. I don't necessarily think that throttling is bad, I do think that the way AT&T did it was the worst possible way & resulted in a lot of negative publicity for them. Part of me wonders if that was't intentional. The only people who get pissed & leave (for the most part) are those on unlimited plans, so for AT&T, it's probably exactly what they wanted. I still think it's crappy & they should have throttled at a minimum, no lower than 3 gigs per month, proabably higher.
For everyone ranting that AT&T owes them money, or they broke their contract, etc. They didn't. What they did was slimy, no argument, but it was not illegal according to the contracts they have in place. There's a big difference between unethical & illegal. For those that think they are going to get a huge payout from AT&T, keep dreaming. If you get anything at all, it will be a small amount (under $50 for sure) in either cash back or some kind of credit to buy accessories or something. The lawayers will get a huge payday for trying this & AT&T will settle, without admitting guilt, just to make this all go away.
The loss in court was a small claims court and AT&T didn't even send a corporate lawyer, they sent a sales manager. They won't make that mistake again.
I'm not an AT&T fan by any means, I use sprint becuase that's what works at my house/work, but when we say that AT&T is the devil, let's remember that AT&T was the only company willing to bring the iPhone to market. Apple tried to strike a deal with Verizon first & Verizon wouldn't do it. We do have AT&T to thank (partially) for bringing the iPhone to fruition.
If after the 5.1 update I am now considered 4G for whatever marketing purposes or whatever, shouldn't I now be allowed 5 GB before they cut me down? I'm not sure how they can get away by calling it 4G yet they are still throttling my account at 3 GB
?
Wait until next month and check on this. If you're being throttled at under 5GB, it's new lawsuit time, and you need to remain watchful for future information on that front.
Thanks for recounting your experience, but for normalcy's sake, you'll probably have to wait until you're on 4G for a full month before bringing this up with a court.
I have unlimited plans on both my iPhone and iPad (probably going to give up the iPhone plan as I stopped using massive bandwidth once my iPad came along).
Some months I use next to nothing (near wifi a lot), some months I use 3-5 GB (rare, that high, but probably 3-4 months out of the year I use >2GB).
I'd be perfectly happy if they sold me data by the byte rather than by the month. Or, at the very least, gave me 'roll-over' bytes. I don't have a problem paying $30 for 3GB (or $20 for 2GB) every time I use that much data. In the long run, it would be cheaper than by the month for me. Just give me full speed for every byte I've purchased and don't limit how long I have to use those bytes. That's the fair way to do it.
Both are in the wrong here. AT&T is wrong for throttling his service. But he is wrong in going against their rules of service by tethering other devices to his I-phone. He knows it's wrong but admits to still doing it. And it's a few people like this that do ruin it for other users that do NOT tether other devices to their smartphones.
As for them being able to void his contract. Yes they can. He's already admitted to violating the rules of his contract. It's as simple as that. He won his settlement. He needs to be happy with that. If he moves to Verizon & does the same; it's gonna happen to him again.\
$850. Wow. That's? what? The average plutocrat's weekly manicure budget for his/her left thumb?
This struck me as a very reasonable price for the definition of "unlimited," and so I was inspired to purchase the definition of "two years" on eBay for $1.37. (Can you imagine? No one else bid.)
Once I'd closed the deal, I called AT&T and told them I was tearing up my contract because I'd rather suck the snot from a dead neocon's nose until his rotten head collapses than do business with them one more day. I was informed that as I'd signed a two-year contract 10 months ago, they'd be billing me for 14 months.
I chuckled politely and replied, "Au contraire, my quaint amigo. Since yesterday, when I completed my (if I do so say myself) brilliant eBay coup, the definition of 'two years' is '10 months,' and therefore my contract has expired."
I don't blame the indentured servant to whom I was speaking for his ignorance. After all, I purchased only the English definition of "two years," and that no doubt will take some while to percolate down to whichever benighted hellhole AT&T is this month externalizing its labor costs.
Yesterday I bought "'Til death do us part." Tonight I plan to open a bottle of Bolly and inform my husband that the new definition is "Until you weigh five pounds more than you did the day I married you." (What? Faithless? Don't be ridiculous? It's his birthday and I'm giving him a gym membership.)
The exodus will be Sprint customers to any carrier with LTE. Oh wait, Sprint has unlimited plans that are horribly slow but data hogs LOVE!. So why haven't folks flocked to Sprint? Because they want speed. And with speed, there is a premium to pay, not matter what LTE carrier you choose. So enjoy life with Sprint!
No iPhone has LTE. Are iPhones "horribly slow"?
Why have people flocked to the iPhone? Certainly NOT "because they want speed".
Think of the implications of yor statements, and reexamine your premises please.
All you non-unlimited, non-grandfathered, AT&T subscribers who blame people like me for "hogging bandwidth" and "expecting a free ride" can SUCK IT!!! I pay AT&T for a unlimited data allowance at 3G speeds, and I legally expect them to provide that service! This lawsuit is legal proof that they are legally liable for this service. Should I be throttled, I will immediately sue also. A legal precedence has now been set.
Do you think AT&T would allow me to only pay a portion of my payment because I got only a portion of this service? NO! They would cut my service off and charge me whopping $250 for violating my contract. AT&T is going to price themselves out of the market and their customers will leave them for another carrier.
If this issue can NOT affect you, your opinion is completely irrelevant!! I don't care if you don't like my opinion...I have a grandfathered plan with AT&T so my opinion DOES matter.
Comments
If I'm paying for each GB of data then I shouldn't be throttled.
Then you're in luck. People on tiered data plans (eg. paying for each GB) are not subject to any of AT&T's current or announced throttling policies.
If after the 5.1 update I am now considered 4G for whatever marketing purposes or whatever, shouldn't I now be allowed 5 GB before they cut me down? I'm not sure how they can get away by calling it 4G yet they are still throttling my account at 3 GB
Because "4G" is just a marketing term which doesn't really mean anything at all, as you have already noted. They're setting throttling limits based upon the underlying technology, and any HSPA+ based "4G" service is still fundamentally based upon the same underlying technology as regular, run-of-the-mill 3G.
LTE is the real breakaway point where the underlying technologies fundamentally change. Unfortunately, cellular carriers were too impatient for some new catchphrase to fool customers into thinking there was something new on offer, so they decided they couldn't wait for LTE roll-out to begin in earnest before they started advertising so-called "4G" service. So they took a technology which was essentially already in place, gave it some new lipstick by applying the latest revision of the existing technology, and re-branded it.
So then the fault is AT&T's. Don't sell fraudulent "unlimited" plans and then whine when users actually use it. Especially when they are doing the things your ad claims they can do. Poor AT&T whatever will they do with themselves. As brought up before if they are so hard up for spectrum how were they able to give some away to TMobile? Why would they have even made that part of the deal if they didn't have it to spare?
Exactly! Everyone should know that a multi billion dollar companies like the telecoms do enormous planning around what they offer to their customers. When they offered unlimited data plans they KNEW what could happen with their network. Don't for a moment that they would offer that to customers with KNOWING what the consequences were to their network. They probably had the possibility of throttling in their plans the whole time. They offered unlimited data plans already knowing they would reduce throughput on high data users. It was probably part of the cost analysis and planning when they were thinking of offering unlimited data plans.
What do you think we're talking about? People's iPhones are being throttled on their PHONE'S data connection after they fall into the top 5% of data users. That means slowing down their 3G data connection's speed. Doesn't your phone use the 3G network?
That doesn't contradict what I said. ATT simply didn't cut speeds to below 3G speeds. The speeds that users were getting after being throttled are still considered 3G, and are above the speed of 2G technologies. This is not a confusing claim, I don't see why you're confused.
Actually I didn't sign anything. If I'm paying by the gig it will be for 4g/lte speeds. I'm not on an unlimited plan. I'm certainly willing to go to court as many times as I have to. Advertise 4g/lte and that's what I should get.
AT&T spends more money on advertising than other carriers when that money would've been better spent on getting their network up to snuff. Word of mouth is stronger than advertising.
If you didn't sign anything, then you don't have a valid contract & you can't hold AT&T to their end of the 'deal'. At some point, you agreed to a contract, whether by actually signing some piece of paper, or taking over someone else's contract or whatever. I don't necessarily think that throttling is bad, I do think that the way AT&T did it was the worst possible way & resulted in a lot of negative publicity for them. Part of me wonders if that was't intentional. The only people who get pissed & leave (for the most part) are those on unlimited plans, so for AT&T, it's probably exactly what they wanted. I still think it's crappy & they should have throttled at a minimum, no lower than 3 gigs per month, proabably higher.
For everyone ranting that AT&T owes them money, or they broke their contract, etc. They didn't. What they did was slimy, no argument, but it was not illegal according to the contracts they have in place. There's a big difference between unethical & illegal. For those that think they are going to get a huge payout from AT&T, keep dreaming. If you get anything at all, it will be a small amount (under $50 for sure) in either cash back or some kind of credit to buy accessories or something. The lawayers will get a huge payday for trying this & AT&T will settle, without admitting guilt, just to make this all go away.
The loss in court was a small claims court and AT&T didn't even send a corporate lawyer, they sent a sales manager. They won't make that mistake again.
I'm not an AT&T fan by any means, I use sprint becuase that's what works at my house/work, but when we say that AT&T is the devil, let's remember that AT&T was the only company willing to bring the iPhone to market. Apple tried to strike a deal with Verizon first & Verizon wouldn't do it. We do have AT&T to thank (partially) for bringing the iPhone to fruition.
If after the 5.1 update I am now considered 4G for whatever marketing purposes or whatever, shouldn't I now be allowed 5 GB before they cut me down? I'm not sure how they can get away by calling it 4G yet they are still throttling my account at 3 GB
?
Wait until next month and check on this. If you're being throttled at under 5GB, it's new lawsuit time, and you need to remain watchful for future information on that front.
Thanks for recounting your experience, but for normalcy's sake, you'll probably have to wait until you're on 4G for a full month before bringing this up with a court.
Some months I use next to nothing (near wifi a lot), some months I use 3-5 GB (rare, that high, but probably 3-4 months out of the year I use >2GB).
I'd be perfectly happy if they sold me data by the byte rather than by the month. Or, at the very least, gave me 'roll-over' bytes. I don't have a problem paying $30 for 3GB (or $20 for 2GB) every time I use that much data. In the long run, it would be cheaper than by the month for me. Just give me full speed for every byte I've purchased and don't limit how long I have to use those bytes. That's the fair way to do it.
As for them being able to void his contract. Yes they can. He's already admitted to violating the rules of his contract. It's as simple as that. He won his settlement. He needs to be happy with that. If he moves to Verizon & does the same; it's gonna happen to him again.
This struck me as a very reasonable price for the definition of "unlimited," and so I was inspired to purchase the definition of "two years" on eBay for $1.37. (Can you imagine? No one else bid.)
Once I'd closed the deal, I called AT&T and told them I was tearing up my contract because I'd rather suck the snot from a dead neocon's nose until his rotten head collapses than do business with them one more day. I was informed that as I'd signed a two-year contract 10 months ago, they'd be billing me for 14 months.
I chuckled politely and replied, "Au contraire, my quaint amigo. Since yesterday, when I completed my (if I do so say myself) brilliant eBay coup, the definition of 'two years' is '10 months,' and therefore my contract has expired."
I don't blame the indentured servant to whom I was speaking for his ignorance. After all, I purchased only the English definition of "two years," and that no doubt will take some while to percolate down to whichever benighted hellhole AT&T is this month externalizing its labor costs.
Yesterday I bought "'Til death do us part." Tonight I plan to open a bottle of Bolly and inform my husband that the new definition is "Until you weigh five pounds more than you did the day I married you." (What? Faithless? Don't be ridiculous? It's his birthday and I'm giving him a gym membership.)
God bless America, land of opportunity.
The exodus will be Sprint customers to any carrier with LTE. Oh wait, Sprint has unlimited plans that are horribly slow but data hogs LOVE!. So why haven't folks flocked to Sprint? Because they want speed. And with speed, there is a premium to pay, not matter what LTE carrier you choose. So enjoy life with Sprint!
No iPhone has LTE. Are iPhones "horribly slow"?
Why have people flocked to the iPhone? Certainly NOT "because they want speed".
Think of the implications of yor statements, and reexamine your premises please.
Do you think AT&T would allow me to only pay a portion of my payment because I got only a portion of this service? NO! They would cut my service off and charge me whopping $250 for violating my contract. AT&T is going to price themselves out of the market and their customers will leave them for another carrier.
If this issue can NOT affect you, your opinion is completely irrelevant!! I don't care if you don't like my opinion...I have a grandfathered plan with AT&T so my opinion DOES matter.