Why do I pay for unlimited data if AT&T is going to limit my data usage anyway?

[Melynne1]

I've had an Unlimited data plan ever since I got my FIRST smartphone when they released the first iPhone. Recently, I discovered some new fancy features of my phone and I used much more data than I typically do. Since my data plan says Unlimited, I wasn't worried. However, yesterday I got a text saying that I had used almost 5GB of data in my billing cycle and that if I went over 5GB, my speeds would be limited from THAT POINT FORWARD. How is that fair or legal?? If I purchased an unlimited plan, I should have unlimited access. It wouldn't be such a big deal except that I often stream music from my Google account while I'm working which to me, is rather important to have! So why do I even pay for unlimited data? Maybe I should look into other carriers?

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

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Melynne1 wrote:
I've had an Unlimited data plan ever since I got my FIRST smartphone when they released the first iPhone. Recently, I discovered some new fancy features of my phone and I used much more data than I typically do. Since my data plan says Unlimited, I wasn't worried. However, yesterday I got a text saying that I had used almost 5GB of data in my billing cycle and that if I went over 5GB, my speeds would be limited from THAT POINT FORWARD. How is that fair or legal?? If I purchased an unlimited plan, I should have unlimited access. It wouldn't be such a big deal except that I often stream music from my Google account while I'm working which to me, is rather important to have! So why do I even pay for unlimited data? Maybe I should look into other carriers?

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As stated in all the other threads - you are getting unlimited data just no where where you promised unlimited speed. As far as unlimited data at other carriers, head to sprint or t-mobile, verizon doesn;t offer it and even the lowly cricket have usage caps on their "unlimited" plans that they throttle at.

Once your billing cycle resets you will be back at normal speeds untily ou exceed the 5GB limit again, then you will be throttled for the rest of the billing cycle. As far as legal - read your fair use policy and terms of service that you agreed to

[Neo-verse]

At least you have 5GB before starting the trottle, for the old smartphone unlimited plan (3G plans like mine) the limit is only 3GB, after that the speed goes to 0.20Mbps ... awful! Nowdays any app can eat a lot of MB, thats nothing for stream videos. After your speed have been trottled don't think about videos or apps that demand a large amount of data. We hope that AT&T can solve that in the near future.

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

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Neo-verse wrote:

At least you have 5GB before starting the trottle, for the old smartphone unlimited plan (3G plans like mine) the limit is only 3GB, after that the speed goes to 0.20Mbps ... awful! Nowdays any app can eat a lot of MB, thats nothing for stream videos. After your speed have been trottled don't think about videos or apps that demand a large amount of data. We hope that AT&T can solve that in the near future.

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Solve what problem exactly

As far as "Nowadays any app can eat a lot of MB" depends on what you use your phone for. Pandora, facebook, icloud, youtube, hulu you are right, but I have a pc with a 100MB internet connection and a pair of 26 in monitors for that tripe, sirius satlillite radio in the car for music.  Rarely utilize a lot of data on my smartphone - and I get 200 - 300 emails a day from my exchange server with attachments.

Last reset 10/3/2012 @ 6am in the morning

Iphone 3GS ios 6

Sent 2.0MB

recieved 10.2MB

Iphone 4S

sent 15.4MB

recieved 59.7MB

Just in how you use the phone, it is easy to stay within limits and long as you know what is running when you are outside of wireless - icloud back up is a data hog and will spike your cell usage through the roof since the wifi radio turns off when the iphone is in hibernation and not charging - like on your nightstand are in your pocket during the day

[Jamus75]

Hello,

 It's still wrong what att did to its customers. Plain and simple. Offered unlimited for years then one day the greedy corporate guys said that 30$ wasn't a fair price for unlimited and wanted more money. So they executed the fine print that was never enforced and found a way to make more money in a thriving market. Corporate greed is all it is. Nothing about the infrastructure. I can still use 20 gig/ month, they just want u to pay more. Alot more. I agree data is gold but they should of have grandfathered unlimited users a better option. I would of gladly paid $50 /month for it.

{keep it courteous}

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

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Jamus75 wrote:

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try reading your contrac, terms of service, fair use policy then you will understand upset one - which you signed by the way, or at least the person responsbile for your account signed

[harryspar]

5 gig is a lot, btw. You might be able to use data all you want without going over by disabling apps from slurping data behind the scenes. That might be costing you a lot of data without being particularl useful. The method depends on the OS but there are how-tos elsewhere on the forums.

[Preciousdiamond]

Try using my data manager. It is a free app. I'm not sure about iphones but Andriod version breaks down which apps use the most data. I stream music alot and dont use up my 3gb plan. Pandora You Tube iHeart Radio. Like I have said before It is CELLULAR data. It has to be managed for the millions of users. If you want to go tthe unlimited some other companies offer good luck. They will flat out cancel you for excessive "unlimited" usage

[sandblaster]

I doubt anyone being throttled will belive this but the throttling policy is not because of corporate greed, it is about ensuring the network is available for everyone. The network is a shared resource that everyone uses and even though AT&T is investing billions of dollars to make the network pipes bigger, there is still only so many bits that can be pushed over that pipe at any one time. It is kind of like going to the all u can eat seafood buffet and being behind the guy who takes all the crab legs, you have to stand there and wait for more crab legs. It's the same thing when you want to connect to the network but it is congested, you have to wait for more bandwidth. But unlike crab legs, they can't just bring out more bandwidth, you have to wait for bandwidth to free up. Throttling is a means to take some of that bandwidth from the heavy users. 

Personally, I'm glad they do that. I would hate to be denied access to the network because a few bandwidth hogs were constantly using it all up. I don't understand how anyone manages to use that much data, they must be streaming video all day everyday. The most I've ever managed to use in a month is 1Gb and that included quite a bit of video streaming.