Funny that you mention this. I live in San Jose, CA but I came back to Colorado to go to school. While I was on Christmas break, I bought the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket in Walnut Creek, I had LTE signal. I was throttled within 10 days because of the LTE data usage. It was DISGUSTING how slow my connection was. Sad thing also, I was EXACTLY at 2GB when I got throttled. I let it go at first, saying next month will be better... I can survive... YEAH RIGHT... My phone was completely useless.. I couldn't watch YouTube, surf the net without getting bored watching the loading line move like a snail.. I called at&t about this. I'm a loytal customer for 10+ years! Their response.. "There is nothing we can do sir, you have passed the 2GB limit, and due to where you live, that is the 5% " bla bla bla. Are you serious? San Jose ( Silicon Valley) is the BIGGEST tech city, are you are telling me the top 5% don't go over 2GB?... I call horse ****.
I am now located in Fort Collins, Colorado - Right now I use this app to track my useage. As of right now I am at....18% of my "unlimited" data plan... 388MB of 2GB (assuming its 2GB when I get throttled). My plan starts over on the 16th of every month. I will update this when I get messages / warnings.
Also, Another thought. If this is true about usage... Then what is pushing us to use LESS data? WE don't get rewarded... If we use MORE data - they up the throttle point 2GB > 3GB > 4GB etc... But when we use LESS data it will go from 2GB < 1.5GB etc...
This whole thing doesn't make sense to me - but I'm not going to change how much I use my Skyrocket just because you warn me. I'm still going to load my videos when I am throttled - walk away and let it load. I'm not backing down.
telistar wrote:
Just wanted to provide an update to anyone that cares concerning the throttling on my phone. Last month I got throttled (reached the 5% mark) at 2GB but interestingly enough this month I have been throttled only after reaching 6GB. It appears that the explanation the few AT&T CSRs I spoke with last month is in fact true, the 5% mark will move up or down based on the overall usage of unlimited users based on region. In my case it appears that unlimited users in the SF Bay Area increased their data usage in December pushing the 5% mark up to 6GB (from the 2GB mark determined by Novembers usage). This can be good news and bad news depending on how you see it; If unlimited users start using less data then the 5% mark will start to decrease to the point where throttling may occur below 1GB usage but if they artificially push their usage (by downloading more than they would normally) then the 5% mark will increase... My speculation is that AT&T wanted to have users use less data each month to ensure they didnt get throttled half way through the month thereby making the unlimited users themselves decrease the top 5% mark down to nothing. What appears to have happened, at least in the SF Bay Area, is that users that got throttled at 2GB in December kept using more and more data to artificially push the top 5% higher so that in January throttling is actually occurring above 2GB (in this case at 6GB).
The main issue I see with AT&T's logic of having a moving top 5% target is that they are simply encouraging artificial data download increase thereby making their argument that they are throttling the top 5% to decrease congestion on their network null. AT&T needs to be upfront about their plans and if they included getting rid of the unlimited data plan for users that got grandfathered into it them then they should just come out and say it.
To those that are being throttled I say continue your data usage so that you can help increase the 5% mark AT&T uses each month... you may not get much out of talking with an AT&T 5% Specialist but your continued use will sway the throttling mark to more equal/higher levels. Good luck. For me, I'll be putting my money where my mouth is and paying the ETF to get out of my contracts this week as I have no interest in continuing to give my money to a company that has little interest in keeping a long time customer (although according to some of the AT&T supporters on this post you can also argue that AT&T has no interest in trying to keep me as a customer on an unlimited data plan since I use up too much data to make them a profit - So WIN/WIN I guess).
