ATT hassling me - unlimited should be 5gb if not truly unlimited

[Jeff3F]

I have an unlimited data iPhone plan, and I usually use 1-2 gb Anita, mostly on Sirius radio app in the car.

I went above 3gb and got a threatening text from AT&T telling me I'd be throttled if it happens again...

I understand this is mulifactorial, but it's short sighted. 3gb used to be the top 1% or 5% (impossible to know without real data), but I'd guess this isn't the case because they sell larger (5gb) data plans. At the very least, an unlimited plan that is actually less than an existing tier plan is fraudulent seeming to me.

I've been very happy on AT&T since I spent a lot of money to get an iPhone when they first came out (including an ETF in the other carrier). I thought that this represented an unusually savvy move on att's part (working with apple) and I voted with my wallet.

But, in hassling me over a data overage (which to me is no overage at all, not when a 5gb tier exists), AT&T jeopardizes their future business with me. I'm looking at LTE iPad, I'm looking at a data plan for someone in my family...but this greedy insistence on harassing grandfathered data customers, perhaps hoping to get them to spend $30 more per month on a more lucrative plan, had turned me off. I will ride this unlimited plan until they throttle me (then I'll attempt to negotiate a settlement...no ETF for leaving), or until I find other carriers more tempting.

This is a shame, because I would ordinarily strongly prefer to stay with ATT's great network, but it may not work out. As it is, I will buy my iPad on a competing carrier, and if throttled I would be willing to pay a LOT more for iPhone service on a competing carrier, to vote with my wallet.

Anyone else in this boat? Anyone on an unlimited plan on LTE, and did you burn your unlimited more quickly?

[Jeff3F]

Sorry about typos, I posted from my AT&T mobile app

1-2 gb a month. Not Anita.

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

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Jeff3F wrote:
I have an unlimited data iPhone plan, and I usually use 1-2 gb Anita, mostly on Sirius radio app in the car.

I went above 3gb and got a threatening text from AT&T telling me I'd be throttled if it happens again...

I understand this is mulifactorial, but it's short sighted. 3gb used to be the top 1% or 5% (impossible to know without real data), but I'd guess this isn't the case because they sell larger (5gb) data plans. At the very least, an unlimited plan that is actually less than an existing tier plan is fraudulent seeming to me.

I've been very happy on AT&T since I spent a lot of money to get an iPhone when they first came out (including an ETF in the other carrier). I thought that this represented an unusually savvy move on att's part (working with apple) and I voted with my wallet.

But, in hassling me over a data overage (which to me is no overage at all, not when a 5gb tier exists), AT&T jeopardizes their future business with me. I'm looking at LTE iPad, I'm looking at a data plan for someone in my family...but this greedy insistence on harassing grandfathered data customers, perhaps hoping to get them to spend $30 more per month on a more lucrative plan, had turned me off. I will ride this unlimited plan until they throttle me (then I'll attempt to negotiate a settlement...no ETF for leaving), or until I find other carriers more tempting.

This is a shame, because I would ordinarily strongly prefer to stay with ATT's great network, but it may not work out. As it is, I will buy my iPad on a competing carrier, and if throttled I would be willing to pay a LOT more for iPhone service on a competing carrier, to vote with my wallet.

Anyone else in this boat? Anyone on an unlimited plan on LTE, and did you burn your unlimited more quickly?

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good luck, the 3GB throttle has been in affect for close to a year on the discontunued data plan, try all you want for a no-etf termination but you are not going to get it - the terms of service and fari use policy allow that you agreed to allow them to do this.

as far as going to another carrier - Sprint is the only company in the top 3 that still has unlimited - and your phone will not work on their network, if you etf out you can go through the process of unlocking your current phone and go to t-mobile, since a unlocked iphone will work there - to a point.

You don;t say which iphone you have but unles you are using a Iphone 5 you are not on the a LTE plan but a stock 3G plan, the Iphone 5 is the only one that is LTE capable, the 4 (I think) and 4s are HSPA+ which is not truely LTE. LTE capable phones on the grandfathered plan are thottled at 5GB

ATT is not "hassling" you, they are enforcing the terms of service and fair use policy that you agreed to - doing that does not qualify as "harrsement" or "hassling"

Your choices are stay, change to the 3GB plan which will also just cost you 30.,00 but you pay for any overages, etf ouf and get a new phone from sprint, or etf out and go through the process of unlocking your iphone and go to t-mobile

[Pcube]

Just leave AT&T. It's worth it to cancel and lose a few hundred bucks with the ETF -- or just don't pay it and tell your bank to reject withdrawals from AT&T. Verizon does not throttle your bandwidth and they will alert you when you're near your cap. Sprint is great in some areas & have unlimited (no throttling) so they're worth a check too. Nothing gets worse than AT&T.

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

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Pcube wrote:

Just leave AT&T. It's worth it to cancel and lose a few hundred bucks with the ETF -- or just don't pay it and tell your bank to reject withdrawals from AT&T. Verizon does not throttle your bandwidth and they will alert you when you're near your cap. Sprint is great in some areas & have unlimited (no throttling) so they're worth a check too. Nothing gets worse than AT&T.

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I would nopt suggest taking the avenue that is being recommended here in regards to the etf unless you realy do not care about your credit rating or having a debt collector calling you to obtain the money that is owed a company - it seems simple. straight forward and easy to say - but it will have untoward consequences in the finacial future - especially when trying to obtain large ticket item credit - like a home or a car, or minors ones like a credit card.

[sandblaster]

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Pcube wrote:

Verizon does not throttle your bandwidth and they will alert you when you're near your cap.

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Not true. Verizon does throttle unlimited data users but their throttling policy is different than AT&T's. See this article for more info: http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-57403166-266/did-you-know-verizon-also-throttles-unlimited-data-se...

[Jbrey411]

I agree this is absolutely ridiculous. I have been a faithful customer since the Cingular days.[Edited to comply with Guidelines]We need to all ban together. We need to have a day where everyone who has unlimited data watches YouTube all day to flood the network and maybe that will work. If you go onto YouTube and type in longest YouTube video and there is one that is 10 hours long. Let that at all day and night. I have used 10gb a month before and after 5GB they throttle my speeds to below 2G speeds. They need to also give us rollover data. If you pay for 3gb and don't use it all you should be able to keep the data you pay for instead of throttling are speeds because some months I use only 1GB a month.

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

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Jbrey411 wrote:

I agree this is absolutely ridiculous. I have been a faithful customer since the Cingular days.[Edited to comply with Guidelines]We need to all ban together. We need to have a day where everyone who has unlimited data watches YouTube all day to flood the network and maybe that will work. If you go onto YouTube and type in longest YouTube video and there is one that is 10 hours long. Let that at all day and night. I have used 10gb a month before and after 5GB they throttle my speeds to below 2G speeds. They need to also give us rollover data. If you pay for 3gb and don't use it all you should be able to keep the data you pay for instead of throttling are speeds because some months I use only 1GB a month.

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you have a simple way of avoiding the throttling - go to tiered or shared, then you take personal responsibility for your data usage and never have ot worry about you speed being reduced. If as you say you have months that you only use 1GB, so your cost should average out to the same as a throttled unlimited plan - you wil see the plan sunsetted before you see a increase int he throttle limit of 3GB for 3G and 5 GB for LTE

By the way snce you replied to a old thread - one thing has changed - verizon has sunsetted their grandfathered unlimited plan. You want a subsidized phone then switch to shared plan, you don;t mind paying full retail price for the phone you can keep the discontinued unlimited plan

[harryspar]

In ATT's new math, 3gb < unlimited < 5gb.

Also, everyone who has unlimited is in the top 5% of users. It's magic!

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

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harryspar wrote:
In ATT's new math, 3gb < unlimited < 5gb.

Also, everyone who has unlimited is in the top 5% of users. It's magic!

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they dropped the 5% thing over a year ago, they set hard limits to make aleviate the guesstimate of what the top 5% was, so this number means absolutle nothing on triggering the throttle.

3G = 3GB

LTE = 5GB

then throttle. It is actually Blue Smoke and Mirrors

[harryspar]

That was a welcome change. The main problem was calling it "unlimited", but as long as they are up front about it, that it isn't unlimited anymore, it's much better.

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

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harryspar wrote:
That was a welcome change. The main problem was calling it "unlimited", but as long as they are up front about it, that it isn't unlimited anymore, it's much better.

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"Unlimited Data" no where in the feature description nor the Fair Use Policy does it state "unlimited bandwidth" those terms are mutually exclusive, not inclusive. The policy deminishes the bandwitth available whne the caps are exceeded. The data transfer is still unlimited just not at the bandwitch usage that is felt to be deserved.

For anything else to be true, the cap of 3GB or 5GB would have to be set as a hard cap, exceeded it and data accesss is turned off until  the start of the next billing cycle, but this does not occur, data still is passed and processed. There is nothing wrong or misleading of calling it unlimited data, becasue it is.

[harryspar]

That argument has been worked to death, let's not go back there.

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

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harryspar wrote:
That argument has been worked to death, let's not go back there.

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A statement of fact is not an arguement, if you can disprove it please do - show me where it states that unlimited data = unlimited devliery speed and I will agree with you.  Accuracy in a binding agreement is the epitome of fact in agreements.

[sandblaster]

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wingrider01 wrote:

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harryspar wrote:
That argument has been worked to death, let's not go back there.

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A statement of fact is not an arguement, if you can disprove it please do - show me where it states that unlimited data = unlimited devliery speed and I will agree with you.  Accuracy in a binding agreement is the epitome of fact in agreements.

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Totally agree with Wingrider that unlimited data does not mean unlimited bandwidth. Take a look at T-mobile's new data plans that they say are all unlimited yet each has a cap. You get so many MB at 4g speeds until you hit your cap, then you are throttled down to 2g speeds. 

[harryspar]

The difference is that T-Mobile is being up front about it. That honesty makes a big difference.

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

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harryspar wrote:
The difference is that T-Mobile is being up front about it. That honesty makes a big difference.

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So is Att, Cricket, and other carriers, difference is t-mobile is using it as part of their advertising claim because they need all the help they can get to make this work for them. Not reviewing the terms if service or the fair use policy has nothing to do with the honesty of the company.

[harryspar]

By "up front" I mean when they first started marketing the "unlimited" plan. ATT called it unlimited and then started throttling later, whereas everyone else is telling you when you first sign up. Big difference.

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

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harryspar wrote:
By "up front" I mean when they first started marketing the "unlimited" plan. ATT called it unlimited and then started throttling later, whereas everyone else is telling you when you first sign up. Big difference.

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the unlimited plan for t-mobile is nothing new, that have had it for years -they just started using it in advertising as a marketing play when they got rid of subsidized phones, prior to that it was like every other carrier - in the tos and fup and not widely talked about, so absolutley no difference, they just decided to use it as a marketing ploy to bring people to their 5th level carrier service.

Just like their "no contract" ploy - you are still in a contract for 2 years if you decide to utilze the 0 interest financing of the phones - 99.00 down and 20.00 dollars a month for well qualified buyers - you fall behind on your phone payment withinthe 2 year agreement, your service is suspended

T-mobile is no different then any othe carrier, they are just tring to market themselves as advant-garde and carrier friendly -

[harryspar]

With T-Mo once the phone is paid for your costs go down whereas on ATT it's the gift that keeps on taking. It's totally different.

[sandblaster]

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harryspar wrote:

With T-Mo once the phone is paid for your costs go down whereas on ATT it's the gift that keeps on taking. It's totally different.

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Their new service plans may be cheaper than AT&T or Verizon's but totally different they are not and there is a reason for offering those cheaper plans. Simply stated, T Mobile is not making a profit and desperately needs new customers. Ultimately, whether those new customers stay or not will depend on their network. 

The cost of building out and operating a nationwide 4G/LTE network is staggering. Whether T Mobile can continue to build out their network while losing money remains to be seen. 

[harryspar]

Indeed. Time will tell.

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

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harryspar wrote:

With T-Mo once the phone is paid for your costs go down whereas on ATT it's the gift that keeps on taking. It's totally different.

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2 year contract commitment for cellular service

or

2 year financial loan commitment for the phone

what exactly is the difference? You are commited for 2 years either way, you pay a few dollars less for the cellular service but you add 20.00 a month for payment on the phone, default on either commitment to either carrier and your service is disconnected and after a period of time goes to a collection aggency. 

How many people do you  know that actually keeps a phone for mre then two years? In the majority of the circumstances if a new model of their phone comes out in 14 months, most people will be screamin about not being able to get a early upgrade to the latest and greatest phone,

Comes doens to a couple of words - Blue Smoke and Mirrors or in thie case Pink Smoke and Mirrors the only winner is t-mobile, they don;t have to foot the bill for subsidizing a phone, they charge end user the majority of the cost of the phone and nothing out of pocket to the manufacturer.

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

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sandblaster wrote:

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harryspar wrote:

With T-Mo once the phone is paid for your costs go down whereas on ATT it's the gift that keeps on taking. It's totally different.

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Their new service plans may be cheaper than AT&T or Verizon's but totally different they are not and there is a reason for offering those cheaper plans. Simply stated, T Mobile is not making a profit and desperately needs new customers. Ultimately, whether those new customers stay or not will depend on their network. 

The cost of building out and operating a nationwide 4G/LTE network is staggering. Whether T Mobile can continue to build out their network while losing money remains to be seen. 

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DT does not split the US based T-mobile financials out of the european quarterly results - at least not for public consumption, suspect that momma DT will have to drop a pretty good chunk of change in the infrastructre in the US, but one wonders if it is a viable market, considering there are only about 33.4 million subscribers to T-Mobile in the US. The combined US and Canada markets only account about 14% of DT's overall market. Makes if knod of difficult to convince the majority of stock holders that investing millions upon millions of dollars in expanding the US technolgy and being a good marketing idea and a justifiable ROI for the money

[harryspar]

No, that is not true. You are not committed to 2 years on T-Mo's plans or any fixed length of time. Your only commitment is to pay of your device in full if you bought it from them.

Quote:

If a customer chooses to terminate their service prior to when the device has been paid off through EIP, they will be billed for the outstanding balance of the device at the time of the mobile service cancellation.  Customers are free to pay their device off at any time.

The device and service cost and contracts are totally separate.

[sandblaster]

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harryspar wrote:

No, that is not true. You are not committed to 2 years on T-Mo's plans or any fixed length of time. Your only commitment is to pay of your device in full if you bought it from them.

Quote:

If a customer chooses to terminate their service prior to when the device has been paid off through EIP, they will be billed for the outstanding balance of the device at the time of the mobile service cancellation.  Customers are free to pay their device off at any time.

The device and service cost and contracts are totally separate.

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So, how is that different from paying an ETF? It's not. It is just another way of locking in a customer for 2 years without calling it a contract. 

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

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sandblaster wrote:

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harryspar wrote:

No, that is not true. You are not committed to 2 years on T-Mo's plans or any fixed length of time. Your only commitment is to pay of your device in full if you bought it from them.

Quote:

If a customer chooses to terminate their service prior to when the device has been paid off through EIP, they will be billed for the outstanding balance of the device at the time of the mobile service cancellation.  Customers are free to pay their device off at any time.

The device and service cost and contracts are totally separate.

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So, how is that different from paying an ETF? It's not. It is just another way of locking in a customer for 2 years without calling it a contract. 

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add to thr fact if goes deliquent on the finance agreement it is a ding on the credit score, not to mention a hard credit inquiry to the reporting organization. Your credit score is playing a lot larger part in if you get the device and service or not. from their website - note the statement - "on approved Credit for well quailified buyers"

You are entering into a 2 year finance contract for the phone. Like any finance contract it can be payed off aheard of time, like any failure to pay on a finance contract it is reported to the 3 organizations that keep track of it. The device and service contracts are not completly seperate you go deliquent on them, both are cut off. Brings to mind the next reality show - Cell repossession on TV.

the credit check for t-mobile just changed from a soft ping to a hard ping

[harryspar]

I'll explain again.

On T-Mo:

1) You are not commited to stay for 2 years. you can BYOD and walk whenever you want.

2) Or you can buy a device from them and STILL walk whenever you want, you just have to finish paying for the device if you didn't cover it yet. There no time contract just an obligation to pay for what you took. (You get to unlock it once it's paid for.)

3) Once the device is paid for your monthly charge goes down.

Compare to ATT:

1) You can BYOD and still pay the same higher price as those who are covering a subsidized device.

2) You can get a device from ATT at a subsidized price. Same monthly price forever.

3) In either case, your monthly bill never goes down, even if you paid for the device many times over.

If it still seems like the same thing to you, OK then.

[sandblaster]

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harryspar wrote:

I'll explain again.

On T-Mo:

1) You are not commited to stay for 2 years. you can BYOD and walk whenever you want.

2) Or you can buy a device from them and STILL walk whenever you want, you just have to finish paying for the device if you didn't cover it yet. There no time contract just an obligation to pay for what you took. (You get to unlock it once it's paid for.)

3) Once the device is paid for your monthly charge goes down.

Compare to ATT:

1) You can BYOD and still pay the same higher price as those who are covering a subsidized device.

2) You can get a device from ATT at a subsidized price. Same monthly price forever.

3) In either case, your monthly bill never goes down, even if you paid for the device many times over.

If it still seems like the same thing to you, OK then.

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So what that all really boils down to is their new service plans are priced lower than AT&T or Verizon. See my original post. If they are successful in drawing new customers and keeping them (T Mobile historically has one of the worst churn rates) and make a profit, one of two things will happen. Either the competitors will lower their rates or T Mobile will raise theirs. But that all hinges on drawing and keeping customers which once again ultimately depends on their network. It doesn't matter how inexpensive their plans are if they can't deliver the network service users expect. 

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

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harryspar wrote:

I'll explain again.

On T-Mo:

1) You are not commited to stay for 2 years. you can BYOD and walk whenever you want.

2) Or you can buy a device from them and STILL walk whenever you want, you just have to finish paying for the device if you didn't cover it yet. There no time contract just an obligation to pay for what you took. (You get to unlock it once it's paid for.)

3) Once the device is paid for your monthly charge goes down.

Compare to ATT:

1) You can BYOD and still pay the same higher price as those who are covering a subsidized device.

2) You can get a device from ATT at a subsidized price. Same monthly price forever.

3) In either case, your monthly bill never goes down, even if you paid for the device many times over.

If it still seems like the same thing to you, OK then.

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On t-Mob

1. same with att, if you byod or pay outright, no contract, pricing not that much different.

2.  the point you miss ATT 2 Yr subsidized contract, T-Mobile 2 year commited finance contract = no difference, as far as unlock goes, same thing att will unlock the majority of phones asfter the 2 year commitment is up, but all carriers have certain phones that they will not unlock no matter what. Plus if oyu have less then perfect credit or no credit at all then you are not going to get the phone financed

3. true but by the end of financing the 2 year old phone, you want another new and more nifty one, have not seen any smartphone user that is willing to use the same phone for more then 2 years

On ATT

1. true, but all you save is the finance charge

2. so what? forever is not a factor in this, base it on a 2 year loss time period, home many times have you upgraded over the year - willing to bet you have not kept the same phone forever.

3. People normally upgrade as soon as they can when a new toy comes available - you really think that t-mobile will allow this without paying off the balance due on the previous phone? Doubt they want it back at all