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J_pittman51's profile

Tutor

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7 Messages

Wednesday, March 29th, 2017 3:55 AM

Unlimited Plus: Deprioritization or Throttling?

I currently have the old mobile share plan. If I hit my shared limit I pay the overage and get another GB of high speed data.

I've been looking at the new "unlimited plus" plan as its called. I see it has a 22GB cap and then something happens. I call it something because the website says one thing and I've talked to 3 service reps who say the opposite.

The website says once you hit the cap if you are on a heavy congested tower you may experience a slow down (I'm paraphrasing slightly) for an undefined period of time then you will return to normal. That's fine that's deprioritization. The service reps say once you hit 22GB you will be throttled to 128kbs for the remainder of the billing cycle.

Well these are two VERY different things. I can handle being slowed down then returning to normal speed. I can't handle being slowed down for my billing cycle.

Has anyone gotten this plan and experienced what happens or can anyone tell me what they've heard?

Accepted Solution

Official Solution

Professor

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1.1K Messages

7 years ago

Hi @J_pittman51,

 

As @LucasAshton mentioned, you are de-prioritized, not throttled. Tethering is throttled to 128kbps after 10gb of hotspot usage, but your on-device data will not be throttled.

 

After you reach 22gb of usage in one billing cycle, if you're in a congested and using a tower under heavy load, people who are not being de-prioritized take priority. This usually results in things taking a little longer to load. However, if the tower is congested enough for you to be de-prioritized, there's a pretty good chance even those who aren't de-prioritized are experiencing slow downs.

 

Personally I've had the plan since the day it came out and it's been great. Plus if you have DIRECTV, U-verse, or DIRECTV Now you may qualify for a $25/month discount on one of your video service's bills.

 

Just remember, FAN discounts do not apply to this plan (except for military). If your FAN qualifies you for waived activation or upgrade fees, those will still be waived though. Your accessory discount will still apply if you have one as well.

 

Also, the auto pay discount requires paying with a debit card or bank account, and takes 1-2 bill cycles to apply.

 

To sum it up:

  • After 22gb, your data is at a lower priority than those around you when on a congested tower
  • After 10gb of hotspot usage, it will be capped at 128kbps, but device data is unaffected
  • Only military discounts apply
  • FANs that waive activation/upgrade fees or provide accessory discounts will continue to have those benefits
  • Auto pay discount ($5 for single line, $10 for multi-line) requires debit card or bank account payment and starts within 2 months
  • Stream Saver will be enabled by default, but you can turn it off at no cost using myAT&T

Hope this clears everything up about the Unlimited Plus plan 🙂

Tutor

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7 Messages

7 years ago

Thank you. I hope that's right. 3 employees have already said opposite lol.

ACE - Sage

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116.6K Messages

7 years ago

I'm shocked you had anyone tell you it's throttled.  Where is quality control?  

Tutor

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7 Messages

7 years ago

I agree. I asked 3 different people. Two over chat and one live on the phone. I just knew the one on the phone would clear it up. I was wrong however. All 3 were certain it would be throttled to 128kbs and remain there the rest of my billing cycle. Now I don't think I would hit the cap but if I do I just want to understand what I'm getting.

I basically have pay for what you want unlimited data now haha. Yea it's $15 per GB but it's still high speed for each gig.

ACE - Expert

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64.7K Messages

7 years ago

The other mobile share plan called Mobile Share Advantage does throttle to 128kbs when all high speed data is used. Though you can't select those plans from the website, my understanding is they are still available. Maybe the reps you talked to were talking about those plans.

ACE - Sage

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116.6K Messages

7 years ago

@J_pittman51  When did you do chat?  When did you call?  (Time of day). I'm wondering if you got a US or foreign call center/chat.   The Mobile Share Advantage plan shouldn't be available unless contacting retention department.   

Tutor

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7 Messages

7 years ago

Last week Tuesday
Chat around 8am
Chat again around 11am

Called Wednesday around 10am

Professor

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1.1K Messages

7 years ago

@sandblaster Yes, MSA is still available for current customers through all normal methods and for new customers via telesales and in-store (and third parties). I don't know why they took it away from the website for new customers.

 

@lizdance40 Somehow I don't think you're really that shocked care gave out misinfo 😛

 

@J_pittman51 I hope we at least clarified the plan and provided you with insight as to how it really works. Even though this forum is mainly customers (and some awesome employees), it's full of correct info that can be almost impossible to find elsewhere.

ACE - Sage

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116.6K Messages

7 years ago

@jt212s  I should say dismay.  Not so much shocked.  

Make me a secret shopper.... 

Twice in the past year I have been asked if I wanted to switch plans.  No basis for the question, just the weight of sales quotas hanging over their heads.  It does turn me off.  It's not $1 French fries they are suggestive selling. It's several hundred dollars in service or products.  

How do they not have a cheat sheet for plans?   🤔🤔🤔

 

 

Professor

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1.1K Messages

7 years ago

@lizdance40 the sad thing is they do. internal documentation is actually really good and really informative for the most part (at least it was during my employment). you just had to actually look at it. we even had decision flows for a lot of situations. like if a customer calls in and says they want to return a phone they bought, there's a flow for that, you click the answer that applies and it asks you the next question until you get to the resolution such as you process the return, send them to point of purchase, etc. we had those for almost everything. and we absolutely had documents that detailed plans and how they worked.

 

in fact, if i ever got qa'd on a call and i didn't use our internal documentation for something i knew, i would get in trouble. not because i was wrong, but because it could have changed since the last time i looked at it. even if that was on my previous call.

 

i don't know about other centers, but i know in my center, the misinfo and stuff that happens gets taken care of pretty fast. you either did your job properly or you didn't last. it was never a mean thing, it was just a "hey you have every answer you need in front of you, use your tools" kinda thing.

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