Internet Usage cap

[KrisDe]

I am an ATT wireless customer. I purchased DirecTV now so I could watch tv anywhere without using any data. I am burning through my data. 4 gigs for just a couple hours of use!!!!

[Cellmaven]

@SGH_DTV - You are assuming the only use for home internet is video streaming, but if you throw in general web browsing, YouTube, downloading software/games, receiving pictures, emails, etc., 1TB isn't looking so big anymore if Directv Now is using 3GB per hour to stream.  

Then, throw in the rest of the family using the second Directv Now stream (doubling your usage to 6GBper hour), and it's something to be concerned about if you watch tv more than a few hours per day (easy to do in the evenings and even easier over the weekend) over a metered internet connection. 

[red4141]

 No, but watching TV isn't the only thing I do on the internet.  I work from home and transfer large files on a regular basis.  I'm not cancelling yet but I'll be keeping a close eye on my data. 

[SGH_DTV]

All depends on your situation. I use about 100GB/month normal use for 2 people, but don't plan on watching TV 10hrs per day. More like 5-6. I doubt I'll pass 700gb most months

[GrimmShot]

All,

I am sitting at 150GB since Friday ACK! Girls love the Hallmark channel lol...

[lizdance40]

I have a 1 terabyte limit with Cox.  I've been streaming Netflix, Hulu and Amazon for 2 years, my sons are heavy duty gamers, My oldest has an internet based video game business, we all have connected devices.  We stream a lot, and I usually use about half my allowance.  I don't see anyone using up a terabyte unless they run video 24/7.  

[jdthomps82]

My "Home Internet" is my ATT Unite Explore Hotspot...  Will it incur data useage?

[jdthomps82]

My "Home Internet" is supplied by my ATT Unite Explore mobile hotspot.... Will it incur data useage while streaming DTV Now through my Apple TV?

[alaskangreg]

I want to verify that my data usage with Directv Now will not count against the 50GB data plan that I have with my ATT wireless Home Phone/WIFI Box.

Thanks for confirming that it does not count.

Regards,

Greg

[Jmsmbry]

AttKevinCS
My recently used her iPhone's hotspot and watched DIRECTV now on our Apple TV. We incurred nearly 12gb of stay usage. It is suppose to be data free. I checked it earlier to see if a hotspot would incur data usage and it came back a sponsored data which was free. What gives now?

[TimTeriffic]

I have a 150 gig data cap where I live.   I only got Direct TV now because they said they would zero-rate the data.   I even asked this question to their chat room, and they assured me that if I used the app and mirrored or air-played to the apple TV from my phone.  Then the app would use the cellular data and therefore be zero-rated.   That is not the case.  The second I airplay to the apple TV ,  the app switches to my home internet, and starts to use the data there.  This switching  also causes a problem where , when watching a on-demand program,  they "insert"  different commercials.  This switching that I have referred to causes their "commercial inserter to loose it's place"  This will result in an "infinite loop"  of the same commercial break being played over and over.  until I manually intervene and take it out of airplay and let the commercials play out on the phone. This is a separate problem, but I just wanted to mention it. 

The point I want to make here is: If you are like me and wanted to Air-Play to the apple TV and still take advantage of the zero-rated data of the phone.  Then you are out of luck.  As I said before I asked this specific question to the Direct TV Chat staff.  And either they are not properly trained or they blatantly lied to me.  

This situation may not matter to most of you, who are lucky enough to have "unlimited data"  for their home internet service.  I am not that lucky however, and I thought that others may be in my boat and would like to know this.

I have tested this scenario many times.  And the direct TV now feed always stops when I pull my home internet chord out.   I have deleted my Apple TV 's Direct TV Now app  as part of the test.  

The only way to get the Apple TV to use the mobile phone's data is to  set up a personal hot spot and set the Apple TV's wifi to use the hot spot.  When I do this, the picture quality is very poor and I believe or suspect that the data is no longer "zero-rated" .  

I am very dis-appointed in this service, and the intentional misinformation from Direct TV staff.   

[kevkrom]

My recently used her iPhone's hotspot and watched DIRECTV now on our Apple TV. We incurred nearly 12gb of stay usage. It is suppose to be data free. I checked it earlier to see if a hotspot would incur data usage and it came back a sponsored data which was free. What gives now?

It's only free cellular usage from your phone using the phone's app. Using your phone to tether the ATV will incur normal data use charges.

[Jmsmbry]

What about using the iPhone hotspot to connect to iPad and using app on iPad

[Jegsus]

Using the phone as a hotspot to another phone or tablet using the DirecTV Now app will be "sponsored data." Using the phone as a hotspot to a TV based product will not and the data will count toward your cap.

[Gary L]

@TimTeriffic You could get a Lightning to HDMI adaptor and just plug the iPhone into the TV.

OR

Check this out, seems like the phone needs to be really close to the AppleTV for AirPlay but you don't need to be on the network http://www.appledystopia.com/how-to/apple-tv-4-peer-peer-airplay-without-wifi/
(there is a more followup in this thread https://forums.att.com/t5/General-Questions/Apple-TV/m-p/5013604#M2500 )
 

[TimTeriffic]

To: Gary Lapointe

I own a lightning to HDMI connector   and a 25 foot HDMI cable to make it back to my chair.

But I ask you.  Who wants to live that way?  Who wants to watch Television on their phone exclusively?  There should be no need for such nonsense.  ATT needs to get their act together.

They intentionally wrote their app to switch from the cellular data  from the phone to the internet data of your home network when Airplay is employed.

I do networking for a living, not that it should matter.  So believe me when I tell you, I have ran multiple tests over multiple scenarios.    I have even tried to do the peer to peer connection without using  Wi-Fi.  It tries to connect, but never does.   Has anyone actually gotten  peer to peer to work with the Direct TV now?  Because I think they disabled that function.

Mirroring only works over the cellular connection if you set your phone as a hot spot and then connect the Apple TV's Wifi to the hot spot.   Even then I am unsure if ATT is still zero-rating the data or if it is treating this scenario as if I was watching the Direct TV app that resides on the Apple TV.   The two scenarios are very different. 

I don't know if you have seen my other post where I provided a screenshot from the conversation I had with an ATT Rep.   They assured me that all of these scenario's we are discussing would be zero-rated.   But as it turns out, They were either mistaken, or they lied to me.