
AT&T's new data plans: $25/2GB cap, tethering +$20 - dhess
http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=4800&cdvn=news&newsarticleid=30854
======
mortenjorck
Ok, this is just stupid. Not the caps, the fact that _paying for tethering
doesn't increase your cap_.

I thought the whole (customer-facing, anyway) point of charging for tethering
was the greater bandwidth that the network expects to bear with a desktop-
class device. Yet nearly doubling your data charges doesn't actually get you
any more data, merely AT&T's blessing of how you use your allotted data.

~~~
Zak
AT&T is still trying to pretend it isn't just a dumb pipe for your data. I
expect this to change eventually, but it might take a while since barriers to
entry in to the mobile ISP market are pretty high.

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dhess
Includes iPad ($30/unlimited option is no longer available to iPad customers
after June 7). Current $30/unlimited customers are grandfathered in, for now,
at least.

Where to begin? Canceling the $30/unlimited option barely a month after the
iPad 3G shipped is deceptive, at best. Adding a 2GB cap to the top-tier
iPhone/iPad data plan while only dropping the price by $5 doesn't seem like a
good deal to me. I accept the need for caps, but I'd rather pay the extra $5
and get 5GB a la Verizon. The $15/200MB plan is comparable to what I paid
Telstra in Australia, which I thought was a horrible deal, but at least it was
contract-free!

If they'd accompanied these new data plans with similar price and usage
reductions on the voice side, I'd be less upset, maybe even pleased. But given
that the voice plans for the iPhone are still Cadillac- and Escalade-sized,
when I only want a Vespa, AT&T is clearly out of step with my needs. FOAD.

~~~
gte910h
Holy crap, that's bullshit, after the iPad was sold with this Unique data plan
as a HUGE selling point.

~~~
josefresco
How do you think I feel? I ordered the 'small' iPad days ago expecting to pay
the $30/month and utilize the cloud for data storing and now since it hasn't
arrive yet I'll be screwed into paying slightly less for a lot less data and
there goes my plan to store my media online. Awesome, fuck you AT&T.

~~~
ensignavenger
Decline delivery.

------
dogas
Well that's fucked. Talk about a bait and switch for iPad 3G users. 2Gb is a
joke.

What's also interesting is it's starting June 7, the same day as WWDC. I guess
that means the next iphone is dropping that day. I can't see how the new
iphone will be on multiple carriers, because I think any other carrier would
win by offering an unlimited (or at least more attractive) data plan. ATT (for
now) knows that their network sucks and they have the upper hand, which is why
they are able to get away with offering such shitty plans.

------
mawhidby
Looking at the data usage trends on my AT&T online account, it seems like the
most bandwidth I've used in a month is a little over 300MB. Granted, I don't
have an iPhone (and I would probably consume more bandwidth if I had an iPhone
or Android phone), but it seems like the 2GB is fairly reasonable.

Could anyone with an iPhone share their data usage statistics? I'm curious to
see your usage.

~~~
MrFoof
Since acquiring my 3GS I've sent 345MB and received 2.7GB of data over the 3G
network. That works out to around 280MB/month, considering I've had the phone
for a bit over 11 months.

~~~
PStamatiou
I'm at 1.1GB sent, 5.6GB received since I got it around the same time. I
attribute much of this to emailing photos to my flickr and tumblr accounts, as
well as attaching images to tweets with twitpic

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rpledge
This seems like an obvious sign to me that iPhone 4 will not be AT&T
exclusive. The June 7th timing makes it pretty obvious that AT&T is trying to
pull in as many subscribers as possible before the news breaks.

~~~
icey
Either that or the next generation of the phone will come with functionality
that will be very data intensive. I don't know that they're going to woo too
many people with the threat of a rate increase.

~~~
ekanes
> functionality that will be very data intensive

I believe it's going to have a front-facing camera, which would open the path
to 2-way video calls.

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jim_dot
Never thought I'd say it, but I'm gonna miss Rogers when I go to the states -
$30 for 6 GB + free tethering.

~~~
mrtron
I am on Rogers, but right now I am on a Taiwan service that offers 30$/month
for 3g and basic cell service. Free tethering and truly unlimited service. I
am probably averaging a gig per day of usage and get about 100kb/sec. Skype
works extremely smoothly.

~~~
rmundo
Yes, but Taiwan is an island only somewhat larger than the state of Maryland,
so telecoms have less area to cover compared to telecoms in the US.

And yes, tethering has been here since 3.0, and unlimited, but remember that
the average Taiwanese salary is about 1/3 of what an American might make.
Would you consider a 90$ unlimited and tethered AT&T monthly plan to be a good
deal?

Still, not properly handling the two major cities where the phones are used
the most is ridiculous.

~~~
steveklabnik
> Yes, but Taiwan is an island only somewhat larger than the state of
> Maryland, so telecoms have less area to cover compared to telecoms in the
> US.

Yet, even in areas that are just as dense, we still can't get good cell
coverage (SF) or fast Internet.

~~~
mrtron
Density seems to be a challenge, not a solution, for AT&T in those prime
markets.

I can't imagine providing 3G coverage in Taipei or Kaohsiung is any different
than providing it in NYC or SF. Lots of heavy users here too.

Sure it is much harder to provide 3G across Canada - but the providers don't
have coverage in most of Canada. Even semi-rural areas in Southern Ontario an
hour from Toronto have little service.

------
risotto
I'm all for cheaper plans and paying for what I use. But I still can't make a
damn phone call on AT&T in SF. Dropping a call after getting through to my
sister in the hospital or while phone sexing a lady friend brings about a rage
inside me that I never knew existed.

My iPhone 3G contract is up any day now and theres no way I'll get another
iPhone on AT&T without testing an android phone on another carrier.

~~~
ekanes
>> my sister in the hospital or while phone sexing a lady friend

Thank goodness for caller ID. ;)

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elblanco
It's okay, after Android 2.2 gets pushed out, you can just use it as a wi-fi
hotspot for your iPads.

~~~
OmarIsmail
You can already do this now with a jailbroken iPhone and it's amazing. And
jailbreaking an iphone now is probably the simplest hack a person can do.
Seriously, now that I've gone jailbroken and have MyWi and the other app that
fools apps into thinking they're on WiFi instead of 3G.

jailbroken iPhone + iPad = amazing

~~~
elblanco
Now if only it was part of the stock device and didn't require jailbreaking.

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rscott
So I'm grandfathered in. What happens when I upgrade to the next iPhone? 2GB
is a damn joke. I hate that tethering is a hardware capability that I rent
from them - not willing to do that.

~~~
elechi
They said you can go to a new smart phone and keep the old data plan. If you
change the data plan to a newer data plan, you can't go back to unlimited.

------
sausagefeet
Not quite sure how this affects AT&T people. My services sucks so much I could
probably not even do 2GB/mo.

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zaidf
While the 2gb might be ok for vast majority of the people, I am against this
kind of plans on principle. Let's not forget this is AT&T and if they can
introduce a transfer limitation, they can also modify the limitation at any
time.

~~~
briansmith
Which principle?

~~~
steveklabnik
The principle that there's a psychological difference between 'free' and 'not
free.'

Under an unlimited plan, bandwidth feels like it's free, because there's no
cap. With caps, I'll _constantly_ worry about how much data I'm using.

Now I feel glad I went with Android... new OS update just straight up gives me
tethering, and T-Mobile's still got unlimited data plans.

~~~
briansmith
The previous plans were not unlimited--they were capped at 5GB, IIRC.

AT&T said that 98% of its customers will save money by switching to these
plans. And, AT&T doesn't have the capacity to handle many people who would
exceed these limits. AT&T will now send alerts directly to your phone when you
get close to reaching the caps. I think this is a much better solution to the
"worrying" problem than forcing everybody to over-pay for under-provisioned
service.

~~~
steveklabnik
> AT&T said that 98% of its customers will save money by switching to these
> plans.

When trying to overcome debt, many financial advisors recommend paying off the
smallest debt first, even if it has relatively lower interest than other
debts. This is because the psychological win of paying off an entire debt
quickly has a much bigger impact upon the ability of people to stick with
their payments, rather than the mathematically better path of paying down a
higher-interest debt first.

So yes, people may be saving money. But that doesn't mean that it's
necessarily better. I'd rather pay an extra $5/mo or whatever for the peace of
mind.

> And, AT&T doesn't have the capacity to handle many people who would exceed
> these limits.

As a consumer, I don't care what AT&T has the capacity to do. They're supposed
to figure out how to serve me and give me what I want. It's obviously
possible, as they were doing it before, and other companies still have
unlimited bandwidth plans. Innovate or die. But I guess I'm expecting too much
out of the telecom industry...

~~~
jrockway
But of course, 98% of AT&T's customers barely know what the Internets are.
It's the 2% that do that will be punished.

Fortunately, these people also know that AT&T has competitors.

------
turtle4
So, I have a question. I thought that during the iPad release, Jobs said that
the iPad was going to be an unlocked device, so it could be used on any
network where you could get a mini-sim for it. Why haven't we seen this
happen? If the device is unlocked, no Apple/ATT contract can prevent another
provider from stepping up right? So why haven't they?

~~~
snsr
You can chop a T-mobile sim in half and use it with the iPad, though you'll be
limited to EDGE 2g speeds.

edit- I believe T-mobile may also sell micro-sim cards. Shouldn't be
necessary, though, as you can also get a micro-to-regular sized SIM adapter
for your modified micro.

This is a great reason to sign up for the unlimited iPad plan now, and hold on
to it; the micro-sim works in any device with the help of an adapter.

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seehafer
I wonder how long it will take for the rates reflected on Apple's site
([http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_ipad/family/ipad?...](http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_ipad/family/ipad?mco=OTY2ODA0NQ))
to change.

~~~
symesc
And I wonder how long it will be before AT&T gets their ass handed to them by
Steve Jobs.

Next week is the new iPhone. I think this unilateral pricing change indicates
a new USmcarrier is coming on board.

I am in Canada on Fido. The competition between carriers is a good thing up
here. I pay $30 for 6GB data plan.

------
FluidDjango
I'm on the sidelines, not yet being ATT customer, but have * existing
customers* received notification?

The "news" on ATT is TLDR, to figure out all parameters, but note that the
Apple store (<http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_ipad/family/ipad>)
still shows old rates. Wonder what happens if I buy iPad from Apple when site
gives old rate... what leverage would I have against rate increases. Anyone
yet read details on the plan they signed up for - regarding changes?

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adolph
I, for one, welcome the new cheaper data plans as I'm near wifi enough to not
hit 3g so much.

I also wish all those upset about this class action status so I will get a
$2.50 coupon...

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protomyth
anyone know how much bandwidth is consumed by a movie (2hr) on NetFlix?

~~~
matty
4GB is a safe bet for best quality stream, but it depends on the encode. For
iPad its scaled down. Assuming top encode rate is 1Mbps. 1Mbps * 7200 seconds
= 7200 Mbit / 8 = 900 Mbytes

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solahere
just 2GB was my first thought..then I checked my usage. reality check.

~~~
cmelbye
Yeah, I've used like 3GB since mid-January, and I regularly tether using one
of the hacks to enable it.

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jrockway
So $45 for tethering and 2G? That sucks. I pay $60 for Sprint's 3G/4G plan. 5
gigs a month on 3G and unlimited on 4G, and the 4G speed tends to be around
3-5Mbps. (That means, I get 1.5Tb per month for $60. Not that I use it that
much.)

AT&T is really not competitive here. What is their value add? Why would you do
business with them?

~~~
pavel_lishin
> What is their value add? Why would you do business with them?

"Look, we have iPhones!"

~~~
potatolicious
Ugh. I use an iPhone, but it's not _so_ superior to the competition that I'm
willing to put up with this shit. I'm seriously considering moving to Android
(or in my wild dreams, iPhone on another carrier) after my contract is up.

~~~
jrockway
Why not pay the $175 to be free of the oppression forever? If you switch from
AT&T 3G + tethering and use 5G a month, that will be $75 a month. Sprint will
be $60. If you have more than 12 months left, the ETF pays for itself. And
even if not, at least you don't have to deal with AT&T anymore.

(Although, in my experience, all phone companies are a pain to deal with.
Luckily, I don't have problems very often.)

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tibbon
Why did tethering take a year to deliver on, whereas other carrier around the
world were able to do it much quicker?

Also, I'm not quite sure I understand why it requires the 4.0 OS. I was under
the impression that tethering is present in the 3.x OS as well. They could
push a really minor update to change and enable this.

~~~
sirn
Some sort of AT&T's policy. To enable tethering, it used to be a single
MobilConfig installation until Apple required them to be signed on 3.1.2,
presumably to enforce AT&T's policy, which also result in tethering being
unusable outside any "Apple-certified carriers" even in the unlocked
countries.

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b3b0p
You would think as time goes on and technology improves the cost and bandwidth
price/performance would go down.

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pkulak
This seems to me like a confirmation that video chatting will be a big part of
the new iPhone.

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tjmaxal
While we are complaining about AT&T, has anyone else noticed that if you use
an unlimited plan, AT&T refuses to let you track usage?

So even if you wanted to switch to a lower plan you can't b/c you have no idea
how much voice/data/texts you are using.

~~~
parrots
Actually I had no problem going in to see how much data I was using. Macrumors
has a post on it if you're having trouble:
[http://www.macrumors.com/2010/06/02/checking-atandt-
iphone-d...](http://www.macrumors.com/2010/06/02/checking-atandt-iphone-data-
usage-history/)

~~~
azim
Thanks for the tip. I asked a rep at the AT&T store about this and was told by
them it wasn't possible. Would be nice if they knew their stuff.

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rdl
I'd like to see iPad 3G owners sue ATT and/or Apple as a class. I definitely
would have gone wifi vs. 3G if these rate plans had been disclosed at time of
sale.

I wonder how much Google pays ATT to keep Android in the race, by crippling
the iphone/ipad.

~~~
orangecat
_I wonder how much Google pays ATT to keep Android in the race, by crippling
the iphone/ipad._

AT&T screws over Google too:
[http://blogs.computerworld.com/15715/at_ts_backflip_android_...](http://blogs.computerworld.com/15715/at_ts_backflip_android_phone_is_a_face_plant)
.

~~~
jrockway
What do you expect from a company whose logo is the frickin' Death Star?

------
eli
As I've said here several times, the unlimited mobile data simply will not
last. It's actually more fair for everyone -- the many people who only use a
small amount of data _should_ pay less.

~~~
mcav
The people who only use a small amount of data _already_ paid less, via the
250MB/month plan for $15.

~~~
mbateman
This wasn't previously available on the iPhone.

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teye
My next question would be: will AT&T's 4G service be capped? Sprint's current
offering includes a 5GB 3G cap and no limit on 4G access.

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samratjp
This just goes to show how terrible wireless in the U.S is. I do hope Clear
will use this to their marketing advantage.

