Tag Archives: AT&T

Nice infographic from Tech Hive on LTE speeds

May 17, 2012 – 3:00 pm

Infographic: 4G LTE speeds, Verizon vs. AT&T:

The infographic below shows each carrier’s average LTE speed in the cities we tested where both LTE services are offered. The cities are ranked according to a composite score of AT&T and Verizon LTE download speed.

(Via Tech Hive)

The problem with average speeds in tests like this is that they mean almost nothing compared to your real-world performance. Now that I’m carrying an AT&T phone and a Verizon iPad, I have to say, Verizon is hands-down the better choice for me personally. And I’m very often getting faster speeds than this average on LTE with my iPad.

More importantly, I’m getting extremely fast speeds in places where I get zero signal on AT&T. And many of them are places I frequent.

But that’s me. I know other people who live in other places where AT&T is absolutely the right choice. I know people who live in San Francisco for whom AT&T is a better choice. Cell coverage is still a very touch and go thing.

So, as always, your mileage may vary. You have to take that into consideration before charts like this sway your decision-making, interesting as they are.

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AT&T will begin throttling heavy wireless users on old grandfathered unlimited plans

July 30, 2011 – 12:14 am

The company notes that “Starting October 1, smartphone customers with unlimited data plans may experience reduced speeds once their usage in a billing cycle reaches the level that puts them among the top 5 percent of heaviest data users.

via appleinsider.com

This is not surprising. And my guess is it’s just the beginning. Expect more stringent throttling soon.

Lots of my friends and some prominent bloggers kept their “grandfathered” plans last year when AT&T dropped the unlimited plan. They were no doubt thinking as long as they kept paying the higher fees for the old unlimited plan, they’d be able to keep that indefinitely. This, despite the fact that many of them don’t use anywhere near the 2GB a month cap on the cheaper $20 plan.

But I dropped my unlimited immediately, figuring that at the very least, when 4G comes out, AT&T would come up with some excuse why that was a DIFFERENT data plan, and thus wasn’t eligible for unlimited. Now it looks like they’re not even going to wait until the 4G iPhone rolls around.

So why pay $10 a month more in the meantime for something you’re not using, if in the future, when you need that extra data most, the carrier is just going to pull the rug out from under you anyway?

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AT&T capping desktop Internet access. Cable companies will follow.

March 14, 2011 – 3:47 pm

How does AT&T defend the move? The company explains it will only impact two percent of consumers who use “a disproportionate amount of bandwidth,” and poses the caps as an alternative to throttling transfer speeds or disconnecting excessive users from the service completely. Customers will be able to check their usage with an online tool, and get notifications when they reach 65 percent, 90 percent and 100 percent of their monthly rates.

via engadget.com

This impacts two percent of customers today. What about five years from now? Once we all start streaming all of our television and movies through the Internet at 2160p, how many gigabytes will the average user be downloading a month?

Any sort of bandwidth cap is a huge step backwards for the Internet. It’s a step towards limiting access to only those who have the means to keep paying a premium. It creates, at best, a divided highway; one wide open five-lane autobahn with no speed limit for the rich, and one congested, two-lane, pot-holed mess for everyone else.

But our useless government won’t do anything to stop it.

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Conspiracy Theory Regarding the AT&T Data Plan Changes

June 3, 2010 – 4:42 pm

There’s something very curious about the 200MB Data Plus plan. That number, 200MB, wasn’t chosen randomly. Now that I’ve been reading all these bloggers out there (like my friend, Webomatica) posting their usage over the past six months, I’m noticing a pattern. Most people are right around that 200MB mark most months. As am I. Some months it’s 190MB, some it’s 230MB. But somewhere close to that number.

Now, think about the price for overages. AT&T charges $15 more for an additional 200MB, if you go over the 200MB limit. If you are on the Pro plan, which costs $25, you only pay an extra $10 for an additional 1GB. 

So they charge more for 200MB than for 1GB of extra data. 

Here’s my theory: AT&T is betting that most of us will switch to the 200MB plan, because we’ll figure that we’re close to that most months, anyway, and if we go over, it’s just $15 more, which puts us at the same $30 we pay now. If the incentive instead leaned us toward the $25 Pro plan for 2 GB, we’d all be paying $5 a month less to AT&T, which would translate into a real loss in revenue. Almost none of us is going to go over the 2GB, so there’s little or no chance that they’ll get that extra $10 out of us for going over 2GB.

So they capped that $15 plan exactly where they needed to in order to minimize their losses while still trying to generate goodwill about these changes. Smart business. 

But you’re not fooling me, AT&T. I’m moving to the Pro plan and saving myself the $5 every month, rather than taking the chance of maybe saving $15 once in a while when I don’t go over that 200MB limit. 

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About those new AT&T Data plans

June 2, 2010 – 9:45 pm

While AT&T asserts that its high-end 2GB cap will only impact the heaviest users, the fact is that today’s heavy user is tomorrow’s average user,” Free Press policy counsel M. Chris Riley said in a statement. “Internet overcharging schemes like the one AT&T proposes will discourage innovative new uses and stifle healthy growth in the mobile broadband economy. It is price gouging for AT&T to charge the low-end users $15 per 200MB, and to charge $20 for tethering capability even if no additional capacity is used. This pricing system is clearly divorced from the actual underlying cost of service.

via arstechnica.com

This is the issue for me. From the looks of it, I actually stand to save some money in the short term. Looking at my average data usage, I’m most certainly safe with the 2GB plan, and can almost fit under the 200MB plan. And I’m a pretty heavy iPhone user. I have my email set to push, I’m constantly using apps, browsing, etc.

(I guess it helps to live in San Francisco, where I can’t get signal most places, anyway.)

So with the new plans, I will save $10 a month ($5 each for me and my girlfriend’s iPhone) at least. I could change my usage habits a bit and save myself $30 a month with the DataPlus plan, though I’m not sure I want to start counting kilobytes just yet.

But the real issue is that quote above. I may use just just over 200 MB now, but how much data will I use next year? New iPhones are going to have new features, features that are likely to drive me to want to use the Internet more. The iPhone that will likely be announced next Monday will have a front-facing video camera. How much data is a video chat going to eat?

It’s clear that AT&T has network issues. I don’t necessarily have a problem with charging the 2% of really heavy users more money. After all, they are helping to bring down the speed for the rest of us. But I always worry whenever a giant company like AT&T makes a change that appears to save consumers money at first. Tiered pricing is almost always a ploy to make more money, not help customers.

If the limit on the 2GB plan gets raised to 3GB, or 4GB, etc. as the needs of the average user evolve, I’ll be pleasantly surprised. For now, I remain skeptical.

And, as everyone seems to be suggesting today, the Tethering pricing is a complete ripoff. If you’re not giving me more data, I shouldn’t be paying more, period. At least now we know why AT&T hasn’t offered Tethering up until now. They didn’t know what to do about unlimited data. Removing unlimited as an option was the only way to keep their network from completely crumbling, I guess.

Which is why Tethering is only an option if you switch to one of these new plans. And for those of you planning on keeping your unlimited plan, have fun with that iPhone 3Gs for the rest of your life. Because you won’t be able to upgrade phones without changing to a non-unlimited plan, either.

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