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wowI almost never comment on DSLR front page news (lurker), but this is ridiculous to a new level. I am surprised no one has made a meme out of ATT/iPhone news...
$45 to tether using an iphone with 2 gigs of usage...just say that to yourself inside your head a few times... No need to editorialize. The news itself is hyperbole.
And I dont understand "98% of blah blah dont do this" statistic...its not properly controlled, and you never know if 98% of people dont do something SPECIFICALLY because of fear of repercussions.
And if you dont buy that one, think of a life insurance company using the same logic behind why they should lower benefits..."98% of people dont die before this age, so whats the point in giving them any benefits..." |
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Awesome!Goodbye, AT&T. I'm sure other wireless companies are soon to follow!
Seems like we're paying MORE for even less now.
From AT&T's press article (link above in the article):
Tethering. Smartphone customers including iPhone customers who choose the DataPro plan have the option to add tethering for an additional $20 per month. Tethering lets customers use their smartphones as a modem to provide a broadband connection for laptop computers, netbooks or other computing devices. Tethering for iPhones will be available when Apple releases iPhone OS 4 this summer.
Seems to me like OS 3 didn't support Tethering, and it's all of Apple's fault now...Haha. |
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Fail!I might never reach 2GB currently on my phone, I still think its ridiculous and even worse that they are changing the plan for the ipad. Makes me glad I stay away from ATT and Apple. |
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glinc join:2009-04-07 New York, NY 1 edit |
glinc
Member
2010-Jun-2 9:59 am
LOLAT&T really love to hug their $$$ as much as they can instead of spending it in network.
Easiest fix to "improve" their network is to milk customers for more $$$ and impose caps.
I can't wait to see what VZW LTE tiered plans will be. |
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openbox9 Premium Member join:2004-01-26 71144 |
openbox9
Premium Member
2010-Jun-2 10:00 am
I guess I was a little off...I expected the $30 plan to continue with a $30 for 5 GB tether option. Seems as thought AT&T has secured exclusivity for the next iPhone (at least for the near-term) and it's going to charge appropriately for the luxury. |
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caco Premium Member join:2005-03-10 Whittier, AK |
caco
Premium Member
2010-Jun-2 10:01 am
How long before Verizon follows?That is my concern. These guys work in tandem so I imagine an announcement from Verizon will be upcoming in next couple of week. Hopefully Sprint and Tmobile hold the line on prices. |
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openbox9 Premium Member join:2004-01-26 71144 |
to glinc
Re: LOLAT&T isn't bringing LTE for a few years, so you'll be waiting for a while. |
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glinc join:2009-04-07 New York, NY |
glinc
Member
2010-Jun-2 10:03 am
My bad, I meant VZW LTE tiered plans |
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BassistguyAlrighty Then Premium Member join:2001-07-14 Ballwin, MO |
Skype?I'm not sure what phones Skype is available on, but I'd almost guarantee that's their reasoning for ditching the unlimited plan. You completely bypass your available minutes and use Skype on the unlimited data plan, essentially getting unlimited calls. |
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betam4x join:2002-10-12 Nashville, TN |
Vote with your wallet people!With Verizon's new Droid Incredible, there really is no reason to put up with AT&T's pricing. Even IF you use less than 2 GB/mo, you should still vote with your wallet and move to another carrier. If this plan fails and hurts AT&T's financials, other carriers will not adopt the same scheme. |
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amarryatVerizon FiOS join:2005-05-02 Marshfield, MA |
iPhone users watch out!They claim 2GB is enough for 98% of their users. But don't iPhone users consume more than anyone else? I have an Android phone, don't use much data (actively), and use wifi most of the time for the data that I do use - and halfway thru my cycle, I have used over 225mb of data.
Yikes you guys are going to get screwed. |
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MoracCat god join:2001-08-30 Riverside, NJ |
Morac
Member
2010-Jun-2 10:04 am
Only people really affected are video streamersI use my iPhone heavily and have yet to exceed 1 GB a month. Normally I'm around 500 MB or less. I don't do a lot of video streaming over 3G. The one month I nearly exceeded 1 GB was when I spent a lot of time using the Sling app.
So the 2 GB cap isn't that big a deal for me and I'll end up paying $5 less (well less than $5 technically since I'm on a discounted plan).
Tethering is good, but the announcement doesn't mention whether or not you get extra GB for the $20 a month. My guess is that for $45 a month you have 2 GB shared between tether and the phone itself. I don't understand why it costs $20 more a month. What's the difference between downloading 2 GB on the phone itself or on a PC connected to the phone? |
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glinc join:2009-04-07 New York, NY |
to caco
Re: How long before Verizon follows?VZW already said LTE will have tiered plans. I'm pretty sure their 3G plans will stay the same since AT&T copy vzw all the time. |
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banditws6Shrinking Time and Distance Premium Member join:2001-08-18 Frisco, TX |
to openbox9
Re: I guess I was a little off...said by openbox9:I expected the $30 plan to continue with a $30 for 5 GB tether option. Yeah, that's what I thought. I'm very surprised that 2GB is the maximum tier available. I think I fit easily within the 2GB limit, but I know people who need more like 5-8 GB per month (especially 3G iPad users) who are not gonna be happy about this. Likely the only effect of this change will be to save me $5 a month, but I still think the limits are too low. |
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kamm join:2001-02-14 Brooklyn, NY 1 edit |
kamm
Member
2010-Jun-2 10:05 am
Haha, TMO must be dancing......because these idiots are clearly digging their own grave: new iPhone will barely catch up with current Android OS and phones, ATT's network is still the shittiest network of America and price gouging is so ridiculous now that it will drive people away en masse, likely to TMO and its new, crazy-fast yet overage-free HSPA+ network: » [T-Mobile] Impressive 3G results |
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MoracCat god join:2001-08-30 Riverside, NJ |
to Shrapnel64
Re: Awesome!said by Shrapnel64:Seems to me like OS 3 didn't support Tethering, and it's all of Apple's fault now...Haha. OS 3 does support tethering since tethering works in other countries on the iPhone. My guess is that AT&T wanted more control over tethering or something and had Apple add something to it in OS 4. If not, then I have no idea why AT&T is requiring OS 4. |
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statestress magnet Mod join:2002-02-08 Purgatory |
to Morac
Re: Only people really affected are video streamersWell audio streaming can suck up bandwidth just as easily. I went back and looked at my usage for last month, which was about 1.5GB, and all I really did was stream Pandora, surf and use email. It adds up quick.
As for the tethering, from what I've seen it looks like your assumption is correct, that it's two gigabytes shared between the computer and the phone. At least I haven't seen anything that refutes it.
I'll be staying with my "unlimited" plan for now, thanks. |
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fiosuserny
Anon
2010-Jun-2 10:09 am
This is good news to me!I figure there will be plenty of outcry against this change on the BBR forums but for me the change is good news.
My wife is addicted to her iPhone so I've been stuck with paying $30/mo for data plus more for texting. I just reviewed our last 12 bills. My better half's highest monthly data usage was 114 MB. Many months she was under half that much.
The DataPlus plan will yield a definite cost savings for us. And the fact is that I've resisted having a data plan myself because the cost exceeded my threshold of pain. With the new data plan my wife and I can both have data enough for casual use for the same price we've been paying just to feed her iPhone.
So for you high use junkies...yeah, this won't work. But I'm betting for a lot of at&t subscribers it will be an improvement. |
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MoracCat god join:2001-08-30 Riverside, NJ |
to Bassistguy
Re: Skype?said by Bassistguy:I'm not sure what phones Skype is available on, but I'd almost guarantee that's their reasoning for ditching the unlimited plan. You completely bypass your available minutes and use Skype on the unlimited data plan, essentially getting unlimited calls. Skype uses a minute amount of data. Even if you used Skype 24/7 I doubt you could hit the 2 GB cap. Now video streamers on the other hand... |
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And one didn't see this coming? VZW, Sprint, Vodafon, next..Come on. You knew these greedy b-stards were gonna hook ya then sink ya.
First came the "Me Too!" with doubling the ETF contract penalties. Before that, identical minute plans (doesn't anyone see the collusion with minute/SMS plans?) Just happens that most folks use 300 minutes, but they only offer 200 then 450 at next plan...
And unlimited data? Gotcha!
Let's see what Verizon does next? I bet you know... |
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MoracCat god join:2001-08-30 Riverside, NJ |
to amarryat
Re: iPhone users watch out!said by amarryat:They claim 2GB is enough for 98% of their users. But don't iPhone users consume more than anyone else? I have an Android phone, don't use much data (actively), and use wifi most of the time for the data that I do use - and halfway thru my cycle, I have used over 225mb of data. I have never gone over 1 GB on my iPhone and that's including occasional use of video streaming (YouTube, Sling app, etc). Most apps don't generate a lot of traffic. People who are going to get killed by this are heavy video 3G streamers. |
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Z80A Premium Member join:2009-11-23 |
Z80A
Premium Member
2010-Jun-2 10:12 am
Change should save me about $50-$60/moBy dumping laptop connect ($60) and getting tethering ($20) I'll save quite a bit, even with the $10/GB overage fee since my combined usage is about 3GB/mo. And my other iPhone only uses about 100MB/mo so I'll save there too with base data costs going from $60 to $40.
Laptop connect was already capped at 5GB with big overage penalties so I'm not missing anything. It would take 8GB of data usage to get back to the price I'm currently paying which isn't going to happen with wifi at work and at home. |
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ptrowskiGot Helix? Premium Member join:2005-03-14 Woodstock, CT 1 edit |
to kamm
Re: Haha, TMO must be dancing...said by kamm:...because these idiots are clearly digging their own grave: new iPhone will barely catch up with current Android OS and phones, ATT's network is still the shittiest network of America and price gouging is so ridiculous now that it will drive people away en masse, likely to TMO and its new, crazy-fast yet overage-free HSPA+ network: » [T-Mobile] Impressive 3G results Hardly. People like the iPhone, and since 3G doesn't work with an iPhone on TMO there will not be a dance going on. |
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to Shrapnel64
Re: Awesome!Other countries had tethering with iPhone OS 3. AT&T just didn't enable it. There were even hacks to enable tethering on AT&T in the US using Apple's built-in tethering system. |
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MoracCat god join:2001-08-30 Riverside, NJ |
to state
Re: Only people really affected are video streamerssaid by state:I'll be staying with my "unlimited" plan for now, thanks. Is there an option to stay with the current plan? |
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PhoenixDownFIOS is Awesome Premium Member join:2003-06-08 Fresh Meadows, NY |
to Morac
I just looked at my data usage.
Line # 1: Average is about 280 Megs a month High is 680 Megs for one month
Line # 2: Average is about 300 Megs a month. High is 300 Megs |
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Z80A Premium Member join:2009-11-23 |
to betam4x
Re: Vote with your wallet people!After my billing nightmares with Verizon, I hate the thought of having to go back. |
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statestress magnet Mod join:2002-02-08 Purgatory |
to Morac
Re: Only people really affected are video streamersYes.
According to AT&T, existing customers can keep their unlimited plans. The new pricing and data rates only come into affect for new customers, or customers that want tethering (tethering requires a $20 additional fee on top of their "DataPro" plan).
I've gotta ask though, why not just keep unlimited and jailbreak for the tethering option? I'm sure someone here is doing this. |
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jhllne join:2006-04-26 Madison, WI |
jhllne
Member
2010-Jun-2 10:16 am
nice deal for light usersI realize it's not a great deal for heavy users, but it's nice to finally see a discount for those of us that do not need or want an "unlimited" data plan. This would save me $30/month if VZW matches. My wife and I both have Blackberries on VZW, and between the two of us, we've only cracked 200 MB once in the past year.
I for one am excited about the prospect of a low-end data plan. I do agree, though, that the pricing for tethering sounds ridiculous, esp. with no corresponding bump in the cap. |
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Re: And one didn't see this coming? VZW, Sprint, Vodafon, next..BTW, I bet they figured out that most use average of 300Megs/mth so... Look, you are saving $5 with our Pro plan! (zing!) |
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