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Comments on news posted 2010-06-02 12:10:02: After years of hinting at looming wireless data pricing changes, AT&T has finally buckled to recommendations by stock jocks like Sanford Bernstein's Craig Moffett -- and killed their unlimited 3G iPhone pricing plan. ..

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WernerSchutz
join:2009-08-04
Sugar Land, TX

WernerSchutz to patcat88

Member

to patcat88

Re: Only people really affected are video streamers

said by patcat88:

Thats why internet radio is so great, youll eventually find a internet radio station that meets your taste. DI is a pretty good collection of generes, i listen to DI myself.
Yes. When there is a good product, people will try it and then buy it. Maybe MPAA/RIAA and the cable industry should pay attention.

jmn1207
Premium Member
join:2000-07-19
Sterling, VA

jmn1207

Premium Member

Ha, I never even knew what DI.FM was, but I noticed that I have about a dozen saved favorite stations in my Blackberry TuneWiki app from Digitally Imported. I never bothered to investigate further, just enjoyed the music. Now I have a "face" to go along with the name.


Defiance
Computer Elite
Premium Member
join:2002-09-11
Minocqua, WI

Defiance to IPPlanMan

Premium Member

to IPPlanMan

Re: File an FTC Complaint for AT&T changing the terms

Sounds like false advertisement. They advertise unlimited and now they are changing it.

IPPlanMan
Holy Cable Modem Batman
join:2000-09-20
Washington, DC

IPPlanMan

Member

Exactly.

This definitely falls within the realm of the FTC.
»www.ftc.gov/ogc/stat1.shtm

Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. §§ 41-58, as amended)
Under this Act, the Commission is empowered, among other things, to (a) prevent unfair methods of competition, and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce; (b) seek monetary redress and other relief for conduct injurious to consumers; (c) prescribe trade regulation rules defining with specificity acts or practices that are unfair or deceptive, and establishing requirements designed to prevent such acts or practices; (d) conduct investigations relating to the organization, business, practices, and management of entities engaged in commerce; and (e) make reports and legislative recommendations to Congress.

"Cease and Desist" this AT&T....

HarleyYac
Lee
Premium Member
join:2001-10-13
Allendale, NJ

HarleyYac

Premium Member

Grandfathered forever?

Hi,
I need to know if you are a current IPhone user will you still be grandfathered AFTER you current contract expires.
I just got off the phone and they tell me I am Grandfathered $30 Unlimited as long as I a customer (I phone) period .
Thx
Lee

Morac
Cat god
join:2001-08-30
Riverside, NJ

Morac to patcat88

Member

to patcat88

Re: Only people really affected are video streamers

said by patcat88:

Still too hard. I don't want to know the names or songs of the artists I listen to. I dont want to weed out old songs, or have to decide if I heard that song "enough" times. I just want to click the genre and my interaction ends at that. I'm that lazy.
The latest slacker app lets you cache stations for offline use. So you can cache your radio at home and listen to it without using MB on the road. You need to subscribe to Slacker Plus though.

state
stress magnet
Mod
join:2002-02-08
Purgatory

state

Mod

How's that work exactly, it streams it to a file realtime at home, or can you say, download the last x number of hours from their server?

And how much does that run for the plus?

Morac
Cat god
join:2001-08-30
Riverside, NJ

Morac

Member

The way it works is you select what stations you want to cache and then click refresh cache. It then goes and fetches a few hours (I think) of each station. This took about 15 or 30 minutes over WiFi, I'm not sure exactly how long since I went and did other things while it was downloading.

It costs $4.99 a month or $47.88 prepaid for the year ($3.99 a month). There's a 14 day free trial which is what I'm on at the moment.

»www.slacker.com/radio/

state
stress magnet
Mod
join:2002-02-08
Purgatory

state

Mod

That sounds pretty interesting. Thanks for the info, I'll have to check out the trial.

In the morning I usually fire up wunder radio to stream radio (odd eh, I can get a decent 3G signal in my office, but crappy FM radio reception) then switch to Pandora in the afternoon. This sounds like it has some potential.
MyDogHsFleas
Premium Member
join:2007-08-15
Austin, TX

MyDogHsFleas to TamaraB

Premium Member

to TamaraB

Re: Pricing breakdown: most customers will actually save money

I'm curious what apps or capabilities you are using that is causing your data usage to increase rapidly.
MyDogHsFleas

MyDogHsFleas to sonicmerlin

Premium Member

to sonicmerlin
said by sonicmerlin:

They just went from "unlimited" to 2 GB. What the devil are you talking about?
IMO the most useful way to understand the change is they went from a single-price to a tiered pricing model. 2GB is not a cap, it's just a tier in the model. Users will now pay (with some fuzziness) for what they use. Users who use less will pay less than they used to, users who use more will pay more.
MyDogHsFleas

MyDogHsFleas to IPPlanMan

Premium Member

to IPPlanMan

Re: File an FTC Complaint for AT&T changing the terms

This is incorrect. Anyone who signed up for the iPad unlimited data plan (or iPhone for that matter) still has it and does not have to change. No one is forcing them to not have an unlimited data plan. So there's no basis for a complaint. AT&T is changing the plan for new customers, and allowing existing customers the choice of switching to the new plan or staying with the old one.

mike424
join:2001-01-30
Las Vegas, NV

1 edit

mike424

Member

att wants you back!

Did anyone think to realize the next iterations of the iPhone and other new smart phones will be bringing big data hungry things to the table? (video conference for example) Limiting our bandwidth will prohibit our future. I can see why AT&T is probably losing their exclusivity to Verizon and possibly others. (if Apple isn't behind this.) We can only hope VZW doesn't copy, but instead capitalize on this opportunity. Their upcoming LTE network should be more than enough to handle the fallout.

AT&T will have to run these desperate ads again:

»www.youtube.com/watch?v= ··· B7je2x54

FastiBook
join:2003-01-08
Newtown, PA

FastiBook

Member

Um......

»money.cnn.com/2010/06/02 ··· hpt=Sbin

According to this, the pricing is more comprehensive than "plus" and "pro".

5 tiers for iPhone data, and 3 for iPad.

Looking over my bill since i got my iPhone 12 months ago, i've never gone over 500 megs a month, so why should i worry about a 2 gig cap? I'll save 10 dollars a month on our bill, might not seem like much, but over 2 years that adds up to be 240 bucks, plus it'll be nice to have a few dollars more in the pocket! And hey, if we wanna save up for something we could switch to the 200 meg plan & save 720 dollars over the same 24 months.

- A

IPPlanMan
Holy Cable Modem Batman
join:2000-09-20
Washington, DC

IPPlanMan to MyDogHsFleas

Member

to MyDogHsFleas

Re: File an FTC Complaint for AT&T changing the terms

No it's not incorrect.

The whole point of the "breakthrough" unlimited plan was that you could activate it or deactivate it without a contract.

Now, just over 1 month after the iPad 3G ships to customers, AT&T eliminates that capability to add/remove the unlimited plan.

So now the people on the "unlimited" plan, have to stay on it and it becomes a "de facto" contract. If they ever let that "unlimited" plan lapse, then they can't get it back. That defeats the whole purpose of the iPad 3G as it was marketed and sold to customers from the outset.

Disgusting and deceitful by AT&T. This is the kind of thing that the FTC is supposed to prevent from occurring to consumers.
MyDogHsFleas
Premium Member
join:2007-08-15
Austin, TX

MyDogHsFleas

Premium Member

said by IPPlanMan:

Now, just over 1 month after the iPad 3G ships to customers, AT&T eliminates that capability to add/remove the unlimited plan.

So now the people on the "unlimited" plan, have to stay on it and it becomes a "de facto" contract. If they ever let that "unlimited" plan lapse, then they can't get it back.
I see what you are saying now, but this is a big, big stretch of a complaint. What it says is "you can cancel anytime". It does NOT say "you can deactivate and reactivate at any time." That is your interpretation. That's not what it says.

The new $25 2GB plan with $10/GB increments above that is also a no-contract plan for the iPad.

But hey, go for it. Let's see that hope and change government work for you.
MyDogHsFleas

MyDogHsFleas to FastiBook

Premium Member

to FastiBook

Re: Um......

There's only two new plans, plus and pro, but each has an incremental charge if you go over the base amount. The table in the article is just breaking down the total cost for each increment. I did the same thing in my "pricing" thread here.

the plus plan is $15 for 200MB plus $15 for each 200MB increment above that. It's made for average/light smartphone users.

the pro plan is $25 for 2GB plus $10 for each 1GB above that. It's made for heavier users, who would typically use more than 200MB/month.
MyDogHsFleas

MyDogHsFleas to mike424

Premium Member

to mike424

Re: att wants you back!

Video conferencing, especially on a small iPhone screen, does not have to be super data intensive. Most video conferencing is very compressed because it's typically showing powerpoint presentations or screen demos, and transmitting phone-quality sound, not much in the way of moving images.

The use cases that cause heavy data usage on smartphones are video streaming (think movies/TV shows) and/or tethering with video streaming/downloading.

IPPlanMan
Holy Cable Modem Batman
join:2000-09-20
Washington, DC

2 edits

IPPlanMan to MyDogHsFleas

Member

to MyDogHsFleas

Re: File an FTC Complaint for AT&T changing the terms

It's not a stretch at all....

Would people spend over 600 dollars (including a 130 dollar premium over the wi-fi version) on a 3G enabled device only to have the 3G service active for one month and then cancel it, with the intent to never enable it ever again?

If AT&T and Apple wanted to sell a 2GB plan with the iPad 3G, then they should have been forthcoming and done that from the outset when the pre-orders were placed.... and the outset means barely a month after the devices ship to consumers.

Think they would have sold as many iPad 3G devices with a 2GB capped data plan? Not a chance in hell.

Here's what Apple says on their website:
»www.apple.com/ipad/3g/

No-contract 3G service.
AT&T 3G Data Plans for iPad
Data per month Price per month
250MB $14.99
Unlimited $29.99

One month is based on 30 consecutive days, and starts at the date and time of your purchase.

In the United States, 3G service is available through a breakthrough deal with AT&T. You choose the amount of data per month you want to buy — 250MB or unlimited. If you choose the 250MB plan, you’ll receive onscreen messages as you get close to your monthly data limit so you can decide whether to turn off 3G or upgrade to the unlimited plan. Best of all, there’s no long-term contract. So if you have a business trip or vacation approaching, just sign up for the month you’ll be traveling and cancel when you get back. You don’t need to visit a store to get 3G service. You can sign up, check your data usage, manage your account, or cancel your service — all from your iPad.
MyDogHsFleas
Premium Member
join:2007-08-15
Austin, TX

MyDogHsFleas

Premium Member

OK that's more of a smoking gun. Good find.

They'll probably fall back on their TOS which has language that they can change the plan at any time. So legally they're OK.

IPPlanMan
Holy Cable Modem Batman
join:2000-09-20
Washington, DC

1 edit

IPPlanMan

Member

Thanks!

Sounds to me like Apple got screwed by AT&T on the data plans just like we did. I emailed Steve Jobs to ask how something like this could happen to them and us.

I'm sure that this change will significantly affect the number of iPads sold.... and that's going to get his attention for sure.
IPPlanMan

IPPlanMan to patcat88

Member

to patcat88

Re: The day after the D8 Conference!

Good point.

I don't think there's much of a way for Steve to spin this....

Unless there's something to the fact that the iPad is not locked to AT&T and can be used on another carrier....
MyDogHsFleas
Premium Member
join:2007-08-15
Austin, TX

MyDogHsFleas to IPPlanMan

Premium Member

to IPPlanMan

Re: File an FTC Complaint for AT&T changing the terms

said by IPPlanMan:

Thanks!

Sounds to me like Apple got screwed by AT&T on the data plans just like we did. I emailed Steve Jobs to ask how something like this could happen to them and us.

I'm sure that this change will significantly affect the number of iPads sold.... and that's going to get his attention for sure.
LOL you can be sure this change was jointly agreed to/negotiated by Apple with AT&T beforehand. You won't be telling Steve Jobs anything he doesn't know and understand.

IPPlanMan
Holy Cable Modem Batman
join:2000-09-20
Washington, DC

IPPlanMan

Member

said by MyDogHsFleas:

LOL you can be sure this change was jointly agreed to/negotiated by Apple with AT&T beforehand. You won't be telling Steve Jobs anything he doesn't know and understand.
And as you recall, he said nothing about it on the D8 stage... This announcement came the day after....

You can bet he would have been called out for the "change"...

TamaraB
Question The Current Paradigm
Premium Member
join:2000-11-08
Da Bronx
·Verizon FiOS
Ubiquiti NSM5
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Apple AirPort Extreme (2013)

1 edit

TamaraB to MyDogHsFleas

Premium Member

to MyDogHsFleas

Re: Pricing breakdown: most customers will actually save money

said by MyDogHsFleas:

I'm curious what apps or capabilities you are using that is causing your data usage to increase rapidly.
Well, it's mainly the fact that AT&T have significantly improved their 3g speeds here.

Two years ago, I was lucky to get 300kbps download speeds. At that time, I kept my device on WIFI at home, and being retired, home is where I spent most of my time.

Where I live the ONLY "broadband" access available to me (aside from 3g 'wireless') is DSL at 1mb/s Slow, but it was faster than AT&T's 3g.

Now, AT&T have improved 3g speeds here to between 1 and 1.5 mb/s FASTER than DSL-WIFI-Attached. So, I have now been using iPhone on 3g ALWAYS; I keep WIFI turned off.

My apps are not too out of the ordinary, I don't think. I have 10 IMAP email accounts which I use on everything including the phone, I listen to Pandora a lot, but more recently, I installed NORTON's App which allows me to access all of my NORTON backed-up files (From laptop, desktop, and netbook) on my phone. I like the ability to access backed-up files remotely when I do not have my laptop handy, in fact, I hardly need to have either my laptop or netbook with me any longer. I now can have access to all my latest files right on iPhone. This particular app is bandwidth intensive.

The other major change due to AT&T's better bandwidth as well as the lifting of some restrictions on using 3g, is that I no longer use WIFI to update the apps themselves, I update right from the phone over 3g, then sync those updates to my computers. In other words, I am consciously using my 3g bandwidth as much as possible, to supplement my poor DSL.

More apps and better bandwidth have contributed to my greater network usage.

The iPhone is always with me as it is my only phone (No more POTS here) and I have been using it more and more. The better/faster it gets, the more I use it.

I LOVE the unlimited data package! I am on a fixed budget, and know exactly what my bill will be each month; $114.00. With the roll-over minutes, I never have to worry about "bill-shock".

Bob

edit: My Verizon "naked DSL" is costing me $19.99/Mo and is unlimited in terms of usage. If AT&T were to offer a competitive rate for UNLIMITED tethering, I would seriously consider dropping VZ DSL and tether a device, then share it local-net. This would make me totally MOBILE, A good thing for someone living aboard a boat, and having no permanent location.

Things MAY be getting better. I am looking forward to it.

mike424
join:2001-01-30
Las Vegas, NV

4 edits

mike424 to MyDogHsFleas

Member

to MyDogHsFleas

Re: att wants you back!

Alright, it most likely wont be more complicated than a web cam. Still, you have to realize that it's not only being downloaded but uploaded as well. Now multiply that by hours (if it's useful for the average user) and it can rival any streaming bandwidth used by the phone. You're right, though, it wont be as demanding as tethered streaming, especially HD. That's not my point however. AT&T is taking it's business back to the 90s. If AT&T really listened to it's customers it would have more tiers (doesn't have to be unlimited) and the option to not have data at all. That will never happen.
MyDogHsFleas
Premium Member
join:2007-08-15
Austin, TX

MyDogHsFleas

Premium Member

Yep, always-on webcam/securitycam is another good use case I hadn't thought of that will push the data limits.

AT&T used to have the option to not have a data plan, and the reason they mandated it is because so many clueless customers ran up huge a la carte data bills and then complained and went public with their denunciations. It was easier for AT&T to lose the business of those who really wanted no data and actually knew what they were doing when they did it, than to put up with the hordes of cluelessness.

Not sure what you mean by "more tiers"... they essentially have unlimited tiers right now, at the rate of $10/GB above the 2GB base plan. What are you suggesting?

ssj4android
Redefining Reality
join:2002-04-14
Wyoming, MI

ssj4android to Z80A

Member

to Z80A

Re: Change should save me about $50-$60/mo

Or you could go to T-Mobile and get tethering for free...
ssj4android

ssj4android to betam4x

Member

to betam4x

Re: Vote with your wallet people!

Verizon will follow suite shortly, I'm sure. Sprint or T-Mobile would be a better choice.

Z80A
Premium Member
join:2009-11-23

Z80A to ssj4android

Premium Member

to ssj4android

Re: Change should save me about $50-$60/mo

said by ssj4android:

Or you could go to T-Mobile and get tethering for free...
...and pay more for talk.
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