AT&T data issues

Use your AT&T phone to call a lawyer.

 

sorry to hear it, i understand there are still some unlimited plans out there.

 

I may not understand -- is OP annoyed that AT&T is enforcing the contract ?
This be America, where prospective customers are expected to read the terms and agree to them by signature.

My wife has an AT&T subscription, so I know the terms are quite transparent.In addition, AT&T allows a subscriber to buy more data on month by month basis.

I personally think the company sucks and stay far, far away.

 

With the Advanced package, what will actually use the cell phone data, besides media apps like Pandora and iHeartRadio? All navigation stuff like traffic data will use XM, right?

The reason I ask is that I still am in the dark as to whether Entune will support my Blackberry Torch 9850. Entune says that Blackberry will be supported along with iOS and Android, but my particular phone model is not on the list of supported models at the Blackberry AppWorld: it is too new . So I was wondering what I will be missing if us Blackberry users are left out in the cold (again). I sent e-mail to the Toyota consumer line, and they actually answered, but said that they didn't have a clue.

I would hope that at least the Bluetooth pairing for phone calls and contact lists would work.

 

what does the contract state? i thought they were unlimited and only new contracts would be limited.

 

Oh, you are still unlimited. But when you get on their hit list, your connection is throttled down to dial-up speeds for the rest of your monthly billing period. The contract does not have any speed guarantees, so it applies to existing contracts.

Verizon does throttling too, but they only do it when the cell site you are on at the moment is overloaded. Traffic lightens up, and off goes the brakes.

(Why is it called "throttling" when what they are doing is applying the brakes )

 

Think "choked."

Like air intake into hte manifold of an engine. No need to get gruesome.

 

Yep, that be the AT&T I know and hate. It is also why I refuse to buy two year subscriptions. If my carrier tries to pull shit on me I walk poste-haste.

 

Use WiFi whenever you can, that's what I do. At home, at work, in the mall, the car dealer. I have AT&T unlimited but I am on WiFi 90% of the time.

 

A class action lawyer is going to get rich off of this. AT&T is making a big mistake. Since they will sell users more monthly data, unthrottled, then they offer to "unlimited" users, clearly they are acting out of bad faith.

 

I don't think so. You can no longer get ANY unlimited data plan from AT&T, and these are all older grandfathered in plans, that they frankly want to see go away.

 

Yes, I posted about the warning I got at http://priuschat.com/forums/freds-h...a-usage-new-wireless-plans-3.html#post1470065.

Nope. I'm grandfathered into "unlimited" as I got an iPhone back in iPhone 3G days.

The issue is that AT&T has moved the goal posts and may throttle you for the rest of the month (after a grace period of your current billing period), if you reach the supposed "top 5%" in data usage. They didn't do this before when you were on "unlimited". To me, the "top 5%" is a moving target. They don't tell us what it is. If more people are worried about their phones becoming unusable for data due to throttling, that "top 5%" will steadily decrease.

See above. I don't know the original terms of the contract, but I agreed to an "unlimited" data plan originally.

This practice of throttling didn't start until maybe 1-2 months ago. IIRC, I've had a few months w/has high as 6 or 7 gigs of use, but am typically (IIRC) between 1.5 - 2.5 gigs.

The goofy part is that the "unlimited" plan is $30 for data and it's the same price as 3 gigs.

Last week, I tried to chat w/AT&T online and they directed me to log in to my account and go to to support to email them about it, in which I'm only allowed to type 500 chars. Here's what I wrote:

The reply I got back was:

Yep, seems to be their method of making them go away.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-news/at-t-data-throttling-and-the-great-customer-ripoff/6817 is a good summary of the situation.

I suggest that anyone on AT&T affected by this file a formal complaint with them so that their management is aware and has actual data. I might consider filing a complaint w/the FCC as well.

 

If you want to try to reduce data usage for NPR, try subscribing to their podcasts in iTunes and syncing them instead. It has the added advantage of being able to play without any internet connection (useful on planes and weak/no signal areas).

 

I do that, but that means I have to refresh my podcasts pretty often and sync my phone often too.

IIRC, their podcasts tend to be at least a day behind them being playable in their app and their podcasts don't have index markers, so there's no easy to skip to a particular story. One also needs to be subscribed to the right podcasts and hope that the stories you care about are in them.

 

I've never liked AT&T. Back when they were THE phone company, they were arrogant and they treated customers like dirt. They have not changed. My mother once signed up for their long-distance service because she was promised certain rates. She did not get those rates. So she tried to cancel, and they kept billing her, even after she had told them to cancel her service. AT&T was the reason I would not even consider an iPhone before Verizon started offering it. (Though in the end I decided I didn't need one.)

As for the data usage, the cell phone companies are in a bind: They offered unlimited data at a time when there was not so much data available. Now, with faster phones and more content being offered, and more phones on the system, they are being squeezed.

However, there is something called implied usability: When they sell you a phone with a certain data speed, which accesses content that requires the use of that speed, and they offer you unlimited data, it is implied that you'll be able to use that phone to access that content without limits.

Unfortunately, they have better lawyers than you do. And AT&T will always run roughshod over you, because their policy is: "The customer is dirt."

FWIW, I have a stupid phone, on Verizon, and I'm satisfied with it and them. I don't need data while out driving around town. I have an iPod Touch for email when I travel, and more often than not, when traveling, I'm places that have Wi-Fi but do not have cell coverage. I would never even consider AT&T.

 

Does Amazon offer the podcasts? I'm not sure if it works with the iPhone specifically, but I know they offer the cloud player and you, I believe, can also download songs to your phone for playing. I have Verizon and the HTC Thunderbolt, so I don't know as much about the iPhone, it's available apps, etc, but I have heard similar complaints from people against ATT that have run into the same scenario. I rarely use even 1GB of data on my phone, but I can understand those with business needs could easily exceed that.