Entune no longer works thanks to AT&T!!

Perhaps you don't understand the concept of "contract". Your service contract with AT&T defines "unlimited" with caveats. You don't have to like it, but that's the way it is. You are welcome to switch service providers, or just do without. Otherwise you have to play by their rules.

Tom

 

Go to Verizon or Sprint. AT&T is a joke...now that they aren't the only carrier of the iPhone, they are in trouble.

 

They "get it" that's why they discontinued "Unlimited" and raised the price on the other plans.

I had to upgrade to ATT's "Personal Hotspot" to get the iPhone internet Bluetooth connection to work. At $50 a month, twice the $25 of the "unlimited" plan. On the flip side it's 5GB.

You could pay the piper and you'd get the Bluetooth internet connection vs. having to plug in via USB and a 2GB a month boost.

Have to say that 3GB's a LOT of data a month on the phone. Good time to look at your phone usage and offload more to Wifi connection.

Pandora....OK...that explains it. The cause of more personal data plan bankruptcies than any other application.

Logical out growth is XM satellite needs to integrate a Pandora like feature. Surprised they haven't done it already as Pandora via mobile phone (vs. Wifi) is ruinous.

Totally the way to go for XMTraffic data services. I didn't realize it was not included in the 6" Nav/XM since Toyota touts getting the service and it is only the fine print that notes "XM Data Services only available on HDD". XM data also does the fuel prices. As for "stocks", who the heck looks up stock prices on their car radio screen?

So count yourself lucky you have the XM Data Services available but even that is not a free ride, you pay them $15 a month which you could put towards the 5GB/Bluetooth from ATT.

No free data lunch.

 

I've got the base model and have to plug in my iPhone to get data. That said, I haven't seen any significant uptick in my data usage. I've got unlimited data, but I've never ever come close to any soft or hard cap on data usage. The most I've ever used in a month is around 900mb. This month it appears it'll be around 300 or 400mb. I don't use Pandora or iHeart radio, so I'm sure that helps, too.

 

When your contract is 2 years old you can unlock your iPhone and find a carrier more to your liking. Or not.

In the meantime you may wish to put your music on the phone and not use bandwidth.

 

Like I did not see this one coming weeks ago!!!

 

Consumer advocate Clark Howard was slamming AT&T last week for this practice. They call it throttleing. Everyone should send AT&T a message and drop them. I don't think the "contract "said anything about changing data speeds depending on usage.

You will be paying for your XM data plan soon. No such thing as a free lunch.....That money could go toward your increased cell provider data needs.

 

It's better than when they started throttling people at 2 gigs. (http://priuschat.com/forums/freds-h...a-usage-new-wireless-plans-3.html#post1470065) At least they changed it to 3 gigs.

 

SPRINT is the way to go!!! iPhone 4S all the way... and no data charges at all.

 

Perhaps you don't understand the definition of the word unlimited. It's a BS business practice to market an UNLIMITED plan and change the definition of the plan within the small print. As a consumer, the OP has every right to be upset.

 

AT&T learned early on that allowing tethering was going to break their system, so they never allowed it officially. As it became easier to go around that system, more people were tethering and doing it more often. Those were the first to be throttled down. Now everyone is throttled down after they hit a certain "limit", so technically you're still getting unlimited data. Since they never defined unlimited data as unlimited bandwidth, they can throttle you down to a crawl. But you can still have all the data you can access. It'll just be at pre-2000 speeds.

You can't get the unlimited plan anymore. They don't even offer one. If you were an original "unlimited" customer, you were grandfathered in. And as soon as you make any changes to your contract, they bounce you out of the unlimited plan - and you can never go back.

When I was looking into tethering, that was the first thing that jumped out at me.

Banks do something similar all the time with their "no-fee checking" inducements. As soon as they feel like it, they change the rules, and you're either spending money for checking or depositing a 'minimum balance' into your account. And they're as regulated as AT&T. Once the banks have you on the minimum balance, they start putzing around with the definition of minimum balance until you almost have to keep n number of dollars static in the account at all times. So they get you that way.

Those practices are completely unfair, and completely anti-consumer. And not to start a political battle, but our elected officials and all of our government agencies must think otherwise, because they're the ones who allow it to happen in both examples by way of regulations.

 

AT&T does allow tethering if you are willing to pay for it. I switched from my limited "unlimited" plan to the 2GB + 2GB tethering plan and my bill went up $15 for the privilege of tethering. A side benefit is that I can tether the Display Audio Nav system using Bluetooth instead of the USB cable.

But I agree with the OP that throttling customers who have the "unlimited" plan is sleazy even if they are allowed to by their contract.

 

I'm not quite sure that is true. We got 2 iPhone 3GS phones back in July '09 that came with unlimited data. We were able to purchase two new iPhone 4S in October '11, re-up our contract, and keep the unlimited data we had. Note, between July '11 and October '11 we were technically out of contract and on a month-to-month basis. We were even able to temporarily go back to a iPhone 3GS on one of the lines while my wife's iPhone 4S was repaired.

 

What part wasn't true? You can't go to AT&T today as a new customer and get an unlimited data plan for your iPhone. It doesn't exist on their menu.

You and I have the unlimited data plan because we had it originally - when AT&T still had it on the menu.

I don't think your off-contract time mattered. I had my original iPhone for two years and several months before I got a new one - the data plan was still unlimited during that time. And that's happened twice now, from the original to the 3GS, and then from the 3GS to the 4S. Both times I was technically out of contract, but the unlimited data plan is still there.

However, as soon as you make a change to that plan in any way, you lose the unlimited data part. Someday there will only be a few of us unlimited data plan folks left, and then who knows what they'll do.

 

I'm not trying to be difficult, but what sort of contract change would force us to lose unlimited data? Getting new phones for the same lines didn't do it. Neither did having to switch back to an old phone (which required a new SIM) temporarily. I've made other changes on the account that hasn't triggered a change. The only thing I can think that would trip it would be to go to a different data plan and then want to switch back. I briefly considered dropping down to the 2GB plan to save a few bucks a month, especially given that I rarely go over 800MB in a month.

The major cell carriers are in a bit of a bind here. They teased people with the concept of unlimited data to get them to embrace this new concept of being able to browse the internet on their phone. Some phones were able to take advantage of it better than others. People started using data in ways that weren't conceived of originally. And some people started consuming data way in excess of what could be considered normal. So they've had to throttle speeds, charge more money for data, and eliminate "unlimited data" to encourage more responsible use of the limited bandwidth that is available. I don't see an easy solution to this problem. The only reason I can see that Sprint can still offer unlimited data is because they've lost so many customers in the past few years, leaving plenty of bandwidth for the remaining users.

The issue of changing the contract so that unlimited data is now limited with data caps and throttling is a subject that is better suited for HowardForums: Your Mobile Phone Community & Resource - HowardForums Home or some other cell-phone enthusiast website.

 

Not being difficult, at all.

But try adding tethering to your current contract.

That'll do it. As soon as you add tethering, you're forced out of the unlimited plan.

That's when I first discovered some of the other limitations of the unlimited data plan. As someone mentioned previously, the cure is to buy the Data Pro plan, but once you do that, you're out of the unlimited plan AND you're paying $50/mo rather than $30.

 

Yep. That did it for me...

 

If your contract says "Unlimited" with no caveats you could do a small claims suit against ATT (under $10K) which is cheap and easy to do. Lady did that vs. Honda on mileage claims and won.

In small claims it is usually all about the signed contract. If it says unlimited, no restrictions, the judge will side with you and you'll be on CNN and have your unlimited data back.

The REAL bummer is you have to use the USB cable, that's why I moved up to tethering option.

 

Ah ha! That unfortunately makes perfect sense.