ATT is killing 2 year unlimited data plan

[Sanlmar]

Free Fluffer Druff.
This stuff was always in his wheelhouse.

For years I have been taking a hand-me-down phone from my kids and wife when they scooped the upgrade.

I finally bought a new iPhone 6S Plus for myself.

The kid in the ATT store said the 2 year unlimited data plan with the subsidized phone upgrade is dead next month. He actually had a little trouble with my purchase as corporate was even then fiddling with the plan's software.

I started with ATT almost a decade ago. Maybe longer. We bought flip phones back then. I just wanted unlimited text at the time, especially with the kids. They had a plan with unlimited talk, text and data. God, thinking about this makes me feel old.

What's data? "Oh, okay... as long as it isn't extra"

Everytime you upgraded your phone your contract rolled over and you were locked in. Thus, the price hasn't changed in a decade. I ain't a Jew shopper. For me just not having to think about extra charges was value.

Well, fast forward to Netflix on phone and businesses tethering to their ATT data plan. The party is over. Grab that upgrade now. I am locked in for another 2 years and am loving that play. The other lines only have one year left.

ATT is backing away to some degree from subsidizing phones too. I read the new iPhone 7 is gonna be $900-1200. Fuck that. Times are changing.

I can't imagine what I will be doing when my plans unwind. I will definitely stop paying for kids phones. Hit the street kids.

Son tells me stories about watching movies and Streaming TV on hours long team bus rides with his teammates gathered around cause they are on some limited or pay-as-you-go plan. Enjoy it while you can kid.

[simpdog]

Free Fluffer Druff.
This stuff was always in his wheelhouse.

For years I have been taking a hand-me-down phone from my kids and wife when they scooped the upgrade.

I finally bought a new iPhone 6S Plus for myself.

The kid in the ATT store said the 2 year unlimited data plan with the subsidized phone upgrade is dead next month. He actually had a little trouble with my purchase as corporate was even then fiddling with the plan's software.

I started with ATT almost a decade ago. Maybe longer. We bought flip phones back then. I just wanted unlimited text at the time, especially with the kids. They had a plan with unlimited talk, text and data. God, thinking about this makes me feel old.

What's data? "Oh, okay... as long as it isn't extra"

Everytime you upgraded your phone your contract rolled over and you were locked in. Thus, the price hasn't changed in a decade. I ain't a Jew shopper. For me just not having to think about extra charges was value.

Well, fast forward to Netflix on phone and businesses tethering to their ATT data plan. The party is over. Grab that upgrade now. I am locked in for another 2 years and am loving that play. The other lines only have one year left.

ATT is backing away to some degree from subsidizing phones too. I read the new iPhone 7 is gonna be $900-1200. Fuck that. Times are changing.

I can't imagine what I will be doing when my plans unwind. I will definitely stop paying for kids phones. Hit the street kids.

Son tells me stories about watching movies and Streaming TV on hours long team bus rides with his teammates gathered around cause they are on some limited or pay-as-you-go plan. Enjoy it while you can kid.

Problem is the phone, cable, etc companies always need something to take your money.

1. calls/limited minutes. Free at night but going to cost you during the day.
2. Texts. 100 free but any over that 5cents to 10 cents. LOL now at how sending a few sentences used to cost money.
3. Data. 1-2 gig free then pay out the ass for overages.
4. Phones. Used to get a decent phone for cheap, now starting to cost more.

Now they're recycling the "unlimited data". There will be more deals from Netflix, etc. where that type of video doesn't count towards your total. Netflix/etc will be the companies paying for the bandwidth not you.

So at that point you really don't need unlimited data since you'll only be using it for browsing/real time data type applications.

[Dan Druff]

AT&T unlimited data plan is shit.

They started throttling it 2011 if you ran over a relatively low amount of data (like 2 GB per phone).

So you'd be running at max 3G speed.

Called them up and bitched about it, and they told me that they "sent a notice" in 2013 informing me that unlimited now meant unlimited + throttling.

I objected and claimed that was changing the contract, and they told me that their unlimited data plans only existed when 3G was the highest speed available, so all they have to do is give 3G to satisfy it.

Dirty.

After like 30 minutes of bitching and debating, the manager I was speaking to finally made a compromise and switched me to a 15 GB plan with rollover for the price of 10 GB with rollover -- something not available at the time to the general public.

Last year they were fined $100 million for this: http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/17/tech...ited-dat-plan/

... but it's unclear if they actually changed their policy.

And of course, the customers got none of that $100 million.

[chinamaniac]

TMOBILE FTW!!!

[Sanlmar]

I forgot all about the class action. I remember responding to it but never got any response back.

I have honestly never experienced throttling. I am aware it occurs but this has not been our experience. I wonder what exactly the metric is.

Of our 4 phones, the 2 old people don't do too much data.

I was traveling during the baseball playoffs and the hotel wasn't carrying the games. I remember watching two weeks of games at night on the beach. Hours and hours of streaming. I sat there absolutely amazed how fantastic the picture and delivery was. Flawless. Absolutely, like Cable TV.

The kids savage the data. They would snap complain if they were getting throttled and I have never heard a word.

I guess I just run good. Do you experience throttling? Idiot question, but what does this feel like.

[sonatine]

That Project Fi shit is going to cause a seismic 'readjustment' in telcos. Its going to be bloody.

[FNdonkey]

Dealing with data issues right now. We finally dropped sprint after like 8 years. We were paying $230 a month, I believe we had unlimited data but really didn't use it on our phones that much. Someone talked me into this walmart family mobile deal on the Tmobile network, we had it for several months and thought it was the best deal ever, 2 lines ends up costing me like $86 a month. Well we sold our house in town and moved out into the country. No line of site internet available, cable, or DSL. I use to install hughes net for a living and didn't want to go that route. That's when I figured out that I could just wifi tether to my phone. Each line gets 5 gigs a month. Her phone is twice as expensive as mine but doesn't get 4g at the house where my cheapy lg leon does.

Shopping around to figure out somewhere that I can get some data, I easily can use 5g or more in a day between netflix and fucking off.

I'm posting this while throttled...

[Sanlmar]

That Project Fi shit is going to cause a seismic 'readjustment' in telcos. Its going to be bloody.

Save me from mumbling bumbling the web and point me the way.

My first look shows $10/Gig of data. Are you out of your mind? I'd have $500 data bills.

Edit: NFLX jammed 7-8% during another terrible day in the market. It has more to give too.

[Goodpoop]

AT&T unlimited data plan is shit.

They started throttling it 2011 if you ran over a relatively low amount of data (like 2 GB per phone).

So you'd be running at max 3G speed.

Called them up and bitched about it, and they told me that they "sent a notice" in 2013 informing me that unlimited now meant unlimited + throttling.

I objected and claimed that was changing the contract, and they told me that their unlimited data plans only existed when 3G was the highest speed available, so all they have to do is give 3G to satisfy it.

Dirty.

After like 30 minutes of bitching and debating, the manager I was speaking to finally made a compromise and switched me to a 15 GB plan with rollover for the price of 10 GB with rollover -- something not available at the time to the general public.

Last year they were fined $100 million for this: http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/17/tech...ited-dat-plan/

... but it's unclear if they actually changed their policy.

And of course, the customers got none of that $100 million.

They throttled me at 5gigs and I went apeshit on them. They gave me a $200 credit and switched me to share value plan w/ 30 gigs rollover for $130 a month.

[Sanlmar]

My guess is that throttling doesn't occur in isolation. It probably has something to do with your geography. My family lives in rather rural non metropolitan areas for the most part.

Druff is probably suffering from LA traffic.

Vegas probably has a unique infrastructure for phones. 5 million visitors. It's probably an interesting story. That seems to be working good for one of the kids. She doesn't have cable or a modem. Like so many 20 something's. Phone is tethered and abused and no problems.

[abrown83]

This is where you have to take advantage of the promotions to switch carriers.

Important questions are how much data do you use per month? How many lines you have?

Then it will be pretty easy to give you which companies are the best deal.

[abrown83]

That Project Fi shit is going to cause a seismic 'readjustment' in telcos. Its going to be bloody.

Fi is great for people who don't use a bunch of data. I use it on my business line.

[chinamaniac]

This is where you have to take advantage of the promotions to switch carriers.

Important questions are how much data do you use per month? How many lines you have?

Then it will be pretty easy to give you which companies are the best deal.

YUP, I switched to Tmobile from Verizon, I pay half of what I paid before and that is for 4 lines and I pay about $100

each line gets 2.5 gb LTE then it drops to shitty internet but I never use that much. However I got into some promo for unlimited LTE currently

Now I think sprint is offering to cut this bill in half to $50 for unlimited data for 4 lines. havent looked into it but I think thats what I heard

[FPS_Russia]

Verizon's the devil.

[shortbuspoker]

Robbie Lawler disagrees with you

[snake_in_the_ass]

Verizon is doing everything they can to try to get people off of unlimited data. They raised prices $20/month recently. They also try to force you to pay full price for a new phone to keep your unlimited data. I have been transferring my upgrades to another line on my account and then buying a new phone off of amazon or bestbuy and then just pop in my SIM card. I get a new phone at a subsidized price and don't lose my unlimited.

[BeerAndPoker]

The major carriers sure have taken approaches to target a certain niche of people to extract all value they can to the max. It almost seems like they are working together because none of them have just came in and said "it's time to fuck all these other people and offer up a fully unlimited plan with no bullshit strings for a reasonable price".

Sprint is the one that has tried it but lets face it their network is spotty as hell compared to Verizon.

If Verizon came in with some plan to fuck the rest of these networks over by a certain pricing structure for a good amount of data then they could very well do it but they realize how stable their network is compared to the others which a lot of people are willing to pay for so they get the max they can out of each individual instead of going for the masses.

I had AT&T before and it sucks at least by me so I won't even comment on it.

TMobile is now being sued for cherry picking services to give unlimited data such as netflix, hbogo, etc. while not limiting or throttling these particular ones. They discuss it in all their ads which has created a lot of scrutiny right now.

It's like any carrier you go to you have to make sacrifices unless you're willing to overpay every month.

[Hockey Guy]

I texted for the first time last month.

May god save my soul.

Wasn't my phone though.