AT&T Rolls Out New Data Plan for Heavy Users

[RipperjackAU]

[citation][nom]theargiope[/nom]In America, the culture is to continue raising prices until you find that point where people can no longer afford it.[/citation]

In Australia, the culture is to continue raising prices... period!

 

[theargiope]

[citation][nom]RipperjackAU[/nom]In Australia, the culture is to continue raising prices... period![/citation]
Hah! The bastardization of capitalism -- government supports business, and in return business screws everybody over.

There's a reason we all suspect the middle class is being rung out to dry.

 

[rantoc]

[citation][nom]Kraszmyl[/nom]You also have to remember you have a much physically smaller country , so its cheaper to get infrastructure in place. That being said AT&T are still gouging seeing as I get unlimited 3g from T-Mobile for 20$ a month with tethering here in the US. In theory they are supposed to drop me to 56k speeds after 5 gigs of use but so far i used 4-15 gigs a month and I haven't had any throttling.Verizon isn't to far behind you on pricing. Currently they are doing a 70/30 line for me for 60$ a month without any other stuff bundled. When cable finally catches up or some one else comes along and releases something im sure it will go down more.[/citation]

Count the numbers of customers divided by the numbers of miles/fiber and i wouldn't be surprised if the numbers come up at roughly the same and that would make me guess the cost / infrastructure per customer would be about the same. Yet the prices differ quite alot!

 

[Guest]

Yikes, that is an absolutely terrible price, either way. I don't know much about cell phones, but I know plenty of them have 802.11 features. Why not just use unsecured wifi and tell them to stuff their insanely over price data plans? It's fookin robbery.

I think you can actually subscribe to companies like 'clear', assuming your cellphone has a usb port, you could probably use their plan. 55 dollars for unlimited. Sure, it's 10 bucks more, but the difference between 4GB and unlimited is a pretty wide stretch.

 

[RADIO_ACTIVE]

One word...
FAIL

 

[RADIO_ACTIVE]

Do you think the big wigs look at the articles and comments...

 

[CTPAHHIK]

Feel sorry for US wireless customers. It is really ridiculous how much data costs. As long as you are willing to pay prices would keep going up.

 

[elcentral]

well i recently got myself a new nokia n8 2 year contract in sweden and i get the phone and 5 gig of 6mbs a month if i ower use the limit no extra pay only downgraded to 0,5mbs for 22 dollar/200kr swe. there is a 10gig/10mbs to for 40dollar all on 3G

 

[CTPAHHIK]

[citation][nom]futari[/nom]Everyone here is not realizing something extremely important:Verizon will be throttling network speeds for users of data deemed excessive (however they want to define it). Are Verizon supporters criticizing AT&T really satisfied with a "true unlimited" plan where your bandwidth is suddenly crawling at dialup speeds at Verizon's whim?[/citation]

There is no such thing cannot afford it. Just print more money or take a loan from China.

 

[theargiope]

[citation][nom]CTPAHHIK[/nom]Feel sorry for US wireless customers. It is really ridiculous how much data costs. As long as you are willing to pay prices would keep going up.[/citation]
No; too busy looking at spreadsheets and drinking bourbon with senators.

 

[theargiope]

I jail broke my old 3GS and put a pay-per-use sim in it... not a bad way to go, really.

 

[dapneym]

I am so, so glad that I still have my grandfathered-in "unlimited" plan for $30...I technically get more data than the $45 plan...

 

[gamerk316]

Don't worry; we'll be seeing PC ISP's doing this same thing within the next 2-3 years.

$50 for 4GB, here we come!

 

[mdillenbeck]

I think AT&T just outdid Verizon... after all, if you use data through a smartphone on Verizon they charge you $20/GB overage (vs the $10/GB on a mobile broadband device like the Mifi - which you can get a 10GB $80 plan for)...

Remember, we are talking tethered - not in phone.... ie, using your phone as a modem with your laptop to visit more data intensive sites that iOS can't visit (like anything with Flash).

 

[fracture]

I just hate paying for the internet more than once. And once at home is all we should be paying for.

 

[mikem_90]

[citation][nom]gamerk316[/nom]Don't worry; we'll be seeing PC ISP's doing this same thing within the next 2-3 years.$50 for 4GB, here we come![/citation]

If it were not for Comcast breaking the stranglehold telecoms had on internet, we'd likely have been there once already if not be stuck in the days of ISDN.

 

[therabiddeer]

[citation][nom]theargiope[/nom]Telecoms want to manipulate people into thinking that bandwidth is some kind of precious resource. In reality, it's a commodity. The bandwidth speed on my iPhone 4 - in the Atlanta suburbs and about 500 feet from the nearest tower - averages about 1.35Mbps down, and 1.20Mbps up. That's approximately 0.000165 GB per second. Thus, accruing 1GB of bandwidth is a little over 6,000 seconds of transfer at that average speed. 4GB would be 24,000 seconds of transfer. That's about 800 seconds per day over the course of a 30 day month. Of course, at over 1Mbps speeds, it doesn't take very long to do just about anything a normal person would do on a pocket device. What percentage of iPhone users do you think actually burn more than 800 seconds of transfer every single day? If you said less than 10%, you would be correct. There are absolutely power users can could burn 10GB/mo or more in a month. But we're talking about a tiny percentage of users that are far beyond offset by the other 90% -- most of which don't come close to even 1GB/mo.My point is -- "Unlimited Data" would be little more than just really good marketing. It would give AT&T brand value benefits, and a superficial benefit over Verizon. But why build brand value when you can make people think bandwidth is rare, and thus expensive?Greed is good, right? It's why our economy is always so stable and secure, after all.[/citation]
You shouldve converted 800 seconds into minutes to see just how little transfer that is.
800 seconds = a little more than 13 minutes. The full 4GB is about 7 hours. Considering the number of people that watch more than 13 minutes of youtube each day, thats not very much bandwidth. Also, people will continue to use even more bandwidth on their phones as they are able to watch netflix on them soon (and may even hook their phones up to their tv to watch netflix).

 

[hoofhearted]

I think paying extra for a "tethering" option is bullsht. If I had to pay $25 for 2GB, then I should be able to use that 2GB as I see fit.

I think I'll stick with my $30 unlimited jailbroken mywi no extra cost to tether 3GS. When ATT renigs on that, then it is time to port my # to google voice and explore the walmart option.

 

[thlillyr]

Soo 45$ for 4 gigs. +70$ + butt rape per Mb after that for regular voice plan = holy crap expensive. Have to say that 4 gigs is very little for 1 month of Internet usage. I tether my iPad to my droid (blasphemy I know but there it i s.) and using loge i n Netflix email YouTube surfing the net. Downloading apps streaming pandora I average 15 gigs a month. If I had AT&T holy crap talk about overages. Id sooner make love to a well endowed elephant than pay that bill.


So again how is this being competitive to Verizon unlimited for 29 bucks soon and soon to be 4 g nation wide. I just don't see AT&T keeping up with vereizon in price scheme network infrastructure and quality of service. I hope to they don't get bailed out when they go under. Biodegrade are supposed to fail so othersf can grow in their stead

 

[thlillyr]

dang it, Tom please please please add edit for these comments so I don't look like an idiot when I forget to proofread my posts