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AT&T Wages Quiet War on Grandfathered Unlimited Users
- Thread starter Poke
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I am now off to go cycling while using a cycling GPS APP on my phone and listening to the XM APP on my phone, all of which I am paying for through monthly fees. I am going to use my phone as it is legitametly intended to be used without any "intentional" interruption. Hope I do not go over 3GB this bill cycle while enjoying my phone as it is supposed to be enjoyed.
Bottom line, as unlimited users grandfathered from the old plan will now get 50% more headroom than they did a week ago, bringing them inline with the $30 3GB cap all new users get, they are at least somewhat equal. Still a better plan as you only get throttled, you don't get hit with $10 fees for every gig you exceed. I'm happy as I use about 2-2.5 GB a month as it is.
I understand their plight as they have a limited amount of bandwidth, and they keep selling these things by the boatload. Verizon and Sprint have slower 3G speeds, and you can't talk and surf at the same time like you can with AT&T. Definitely avoid iCloud though as that can run up your usage when you aren't looking (if you are always in range of a WiFi hotspot that is one thing, but most aren't).
I understand their plight as they have a limited amount of bandwidth, and they keep selling these things by the boatload. Verizon and Sprint have slower 3G speeds, and you can't talk and surf at the same time like you can with AT&T. Definitely avoid iCloud though as that can run up your usage when you aren't looking (if you are always in range of a WiFi hotspot that is one thing, but most aren't).
AnandTech - AT&T Sets Unlimited 3G Data cap to 3GB, 4G LTE Unlimited cap to 5GB
Looks like 3G slows down to 256kbits/sec. Actually a reasonable speed. Not going to give you HD video, but audio and low quality video would be possible.
Enough for audio but one will be lucky to get any type of video and they would have to have a strong signal.
Heck, I cannot even get a clear consistent high quality video stream on 3G with 4 bars.
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256kb should be plenty enough bandwidth for audio streaming. I was streaming radio with less bandwidth when I was on Sprint as a provider. I would have killed to get 256kb during my short experience with Sprint.
I'm on Verizon with a 3Gb plan on my MyFi LTE and my phone is unlimited. Before they killed my free wifi tethering I used the phone for a week of LTE wifi tethering and got a text near the end of the week I was exceeding my "limit" Verizon doesn't know what the definition of unlimited is either. Never did slow me down but I heard they plan to do that now with unlimited accounts. Don't know who is the donkey or the cart, AT&T or Verizon but one of them is leading the other in this move. On my MyFi LTE card the contract is full speed and $10 extra charge for extra 1Gb over the limit. I like that as I don't mind paying for what I use. But I agree with DK, if I have an unlimited plan, they can't change the rules after I get that plan to some other way of limiting the data. Sprint is in trouble financially and they need subscribers so go ahead and move to Sprint.
The problem is that they (AT&T and VZ followed) have set the price of $10/GB. There seems to be no move/competition to try to undercut anyone on it. You either pay $10/GB or throttle with the lone holdout of Sprint. Perhaps if Sprint gains enough traction there will eventually be some movement on the price per GB, but I would bet that Sprint ends unlimited before the other give in.
Per GB rates need to get down to around $1-$2 to be reasonable. Considering they cost the providers around 10-25 cents, it would still be an impressive markup. So, charge $30 for the first 3 then have a low per GB rate after. This would be much more in line with the EU. Considering some country EU plans range from unlimited for $10 or less per month, to less than an euro per GB. The US is becomming one of the most expensive markets for wireless, probably because the market is controlled by 2 companies that do not want to compete.
Per GB rates need to get down to around $1-$2 to be reasonable. Considering they cost the providers around 10-25 cents, it would still be an impressive markup. So, charge $30 for the first 3 then have a low per GB rate after. This would be much more in line with the EU. Considering some country EU plans range from unlimited for $10 or less per month, to less than an euro per GB. The US is becomming one of the most expensive markets for wireless, probably because the market is controlled by 2 companies that do not want to compete.
At&t is a day late and 1500.00 + dollars per year short. This does not include 18 of my friends who have dropped At&t for prepaid android phones.
So to say the least i know att's income decreased approx 27,000 per year as far as we are concerned.
me, my family and all my friends are "the top 5% of heavy data users".
I will never again sign any contracts with these lying single sided big corporate rip off companies again. i spent a lot of money with att over the years. their service in this area was less than ideal...dropped calls all the time with full signal and every type of phone, voice echoes during calls, voicemail two days late, slow 3G speeds even when i was not throttled, customer service at the corporate store took an hour of waiting for a csr to wait on you.
i can rant on but the above is true.
i have virgin mobile prepaid with a rooted moto triumph. works well.
So to say the least i know att's income decreased approx 27,000 per year as far as we are concerned.
me, my family and all my friends are "the top 5% of heavy data users".
I will never again sign any contracts with these lying single sided big corporate rip off companies again. i spent a lot of money with att over the years. their service in this area was less than ideal...dropped calls all the time with full signal and every type of phone, voice echoes during calls, voicemail two days late, slow 3G speeds even when i was not throttled, customer service at the corporate store took an hour of waiting for a csr to wait on you.
i can rant on but the above is true.
i have virgin mobile prepaid with a rooted moto triumph. works well.
Two points here.
First, a lot of European communication companies are either government controlled monopolies or directly government subsidized or owned. And we all know how well the European economic model is doing. So I'm not considering their pricing in a search to find a fair price.
Second, free market capitalism rewards more profit and punishes less profit. Therefore if you have a limited product or service the only way to make sure your not leaving money on the table is to raise the price until you can't sell the last unit or gigabyte. And that is the fair price.
This makes magic happen as new capital goes to the first person who presents business plan that can create the same product or gigabyte and can sell it for less and still make a satisfactory return on investment. And this means the fair price goes down. Which means it will be affordable to more people,which means more is produced increasing the the whole economy's gross national product.
Capitalism. I get choked up just writing about it.
+1Two points here.
First, a lot of European communication companies are either government controlled monopolies or directly government subsidized or owned. And we all know how well the European economic model is doing. So I'm not considering their pricing in a search to find a fair price.
Second, free market capitalism rewards more profit and punishes less profit. Therefore if you have a limited product or service the only way to make sure your not leaving money on the table is to raise the price until you can't sell the last unit or gigabyte. And that is the fair price.
This makes magic happen as new capital goes to the first person who presents business plan that can create the same product or gigabyte and can sell it for less and still make a satisfactory return on investment. And this means the fair price goes down. Which means it will be affordable to more people,which means more is produced increasing the the whole economy's gross national product.
Capitalism. I get choked up just writing about it.
Ultimately it is this free market system that will either force ATT to change it policies, which it has slightly, improve its infrastructure to meet the new demands, or begin to see a decline in profits due subscribers leaving to pursue better options and/or better service.
When I get frustrated with them, that is me as a consumer in our free market decision choosing for myself what is best. And hoping they get the message that they are upsetting their customers and will change accordingly. If not, then me in our free market system where I have choice and other options will freely choose to exercise those other options. They may not be the perfect options, but they are better in the areas that concern me. The last thing I want is the government coming in and forcing them to abide by standards and subsides them, thus making every company more or less the same.
steve- I was just about to post what you did. Last I read the effective tax rate in France was 75% for average wage earner while the effective rate here is about 25% for those who do pay taxes. about 10% for those who don't pay income tax ( 55% ) but tax on everything else. You are spot on with the concept of comparing our private held company rates with those that are subsidized by their government it is not a fair comparison. Probably when you crunch the numbers it all comes out the same.
Mike- where did you pull that cost per GB from? ( 10 to 25 cents ) How was that number determined? I was about to look in the SEC filings 10K report but figured I'd ask you first.
A good way to see if the companies are making a fair markup, may be to look at their overall earnings reports and see exactly how profitable they are. If marginal, then drastically lowering one of their profit centers as you proposed could put the company severely in the red, halt all build out of the network to full capacity, and kill the incentive for investors to put their money in the company's future growth. I suspect that once the LTE build out is complete and has a year or two of amortization under their belt, the cost will come down, but the investment debt needs to be paid first.
Mike- where did you pull that cost per GB from? ( 10 to 25 cents ) How was that number determined? I was about to look in the SEC filings 10K report but figured I'd ask you first.
A good way to see if the companies are making a fair markup, may be to look at their overall earnings reports and see exactly how profitable they are. If marginal, then drastically lowering one of their profit centers as you proposed could put the company severely in the red, halt all build out of the network to full capacity, and kill the incentive for investors to put their money in the company's future growth. I suspect that once the LTE build out is complete and has a year or two of amortization under their belt, the cost will come down, but the investment debt needs to be paid first.
Wow. Your weekend must be about as exciting as mine. Do you troll all the forums? I just got started on this form a few weeks back when I got my tablet. Otherwise I'm just a Dish and Bar & Grill lurker.
Unfortunately the US does NOT have a free market on the cellular phone business. If you were a billionare like lets say Charlie Ergan that decides he wants to be in the cell phone business, you cannot just start up a company and start competing. Look at how many years and plays it has taken him to get some spectrum that may eventually be allowed to be used for cell phones. You pretty much have to buy one of the existing companies since they have all the spectrum. AT&T sits on its spectrum and tries to buy out the competition.
AT&T knows that they really only have to compete with VZ, and they know that VZ is not really interested in undercutting them. Sprint has tried and AT&T and VZ have somewhat matched most of what sprint has done. Sprint now has committed so much money to the iPhone that they will not be able to afford lowering prices for a while. T-Mobile has been looking for a way out of the US market for a while. They have not been really commited.
I agree if we had a truly open market we would have much better competition, and AT&T would have a lot lower data rates. But, for now we have a government granted douopoly, that will continue to buy as much spectrum as possible to keep competitors at bay, even if they end up sitting on it.
AT&T knows that they really only have to compete with VZ, and they know that VZ is not really interested in undercutting them. Sprint has tried and AT&T and VZ have somewhat matched most of what sprint has done. Sprint now has committed so much money to the iPhone that they will not be able to afford lowering prices for a while. T-Mobile has been looking for a way out of the US market for a while. They have not been really commited.
I agree if we had a truly open market we would have much better competition, and AT&T would have a lot lower data rates. But, for now we have a government granted douopoly, that will continue to buy as much spectrum as possible to keep competitors at bay, even if they end up sitting on it.
