I thought this sounded cool until I read that they will still throttle you to 128kbps once you use 75GB of data on your unlimited plan. Seems like you are better off using normal 5G speeds when...
I thought this sounded cool until I read that they will still throttle you to 128kbps once you use 75GB of data on your unlimited plan. Seems like you are better off using normal 5G speeds when you need to and Wi-Fi the rest of the time.
It will be interesting to see if the $7 a month customers get extra speed because of new capacity that AT&T has built, or if they will just be prioritized over the normal 5G customers. I don't think charging more for a high speed is bad, but if they make existing service worse to do it, they need to be punished.
Am I the only one who only uses a few gigabytes of data a month on my phone? Most everywhere I go has wifi and I don't really watch many videos when I'm out and about.
Am I the only one who only uses a few gigabytes of data a month on my phone? Most everywhere I go has wifi and I don't really watch many videos when I'm out and about.
It really depends what you're doing and where. Obviously people with wifi at work and home are going to have a better time than those who use data all day at work to consume content. Watching...
It really depends what you're doing and where. Obviously people with wifi at work and home are going to have a better time than those who use data all day at work to consume content.
Watching Netflix as a passenger on a long car ride will get you there in no time. So will listening to YouTube video podcasts.
Downloading games, playing multiplayer mobile games, using your phone as a hotspot for a PC or TV, etc.
If you're using mobile data for forums or whatever, you're not going to have an issue usually.
My wife and I have 7GB between us and we've only gotten anywhere near it once. We could increase our limit but I find it to be a good way to limit mindless browsing in general.
My wife and I have 7GB between us and we've only gotten anywhere near it once. We could increase our limit but I find it to be a good way to limit mindless browsing in general.
I don't use more than 75GB a month, but the kind of person who wants the fastest 5G speeds on their phone probably is. Also having fast 5G will just let you burn through your data cap faster than...
I don't use more than 75GB a month, but the kind of person who wants the fastest 5G speeds on their phone probably is. Also having fast 5G will just let you burn through your data cap faster than ever.
I usually use 20-30gigs a month. More during marching band season when I use my phone as a hotspot during contests I work. Youtube in the background during work and some mindless browsing during...
I usually use 20-30gigs a month. More during marching band season when I use my phone as a hotspot during contests I work. Youtube in the background during work and some mindless browsing during lunch adds up. I'm also super guilty of forgetting to enable wifi when I get home (thankfully I'm on an unlimited plan)
I think it’s inflated because I did some traveling within the last billing period, but iOS only shows me the last billing period. Highest app by usage was pocketcasts at 50gb. Then YouTube at...
I think it’s inflated because I did some traveling within the last billing period, but iOS only shows me the last billing period. Highest app by usage was pocketcasts at 50gb. Then YouTube at 36gb. Then Safari, Google Maps, and Photos ordered by usage.
iOS shows all data until you reset it. Take a look at what period iOS actually is reporting for. It’s all the way at the bottom. For example, I am at 1.13 TB, but that is since September 2022.
iOS shows all data until you reset it. Take a look at what period iOS actually is reporting for. It’s all the way at the bottom. For example, I am at 1.13 TB, but that is since September 2022.
Are you sure this is the last billing period? On ATT the iOS data usage counters do not reset unless you manually reset them. It should show the "Last Reset" at the very bottom of the...
Are you sure this is the last billing period? On ATT the iOS data usage counters do not reset unless you manually reset them. It should show the "Last Reset" at the very bottom of the screen–mine's at 158GB since Feb 2022.
That's me. My actual plan is 5GB/mo. I do have an awesome 1000GB/mo addon for like $10/mo extra, which is essentially unlimited. But the most ever I used in a month was like 70GB? And that was...
That's me. My actual plan is 5GB/mo. I do have an awesome 1000GB/mo addon for like $10/mo extra, which is essentially unlimited. But the most ever I used in a month was like 70GB? And that was while on vacation (the hotel WiFi was terrible). I watch a lot of YouTube and Instragram, but not when I'm out and about. So my typical usage is like 2-3GB/mo.
I’m right there with you. I watch TikToks all day at work, text, and use Music and Overcast (podcasts) on my commute. I only connect to my home WiFi. My concern is often my battery, not my data...
I’m right there with you. I watch TikToks all day at work, text, and use Music and Overcast (podcasts) on my commute. I only connect to my home WiFi. My concern is often my battery, not my data consumption! When I read these articles I wonder what everyone else is up to.
Curious, I checked my stats – higher than expected..average of 13.5 GB monthly! That’s wild considering I come from a time where phones only made phone calls.
To be fair that's specifically for the "Extra" unlimited plan which is clearly advertised as only 75GB of high speed internet. The highest "Premium" plan has no such restriction. I think there's a...
To be fair that's specifically for the "Extra" unlimited plan which is clearly advertised as only 75GB of high speed internet.
The highest "Premium" plan has no such restriction.
I think there's a lack of understanding around this entire topic honestly. The QCI 7 data priority you're paying for with Turbo is not bypassing any artificial bandwidth caps, it's just the priority level your traffic takes when the network is under heavy congestion. This is a way to make sure you have the best chance of getting service at large events and in dense urban areas.
All the plans below those top two "unlimited" plans (only Premium is actually unlimited at high speed) were already prioritized at a lower level, as is every single MNVO hosted on ATT's network (think Cricket Wireless).
ATT is an incredibly scummy company don't get me wrong, but this isn't really a big deal. It's their previously completely unadvertised internal prioritization system being ever so slightly adjusted as they realized there was a demand from techies who were figuring out which plans had which QCI levels. Previously this was something that would randomly change as plans shuffled about with no visibility, now it's being sold as an add-on outright which seems to make sense. Yeah it makes them extra money now that they've clarified the benefit and are selling it explicitly, but that just seems like regular business.
ATT has the best network in my area, and I'm the sort of tech nerd that's going to pay for the best possible connection within an attainable price (I'm not going to set up a business for those plans though lol). Being able to pay for that directly instead of researching videos from enthusiasts doing testing between different plans or trying to find rumors about insider info from ATT employees isn't something I'm too mad about even if it's going to cost me extra.
The throttling thing irks me a lot, even if the 128kbps speed cap is "only" for using your device as a wifi hotspot. There are other bandwidth and speed caps and even though I'm not a big user of...
The throttling thing irks me a lot, even if the 128kbps speed cap is "only" for using your device as a wifi hotspot. There are other bandwidth and speed caps and even though I'm not a big user of cell data, they're frankly unreasonable for a lot of use cases. Imagine if your power bill had a small multiplier if your kW/h usage went above a certain amount, even if your total kW usage remained consistent on a daily basis. Or if you had a day or two of atypically high usage because, god forbid, you weren't actually using your cellphone on a wifi connection and wanted the service you were paying for.
When I was in Europe a couple years ago I used T-mobile's free roaming. I didn't read all of the fine print. It was 3G at like 50MB/day and then throttled you to 2G. I didn't even know my (admittedly old) phone could do 2G. If the rental car hadn't had GPS, I'm certain that I wouldn't have been able to get around very well.
With the throttling included in AT&T's scheme, it feels like the whole thing is in bad faith. They're not really prioritizing your traffic or giving you more in a substantial way, they're simply making it easier to use up your bandwidth rapidly. Think about all the software that improves your video quality (or prefetch web pages) if it detects that you have a quantifiably good network. Serving lots of content quickly isn't inherently the same as serving good quality content at reasonable speeds, especially when we're forced to pay per GB.
Anyhow, I hope Net Neutrality and subsequent laws/rulings find a way to end this kind of thing.
As I see it the thing holding back cellular technology is coverage not speed. I spent a summer driving to as many state parks in Upstate NY as I could and I took two phones with me on two major...
As I see it the thing holding back cellular technology is coverage not speed.
I spent a summer driving to as many state parks in Upstate NY as I could and I took two phones with me on two major networks and I came to the conclusion that most of the state (at least 80%) was a cell phone dead spot. The only radio station I could count on was the occasional big AM station that carried The Rush Limbaugh show at noon.
I’m one of very few mobile developers who don’t own a smartphone with a plan (though I have a box of cheap Androids) because they don’t work at my house. Practically I travel with a tablet, almost always I can pull into a gas station to make a Skype call. My only trouble is some people have gotten phone-anxious and you can’t really deal with them unless you can send and receive texts 24/7. When I needed to use the Ticketmaster app to get into a Red Bulls game I connected to the stadium WiFi.
If I could pay $7 a month and get better coverage I would be for that. For that matter, “enterprise” use of IoT is particularly sensitive. If you can’t cover the 20% of stations that are hard to cover you won’t sell the 80% that are crazy profitable to cover.
I went without a cell plan for the longest time because WiFi is normally good enough, and I don’t need data while driving. It was sometimes inconvenient to deal with dodgy motel WiFi when...
I went without a cell plan for the longest time because WiFi is normally good enough, and I don’t need data while driving. It was sometimes inconvenient to deal with dodgy motel WiFi when traveling, though. Now my wife and I share a Google Fi plan and I annoy her by browsing the Internet while she’s driving.
I like this one https://parks.ny.gov/parks/chimneybluffs/ which I was thinking of driving to to see the eclipse if the weather was better than it was. Also I like...
I thought this sounded cool until I read that they will still throttle you to 128kbps once you use 75GB of data on your unlimited plan. Seems like you are better off using normal 5G speeds when you need to and Wi-Fi the rest of the time.
It will be interesting to see if the $7 a month customers get extra speed because of new capacity that AT&T has built, or if they will just be prioritized over the normal 5G customers. I don't think charging more for a high speed is bad, but if they make existing service worse to do it, they need to be punished.
Am I the only one who only uses a few gigabytes of data a month on my phone? Most everywhere I go has wifi and I don't really watch many videos when I'm out and about.
It really depends what you're doing and where. Obviously people with wifi at work and home are going to have a better time than those who use data all day at work to consume content.
Watching Netflix as a passenger on a long car ride will get you there in no time. So will listening to YouTube video podcasts.
Downloading games, playing multiplayer mobile games, using your phone as a hotspot for a PC or TV, etc.
If you're using mobile data for forums or whatever, you're not going to have an issue usually.
My plan only has 5GB/mo., and I have only paid for more data once in the three years I've had it.
My wife and I have 7GB between us and we've only gotten anywhere near it once. We could increase our limit but I find it to be a good way to limit mindless browsing in general.
I don't use more than 75GB a month, but the kind of person who wants the fastest 5G speeds on their phone probably is. Also having fast 5G will just let you burn through your data cap faster than ever.
I usually use 20-30gigs a month. More during marching band season when I use my phone as a hotspot during contests I work. Youtube in the background during work and some mindless browsing during lunch adds up. I'm also super guilty of forgetting to enable wifi when I get home (thankfully I'm on an unlimited plan)
I just checked and apparently I used 238gb in the last billing cycle. Not entirely sure how, but I guess take that as a data point of high data usage.
What on earth do you do on your phone? Lots of video while you're out and about? Maintain an active torrenting setup from your phone?
I think it’s inflated because I did some traveling within the last billing period, but iOS only shows me the last billing period. Highest app by usage was pocketcasts at 50gb. Then YouTube at 36gb. Then Safari, Google Maps, and Photos ordered by usage.
So that, apparently.
iOS shows all data until you reset it. Take a look at what period iOS actually is reporting for. It’s all the way at the bottom. For example, I am at 1.13 TB, but that is since September 2022.
Are you sure this is the last billing period? On ATT the iOS data usage counters do not reset unless you manually reset them. It should show the "Last Reset" at the very bottom of the screen–mine's at 158GB since Feb 2022.
I go out of town a lot for work and use data instead of hotel WiFi (safer, faster) and I usually don't come anywhere near 75 GB.
I pay £5 for half a gig each month and that’s plenty. I’m basically always on WiFi and just pre-download music or podcasts before getting in the car.
That's me. My actual plan is 5GB/mo. I do have an awesome 1000GB/mo addon for like $10/mo extra, which is essentially unlimited. But the most ever I used in a month was like 70GB? And that was while on vacation (the hotel WiFi was terrible). I watch a lot of YouTube and Instragram, but not when I'm out and about. So my typical usage is like 2-3GB/mo.
I’m right there with you. I watch TikToks all day at work, text, and use Music and Overcast (podcasts) on my commute. I only connect to my home WiFi. My concern is often my battery, not my data consumption! When I read these articles I wonder what everyone else is up to.
Curious, I checked my stats – higher than expected..average of 13.5 GB monthly! That’s wild considering I come from a time where phones only made phone calls.
To be fair that's specifically for the "Extra" unlimited plan which is clearly advertised as only 75GB of high speed internet.
The highest "Premium" plan has no such restriction.
I think there's a lack of understanding around this entire topic honestly. The QCI 7 data priority you're paying for with Turbo is not bypassing any artificial bandwidth caps, it's just the priority level your traffic takes when the network is under heavy congestion. This is a way to make sure you have the best chance of getting service at large events and in dense urban areas.
All the plans below those top two "unlimited" plans (only Premium is actually unlimited at high speed) were already prioritized at a lower level, as is every single MNVO hosted on ATT's network (think Cricket Wireless).
ATT is an incredibly scummy company don't get me wrong, but this isn't really a big deal. It's their previously completely unadvertised internal prioritization system being ever so slightly adjusted as they realized there was a demand from techies who were figuring out which plans had which QCI levels. Previously this was something that would randomly change as plans shuffled about with no visibility, now it's being sold as an add-on outright which seems to make sense. Yeah it makes them extra money now that they've clarified the benefit and are selling it explicitly, but that just seems like regular business.
ATT has the best network in my area, and I'm the sort of tech nerd that's going to pay for the best possible connection within an attainable price (I'm not going to set up a business for those plans though lol). Being able to pay for that directly instead of researching videos from enthusiasts doing testing between different plans or trying to find rumors about insider info from ATT employees isn't something I'm too mad about even if it's going to cost me extra.
The throttling thing irks me a lot, even if the 128kbps speed cap is "only" for using your device as a wifi hotspot. There are other bandwidth and speed caps and even though I'm not a big user of cell data, they're frankly unreasonable for a lot of use cases. Imagine if your power bill had a small multiplier if your kW/h usage went above a certain amount, even if your total kW usage remained consistent on a daily basis. Or if you had a day or two of atypically high usage because, god forbid, you weren't actually using your cellphone on a wifi connection and wanted the service you were paying for.
When I was in Europe a couple years ago I used T-mobile's free roaming. I didn't read all of the fine print. It was 3G at like 50MB/day and then throttled you to 2G. I didn't even know my (admittedly old) phone could do 2G. If the rental car hadn't had GPS, I'm certain that I wouldn't have been able to get around very well.
With the throttling included in AT&T's scheme, it feels like the whole thing is in bad faith. They're not really prioritizing your traffic or giving you more in a substantial way, they're simply making it easier to use up your bandwidth rapidly. Think about all the software that improves your video quality (or prefetch web pages) if it detects that you have a quantifiably good network. Serving lots of content quickly isn't inherently the same as serving good quality content at reasonable speeds, especially when we're forced to pay per GB.
Anyhow, I hope Net Neutrality and subsequent laws/rulings find a way to end this kind of thing.
As I see it the thing holding back cellular technology is coverage not speed.
I spent a summer driving to as many state parks in Upstate NY as I could and I took two phones with me on two major networks and I came to the conclusion that most of the state (at least 80%) was a cell phone dead spot. The only radio station I could count on was the occasional big AM station that carried The Rush Limbaugh show at noon.
I’m one of very few mobile developers who don’t own a smartphone with a plan (though I have a box of cheap Androids) because they don’t work at my house. Practically I travel with a tablet, almost always I can pull into a gas station to make a Skype call. My only trouble is some people have gotten phone-anxious and you can’t really deal with them unless you can send and receive texts 24/7. When I needed to use the Ticketmaster app to get into a Red Bulls game I connected to the stadium WiFi.
If I could pay $7 a month and get better coverage I would be for that. For that matter, “enterprise” use of IoT is particularly sensitive. If you can’t cover the 20% of stations that are hard to cover you won’t sell the 80% that are crazy profitable to cover.
I went without a cell plan for the longest time because WiFi is normally good enough, and I don’t need data while driving. It was sometimes inconvenient to deal with dodgy motel WiFi when traveling, though. Now my wife and I share a Google Fi plan and I annoy her by browsing the Internet while she’s driving.
Coverage in rural areas might even get worse due to how the US is moving off Huawei.
Which state parks were your favorites?
I like this one
https://parks.ny.gov/parks/chimneybluffs/
which I was thinking of driving to to see the eclipse if the weather was better than it was. Also I like
https://dec.ny.gov/places/bear-swamp-state-forest