Att throttle data9/22/2023 The goal here is to push 3GB+ users with unlimited plans over to tiered options where they'll pay at least $40 for that use. So bits of data are just $10 per GB if you buy 3GB in advance, but $67 per GB if you buy a 300MB plan - and this somehow reflects the reality of a competitive situation, or maps in some reasonable fashion to issues like spectrum usage and bandwidth availability. If 300MB is exceeded, an additional 300MB is automatically provided at a rate of $20 for each additional 300MB. The point of the lower plan is to scare users into opting for the higher - especially when you read this gem in the "DataPlus 300MB" fine print:ģ00MB of data is for use in the U.S. There's no way that works out to a fair market price in either case either the 3GB is ludicrously discounted or the 300MB is ridiculously inflated. ![]() AT&T currently only offers two data plans - $20 a month buys you 300MB, while $30 buys you 3GB. At 5PM in a downtown metropolitan area, cellular bandwidth will be at an absolute premium - a graveyard shift worker in one of the office buildings at 3 AM has no way to saturate the available spectrum, even if they had a dozen phones. First, AT&T's bandwidth throttle is based solely on a person's usage, not their location or the overall demand for bandwidth at any given time. There are two major reasons to doubt such claims. The fine print reads: "If 3GB is exceeded, an additional 1 GB is automatically provided at a rate of $10 for each additional 1 GB." Anyone using above 3GB on an unlimited plan is a customer who isn't paying enough for the privilege (from AT&T's perspective).ĪT&T makes a great deal of noise about maintaining the network's quality of service and the need to crack down on heavy users who, it's implied, are spoiling things for the rest of us. So why would AT&T want unlimited users to move to tiered pricing when its maximum tier is also set at 3GB? Simple - the amount of money the company makes on customers who exceed that 3GB limit. ![]() "For context, less than 5% of smartphone customers use more than 3GB per month." ![]() "Our unlimited plan customers have told us they want more clarity around how the program works and what they can expect," AT&T said. The magic number is 3GB, which conveniently happens to be the maximum amount of tiered bandwidth AT&T will sell you. Several months ago, AT&T notified customers that it would begin throttling network speeds for users who exceeded a certain threshold, with the definitive throttle point defined as an imprecise "the top 5% of mobile data users." The company has issued a statement clarifying this policy after irate customers with unlimited data plans demanded to know what the cap was and how the company determined who should and shouldn't be throttled.
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