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AT&T Unlimited Smartphone data a thing of the past

I wasn't too surprised that my Alltel/Samsung 'Hue' phone that was so highly touted the last two years was dropped like a hot rock. These stores have to make their money by selling new gear - so I was dumb enough to buy the Verizon USB air card. Probably worth a plug nickel by next year - lol! The Samsung 'Hue' was capable of 3G speed too - but I never got the chance to use it in that capacity. I bought the phone outright too >sobs<. Now, it's just an expensive paperweight. It doesn't do that too well - either.

What is surprising to me, is the incredible interest and sales of the 'Droid'. These stores can't keep them in stock - as there is very little that the Droid cannot do. I have a friend that writes applications for the iPhone, and he assured me that the Droid will never beat the iPhone. That was six months ago when he said that. Now, he is eating his words with a generous portion of humble pie.

All in all, the Verizon air card was half of the price of my Samsung 'Hue' . It has been a little flakey in getting it to operate - though. But when it does fire up, the coverage and speed is more than I need when in the field. FAR better than my Hue was ever able to come up with - that's for sure! If you have to make a change, it is the cheapest way out.

The price of obsolescence is getting better - IMO...
 
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It looks like most wireless carriers are going to stop doing "unlimited" and I especially expect that to be the case once LTE takes over. The one bright spot here is that if you do 1GB of overage, it's only $10 more instead of 3 cents per KB or whatever, which is the most reasonable things I've seen a telecom do.

Their press release says "... they will receive an additional 1 GB of data for $10 for use in the month." so I'm not clear if you can do $10 for every additional GB, or if you only get one extra GB per month.

When I was out chasing this year I rented a Verizon broadband card from daypass wireless for $179 or something, so I've never used my iPhone to chase exclusively, although I did leave it open on RadarScope a lot of the time. Since February of 2009 I've only used 5GB of data, which is 400MB per month, roughly, so I would imagine, unless you're streaming video, you're not going to hit that 2GB cap anyway.

What kind of data usage are you guys seeing? Is this going to throw a wrench in your plans if you're not grandfathered in on the "unlimited" 5GB cap?
 
I'm sure Nick, it's likely that if you start going over all the time, and/or for lots of overage, they'll just drop you. They don't care about the few people versus the mass of under users that it'll free up space for.

I've noticed increasingly along the east coast, that AT&T's data...mostly through smartphone usuage is inaccessible more and more. They keep selling phones, but aren't keeping pace with bandwidth usage/infrastructure. It's actually getting rather noticeable among the populous here in the DC area.
 
You know what they say about crack dealers... the first hit is unlimited... or something like that.
 
Jason Foster said:
They keep selling phones, but aren't keeping pace with bandwidth usage/infrastructure.
Click to expand...
Exactly! And this is what concerns me going forward. I'm not an ATT subscriber but I can see this type of tiered system being implemented on other major carriers which is IMO a HUGE step backwards. The future of mobile is data, not voice! So if they are already saying, "Hey, our network can't handle the load." then it makes me less than optimistic going forward where more and more people are getting smart phones that will demand greater data capacity. Hopefully Sprint's WiMax and the eventual leap to LTE by both Verizon and ATT will be able to handle more than a measly 2 gigs a month. But for a company that's supposedly spent all kinds of money on improving their network for the iPhone, this announcement today seems to be an admission of failure in that regard. Let's hope the others don't follow suit...
 
Scott Hammel said:
Exactly! And this is what concerns me going forward. I'm not an ATT subscriber but I can see this type of tiered system being implemented on other major carriers which is IMO a HUGE step backwards. The future of mobile is data, not voice! So if they are already saying, "Hey, our network can't handle the load." then it makes me less than optimistic going forward where more and more people are getting smart phones that will demand greater data capacity. Hopefully Sprint's WiMax and the eventual leap to LTE by both Verizon and ATT will be able to handle more than a measly 2 gigs a month. But for a company that's supposedly spent all kinds of money on improving their network for the iPhone, this announcement today seems to be an admission of failure in that regard. Let's hope the others don't follow suit...
Click to expand...

The others are already there; with Verizon, going over 5GB results in steep additional per KB fees, with Sprint it results in a slowdown and possible termination of service.
 
Also watch for "off network" limits with AT&T

While out chasing the last week and a half, I spent a lot of time in WY, NE, KS, MT which (as I know now) are considered "off network" for AT&T and they told me I went way over my "off network" data limit for the month on my iPhone. It turns out the limit is 29MB ... unbelievably low! Like others, I don't use the iPhone that much and the heaviest usage typically comes from RadarScope, but, 29MB is pretty easy to hit even just using that application. They reprogrammed my iPhone to show "Off Network" instead of "AT&T" when in those areas (why that wasn't the default I don't understand) which hopefully is all they'll do for my "first offense" but they threaten to do all sorts of things (some that could be pretty expensive) for violations of the limit.

Not sure how the announced changes will affect this, but, I just had to share this discovery.
 
Ryan McGinnis said:
The others are already there; with Verizon, going over 5GB results in steep additional per KB fees, with Sprint it results in a slowdown and possible termination of service.
Click to expand...

That's only true for official tethering/cards. Sprint's phones carry true unlimited data. Although more expensive, the new Evo plans are true unlimited also.

My primary usage of data is listening to podcasts at work. I only listen to a couple a day (maybe 25-50mb/each), but average about 1.5-2Gb/month. It really doesn't take much to hit those numbers if you use data on the phone daily.
 
Lou Ruh said:
While out chasing the last week and a half, I spent a lot of time in WY, NE, KS, MT which (as I know now) are considered "off network" for AT&T and they told me I went way over my "off network" data limit for the month on my iPhone. It turns out the limit is 29MB ... unbelievably low! Like others, I don't use the iPhone that much and the heaviest usage typically comes from RadarScope, but, 29MB is pretty easy to hit even just using that application. They reprogrammed my iPhone to show "Off Network" instead of "AT&T" when in those areas (why that wasn't the default I don't understand) which hopefully is all they'll do for my "first offense" but they threaten to do all sorts of things (some that could be pretty expensive) for violations of the limit.

Not sure how the announced changes will affect this, but, I just had to share this discovery.
Click to expand...

Same thing happened to me. The days of truly unlimited data are going, going, gone. "Grandfathering" of older unlimited plans are also in danger as most agreements do contain some "limitations" in the small print, especially in regards to "off-network" usage. You may think you have "unlimited" but when it comes to off-network (about 95% of Tornado Alley) you may soon find the once unenforced language is now the rule. If you buy a new plan, be very careful to read the off-network allowances.

It looks like we could be re-entering the dark ages of data soon, where the cost will be too high for many chasers or you'll have to resort back to truck stop and motel Wi Fi hot spots.

I should also add that Verizon is also nuking "off-network" data plans. My Verizon USB Modem no longer receives data signals except near major cities they support.

W.
 
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Warren Faidley said:
...I should also add that Verizon is also nuking "off-network" data plans. My Verizon USB Modem no longer receives data signals except near major cities they support.

W.
Click to expand...

Warren, I am surprised as I almost always had data with a Verizon USB modem connected to cradlepoint and an external antenna. There were a few times I was getting data but no voice. I was chasing mainly in South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas during late May 2010. I haven't seen my bill yet. This is concerning if a trend since I have enjoyed not having to wardrive looking for hotels and otherplaces with open access points.

Bill Hark
 
Bill Hark said:
Warren, I am surprised as I almost always had data with a Verizon USB modem connected to cradlepoint and an external antenna. There were a few times I was getting data but no voice. I was chasing mainly in South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas during late May 2010. I haven't seen my bill yet. This is concerning if a trend since I have enjoyed not having to wardrive looking for hotels and otherplaces with open access points.

Bill Hark
Click to expand...

I thought it might have been a technical issue, but it works fine near major cities, but no longer in outside areas. I think some other chasers reported "throttled" or slower service in some regions. I'll test it out next week and see how it works.

W.
 
I'll post again what's helped me several times in the past -- updating the PRL regularly. Dial *228 from any VZW digital service area, press '2' when prompted and wait for the confirmation message.

Oh and since an aircard is also basically a phone also, you want to update its PRL via the VZAccess Manager.
 
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I just bought an iphone about two weeks ago so I have the unlimited plan through my 2 year contract. I just called an AT&T rep to verify that.
 
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