“It may seem like those who pay for AT&T’s unlimited data plan don’t necessarily get their money’s worth of service, but by how much and how many of them? As it turns out the numbers are quite substantial,” Dong Ngo reports for CNET.
“According to a report published today by Consumer Reports, almost half of the carrier’s unlimited subscribers use just 300MB or less, effectively wasting $10 a month,” Ngo reports. “This is similar to my personal experience.”
Ngo reports, “Being one of those who got grandfathered in with the $30 unlimited data plan, I was quite happy since I don’t have to worry about ever going over the limit. However, I found out recently that I actually never used more than 200MB per month. This is mostly because when at home or at work, or even at airports, I use Wi-Fi, which is much faster to get online with. For this reason, I have now personally opted for a $20 plan giving 300MB per month. Note, however, that once you move on from the unlimited data plan, you lose the grandfathered status and can never get back on it. But what’s good about a status that doesn’t offer you much benefit while costing more?
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]
They’ll have to pry it from my cold dead fingers. I stream Hulu like crazy just to get my money’s worth.
Bastards just throttled my unlimited for the first time. Theyll be getting a call tomorrow
I’ll keep mine thanks. Consumer Reports credibility is zip with me.
I think I’m going to watch Netflix until I am throttled, then go to small claims cort to get my new iPad and even iPhone 5. 🙂
Let us know how that turns out.
I turned off Wifi for this billing period just to see what my usage would be. With one week left in my billing cycle, I’m at about 2.5GB. Now, that does seem a bit high for me, but with it being Spring Break for me, I’ve been doing a bit more Pandora than normal and even threw in a few Netfix movies. If they throttle me, I’ll throttle them in small claims.
The problem is that reliance upon data is just going to go up and never down. Even if you’re not using it now you may wish you had it several months from now or maybe later. And like it says, once you drop it you can’t get it back.
AT&T wants people to move off the plan because they know that the probability of higher data usage in the future is high.
So CR is AT&T’S bitch?
I switched to the 2GB plan for $25 back in January before it went away. I’ve never used more than 500MB in a month so I was just wasting $5 by paying ATT for the unlimited (but not really) plan. I don’t want to give those bastards a dime for than I have to.
That’s another reason why I went with the wi-fi only model when I preordered the new iPad last week. I wasn’t going to give them any more money even if their 4G LTE is fast.
The Fuk’d thing is here in SF I wouldn’t know if I was getting throttled or not cause their service fukn BLOWS sometimes.
but yea- just makes the case those 5%ers are crazy cray with their data hoggage!! gimme a break.
Yeah, 300MB or less now, because that crap is painfully slow to use. Give them 4G LTE and see what happens.
Just wait till 4G truly gets wide spread then all these caps are going to have to add a zero to the end or there will be a revolt when everyone is going over. I mean a 30min SD netflix tv show is about 400MB so it won’t take long.
i switched to limited because i could not create a wifi hotspot with my iphone while on the unlimited plan. its such a great feature of the iphone, and now i can use it, and do in order to use my wifi iPad when needed. the plan tops out at 4Gig/month, and its $5 per gig after that. using it a lot on 3G only netted me 3.2 Gig/month max, its worked for me..
And there is the second problem….people pay $30 for 3gb yet cant use that 3gb anyway they want. No AT&T makes you pay more to use your data as a hotspot….If you pay for 3gb you should be able to use that 3gb anyway you want without having to pay more.
I agree with ( shock me ) do not have to worry about overages.
Here’s the really criminal part: AT&T has already switched many of you off of unlimited and you don’t even know it. I found this out when a random “you’re approaching your data limit” email hit my inbox. I was an original iPhone grandfather from the very first release, so this made no sense. When I talked to the co-conspirators at the support desk, they said “too bad, we’re not changing it back”. Beware: the worst phone company on the planet may be adding to it’s growing reputation as the most shady.
I’m not changing. First it’s CNUT and some Dong telling me what to do. No thanks. lol
I use 5+ gb per month.
Switching does not save me anything.
Cnet sucks, why does anyone listen to them?
I think any carrier is foolish to offer unlimited. It makes perfect sense to have limited plans. For the rest (most) of us, it’s the data hogs that are wasteful on bandwidth, and we are paying for your gluttony. I’ve monitored my bandwidth and I rarely go over 3 GB per month. If go over I should pay additional. My habits are going to necessarily change when LTE coverage increase and my access is significantly faster. If anything I will actually be on/off the network faster than under 3G. I also would much rather have a limited plan with free tethering vs unlimited. Hope AT&T follows the Verizon model.
Foolish or not, the carriers did offer it and many are grandfathered in to it. Whether or not heavy users should pay more is not the issue. Being on an “unlimited” plan, they are entitled to use as much as they like. By throttling these customers, they are in breach of contract.
@ chefpastry
Agreed. It is a breach of contract to throttle anyone with unlimited. My bill increased when I switched from Edge service on my original iPhone to 3G service on my 3G S. I’m paying extra for the increased data speeds so, if the are going to slow me back down to Edge speed because I’m using too much then I want reimbursement. All of us unlimited grandfathered-in customers aren’t getting what we paid for if we get throttled. We are all paying for unlimited 3G speed not freaking Edge. I’m tired of the argument of “Well…just because it’s unlimited doesn’t mean the speed is unlimited too.”
That reminds me of getting an all you can eat fish and chips at Skippers restaurant and they give you three fillets the first time and then when you want more they tell you that they are still cooking and they’ll bring em out to you one fillet every ten minutes. Just enough to make you say screw it and leave. Sure it “all you can eat” but you’re going to be here all day if you want to get your money’s worth.
This makes court cases against AT&T even stronger — even if you were never throttled. AT&T’s actions, encouraging customers to buy or continue buying “unlimited” data plans though less expensive data plans would have sufficed while throttling or threatening to throttle these very customers amounts to fraudulent inducement.
All AT&T unlimited data customers now have a valid claim against AT&T, even if they were never throttled.
I don’t trust em. When the cheaper plans came out I analyzed my data usage and found I was using 200-300MB each month, so I downgraded. The next month AT&T tells me I used 1.5GB, and over a GB each month after that. If you have unlimited and can keep it, keep it…peace of mind is worth a few extra bucks a month.
Why was unlimited discontinued then if it wasn’t hurting anything. Sounds like ATT spreading rumors to get people to switch off the unlimited plan to me. I wouldn’t switch, keep grandfathered for as long as you can.
It has been claimed that a very small percentage (below 5%) of mobile users consumes large amounts of data, and that the rest of them suck up less than 2GB per month, with almost half of those using less than 300MB. So, with over 100 million subscribers, of which some 17 million are on the unlimited plan, even if we assume that all of those who suck bandwidth (the 5) are on the unlimited plan, that is still barely 30% of the unlimited users.
When AT&T discontinued their unlimited plan, they advertised the move as a cheaper offer for 95% of their customer base. Apparently, some 17% of them didn’t buy it and stayed on the unlimited. And apparently, at least two thirds of those who are on the unlimited are spending more than they need, effectively donating cash to AT&T for that $30 unlimited plan they aren’t using.
Bottom line: less than one third of ‘unlimited’ users are actually getting their money’s worth. The rest are happily giving their money away to AT&T. Considering how most of those who stayed on the unlimited are royally pissed of at AT&T for discontinuing it, it is funny how they have no problem overpaying AT&T for their service…
The very first thing everyone should have done when AT&T made these changes was check historical 3G data consumption.
I did and that’s why I switched from unlimited.
That said, I fully support the right of anyone with the unlimited plan to keep their plan and not get throttled.
You can pry my unlimited data from my cold dead hands. Just in the event that I need to use that extra GB or 2 and not have to worry about it is worth the price of admission. I am lucky enough to have unlimited on both my iPhone and iPad and will not give it up. The unlimited plan even transferred to my new AT&T LTE iPad received today so….suck it AT&T! I will continue to use my 4.7 GB a month until you stop me. Hahahaha!!