AT&T to Throttle Heaviest Data Hogs

This is a good way out as far as I'm concerned.

Look, when att says top 5% this really truly does only apply to a handfull of people. Half of those whining and complaing are no where near that point!!! Tmo does the SAME THING and thats after 2gb of data is used on their promotional plan. Yes, the network is bogged down, and that is precisely why this is being done....and in refrence to a previous post, good luck trying to begin a lawsuit, the contract is clear, and no where does it state that AT&T cannot make changes to data speeds. Your data is still unlimited. If you actual read the contract your signing yu will see the clause where it states that AT&T holds the right to deny, disconnect, or modify service if it is deemed harmful, or adversely affects the wireless network or hinders its...
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OK, people, get over it!

First of all, I am not surprised at all. When AT&T and then Verizon went tiered (and T-Mobile throttled back at a very low level) it was pretty obvious that this was coming to those who were grandfathered in with unlimited data.

Secondly, in spite of their ads, don't be surprised when Sprint takes one or the other approach as well.

Third, everyone should have known this was coming with more reliance on "the cloud" that EVERYONE (including Apple) is pushing. More and more apps will be in "the cloud" and that means more and more data use. Everyone acts surprised...but it's just a return to the past.

Those of us who have been around for a while remember when we paid $40 a month just to have voice service ...
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This will only make the experience better for all att data users. This is a smart thing to do. really there is no need for that much usage anyway with wifi being everywhere. No reason to have unlimited data plan anyway. unlimited is overrated and nobody should be streaming anything over cellular data network anyways. 🙄

At&T press release: "Our network is so congested and sluggish, becuase it has poor architecture and we put no money into it, so, to make sure that we can keep signing people up and take their money, we will be limiting all of our customers unlimited data fetures by slowing speeds down significantly. Not doing this would mean we are not making every cent that we possibly can. We thank our customers for paying full price, becuase with us, the word "netWork" is almost an oxymoron.

I think they should make anything over 2 gigs extremely expensive. I rarely see any kids in nearby parks, playing or getting exercise, just sitting at home playing video games and getting fat and getting diabetes. Going out to a restaurant, everyone is sitting playing with their phones and not interacting..make it $50 a gig!

I'm so sick of everyone whining about how crappy AT&T is, I've been an AT&T/Cingular customer for 7 years now and have always been very pleased with my service, I still have my unlimited data plan and I typically do about 2gb of data a month, honestly 95% of people NEVER EVER touch 2gb and those who have unlimited and are complaining about being in that top 5% of data users, are probably using jailbroken iPhones and rooted Android phones that have free teathering and leave it on all day, and I'm sure I'm not gonna be the most popular guy on here by making that statement.

...increasingly powerful smartphones if their network sucks ass? You got about a 45 minute battery on my HTC Inspire if I use Wi-Fi. IF I found Wi-Fi worth using. What's the point? Why wouldn't the public just say "**** this. " and switch to Wi-Fi-only tablets? Meh.

So many people rushed to get their 'unlimited' data plans to be grandfathered in only to be slapped in the face....the whole 5% of top users is total bs. I never exceed 3 gb of data ever. Two months ago my son was streaming a bunch of videos and had inadvertently turned the wi-fi off. With a week left in my billing cycle i was conveniently notified via text that i was within 500 mb of reaching my 5gb cap and that extra data would be charged accordingly if i go over. All of this 'soft cap' and 'heaviest users' rhetoric is garbage.

In regard to mobile broadband specifically the Cost of Goods and Services (COGS) for the carrier to provide an induvidual end user their specific service the useage of that induvidual has little impact on that carriers cost of doing business. Moreover it doesnt matter if the end user is a data hog or uses the broadband minimally the cost varies quite little to the carrier's bottom line,

This is a clear case where the carrier can monitor, track, & measure and inviduals useage of wireless broadband and bill accordingly it is no longer a matter of adding a service order code and having the switch turn on a valve for the subscriber they now have a personally identifyable meter running on every single subscription on the tangable comodity know...
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I have Verizon and the new LG Revolution and the phone came pre loaded with Netflix on it and we have a Netflix account so I can watch full movies if I want and the phone even has the HDMI connection to plug into TV if I wanted but we have Bluray hooked to internet for that. Now Verizon is offering the Revolution with free 3 months Netflix so if you ask me they want us to be data hogs so they can charge more for usage and if we use too much they will slow down the speed.What a joke!

It's not so much at&t position that I'm defending, but moreso businesses in general. If a company invests billions of dollars on infrastructure, I think they get some rights in protecting their investment.

I think it's a fair statement to say that most of the U.S. smartphone users don't use their phones the way that members of phonescoop use their phones.

I'd also say it's fair that most members here because we are tech enthusists, push our phones to the limits.

It's because of people like us that data speeds have been increasing over the years.

But on that same note, it's because of people like us that "unlimited" plans are going the way of the dodo.

I've heard people on here brag about using 45 to 60 gig a month, and jay ...
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Let uncle Dan (Hesse) take care care of you. He will let you take all the data you want or could care for... I used 45 GB of data last month... My speed was not throttled and I didn't get a nasty gram from a bean counter and my bill did not have overage on it.

I cant believe AT&T would pull such a thing and Verizon will follow. Unlimited I thought was as much as you use not putting a cap on it. Should be a way to sue them for this action. This pisses me off as I made sure I was grandfathered in with unlimited. I have been seeing ads about Verizon and their tiered data plan how great it is well the minimum is $30.00 for 2 GB thats not a deal, my wife only used 166 mb last month on the unlimited plan and that costs $30.00 WTH is going on with these greedy companies?

ATT's Network has been in steady decline since they began to shut down the "EDGE" network. Granted, in places where you have GSM service, it's SUPER fast, but in all honesty, it's damn near impossible to get great signal unless you have an "X" ducttaped to that spot and you're standing there. Same goes for Sprint's WiMax (which they wanna dump for some reason, even though REAL network technicians think it's a MUCH better choice than LTE, but what does the EIA/TIA and tha IEEE know) And Verizon's LTE. They all blow. Once again, we're back to the 90's when it comes to service...and I find it rather peculiar. ATT isn't throttling because they don't have the infrastructure...they're doing it BECAUSE THEY CAN. VZW does it, Tmobile does it. Only c...
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bet my connection will still be faster than the other providers here 😎

Geese ATT, just quit you're whining! Face it, your buy out of TMO has pissed people off.

Something doesn't seem to add up, though. Either AT&T is exaggerating the impact of this five percent and making a spectacle out of the policy change as a political move to justify the case for why it "needs" the T-Mobile acquisition approved, or AT&T is not being completely honest with regard to how many users will be affected or what the impact will be.

The final statement of the AT&T press release regarding the data throttling policy supports that theory as well: "But even as we pursue this additional measure, it will not solve our spectrum shortage and network capacity issues. Nothing short of completing t

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The summaries say it all: If speed matters, drop your unlimited and BUY MORE DATA from us. And, the only thing that can change this is the T-Mobile merger. Excuse me?! Isn't that an admission that your network is **** compared to Verizon or Sprint?! Isn't it also an admission that if the merger goes through, this plan will be unjustified?! Will you then drop tiered and bring back unlimited??? Lying sacks of sh!+

Part of ATT's plan to buy buy TMO (which they advertise in the new merger commercials) and the government's plan as well is to bring high speed wireless internet to rural areas where cable and land line phone companies won't or cant run cable or fiber optics for one reason or another.
But wait a minute, hold on. That fancy new high speed internet that's now available to you 3% who can't actually get it from a cable or phone company. There's a catch, a 5GB/month cap. Unlike the cable and phone companies who I'm sure have caps, just allot higher than 5GB.
So basically ATT is on one hand advertising the benefits of a TMO buy out while in the other hand already sticking it to the consumer. 👿
That was fast. 😳

Jayshmay on this one?? I figured he'd be all over this article telling us all about his unlimited data with no throttling from Verizon...

Aside from that, I think we all knew AT&T was going to do this eventually.