When is an limitless design not an unlimited plan ? That ’s the motion that consumer have been asking AT&T since last summer , when the companyannounced its design to start throttling the data throughput of its heaviest drug user . Now the immune carrier has publisheda World Wide Web page laying out precisely who will be affected by the policy , and what customers ’ option are .
According to AT&T ’s new page , unlimited information client on the 3 1000 connection will be warned via text message when their usage approaches 3 GB within a single billing cycle . If the 3 GB roof is breached , drug user will get their data amphetamine reduced for the difference of the charge cycle per second ; as of the rootage of the subsequent cycle , however , their fastness will fall to normal . Dataquantityis truly unlimited , though , the carrier pronounce — client can continue to use as much as they want , even after the 3 GB ceiling is passed . The society does not stipulate by how much client ’ speed will be reduced .
Customers using the carrier ’s 4 G LTE internet have a higher verge ; their speeds will only be dial down once they hit 5 GB .
AT&T says that the upper reductions will only touch the top 5 percent of its client . The measure have been put in place because of the rapid increase in wireless data traffic create by the increased adoption of smartphones in the preceding five class ; by AT&T ’s figures , that telephone number has skyrocketed from 7 million phones in 2006 to 39.4 million in 2011 , yield a wireless data point traffic increment of 20,000 percent . According to AT&T , it has indue $ 95 billion in its networks over that geological period , include $ 20 billion in 2011 ; another $ 20 billion is earmarked for 2012 .
In increase , the meshing lays out where the majority of that data point is getting eaten up , which is to say streaming HD movie . AT&T ’s handy chart estimates that stream HD movies gobble up 306 megabit an hour , a sizable addition from the roughly 120 mebibyte of datum that AT&T says one 60 minutes of stock picture consumes .
Users can check up on their current month ’s data usage by dialing*data#on their peregrine phone ’s keypad , or get at previous months ’ usage at their AT&T account online . The fellowship also offers a nomadic app for iPhones that provide the same data .
As for customers ’ options , AT&T lays out a few suggestions , including using Wi - Fi when available , since that data does not enumerate against the carrier ’s data point plans . And , of course , customer can continue using their current unlimited data program , if they do n’t beware the speed reductions . Users can also flip to one of the company ’s current tiered data plans , which provide 300 MB for $ 20 per calendar month , 3 GB a month for $ 30 , or 5 GB per month for $ 50 . But , in those causa , users must pay off overage charges for exceeding the data point cap : $ 20 for another 300 MB on the downcast plan , $ 10 per GB on either of the high plans . That would seem to give small incentive for unlimited datum customers to switch .
The throttling insurance has make AT&T a lot of ill will , with critics deriding it as little more than a “ political ” stunt . Some customershave even withdraw the carrier to court and get ahead . However , this sort of hurrying reduction has become unwashed exercise among the carriers : Verizon , which now offers tiered datum design as well , is“optimizing content”for its grandfathered straight-out data program users , and T - Mobile is going so far as to cut off users who exceed a certain amount of data . Sprint remains the only iPhone immune carrier in the U.S.still offering unlimited data plans to new customers .
Many iPhone user in particular still have straight-out data point plans , thanks to AT&T policy that have allowed them to keep the plan that the internet first offered alongside the original iPhone — albeit without the power to tether other devices over their 3 chiliad joining . Those customer tend to fence that they have pay for unlimited data point , and thus should have unlimited information , and that mean no throttling . AT&T , it seems , would favour those exploiter to switch to a tiered plan , and while that may be in part to control data usage across the internet , it ’s also hard to neglect that AT&T stands to gain more from heavy data users force to make up overage charges .
