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iPad Bait and Switch — No More Unlimited Data Plan
_KiTA_ writes "AT&T announced today that the iPhone will gain tethering, finally, at an extra $20 a month, but only for people on a new 2GB a month plan. They also quietly announced at the same time the real news — that the $30 Unlimited Data plan on the iPad 3G will be axed in lieu of the same data plan. Yes, this would be the same 'revolutionary data plan' that Steve Jobs was so proud of during the iPad unveiling — it lasted just a month after the 3G model was delayed to May 7. People feeling vibes of previous Apple iDevice releases are not alone. Existing accounts will be allowed to grandfather in, although Apple has removed the ability to purchase the iPad from the online store at this time, and AT&T has a history of changing its plans without warning. Finally, there is no word on what happens if you ever let your Unlimited plan lapse for a month at this time."
Congrats to the early adopters, I guess. Apparently, these two companies are making so much money that they can just do whatever they want now without repercussion.
I'm going to go out on a limb ... from just the summary it would appear that this has very little to do with actions from Apple and has to do with actions from AT&T. If we were required to pick a 'bad guy' in this situation the choice would clearly be AT&T. However, everyone knew it was just a matter of time before tiered data plans started and unlimited stopped as it just makes sense.
Yeah no...I get it...free and cheap is nicer...but I'd rather have the tiered data plan then have them go out of business and have nothing.
Outside of tech and telecom, are there any industries that can get away with "reserving the right" to "change the terms of this agreement without notice" or to sell products without "any implied fitness for merchantability or usefulness for any purpose"? Car companies and real estate deals could never operate with this kind of crap -- people just wouldn't stand for it.
AT&T is in no danger of going out of business offering unlimited plans. Bandwidth is measured in throughput, not transfer.
This isn't bait and switch- this is clearly STEVE JOBS' ORIGINAL VISION! Only now has technology caught up to his masterful insight, such that the product and the plans he always envisioned can be offered together!
2gigs times 0k/sec
At this rate we all have an unlimited plan!
"We're not happy until you are not happy"
At first like the submitter I thought this was only for the iPhone and iPad, but after checking the press release from AT&T it turns out it's for all Smartphones. So these are the new data plans for the iPhone, the iPad, the Nexus One (and all other Android phones), the N900 - everything.
AT&T claims that this will bring down bills for the average user, and I don't doubt this is true. However the better the Smartphone the easier it is to burn through data, so this seems to be a tactical strike against all high-end Smartphone users, and a blatant attempt to drive away iPad users (2GB for an entire month of browsing on a 10" device, really?). And this is timed to coincide with the launch of the next-gen iPhone, which is widely beleived to have a front-facing camera for video conferencing, which would burn through additional data. I also don't know how you're going to get away with significant video streaming on 2GB a month, but perhaps that's the idea?
Progress, it seems, is getting less for more. Ultimately the 5GB of data that actually came with an "unlimited" plan is now $25 + $30 in overages. It continues to amaze me just how far we've come since 2008...
well, this will put a crimp in whether to purchase that snazzy new iPhone purportedly coming out this month. Nice, AT&T. First we find out that yes, AT&T has a 5 year exclusive deal, so yes, you will only be able to buy the new iPhone on AT&T's crappy network because you'll be there for 2 years. But now with the 2GB cap (tethered only? Or do you have the option of the original unlimited without it? The TFA doesn't say) it all of a sudden becomes hmmmm, should I? Maybe a Droid isn't so bad after all despite its shortcomings in usability.
The long and the short of this one is: guess I won't jump to the phone I really wanted if there is no unlimited plan, as I'm not interested in getting walloped with that nice $1/MB or whatever they're charging as overrage fees.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
Yeah no...I get it...free and cheap is nicer...but I'd rather have the tiered data plan then have them go out of business and have nothing.
What makes you think that was the choice? Is AT&T on the verge of bankruptcy and I haven't heard?
I'm a bit tired of people implying that we should sympathize with these companies by saying, "But they had to screw our customers and engage in shady and unscrupulous behavior! The only other option is to give everything away for free, and they'd go out of business!" Meanwhile these companies are raking in billions of dollars in profit.
They are in danger of becoming dumb, fat, pipes and then collapsing into Bertrand. Artificially restricting service to produce multiple levels is just the first step in a whole big plan to can-opener themselves back into a more powerful spot in the value chain for mobile.
So, they are producing two new dataplans that are cheaper then the current that they say cover 98% of their use base. To me, I think this means I'm going to at least save $5 a month here. Also, tethering is FINALLY announced! I'm excited with this news! I would like unlimited tethering but I work with technology and realize not all things are feasible as continued unlimited plans, especially with tethering, would destroy an already slammed network.
Slashdot seems to be missing reality here and the compromise that AT&T is making with their network. Ok, hit me with all your complaints about how evil something or other is.
Indeed. However it's worth noting that almost all of this information is based on reinterpreted rumor. I wouldn't be surprised to see a clarification within the next week or so that changes some of these details for the iPad.
iPhone though... well sure. This was a long time coming. I consider myself a moderate data user on 3G (lots of data but no streaming video/audio) and my usage has peaked at 540mb in a month, but usually sits around 300mb. I do all my email, push from work as well, so it's not as though I'm really a light user in disguise. Even better, with the $15 option I can cut my bill because my wife peaks at about 100mb a month usually sitting at about 50mb as she is home most of the time, well in range of Wi-Fi.
In the end I'll save $20 cutting down plan costs, just enough to enable tethering if I ever need it... though so far, I've never needed such a feature (Wi-Fi is everywhere around here and I don't travel.)
I do hope there is a clarification on iPad 3G. I can imagine Stevie's inbox is packed with "WTF" letters right now. Given the way the data plans were announced alongside the iPad, I would be surprised if Apple is happy about this change. In fact, one could construe this as an act by AT&T against Apple, supporting the rumors that Apple is going to produce iPhones for competing networks.
Exciting times!
I read the script, and I think it would help my character's motivation if he was on fire. -Bender
I'm going to go out on a limb ... from just the summary it would appear that this has very little to do with actions from Apple and has to do with actions from AT&T. If we were required to pick a 'bad guy' in this situation the choice would clearly be AT&T. However, everyone knew it was just a matter of time before tiered data plans started and unlimited stopped as it just makes sense.
Yeah no...I get it...free and cheap is nicer...but I'd rather have the tiered data plan then have them go out of business and have nothing.
Really? Have you read none of the articles on what the markup is for a Gigabyte of data bandwidth; on a text message? Please. Nobody is going to see AT&T go out of business. I hope they get their arses handed to them in a class action suit.
It's not untenable, we're just in a transition phase. At some point wireless networks will have capacity that far exceeds demand, and the carriers will collapse into a price war (Bertrand Competition) which will result in what we would now probably consider a good data-plan becoming virtually free at some point. This is the same thing that happened to phone companies with local and then long distance service, as well as a host of other industries over time. Sucks for AT&T, and Verizon though (Sprint probably wont make it). Sure, they're making stupid amounts of cash (billions and billions of profit per quarter) but they know where this road goes and they are trying really hard to change course to keep from getting right back to where they all started -- in the POTS business of the future.
Credit card companies and airlines do these things quite often. Ever get a notice in the mail that your APR on your credit card went up? They just changed the contract. Ever had a flight canceled but be charged to reschedule? They changed the contract on you. All because they reserved the right in the original contract to do so. I am baffled, however, how any such contract can be considered legal and binding, it clearly favors one party to a ludicrous degree and provides no method for a resolution of changes for BOTH parties (one side dictates all the terms).
I heart my Nexus 1. Not being tied to a carrier.
Shell out the bucks out front. You'll save it in the long run.
OK guys, calm down.
If you already have an iPad, you can get grandfathered in, and AT&T /can not/ legally change your plan once you're on it (read your terms and conditions, it's in there. slamming and cramming = bad). Grandfathered plans /will not/ be removed unless the feature actually gets removed from your account.. and you (or someone with access to your account.. don't give out your SSN and/or passcode) are the only one who can authorize that.. (and if it gets removed by accident and it WASN'T authorized.. well.. it /can/ be added back.. you just need to get a manager to override it).
Furthermore.. iPhone tethering has always been available.. it's called a jailbreak. It's not hard. Just google "spirit jailbreak" and in less than 10 minutes you'll have Cydia and can download the tethering app of your choice, whether AT&T likes it or not. Poof, iPhone tethering with unlimited data, no need to wait for Apple to release OS4 to the iPhone and then get put on a 2gb plan for the iPhone as well -- keep your iphone unlimited data forever if you want. 3
I used to think Peter Shipley was cool. Then I aged past 16.
Of course, had Apple not produced a locked down, proprietary iPhone, we would have been tethering all along, and it would be easy to assign blame to AT&T. From where I sit, Apple is helping AT&T
They're not just helping AT&T, they're in a symbiotic relationship.
Full disclosure, I own an iPhone.
Apple: "Customer, dear customer, you want tethering? Well, it's in the App Store from a company called Null River."
AT&T: "No it's not."
Average iPhone Customers: "What's tethering?"
Apple: "We pulled the app for review, but will bring it back shortly."
AT&T: "No you won't"
Customers: "Want tethering even MORE now!"
Apple: "If you buy the new iPhone 3Gs you can now get tethering!"
AT&T: "No you can't."
Apple: "If you buy the new iPhone 3Gs [in a country other than USA] you can now get tethering!"
Customers: "Tethering! *frothing* Tethering!"
Apple: "We worked out a remarkable deal with AT&T, and now you can tether! Buy an iPhone 4G today!"
Customers: "Tethering! See, I knew tethering would happen if I just bought enough iPhones!"
AT&T: "Sure, it's true, you can tether, but at a rate that it will be useless for laptops. And pay more for the reduced network bandwidth losers! Ahahahahaha!"
Apple: "Look at all these iPhone moneys! We can haz cheeseburger now."
Null River: "Um, what the hell happened?"
Of course, had Apple not produced a locked down, proprietary iPhone, we would have been tethering all along, and it would be easy to assign blame to AT&T. From where I sit, Apple is helping AT&T, and while they may not be the only company to do so, it is certainly not the case that Apple is completely innocent here.
Since Verizon and Sprint don't use GSM like the rest of the world, "being locked down to AT&T" in the US means "not making a separate, completely different model from what the rest of the world uses for Verizon and Sprint". It's not as easy as just having an exclusivity deal expire. Using different networks is one way the US carriers can avoid having the market be as competitive as in Europe.
And if there is sufficient competition, they won't succeed. In a functioning free market, the price of their service should approach the cost of offering it. If they are able to artificially restrict service, then it's obvious more competition is needed.
And once you create this competition, I will be the first to sign up for your cheaper, unlimited bandwidth. The free market is as much an idealized unattainable as the Star Trek no money communism utopia. It is great, in theory, but simply put, the cost of entry into most markets is too high, and thus a truly free market will never exist, because those in the market want to keep competition to a minimum.
Pretty much the same thing can be said about democracy I suppose.
(on AT&T)
Tethering has always been more.
There have always been limits
-tethering was limited by the TOS
-a USB modem plan was $55 for 5GB (which is what the iPad is)
-a USB modem plan was $30 for 200MB
Apple forced a sweetheart deal on data with the iPhone so it would really shine (can you imagine an iPhone without data?), and AT&T's reputation suffered as a result of the onslaught of data usage.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Or I could just jailbreak my iPhone and give AT&T the finger.
By your failed logic, Apple would disallow tethering outside of the USA, which of course is not the case. This is simply AT&T dictating the use of their network.
This isn't exactly true. iPhone doesn't have tethering either here in France for instance; of course, I am not aware of every place in the world, but as tethering is available on android phones, and it doesn't seem to bother network operators, I wouldn't say that Apple is completely unblamable.
If I'm wrong, please correct me ; learning is better than being right.
If you're limited to 2GB of data, and half of that data turns out to be web-based advertising you don't want, then call up AT&T customer service *every time* you download an ad, and demand a credit to your 2GB limit.
After all, if you started getting unwanted text messages every time you got on your phone, and you were paying 20 cents per text message, I bet you'd call them up to demand a credit. Or let's say you recieved long, unsolicited sales calls about buying time-shares or something on your cell, which you are paying airtime for, and I bet you'd complain.
So, the only way to get them to change is to cost them a zillion dollars in customer service time by calling them up EVERY TIME you download an ad. Otherwise, you're paying twice.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
You can artificially introduce competition by requiring the companies that own the infrastructure to lease it at a fair price to competitors (or you could tell them to sort it out themselves, without the need for legislation).
MVNO.
Yes, this has happened before in almost the same industry with long distance lines and local service provider colocation.
What makes you think that US wireless service (or much of any other U.S. industry for that matter) is a functioning free market?
It's huge companies operating in a virtual trust structure. You have no real choice... just varying degrees of bad.
The new 200MB plan would probably work for most people and save them money since they have wifi in their home and work.
What plan should people get if they can get 3G but not cable or DSL where they live?
This is me. i use sprint 3g on a mobile card, and am looking into using the EVO as a hotspot. I can see att losing many customers this way. but perhaps thats the plan. getting rid of the data suckers is cheaper than building better infrastructure?
-- "of course thats just my opinion, I could be wrong." --Dennis Miller
Unfortunately in the US (and many other countries), this would involve jailbreaking the iPhone.
The free market is as much an idealized unattainable as the Star Trek no money communism utopia.
Since pretty much every incarnation of Star Trek depicted the use of "money" (i.e., a token that has no intrinsic value of its own, but has been defined to have value by the government), I guess the free market is quite attainable.
What confuses people is that 95% of Star Trek episodes are set on the ship or in a diplomatic situation. On current US warships, sailors don't need money for very much other than gambling among themselves...meals are free, etc. Why should the starship Enterprise be any different?
In diplomatic situations, the host country (planet) doesn't make the guests pay for their food and entertainment at the state dinners, and often lets them use housing that is set aside for such occasions.
But, the crew paid for food and drinks in restaurants and bars, tribbles cost money to purchase, and bribes were paid for information.
So, they are producing two new dataplans that are cheaper then the current that they say cover 98% of their use base. To me, I think this means I'm going to at least save $5 a month here. Also, tethering is FINALLY announced! I'm excited with this news!
This is like the culmination of everything bad about Slashdot, distilled down to the essence of why the general posting population have got the tech market so wrong for about a decade now.
It's yet another "No wireless. Less space than a nomad moment" except that instead of involving the most basic of deductive reasoning to see why a product might be popular and avoid embarrassingly bad prognostication, here as you say a product is suddenly cheaper for 95% of tens of millions of iPhone users, and on top of that you FINALLY have the ability to tether which people have been (rightfully) bitching about for ages. And instead of saying "finally AT&T lowers prices a bit" you get a flood of whining because you cannot have enough bandwidth to stream a full 1080p HD rip of a movie per day on your PHONE!
I mean, the fact the price is lower is right there. It doesn't take The Great Randi to think that tens of millions of people not using more than 500k/month outside WiFi coverage might just enjoy a cheaper plan, or that it might actually DRIVE sales to have a cheaper plan.
If you want high hilarity, apply the fortune cookie trick to the many insane posts on this story - simply add "Cheaper data plan..." in front of every complaint. Some examples from current top rated posts:
Cheaper data plan... will put a crimp in whether to purchase that snazzy new iPhone!
Cheaper data plan means... you are unhappy!
Cheaper data plan... still sucks though, and still has that unsavory characteristic of a bait-and-switch.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I wonder how long until Apple and Google get tired of screwing around with the phone carriers and just buy them out? Apple's market cap is higher than AT&T's and way higher than any of the other mobile carriers. Google already is experimenting with their own networks. They should form a joint venture to buy out and unify mobile carriers so they can package service with their devices. Trying to sell the actual data service is a dying business anyway but if it sells devices and other services it could be a worthwhile purchase. Sell off the parts they don't want and inside of a couple years they could be a serious player. AT&T would be plausible but a big fish but Verizon, T-Mobile, or Sprint would all be pretty easy.
The real market, besides the devices themselves, is the services related to the devices. It's only a matter of time before cloud storage, on-demand extra processing power, app sells, and even ads are all major sources of income for these mobile devices so throwing in cheap data plans is just a way to get people spending on the other goodies.
Anyone that thinks Apple or Google aren't pushing for cheaper data plans is just blind. Why do you think Apple was selling the $30/mo unlimited no contract data plan so much? I bet Jobs is pissed at AT&T.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
This is one of the reasons companies like to offer "unlimited" one-size-fits-all plans. The plan is unlimited but really it's more like 5gb, and almost nobody actually uses that much, and it's not ok to tether because then you'll be using more than they planned for, and nobody complains because you think of it as a plan that's "unlimited" but only up to the point that a cell phone would be expected to use. (Essentially Comcast and their ilk do the same, my "home" internet is "unlimited" but not exactly and only in the amount and reliability that a home user would expect, and in some ways that's ok.) But when these companies decide to change the plan to "you get 2gb/month" then I damn well expect that my 2gb should be given to me in whatever way I want it.
There's another little thing in this press release that I'm a fan of. For the 200mb plan (really, 200mb, really?): "If customers exceed 200 MB in a monthly billing cycle, they will receive an additional 200 MB of data usage for $15 for use in the cycle." And for the 2gb plan, "Should a customer exceed 2 GB during a billing cycle, they will receive an additional 1 GB of data for $10 for use in the cycle." Hooray everybody, it's the old Blockbuster late fee model! Use 2.001gb of data in a month pay for 4! Hooray!
These days you just can't count on wifi to be open. I don't care if a nearby home or hotel has wifi if it's encrypted. These days it seems you have to be inside an establishment that offers wifi to have access to it - that leaves about 99% of the city where I'm stuck with cell coverage.
At some point wireless networks will have capacity that far exceeds demand
This is so absurdly wrong that I'm doing away with moderating in this discussion to comment.
With a wired network you can always run more wire and fiber to increase bandwidth and create full duplex communication. You can multiplex different signals through the same fiber. You can do all of these things to continually increase bandwidth to a location because you can protect the signals from interference by a millimeter of shielding.
With a wireless network you have a limited number of frequencies that are usable. Only a limited number that aren't blocked/reflected by sheetrock, a piece of paper, or water vapor in the air. And the frequencies that do work get interference from reflections, devices that leak EM, and other broadcasting towers. For a given range of frequencies (the bandwidth) there are hard and fast rules about how many bits you can transmit. Not technological limitations, these are laws of the universe.
The only way to work around this is to make the cells smaller, which means you need more towers, and more costs. Say that you have 6 towers to cover an area, if you halve designed transmit distance, you'd need 24 towers to cover the same area. And that only works so far because you have to balance transmit distance with still having enough power to transmit though walls.
Perhaps if some sort of quantum entanglement method is created for cell phones that doesn't require EM radiation to operate, then unlimited wireless for everyone will be a reality. Until that point it's just delusions.
The free market is as much an idealized unattainable as the Star Trek no money communism utopia.
Oh yeah?
Success stories like Cogent Communications disagree. They went from literally nothing to a highly valuable multinational corporation in a scant few years. How? Leveraging market economics, innovative ideas, and contempt for contemporary approaches, they turned comms upside down (and pissed off the big dogs in the process).
If I recall correctly, Schaeffer started Cogent in Omaha, NE due to regional economic benefits, and he has a history of commercial property rentals and a degree in physics. So he came at Cogent out of far left field, but made a very solid go at it using "free market principles".
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