Slashdot Mirror
AT&T Caps Netflix Streaming Costs At $68K/Yr
theodp writes "What would you say if you went to join a gym and were told that it could cost you anywhere from $360 a year to $68,000 a year for the exact same usage? Don't be ridiculous, right? Well, that's really not so different from what the potential costs of streaming video on an AT&T smartphone are. According to AT&T's Data Usage Calculator, 1,440 minutes worth of streaming video consumes 2.81GB, which — if you manage to keep Netflix fired up all day and night — would result in a $360 annual bill under the grandfathered $30-monthly-unlimited-data plan, or $68,376 under the new $20-monthly-300MB plan. Still, that didn't stop a spokesman from characterizing the new AT&T data plans as 'a great value' for customers."
...it become our God-given right to stream Netflix 24-7? And to get outraged that there is a bulk discount? AT&T has many, many issues already, so do you really need to contrive a completely unrealistic one to make a point?
per article, the changes are:
$15 for 200MB => $20 for 300MB
$25 for 2GB => $30 for 3GB
Nice alarmist title.
Utilities and the like seem to like to do crazy things with billing based on usage. My gas/electric company reads the meter every other month and estimates for the months they don't read based on past usage. I've had a number of months in the past year estimated gas use so high that they mark it as 0 use the next month when they read the meter (which means I'm still paying for gas I don't use because I really doubt it comes to exactly even every time). However, even on months where they bill me for 0 gas use, I still get a nice plump "delivery charge". Isn't this like FedEx sending you a bill because they could have delivered a package even though they didn't?
As long as they don't prioritise one data stream over the other, I'm OK with the total download caps. When they start offering Unlimited Nexflix addon, then you should start worrying.
Yes, because it's entirely reasonable that someone would sign up for the lowest possible data plan, and then use as much bandwidth as possible for every second of every day. Obviously, that plan is designed for people who intend to use streaming very little, if at all, and it is a very good value for those people. No, not as good a value as the old $30 unlimited, but that was obviously not sustainable as phone bandwidth usage increased massively. Remember when the $30 unlimited plan was created, Netflix for the phone didn't exist, and most phones struggled to stream very low res video.
If you're able to estimate that you'd use 2.81GB a month doing this, why would you ever elect to have a 300MB plan. You can get 30GB for $30.00 a month, which would keep your annual cost around $360.00 a year excluding taxes and other fees - same as the unlimited plan. People either lack common sense, or someone was trying really hard to troll this morning.
This can generate a huge bill to any cloud-based "app" (I hate this buzzword) too. On this days of "web 2.0", any reasonable plan can not limit usage
Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
Some gyms charge lower monthly fees if you only show up during off-peak hours. Then they get you to pay for classes you go to at peak times. So what would I say? Maybe I guess I bought the wrong monthly plan?
3GB data for $30 a month
article is FUD
Wow, I can't believe that AT&T (of all companies,) would offer customers a way to pay either a little bit for something, or a way to pay a shit ton for the same thing! Just wait until [insert some useless governing body here] gets a load of this! They will be outraged! /sarcasm
And yes I get that the $30/unlimited is no longer a choice when signing a contract, but you *can* choose the $30/3GB plan where the overage is only $10/1GB resulting in approximately $820 in overage fees, instead of $68,000.
Thank you AT&T for your meager rationing of bandwidth in return for all my money. Obviously, you need it more than I. From att.com": AT&T Reports Solid Earnings, Strong Cash Flow, Robust Mobile Broadband Sales and Improving Wireline Revenue Trends (Q3 2011)
AT&T offers larger chunks of data for less per megabyte. So if you're expecting to stream 3GB, buy 3GB.
You wouldn't be a complete moron and buy the smallest data plan and then let it up-charge you over and over again.
A whole month of streaming is 96.3GB.
Sig (appended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars)
us cellular has unlimited data plans and so does sprint. why does AT&T need to gang rape it's customers?
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
Movie industry execs and telco execs are getting some really FUNKY shit from their drug dealers if they think people have forgotten common skills like...math.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Does it cost AT&T more money to have more bandwidth flowing across their network? If the same number of customers were all streaming Netflix at the same time, what would happen? Do packets really have cost?
www.itjerk.com
The data usage link points to a screenshot of MONTHLY usage while the "article" speaks about daily usage. Indeed.
Sig (appended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars)
This is like complaining that it costs more to park near your local supermarket, when all they've done is add some extra handicap places. The fine you pay for parking in a handicapped spot isn't the cost of parking there, it's the cost of breaking the rules. Similarly, you're not supposed to sign up for this $20/month plan and then stream Netflix all day. If you want Netflix, get a plan with a bigger limit. It's not that hard.
"A week in the lab saves an hour in the library"
The only reason why AT&T is still around is because of the iPhone. You know it's true, get a green robot phone instead and root it and use esperanto speaking libertarian wifi hotspots only.
For a customer, the best part of "unlimited" is not about being about to download petabytes of data.
The great part is about being able to download whatever he wants without worrying if he will be billed pricey overcharge fees for this.
He knows in advanced what he will pay every month, even if this is more than what he would have paid with a lower plan with overcharge fees.
Sig (appended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars)
I am sick of "plans". What the hell is a cell phone "plan"? There is no plan, this is all retarded. I want a cell wireless data company to just say: "You give us $20 and we give you 2GB on our network". It's as simple as that, simply cuts off after the 2GB is over because that's what you paid for, no super high fees, no bullshit. Just GB for $$. That's it. Not complicated.
No, instead of simply selling bandwidth they choose to make all kinds of complicated illogical nonsensical absurd "plans" which mean nothing. Enough of this crap already, ENOUGH!
Umm well Duh.
As well this Gym Analogy isn't apt. Because it is more like a case you can have an unlimited Gym Membership for a month for $30 or you can choose to pay by the hour (Say $1.00 an hour) while you are there.
So if you are the guy who goes to the gym for 2 hours a day every day the Unlimited $30 a month is a better value. Because the other plan will have you paying around $60.00 a month.
If you are the average Joe who goes to the gym say 3 times a week for 1 hour. The hourly plan is cheaper because he will be paying $15.00 a month.
For most of the people the hourly rate will be a better value because if they do go to the gym every day it will normally be for 1 hour and they will normally have reasons to miss a day. However for the the guy who is addicted to exercise or is really trying to get buffed, that pay per usage will be more expensive.
Now the same will AT&T Plan. For most people we are getting a better rate, then before, however we don't like being metered, even if it is cheaper. We much rather pay more and have a consistent bill then a fluctuation bill even if the average is cheaper.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
If you were planning to stream video content, why would ANYONE go with the 300MB plan, instead of the 3GB plan? If you plan to use data, then you go with the plan that gives you the appropriate amount of data for what you want. AT&T DOES offer pay as you go data for those who do not have a smartphone, and it costs more per megabyte than if you go with a data plan.
Smartphones tend to have "phone home" features to check for updates and such, and if you don't have a data plan, customers who buy a smartphone without planning to use any data services would freak out about "what is this data usage fee on my bill". That is why all carriers REQUIRE a data plan for those who buy a smartphone. People have to accept that if they plan to use data, they should NOT go with a low-end data plan, and they should go to the 2GB or above plan.
2.81GB of data...fits in the new 3GB plan offered by AT&T. So, what's the problem?
The bigger issue here is- there are much more than 1440 minutes in a month.
24 hours in a day X 60 minutes an hour = 1440. So this is hardly "unlimited Netflix use".
Article is FUD. Typical for this crowd, though...
With the average size of a web page getting close to 1Mb in size. So 20 page views a day and you're in danger of exceeding your subscriber data cap and heading into charged territory.
...some people dislike capitalism.
This exact shit is already happening. Airlines offering free Facebook and Twitter (other content costs money), ISPs offering cap exemptions for Windows Update...
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
It's not clear, either in TFA or on the AT&T site that you get to keep your old plan. One of the reasons for staying with AT&T (for me) is that they have the cheapest data plan at $15. If there were a $10/100MB plan, I'd probably get that as I average about 50-60MB per month. I rarely - if ever - stream media, and use my plan for looking up data and getting email/text/google voice when I'm out. I'll be pissed, and looking at switching both my phones to Verizon, if they force me into a higher cost plan.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
What would you say if you went to join a gym and were told that it could cost you anywhere from $360 a year to $68,000 a year for the exact same usage? Don't be ridiculous, right?
While it may be ridiculous that they still allow anyone to use the $360 "all you can download" plan, they have grandfathered those people in. I don't even really find it ridiculous. I think it is their obligation to complete each contract under its original terms.
Oh, or are you saying you want your new contract to be "all you can download for $360"? Are you thick? Do you have an "all you can burn" plan set up with your local gas station?
More accurate pricing, even when does not benefit you individually in the short run, is a good thing for everyone in the long run. We want AT&T to get paid for high usage, so they are financially incentivized to build out the network. Under the old way of billing, high usage was being subsidized by low-usage customers, and AT&T was incentivized to inhibit high usage by such extreme measures as throttling, which sucks. You are being short-sighted, quit whining.
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
If you are going to use lots of data then an unlimited plan is better than a metered plan. Who would have thunk?
It's almost like if you plan on spending 24 hours a day at the gym a monthly membership would be cheaper than day passes.
Actually, a 3 GB plan would result in no overage fees in the scenario given, since the user was using 2.81 GB / month. So he'd be paying... exactly the same as he would with the old unlimited plan.
at what bitrate?
I'd have to say that's BS for HD video streaming.
They're using their grammar skills there.
- AT&T sends you a notification when you've used more than 50% of your bandwidth for the month. I used to get these all the time, usually about two days before the month was over, since they apparently just do it via high-water mark, and aren't building any kind of prediction of "will they go over".
- In that notification, it lets you know that you'll get another notification when you hit 90%, which they do send. Again, like the other one, it doesn't look at how close you are to the end of the month -- it can be the last day of your billing cycle, and you'll get the notification if you hit 90%.
- In both notifications, you're directed to go to AT&T's web site if you think you need to adjust your plan.
- If you do adjust your plan, your cap is immediately raised. A couple of times, I got the 90% notification (because I was using my phone for Internet more than usual due to traveling). Both times, I went to the web site (on my phone one of the times, in fact) and switched to a higher plan.
- When you switch to a higher plan, AT&T pro-rates it. Thus, if you're three days from the end of the month and you switch from the $20/month plan to the $30/month, you don't get charged $10 right then. Instead, you get charged an additional $1 on the next month's bill. Of course, that bill will now be at the higher rate plan, but....
- Once the new billing cycle has started, you can switch back to the lower plan at anytime. If you do, the higher plan will be pro-rated down, and the adjustment will go on your next month's bill.
Now, I'm not sure how often AT&T actually runs the job that sends the notifications, or if it's a trigger of some sort in their databases -- I never used enough in less than one day to push myself over. I do know that I got the 50% notification at several different times of day, so it's not just a once-a-day thing.
So, if you're bored in an airport and find yourself watching a ton of Netflix on your AT&T phone, just take a minute to go to their site and adjust your plan. Once your billing cycle ends, adjust it back. And AT&T will give you two notifications that you're approaching your limit.
Granted, the price per megabyte may be ridiculous on the lowest tier... but it basically exists so those who want a smartphone, but don't use a lot of data, can have a lower-priced plan. And AT&T isn't trying to entrap anyone -- they give plenty of warning that you're approaching your limit, and make it easy to avoid actually hitting that limit and getting upcharged at the high rate.
I see this more as a way for AT&T to ease the pressure off of their network than to make 68,000 a year off of some clueless schmucks. I am lucky to be in the unlimited 30/month club, but if I wasn't, the 3gb 30/month option would work and I would rarely see any difference to my bill. Most of my usage is over wifi as it is (YMMV, of course), so I have rarely gone above that.
Certainly, if you do an insane amount of data transfer via 3G you will see a higher cost and AT&T will profit from that. But by offering a lower price point for those who use less, the customer saves a couple of bucks and AT&T has implemented an effort to reduce network stress.
I wish the unlimited plan was sustainable for everyone (I suspect one day it will be removed from my account), but I cannot fault them for trying to take steps to come to terms with the unexpectedly huge 3G traffic increases.
For conscience is the wound, and there's naught to staunch it
What kind of an idiot streams that much netflix (or any other video, for that matter) from the AT&T wireless account? You do realize that iPhones and Android phones come with Wi-Fi, right? With the easy availability of free public wi-fi in most communities, there really isn't any reason to stream via the expensive data plans. The only thing I really use my data plan for is for looking up the occasional website, random facebook updates, and maybe sending a photo to someone. I've never even come close to the cap.
How about the movement to make wireless a little more consumer friendly aim for just making data use independent of the device? Now that AT&T has decided that $30 equates to some fixed level of data, then I should be free to consume that data on any device I see fit without having to pay extra for the privilege of doing so.
It is really going to take a SOPA level of consumer outrage to get these people to play nice?
AT+T's plans are designed to make money. Duh.
According to numbers I have seen the average consumer is using about 500megs / month. This means that if you choose the $14.99 / 250 megs if you are just under average you will save 2 cents over the $30 a month for 3Gigs plan. If you are a little over average you will pay about 50% more than you would if you choose the 3Gig plan. Thus I see the low end plan as being specifically designed to overcharge the average user who selects that plan thinking they will use under 500 megs. The $30 / 3Gigs is a much better plan for anybody that consistently uses more than 250 Megs / Month which I am guessing is a VAST majority of the users. AT+T designed the tiers this way to maximize revenue from the average nieve user who likes the idea that they will only pay $15 a month. For a vast majority of users I seriously doubt they will see any savings over the course of a year. One month under 250 megs is quickly compensated by 1 month just over 500 megs.
Note that the 5Gig plan is designed to rape those who are too stupid to notice that the $30 / 3Gig + $10 / 1Gig overage is the same as the $50 / 5Gig + $10 / 1Gig overage except that you are sure to always pay a minimum of $50, even in months you use far less data. I see no advantage to that plan at all.
And a smarter company would be using this to their advantage.
They have a chance to destroy their competition by offering something to their customers that their competition is taking away. And yet, they go for the money shakedown...
I wonder if AT&T ever remembers what it was like to actually like to try and compete with others. Instead, they'll rest on their laurels, relying on their political contributions to keep them afloat if / when someone better comes along. How Ma Bell's offspring have grown, and how little they've learned!
Free lesson -> if your competitors are busy cutting a feature that has their customers up in arms, feel free to lure them away by offering the service they actually want. It's how you grow your customer base, and it doesn't require paying someone to get you more customers (you just need to make sure you keep upgrading your towers / keep your data transit costs low, but then, you should be doing that already...). This way, you can take your competitor's stuff without running afoul any of those nasty laws.
I am John Hurt.
I thought this would be sort of a non-issue because it seems that everyone realizes that AT&T is a steaming pile of shit and that you are doing yourself and your country a disservice by doing business with them?
I thought everyone knew that if you want a real data plan, go for one of the non-top-3 carriers?
$20/250mb? I think I paid less in 1995. Fucking criminals. All of them.
If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits
I believe he meant to say "'a great value' for shareholders."
I use irony whenever I can, but my shirts are still wrinkled...
Still, that didn't stop a spokesman from characterizing the new AT&T data plans as 'a great value' for customers.
Naturally. Lying is what marketing is all about.
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
In Moscow you get something like $15 for 4Gb, $25 for 8Gb and - check this - no extra charges once you go over, it just caps the speed to 64Kbit with option to pay and remove the speed limit.
Elsewhere in Russia it's similar, with prices moved about 25% up and caps about 50% down, but again, no "11:30pm, Jan 31, news reader asked for updates - say hello to your extra 300Mb charge, not redeemable, not transferable to next month".
Where the fuck did you take a wrong turn? I won't buy "too much demand" explanation, because here "demand" was exactly what made carriers build infrastructure and drove the prices down, while your carriers butt-fuck you, whining "Oh my! Our poor undernourished networks didn't expect this - disregard our ads telling you to go buy an iPhone and surf the Web"
1,440 minutes is only 11 movies! It's not streaming 24/7 .. it's just 3 movies a week.
It's wireless, so it's not as straightforward as you'd like to think.
.. think of how tolls are calculated based on number of axles (which is directly proportional to weight). Heavy trucks cause faster wear on roads, hence higher tolls.
Your GSM/UTMS/HSDPA/whatever signal uses a defined amount of spectrum, which is shared (to what extent depends on the modulation scheme and a lot of other variables like tower spacing and channel reuse). The towers (leases, power, etc.) and bandwidth (FCC auctions) all cost money, and have to serve everyone more-or-less equally.
To use the time-honored car analogy
You can prevent an "estimated bill" by just calling in the reading yourself.
It usually says how to do that right on the gas/electric bill, along with what weeklong window you have to do it and the phone number to call.
Here in Ohio, it's a simple IVR system that asks for account number and the current 5 digit reading.
My plan permits me to download at 1.5MB (not Mb) per second, for every second of the month, for GBP £13.00.
That's a "cap" (limited by the physics/equipment involved of about 4TB per month. This is ADSL2+ at a sync rate of about 18Mbit/s. (I actually peak at about 1.8MB/s, but I'm being conservative here).
4TB divided by £13 is about 0.3p per GB.
These numbers aren't made up.
Wi-Fi is practically everywhere.
Public transit in my home town does not offer Wi-Fi. Nor does the local shopping mall where the bus drops me off and picks me up; all the APs I can find are locked for employees only.
Umm, the $20 plan is NOT for streaming video nonstop. I have to assume it's intended for mostly just email reading. For people who aren't streaming or otherwise using a lot of data, $20 a month IS a better deal than $30 a month
Their new $30 plan will still get you 20 hours of streaming. Which could very well be enough for many people. (These plans are for phones and tablets, not for watching at home).
We want AT&T to get paid for high usage, so they are financially incentivized to build out the network.
But does the carrier build out the network with that money, or does it spend the money on paying dividends to its shareholders?
or this thread is full of ATT agents?
With the easy availability of free public wi-fi in most communities
Then I guess my home town isn't among "most communities". Please explain how free public Wi-Fi works where you live.
... it become $1 or 15MB of data on the internet? That's a pretty huge mark-up on price there.
Several AT&T reps have admitted to me that, while this report may be TECHNICALLY true, it really isn't. AT&T makes a routine (but unannounced, as far as I know) practice of capping data transfer rates of all high users, and unlimited plan customers are at the top of the list.
I'm one of those lucky ones.. grandfathered into an 'Unlimited plan' (at least until they decide to stick it to me), and I'm happily still paying my $30/month.
For the entire time I owned my iPhone, and the subsequent Android device, my usage has been well below even the 2GB plan. I was offered the choice to go to the $25/2GB plan when I picked up the Android phone, and despite my low usage, I said "Heck no". I am one of those many consumers that would rather pay more than worry about potential overages. It gives me a sense of control, that I have no fear of hitting that overage limit, and it ensures that I can expect the same bill every single month. I definitely don't like surprises when they hit me in the pocketbook, as I suspect many users agree with.
PS - I think the 250 (now 300MB) plan is crap. My fiancee has that with her iPhone, and she constantly is having to ensure that cellular data is off and that she tries to only use wi-fi. It's far to easy with background apps and other things installed on the iPhone to suck up that small amount of data. 1GB is probably a far more reasonable number.
I'd complain about that .. if there are meter closets with dozens of meters, there's no reason the utility can't install automated reading systems directly in the building (versus the drive-around-in-a-van variety). Failing that, ask the superintendent to install a PTZ webcam in the meter room accessible to residents.
Alternatively, sign up for "budget billing" which makes your bill the same each month based on rolling 12 month pattern.
if we dont have more competition rates will go up up up!
We should all be cheering for the number 3 and 4 out there, and the FCC should be releasing more spectrum.
For now at least, you can switch to a Sprint unlimited plan. No one says you have to use ATT.
In the UK, one company is offering a tariff plan with unlimited data (including tethering) for about $40 per month. They have been cleaning up. (In my case I think I've hit 5GB download today, but I am running a number of software updates.)
Another company is offering an unlimited data plan for about $15, but you are not allowed to tether (which I find key).
Seriously you need to get some decent competition over there.
Ahm, why would you watch a movie on your phone? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKiIroiCvZ0 Problem solved. Genius
Noting AT&T is selling is a great value.
Is this article even news or just opinion? I think Slashdot is losing its way.
We'll I was all ready to whip out and dust off the old protest signs... When.... it hit me....
Netflix is one company. - I have nothing to do with them
AT&T is one company - I do have something to do with them
This appears to be targeting mobile phones. - I have nothing to do with them
So the question here is why does netflix's data requirements effect an AT&T mobile phone contract?
Either AT&T can provide what they say or they can't.
I don't have any particular love for AT&T, but other than protesting AT&T sucking up Netflix's shitty business model.
I am not sure what the problem is. You enjoy your mobile phone and streaming netflix. I don't.
If you really want to protest AT&T then start with those FIOS SPLITTERS, warrantless spying, and un-needed, and frankly very dangerous to store ISP logs that last longer than 2 weeks. Go get a HAM license. Pay zero.
That AT&T offers a data plan measured in MB shows how out of touch AT&T is. It's not a data plan that they intend to sell, it's just there so they can claim they offer cheap data plans.
Even given unlimited unmetered bandwidth, I'd have no interest in watching more than a couple minutes programming on my phone. It looks good at 720p, but given the choice between phone and laptop, desktop, or tv, the phone is in last by a long shot. There is a funny disconnect between network speeds and bandwidth caps in mobile right now, but even with what I consider heavy use and an 'unlimited' plan I'm never even using 1GB. I want to be upset, but I simply don't want or need very much transfer on my phone yet.
Would you stop bitching already? There is nothing that you can do if few wiereless monopolies riled up against you... So stop whining about inability to watch movies 24/7/365 on your mobile device. Who would enjoy that anyway except phone fanatics?
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
AT&T is scheming that they will be able to trick customers into paying more for their data. Their "choice of plans" approach penalizes everyone except those who know what their usage will be in advance. This shouldn't be permitted; it's a form of taking advantage of unsophisticated consumers.
A good regulation would say "If you offer a choice of multiple billing plans to your customers, you must automatically switch the customer at the end of each month to the plan that would charge them the least." Then AT&T can charge whatever covers costs most effectively for their business, but consumers don't have to expend effort every month figuring out when to change their plans.
Or, heck, just insist that data providers move to packet-based billing like a water meter or an electricity meter. That seems fair.
I know "tethering" most commonly means sharing a phone's wireless Internet connection with a computer. But wouldn't tethering your phone to a TV and requesting high-definition bitrates more commonly used with a TV trip the phone company's tetherdar, despite it not being the most common meaning of "tethering"?
There, fixed it: Still, that didn't stop a spokesman from characterizing the new AT&T data plans as 'a great value' FROM the customers.
So many things wrong with this. Where do I start?
1) 1440 minutes is the number of minutes in a day, not a month. Each month on average has 43,828.8 minutes. The AT&T slider is not a representation of maximum possible data usage.
2) As another poster pointed out, who streams Netflix 24x7 on the least cost-effective plan? $30 for 3GB/month would change the original calculation from $68,376 to $360 per year, the original value of the unlimited plan. (But at 43K minutes/month on either large plan would make it $10,264/year.)
3) Please, for the love, don't use a mobile plan for streaming 24x7. Buying a house with a hard line is a much better investment. $10K/year will pay for a reasonable mortgage, and you get to keep the house afterwards.
All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
Are they really, nationwide?
I've only heard AT&T comment specifically about network limitations in SFO and NYC.
There's so much assumed/freelance/guessed information about the state of AT&T's nationwide network that I'm not sure how much if any of it is true.
I live in the Twin Cities and I almost never have issues with AT&T data bandwidth. Just the other day I actually watched Netflix on my iPhone (something I'd never done) and it worked fine as it normally does for most of my data transactions.
I remember back in the days when the Iranians were our friends and the Russians were our enemies, I watched all kinds of movies late night with a TV set. Had to deal with some commercial interruptions, like Ga3ry hosting the show and boasting deals from MMM Carpets. Didn't have to haggle with cost and sign up plans, no problems with connectivity (though some snow on certain channels), and sure didn't have to worry about goons from the MAFIAA busting down my door when I "downloaded" Jayne Mansfield and Gina Lollobrigida movies.
mfwright@batnet.com
Neat how AT&T's pricing seems totally in line with how the MPAA values pirated downloads.
At least until "they pry it from my cold dead fingers" I just by my phones outright (Galaxy Note now). I just try to "stay under the radar" with usage, because my 30/month is cheaper for the data I use, versus what they have now. As long as they "allow" me to keep it, I will.
it's arguing that if I take the 300MB a month plan and watch netflix with it I will pay 68k a year. But if I was going to watch netflix on my phone why wouldn't I pay the extra 10 bucks a month to get the 3GB plan with 1GB/$10 additional vs the 300MB/$20 for the lower plan. It's like saying, Cabs are a rip off. If that guy there rode a cab for 150,000 miles he would pay way more than a guy who just bought a KIA for $20k and paid to run it. It's comparing apples to oranges. Who cares if the 300MB plan would cost someone 68k a year to stream netflix. If you are buying that plan you clearly don't give a crap about anything but email, or your really stupid. I think that this plan is for old guys like my dad who wants a blackberry to check his work email on the road with, but wouldn't even know how to use netflix if he ever cared too.
what does resolution have to do with bitrate?
Image quality is correlated with bits per pixel. If you increase the pixels per frame, you need to increase the bits per frame if you don't want the whole frame to collapse into a blocky artifacty mess like an overcompressed JPEG. Why wouldn't an encode with four times the pixels need four times the bits for the video portion?
So why not let your unused MB's 'roll over' like your unused minutes every month?
That would make the economy plan more reasonable for many.
Actually economics suggests that in the presence of competition the price of a good or service will tend to fall to the marginal cost (cost of the last unit brought to market) of providing that good or service. If Company A charges 40 cents for a text message that costs them 2 cents to send, Company B could take away a large number of customers (capturing a ton of profit) by charging 35 cents instead. Of course, then Company A could come back with a 30 cent deal etc. In this way the price would fall until both companies charged something like 2.5 cents a text. This is how most markets really do work. A market in which companies charge vastly more than the marginal cost of the product would prompt any economist to immediately ask: "where's the competition?"
People frequently believe that greed explains high prices, but then what explains low prices? Altruism? People work for minimum wage, not because they want to do their employer a favor, but because, if they demanded more, other workers would step in and offer to do the job at the current wage (competition). The same applies to hamburgers, shoes, hard drives, and cars, but not text messages. Why?
Settle for nothing now, and you'll settle for nothing later.
Case in point: one of my friends is deaf. What use is the voice plan for her?
Sprint offers data-only plans, but only to people who can prove that they are deaf.
Look, here is how it works, if you are going to use a monster amount of bandwidth, you are going to have to pay big for it. If you want to be one of the 99% that uses reasonable amounts, you will pay a reasonable price. Yes, we need more competition, but AT&T is simply offering a product that you can accept or reject. At least they are being honest about what they offer, as opposed to offering "unlimited" and then throttling the heavy users. As for the old users who still get the $30/month plans, that's the benefit of signing up early and being loyal to one company. It ain't a perfect system, folks. Change carriers, and if you can't, move or get over it.
---
A friend of mine has a grandfathered unlimited wireless data plan for his iPhone that he uses [primarily] to listen to NPR. This is voice only, and he still gets spam from AT&T telling him that he's in the top Nth percentile of data users [and they're "unhappy" about it] even though, under his plan, he has the right to do this [and has told them so].
I have an 6 Mbps "elite" DSL landline from AT&T with a purported 150GB cap. Originally, it was unlimited. The AT&T FUD was that they wanted to avoid "congestion". Well, since my maximum data usage can be calculated, the copper to the CO is not a shared resource (like a cable connection or wireless), my [maximum] theoretical loading of the backbone can be calculated beforehand. This means that it is easy to factor the cost of my line's loading of the backbone into my monthly bill.
In other words, I expect that the money I pay is divided to pay for: local loop maintenance, my percentage of usage of backbone switches, and other infrastructure in between. If AT&T has [say] 10,000,000 subscribers, their network should be able to handle all 10,000,000 connections simultaneously. But, they can't because they've been siphoning off this money as profits instead of investing.
AT&T failed to plan properly and are now coming up short. As part of the FUD, they also try to label people that try to use the [full] capacity that they've already paid for as "hogs". Or, impose caps or usurious pricing.
Like a good neighbor, fsck is there
Posted bad moderation and erasing with this post.
What if they separated AT&T into two private companies-- one that managed the hardware (fiber, backhaul, towers, spetrum) and one that ran everything else? Kinda like what they were going to do to Microsoft way back.
MetroPCS has done this in a very reasonable way-- they have an algorithm that determines if you are "downloading" something. I don't know the details but we estimate it's simply derived from continuous traffic above some given threshold.
They basically say, you can do unlimited internet surfing, but we'll sell you different connection tiers for "Youtube and downloads".
The "Youtube" part is so people understand it's about bandwidth. Technically all they're really saying is "downloads", which a fat youtube stream gets algorithmically tagged as.
This is on their 4G LTE network. This allows you to stream Netflix or Youtube if you want, and when you run out of bandwidth, you can continue doing normal web surfing.
They currently sell 2 tiers, 1GB and Unlimited, with talks of a 4GB plan to bridge the $10 gap between those two.
Other carriers should do this too. Some content-provider agnostic algorithm that simply determines if you are "streaming/downloading" and then meters you for it.
psych-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_aversion
I prefer to pay by the text message. It's great, I only pay for 160 bytes at a time and I can be certain I will never pay for more than 159 bytes worth of unused data.
sorry, you're making it sound like AT&T is being reasonable. This won't do, we need a click-generator-headline instead.
Frankly, I don't feel comfortable categorizing that as fanboist.
... that's just the stuff we use... I actually prefer my Windows 8 Samsung Slate and bought it because I didn't like the iPad. I wonder if I'm an Apple fanboy or someone who simply buys a lot of Apple shit until something better comes along.
If the plan he is referring to at Sprint is in fact better than the one at AT&T, then it's informative with a derogatory anti-AT&T tone. If the plan isn't better and he is purely misinformed and quoting jibberish in favor of a brand he is fond of, then I'd agree with the fanboy bit. From the other comments I've read, I can only imagine that it can go either way depending on your needs.
Funny thing is, as an owner of 4 iPhones, 3 iPads, 2 Mac Minis, an Apple TV and who knows what else
Doubling the number of cells within the same spectrum range is a waste of time unless you also decrease the area which the cell covers. I'm sure some nifty engineer somewhere can easily write a program which would calculate ideal power levels and staggering of spectrum usage to make it work better, but in densely populated areas, increasing the number of cells that much. The Empire State Building for instance has to be a nightmare to plan for, though running pico cells on each floor might be a good idea. But otherwise, spectrum allocation has to be a huge challenge.
When I'm in the states, the speed of the 3G/4G networks don't bother me nearly as bad as the shit quality of the networks. I have been in most European countries and several Asian ones. I have never seen anyplace else in the world, not even in the mountains of Norway with such insanely shitty telephone and mobile broadband coverage as I've seen in the U.S.. I would feel sympathy for AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile if their service wasn't a disaster on a biblical scale. You'd imagine that every single U.S. Interstate, U.S. route and major state road would have awesome coverage. Oddly, when you look at the coverage maps from those companies, what they mark in dark green to symbolize "Amazing!!!" would barely sit in the white in European countries which would signify "You most likely will get a signal and maybe EDGE".