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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.
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
3GB data for $30 a month
article is FUD
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.
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It's just the usual 'I used to get everything for FREE' rant that ignores the fact that the company has costs and unlimited plans were doomed from the start. They are so massively unfair to 90% of the users that I'm surprised there aren't more people clamoring for cheaper, metered plans.
I say this while I'm in the top 5%, if not the top 1%. When I was in highschool, back in the dialup days, I was "#1 abuser" at my local ISP. Yes, they told me that directly. I was part of the reason they ended their 'unlimited' dialup plan. (They nearly went out of business soon after and ended up selling out to an ISP that still had an unlimited plan.)
The problem is that the word 'unlimited' is very attractive to us, even if we're paying more than we should. At the moment, I have unlimited internet bandwidth, cell minutes, cell texts, cell bandwidth and probably other things I've forgotten. With my usage, it probably makes sense. What doesn't make sense is that the entire rest of my family (not living near me) has most of the same unlimited things, and they'd probably be better off with metered service. But they've got this 'don't want to pay overages' mentality that makes them keep paying too much. Notice that I said, "probably makes sense" for me. I haven't done the math! I could very well save some money if I examined it, but I feel a resistance to even doing that.
tl;dr - It's a psychological thing that overrides logic.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
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.
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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?
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
- 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.
1,440 minutes is only 11 movies! It's not streaming 24/7 .. it's just 3 movies a week.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.