Thinking about a new iPhone/iPad? ACT FAST!!

[Moonliner]

Thinking about a new iPhone or iPad 3G?

You might want to rush out and get it soon, and I mean real soon.

AT&T is changing their data plans (http://gizmodo.com/5553418/att-just-killed-unlimited-wireless-data-and-screwed-everybody-in-the-process) to cap your data use on all plans sold after June 6th.


Unlimited, all-you-can-eat wireless data was a beautiful thing for Apple devices on AT&T, delivering streams of Pandora, YouTube videos, a million tweets, and hundreds of webpages without worry. And now it's dead.

AT&T's new, completely restructured mobile data plans for both iPhones and iPads have officially launched the era of pay-per-byte data, which we've known was coming. We just hoped it would take a little longer. It's the anti-Christmas.

[innerSpaceman]

So does that affect plans already in place? WTF????

[Moonliner]

No.

Except if you want to add tethering.


folks on the current $30 smartphone data plan will be able to keep that plan when upgrading hardware. Translation: yes, you'll be able to get a new iPhone without switching to the $25 / 2GB DataPro plan if you so choose. What you won't be able to do, though, is keep the $30 plan and add on the $20 tethering option -- tethering specifically requires DataPro, so your hopes and dreams of a soft 5GB cap are quashed (unless you want to pay $30 for 3GB of overage, of course).

[Cadaverous Pallor]

I would say something about AT&T's stranglehold on the iPhone but I wouldn't be surprised if the other big players did the same thing pretty soon. We're all boned, in the long run.

[Ghoulish Delight]

I very rarely stream anything on my phone. Maybe once a week do I download anything larger than a webpage with images. Most of my large data stuff I do via wifi at home, which would be no extra charge. So if Sprint wants to lower my bill and charge me a few cents on the rare occasion I want to watch a youtube video, be my guest.

[Alex]

I agree, I would be very happy if I had the option of a /byte plan. So, I expect would most people.

I've never really understood the objection to it with an insistance on unlimited plans. Seems to kind of like having to pay $50 a month for the ability to use the postal service but then you get to mail as much as you want. Sure some people that find that a great deal but most wouldn't. I'm happy paying $0.42 every time I mail a letter.

For AT&T I am wondering if this is a revenue measure or an attempt to deal with the fact that they don't have sufficient network bandwidth in many cities.

[innerSpaceman]

I'm not freaking out about AT&T doing this for mobile; I'm freaking out about isp providers doing this for the internet in general. I guess that day is coming, and I guess that's the day the internet dies.

Of course, net neutrality might go down first, in which case the day the net dies will be one day sooner.

[Alex]

Commercially, the internet started out on a pay/byte (actually pay/minute) system for most users so I don't know if such would be its death knell. There are reasons it shifted away to the way it is done now.

But even if it does go to pay/byte I'm reasonably confident that the prices would be set such that it woudln't make much difference to that vast majority of users and once it does (though increasing bandwidth requirements for the "basic" online lifestyle) prices will change to reflect that.

People freak about the caps Comcast talks about but I watch streamed movies constantly and still never come close to them. It generally takes significant constant power usage to reach the limits that get discussed.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Looking over the last 7 months of our usage (that's combined between me and CP), only twice did we go over the 2GB limit that AT&T is switching to, and once, by <5MB. So, under the current plan our data cost over those 7 months = $420. Under the new plan, $186.14.

For any one month to cost us as much as the $60 it would currently cost, we'd have to use 70% more data than our highest month's usage. That month is already 50% higher than the next highest month, and is double our average usage. So even if a there were a month in which we used TRIPLE our average data, it would still cost less than the $60 flat rate. And that's for 2 of us sharing the bandwidth.

Yeah, PLEASE Sprint, PLEASE do this. I could use an extra $30 or so a month.

[Kevy Baby]

I'm happy paying $0.42 every time I mail a letter.The USPS would be happier if you paid $0.44 every time, since that has been the First Class Letter rate since May 2009.

[Alex]

True, but giving a blowjob to the guy at the counter gets you a two cent discount.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Alex, I think you've misunderstood the term "philatelist".

[Alex]

Oops. Well at least over the years I've saved myself $0.72.

[Gn2Dlnd]

There's Kevy, always with his two cents.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Oops. Well at least over the years I've saved myself $0.72.
36? Including me? [/Dante]

[alphabassettgrrl]

Commerce always screams about choice- how about giving people a choice? Those who want unlimited can get that plan, and those who want per byte can get that one.

I don't see why they have to force us onto one or the other exclusively.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Yeah, PLEASE Sprint, PLEASE do this. I could use an extra $30 or so a month.:eek:

Alex, I think you've misunderstood the term "philatelist".This is the funniest smartest joke of the month.

[Kevy Baby]

Some additional info I found on this:

Candid answers from AT&T on the new iPhone data plans (http://www.tuaw.com/2010/06/02/candid-answers-from-atandt-on-the-new-iphone-data-plans/) (article on tuaw.com). Or you can read Mac Rumor's highlights from the article here (http://www.macrumors.com/2010/06/02/more-details-on-atandts-data-plan-changes-for-iphone-and-ipad/).

And from Mac Rumors (http://www.macrumors.com/), a detail that sucks:
Customers on the grandfathered unlimited plan will also be unable to use AT&T's tethering feature, which comes as a $20/month add-on to the new $25/month 2 GB data plan.

[BarTopDancer]

This has got me looking at my bill. Out of my 1000 anytime and unlimited nights/weekends I use less than 400. I also use about 23MB of data a month. That's it?! :eek:

[€uroMeinke]

I like that they finally allowed tethering, but for an additional $20 a month, forget it.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Oops, I just checked and my calculations were based on an incorrect read of the current data plans. I saw the $60 for the old data+tethering, instead of $30.

So the numbers aren't as dramatic, ending up with saving of ~$5 per month, and only being able to use a little less than double over average use instead of triple. Still an entirely reasonable deal though.

[Moonliner]

I hope that works out for you. Personally I plan to keep hold of my all you can eat plan until they pry it out of my cold dead fingers.

My phone is in constant contact with my home servers to sync emails, monitor my webcam, stream music, movies or any TV station I want live. When I'm driving I'm pulling down GPS/MAP data, etc....

Yeah, I'm a data glutton.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Yeah, I'm a data glutton.This has me wondering exactly what your usage is, and how all of our numbers compare.

[blueerica]

This has me wondering exactly what your usage is, and how all of our numbers compare.

Ditto.

[Moonliner]

With less than a week left on my current billing cycle: 1829.3613k

But it's been a slow month for leisure time...

[Ghoulish Delight]

So assuming a less slow month....maybe 3GB? Looks like it might cost you $5 more per month.

[Moonliner]

Old Unlimited Plan: $30/Month.
New 2GB Plan: $25/Month + 1.25 cents/mb over the 2gb cap.

Base Price difference: $5.00

$5.00 at 1.25 cents/mb gets you 400MB (400*0.0125 = 5) or 0.4GB

So after 2.4GB/Month you're losing money on the new plan.

3.0GB = $20 + (1000 * 0.0125) = $32.50
4.0GB = $45

My data use over time keeps climbing so I'm sticking with an unlimited plan.

[Ghoulish Delight]

According to the interview Kevy posted, data overage won't be charged per mb, instead you would be charged $10 and be allowed another 1GB before being charged another $10. That's kinda sh*tty.

[Kevy Baby]

1829.3613kOnly 1.79 megabytes? I would have though a lot more.

Huh

[Ghoulish Delight]

Maybe he's using european notation which substitutes '.' for ','.

[Moonliner]

Only 1.79 megabytes? I would have though a lot more.

Huh

They're doing wonderful things with compression these days...

[Kevy Baby]

Verizon switching to AT&T-style limited data plans later this month? (http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/20/verizon-switching-to-atandt-style-limited-data-plans-later-this-mo/)

Hang on to your megabytes, folks, because it looks like the Brave New World of limited data is truly upon us. AT&T and Verizon tend to follow each others' moves pretty closely -- the two carriers regard each other as their nearest competitors, after all -- and we're hearing that Big Red intends to move to some sort of tiered bucket strategy on July 29. We don't have details on whether the pricing will be identical to AT&T's ($25 for 2GB, $15 for 200MB), but we imagine it'll be within shouting distance if not. Of course, Verizon has been sending this message (http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/11/verizon-cto-flat-rate-data-isnt-long-term-sustainable/) for a long time -- even before AT&T was -- so it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that this is going down. You might say that Droid Does Caps, eh?Um, well, that is the entire article. But I wanted to provide the link in case anyone want to check my work.