SydLexia.com - The Forums :: View topic - I knew there was a reason I didn't want an iPad

Posted: Jun 02 2010 03:42 pm

gamepolitics.com wrote:

Don't own an iPad yet and plan to use AT&T for all your data needs? Well then, you'd better watch your back, sunshine. Today the company announced that all new customers using smart phones like the Blackberry or iPhone or devices like the iPad will have to pay extra for data. Beginning June 7, AT&T will give new customers two options to choose from - both featuring overage fees:

Option 1: A $15 monthly plan for 200 megabytes of data and an additional $15 for every additional 200 MB of data used.

Option 2: $25 for 2 gigabytes of data and an additional $10 for each gigabyte used over the limit.

AT&T says that these new pricing models give consumers more affordable choices. Really, they said that!

"..we're breaking free from the traditional 'one-size-fits all' pricing model and making the mobile Internet more affordable to a greater number of people," said Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO of AT&T Mobility.

Existing subscribers are safe for now, but for how long the company won't say. Current subscribers can renew their unlimited $30 data plans. Analyst familiar with the sector believe that other wireless service providers will follow AT&T's new pricing model and they believe that the backlash against AT&T will be limited because it only affects new subscribers.

http://gamepolitics.com/2010/06/02/new-atampt-data-customers-can-expect-overage-charges

Ugh, that is not cool. Consider me uninterested in an AT&T-only iPad until further notice. Imho, unlimited data plans should ALWAYS be an option.

Posted: Jun 02 2010 04:01 pm

Saw this today. As a current AT&T customer, I am apparently grandfathered in, even if I have to renew my contract. I plan on getting the iPhone 4G when it comes out though, and I don't know if upgrading my phone will cancel my eligibility to continue with the unlimited plan.

Here's an important fact though: this ONLY effects data that is downloaded through AT&T's network. The iPad, iPods, and iPhones are also able to connect to other wireless networks. Data that is downloaded through another wifi connection doesn't count toward the limit.

Realistically, all this means is that you shouldn't stream data through AT&T's 3G or 4G networks.

Posted: Jun 02 2010 04:37 pm

And, why would you?

In today's society, free Wi-Fi is always within short distance from where you are, unless you are out in the boonies or something.

Joined: Dec 06 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 11244

Well, I will be switching carriers when I get a smart phone. Have fun losing customers AT&T.

Any plans that can result in fucking HUGE penalties will always fail.

Just to put this in perspective; Comcast, the mother fucker of all companies, has a 250000MB per month limit on data. How does it feel to be worse than them AT&T?

Posted: Jun 02 2010 04:55 pm

yeah, this is retarded. i have sprint, but i would be pissed if i was on at&t's network and my phone crapped out and was forced to change plans because of a new phone.

Posted: Jun 02 2010 05:09 pm

I threw a shit load of crap when Comcast switched to the 250GB limit. But, even if I am running Torrents daily and watching HD streams on my PCs and X360, I still haven't topped even 100GB a month.

Posted: Jun 02 2010 06:38 pm

my nephew plays wow all day. my other nephew is on xbox live. i download music quite a bit. my brother uses his ipod and streams pandora for most of the day either on his ipod touch or mine. im sure we would hit that limit or come close to it.

Posted: Jun 02 2010 07:21 pm

username wrote:

my nephew plays wow all day. my other nephew is on xbox live. i download music quite a bit. my brother uses his ipod and streams pandora for most of the day either on his ipod touch or mine. im sure we would hit that limit or come close to it.

Unless you download 25,000 songs, your nephew plays 347 hours of Xbox Live a month, and your brother listens to Pandora for 694 hours a month, I think your safe.

Joined: Dec 06 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 11244

250GB is a fair cap, however, it should be pay for bandwidth beyond that. So perhaps $0.50 per GB beyond 250. Seems fair to me. Telling customers that if they go beyond their limits you will turn off their accounts is just fucked up.

AT&T on the other hand just sucks for not offering a reasonable data amount. For fuck's sake, Syd's damn intro page is 1.75MB by itself, Doddsino's avatar is 454KB, and a standard forum page with just signatures and avatars can creep upwards of 3-5MB. Caching helps, but this is just one site. 200MB is unreasonably small.

Wizard Joined: Jun 12 2009 Posts: 4209

I was looking forward to one of these, too. Fuck you, AT&T.

Joined: Feb 16 2010 Posts: 130

GPFontaine wrote:

Well, I will be switching carriers when I get a smart phone. Have fun losing customers AT&T.

Any plans that can result in fucking HUGE penalties will always fail.

Just to put this in perspective; Comcast, the mother fucker of all companies, has a 250000MB per month limit on data. How does it feel to be worse than them AT&T?

If AT&T was worse than Comcast then my phone wouldn't work for 1 hour out of every day, with occasional bouts of it not working from the hours of 9 P.M. to 12:00 P.M. the next day.

Posted: Jun 03 2010 04:59 pm

I really, really hope that this doesn't drop with Sprint, too. Although, Sprint has a sweet deal in the Any Mobile, Anytime that I doubt they'll be changing, because it brought back some of the subscribers that they had been losing.

Posted: Jun 04 2010 06:44 am

I will never understand the appeal of this thing. In fact, the more I read about it, the more baffled I am as to why anyone would want one. Isn't it basically an oversized and overpriced cell phone that can't make calls? Or is it just a cheap, less powerful laptop? And wouldn't the screen get all scratched up if you actually tried to take it anywhere?