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AT&T The Internet

AT&T Will Let Unlimited-Data Customers Pay More To Avoid the Slow Lane (arstechnica.com) 96

Posted by BeauHD from the better-than-it-used-to-be dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Monday, AT&T announced the end of data slowdowns for smartphone users who purchase "unlimited" data -- but the perk is only for customers who buy AT&T's most expensive mobile plan. AT&T will continue to sell two other "unlimited" plans that can be put into a slow lane. AT&T advertises three "unlimited" plans, each with different limits. The Unlimited Elite plan's advertised price is $85 per month for one line, while AT&T's "Unlimited Extra" plan is $75, and the "Unlimited Starter" plan is $65.

None of those plans come with unlimited data of the high-speed variety, but that will change this week. In a press release that says customers will soon be able to "stay in the fast lane with unlimited high-speed data," AT&T said that purchasers of the priciest plan "will now enjoy AT&T's high-speed data regardless of how much data they've used." AT&T said it will "start rolling out this enhancement this week and Elite customers everywhere will soon receive a text notifying them when the benefit has been added." While the change will be made with no extra fees for people who already buy the most expensive plan, other people will have to pay more to get onto the only plan with AT&T's new "fast lane" perk. [...] AT&T ending its data slowdowns entirely when customers pay more demonstrates, if it wasn't obvious already, that the limits aren't necessary for network-management purposes. Imposing different levels of data slowdowns is one of the methods AT&T and other carriers use to create product differentiation among plans that all nominally offer "unlimited" data but cost different amounts. Data service may still be fast enough to be usable when the limits are in place, but AT&T does not say what speeds customers should expect during slowdowns.

AT&T is also lifting the video-resolution cap on the Unlimited Elite plan, allowing 4K streaming instead of limiting videos to 480p ("DVD quality") or regular HD. Currently, Unlimited Elite uses what AT&T calls "Stream Saver" to limit videos to 480p but provides a toggle that lets customers turn off Stream Saver and watch in high definition. [...] AT&T is also increasing mobile-hotspot data from 30GB to 40GB on Unlimited Elite. [...] AT&T also provides a subscription to HBO Max with its Unlimited Elite plan and 5G access on all three unlimited plans.
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AT&T Will Let Unlimited-Data Customers Pay More To Avoid the Slow Lane More

AT&T Will Let Unlimited-Data Customers Pay More To Avoid the Slow Lane

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  • AT&T Copying T-Mobile (Score:4, Interesting)

    by phalse phace ( 454635 ) on Tuesday July 13, 2021 @11:39PM (#61580425)

    Just another case of AT&T copying what T-Mobile did months ago [t-mobile.com] with their Magenta Plus plan.

    • except ATT's plan is more expensive and the ATT premium plan already claimed to be unlimited data , however it can be slowed. So let me get this right I'm paying a bunch of money for an 'unlimited' 'premium' plan thats not really unlimited or premium and so I need to pay even more money to get the truly unlimited-premium. Something ONLY ATT could come up with. Diller was correct I don't know how those guys are still in business. One reason I'm an ex-ATT customer, and will be for life!

  • so there's more than one type of unlimited? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 14, 2021 @12:34AM (#61580491)

    I thought infinite was infinite...

    • Oh really.... that's what you think!

      The mathematical concept of infinity refines and extends the old philosophical concept, in particular by introducing infinitely many different sizes of infinite sets. Citation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

    • Re:so there's more than one type of unlimited? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 14, 2021 @01:02AM (#61580547)

      unlimited data =/= unlimited high speed data

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Well, no matter the data plan, it's always limited by the max speed of the network.
        If they cap the rate, that reduces the limit.

        So really, "unlimited" sounds like "limit is max of what you can download given our top speed during the billing period".
        Capping the speed means they've lowered that limit to what you can download given the capped speed during the billing period...

        Neither case is "unlimited" by any stretch, and neither should be legally allowed to be called "unlimited".
        They should just call them wh

      • Re:so there's more than one type of unlimited? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by omnichad ( 1198475 ) on Wednesday July 14, 2021 @06:29AM (#61580995) Homepage

        Ah, so a speed limit isn't a limit. Got it.

        • Ah, so a speed limit isn't a limit. Got it.

          To finish your analogy...
          You can drive an unlimited amount of miles at a limited speed.

          Your mileage is unlimited but your speed is not.

      • One bit per hour reaches infinite bits at exactly the same time as 100Gbps.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Merk42 ( 1906718 )
      If you want to be pedantic, then literally nothing (out of possibly literately "nothing" or entropy), can be sold as "Unlimited".
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • What kind of ridiculous strawman are you rambling about? People are just trying to hold something advertised as unlimited to actually being unlimited in the sense it's not deliberately capped or slowed down. Nobody is demanding their ISP/provider find a way to make every site on the internet work at line speed 24/7.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jnork ( 1307843 )

        Agreed that anybody trying to equate "unlimited" with "infinite" is being a pedantic jerk AND is conflating two different terms.

        "Unlimited" in this context means "we won't put a limit on your data transfer amount." Otherwise known as a "cap."

        "Asking for [full bandwidth]... 24/7" isn't the real argument here. Nobody (except possibly pedantic jerks) is arguing that every network should give you 100% of its nominal capacity at all times regardless of circumstance. The argument here is whether _artificially_ li

  • Why are you still on AT&T... (Score:5, Informative)

    by bl968 ( 190792 ) on Wednesday July 14, 2021 @12:40AM (#61580497) Journal

    "At T-Mobile unlimited is truly unlimited. No overages or data caps apply on our network. Data prioritization will only be noticeable when you access a congested tower and have used over 50GB of data in a particular billing cycle."

    I have not have an overage since I left AT&T over 5 years ago.

    • I switched to T-Mobile. I abruptly switched back. You may not have been charged any overages, but I bet you dropped calls and found yourself with no data coverage often enough. Compared with the signal quality and coverage, there is a reason AT&T commands a premium. That is why companies like Tesla use them for their mobile fleet. It works well (at least it does here in the Southwestern US (Socal / Vegas / Phoenix).

      • Likely much less so today though. T-Mobile has put a lot of money into improving coverage, while AT&T seems to be asleep at the wheel.

      • I switched to T-Mobile 4ish years ago never had a problem, but of course their coverage is location dependent. I have since switched to mint and with the exception of a few setup issues no issues ( they use the tmobile network ).

        That's $360 a year unlimited everything, can't beat that.

    • How is it that they can call that unlimited? They literally contradict themselves...

    • T-Mobile coverage absolutely sucks... everywhere... without exception. You can have 5 bars LTE and still only get 2-3mbps throughput with dropped calls and broken connections. Their network is absolute garbage.

  • So they're screwing with your data? (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward

    AT&T is also lifting the video-resolution cap on the Unlimited Elite plan, allowing 4K streaming instead of limiting videos to 480p ("DVD quality") or regular HD. Currently, Unlimited Elite uses what AT&T calls "Stream Saver" to limit videos to 480p but provides a toggle that lets customers turn off Stream Saver and watch in high definition.

    I'd be more pissed about this than any bandwidth limits. Since when is it OK for ISPs to actually modify the data stream between you and the origin sever(s)?

    • Re:So they're screwing with your data? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by tgeek ( 941867 ) on Wednesday July 14, 2021 @01:00AM (#61580541)
      That's a pretty common practice industry-wide (Do you really need 4K video on an iPhone 10 screen? Yeah, yeah, tethering is another story). In most cases, we throttle the specific streaming flows and let the adaptive bit rate streaming "modify the data stream". Usually this is the handset dropping to progressively lower resolutions until steady buffer levels are achieved. Other techniques include modifying session parameters in the initial setup - which I'm not a proponent of.

      Don't like it? Run all your data thru a VPN.

      • Do you really need 4K video on an iPhone 10 screen?

        * looks at the one making a phone with a 4K screen *

        You act like consumers asked for even a tenth of the features that have doubled the price of smartphones in the last decade.

        Don't like it? Run all your data thru a VPN.

        Not sure how the burden of VPN tunneling would improve a streaming situation being throttled by bandwidth.

        • They detect whether a particular connection is associated with streaming video and throttle the bandwidth down to a level that would only support the lower resolution. An encrypted VPN can disguise the traffic so that it is unaffected.

        • Because when it goes through a VPN, they don't see video packets, they see TLS-encrypted packets.

          Yes, there is a performance hit. No, it isn't as much of a hit as they are imposing on you with their bullshit.

    • Re:So they're screwing with your data? (Score:4, Informative)

      by saloomy ( 2817221 ) on Wednesday July 14, 2021 @01:07AM (#61580553)
      They dont modify the actual stream. What they do is limit the connectivity between you and popular streaming services, effectively forcing the codecs that flex up and down off of 4k videos. It is super easy to circumvent if you VPN yourself around their throttler. It is unthrottled to my home VPN server that I run on my FiOS 1GB / 1GB circuit. IF you dont have sufficient bandwidth at home, use AWS.

      • Most video streaming services block VPN and data center IPs, including AWS. The home VPN server is really the best option.

    • Since a previous FCC chairman rammed through anti- Net Neutrality.

      Hopefully the current FCC chairman follows the direction the President gave last week and turns that bullshit around. And then hopefully the Congress codifies it so future FCC commissioner telco shills can't undo it.

  • Any time they use THAT word (Score:3)

    by bobstreo ( 1320787 ) on Wednesday July 14, 2021 @12:51AM (#61580529)

    it should be in quotes: "Unlimited"

    Because it doesn't mean what the dictionary or common sense would imply.

    I stick with most of my data over WIFI since I'm mostly home.

    I actually used 256k of data last month when the power was out to check on the electrical companies site.

    Of course I'm paying $14 a month for 1Gb of data. So, yeah fuck AT&T.

    • You are paying $14 / month for 1GB of data that you are free to use anywhere. The first bit costs them a blind fortune to deliver.

  • Unlimited (Score:4, Insightful)

    by mr100percent ( 57156 ) on Wednesday July 14, 2021 @01:12AM (#61580567) Homepage Journal

    AT&T and Verizon still don't understand that "more unlimited" is an oxymoron.

    • AT&T and Verizon still don't understand that "more unlimited" is an oxymoron.

      Speaking of morons, they understand their gullible audience perfectly well.

      And it's hard to argue that when both of them make billions offering wireless service.

  • Pricing IS part of network-management. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by uncqual ( 836337 ) on Wednesday July 14, 2021 @01:24AM (#61580583)

    demonstrates, if it wasn't obvious already, that the limits aren't necessary for network-management purposes

    Limiting the number of customers using an unlimited plan certainly is a form of network-management.

    One way to limit the number of customers using an unlimited plan (esp. the truly unlimited 'elite' plan) is to price it higher. There are of course other ways that are less practical such as only allowing so many such subscribers and having a FIFO waiting list, or holding some form of lottery every time an existing subscriber drops the service, or some sort of weighted waiting list based on the customer's lifetime spending on AT&T wireless services.

    If you, as a provider, set the price at $0.01 per month, you will get very high demand (some people would just get rid of their broadband and use the phone instead - perhaps as a hotspot) and you will have to spend a lot of money expanding your network (perhaps something like a low power cell site every few hundred feet in urban neighborhoods with single family residences). However, you won't be able to pay for such expansion due to your low rates and will likely go out of business.

    If you set the price at $1,000 per month, you will get very little demand (just those who absolutely must have unlimited and who can afford it) and probably won't have to expand your network. However, if demand is sufficient to require expanding your network, you will be able to afford to do so and keep your customers happy.

    Somewhere in between is the sweet spot and, perhaps, AT&T has done their analysis and found that sweet spot.

    "network-management" isn't just about cabling, spectrum, towers, and network kit -- it's also about managing demand and about economics.

    • some people would just get rid of their broadband and use the phone instead - perhaps as a hotspot, and you will have to spend a lot of money expanding your network (perhaps something like a low power cell site every few hundred feet in urban neighborhoods with single family residences)

      You do realize that this is the actual plan for 5G, right? The only slight modification is getting the cost to around $400/month, not $1000.

    • Economists call

    • Economists call this "price rationing".

  • Smartphones are a tough market. Nokia did stumble and fumble its way out. The management were like a bunch of Norwegian snowmen, completely out of touch with their business a little over a decade ago. At a time when the business was at a turning point and they should have invested in R&D like crazy, they figured the world was ready and were primarily preoccupied with cutting costs. https://buyessays.onl/write-my... [buyessays.onl]

  • I'm so glad we have competition here (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Wednesday July 14, 2021 @03:34AM (#61580753)

    In my small little country in Europe we have IIRC 5 mobile carriers trying to get you as customer. 75 bucks for a data plan is insane, I pay 25 for unlimited 30/6 (and I mean unlimited, I get 60/6 24/7 and for whatever I want to use it for) and feel like I get ripped off.

    • Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)

      by Sneftel ( 15416 )

      I get such schadenfreude from this continuous drip of articles about how expensive, abusive, and downright creepy the internet service plans (both fixed and mobile) are in the US compared to Europe. (Yes, even when you look at countries with similar population density and cellular coverage.) Like, this is the EU, with all its notionally innovation-strangling statutory consumer rights, corporate taxes, etc., offering all-you-can-eat Internet for generally EUR 20-30. Yet the Invisible Hand Of The American Mar

      • the problem with looking at the benefits of any economic model is that they're always examined through a entirely theoretical viewpoint where the entire system top to bottom functions exactly according to the specs of the system

        the problem of course is that no system actually in practice works that way at nation-state level scale just starting with the fact that of course the moment you have a "fair game" some players will set about figuring out how to cheat and game it for their own benefit, i.e., rent-see

      • Re:I'm so glad we have competition here (Score:4, Interesting)

        by MachineShedFred ( 621896 ) on Wednesday July 14, 2021 @08:48AM (#61581237) Journal

        The bit that you are missing is that we don't have competition in the US in telco or ISP markets. ISP markets are largely geographic monopolies that were granted in the 1970s, and now that the monopoly granting is over, competition faces massive barrier to entry to the point where even Google doesn't do it because it costs too much.

        Mobile phone service is basically the same thing. There are three networks, where two of them are measurably better than number 3. There are lots of providers, but they are all MVNOs running on those three networks. Competition is minimal because they've all arrived at basically the same price points for the same service - basically price fixing without actually arranging to fix prices. So in the end, we all get fucked over and they get rich, and spend part of that lucre on making sure regulators don't actually regulate, and that legislators don't legislate. Because the Supreme Court said that money = speech a couple times now.

        It's a sticky wicket, and only bold leadership gets us out of it. Unfortunately, we're short a few bold leaders and have a whole lot of octogenarian luddite contrarians sitting in the Congress where nothing can move.

        • Mobile phone service is basically the same thing. There are three networks, where two of them are measurably better than number 3.

          I would enjoy you supporting this allegation.

          • Well, Sprint was such catastrophic festering pile of shit that it can only drag T-Mobile down the same way Chrysler did to Mercedes. T-Mobile was perfectly cromulent for me when I used them. But I'm a city-dweller and I've read many comments over the years that they are sub-par out in the sticks. So, with the albatross that is Sprint hanging around their neck, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they are measurably deficient versus AT&T or Verizon.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dryeo ( 100693 )

      OTOH, here in Canada, where we have the most profitable telecom companies based on per GB of data, we look at America with great jealousy over how cheap mobile is down there.
      I pay C$25 for a pay as you go plan with 250 MB's of slow (advertised as 3G speed) data and am happy for such a cheap plan. $75 would get 6-8GB's though lately there are some better plans if you switch and pay the large connection fee.

    • In my small little country in Europe we have IIRC 5 mobile carriers trying to get you as customer. 75 bucks for a data plan is insane...

      When you have five mobile carriers competing for customers, $75/month is insane; when there are only one or two carriers available in any given market, it becomes a seller's market, and to quote Nick van Rijn, the price soon ends up as everything the market will bear.

      • And this is why a pure capitalist model fails in these areas. The setup-fee is simply too high. It costs a new player trying to get into the market way, way more than it costs the entrenched monopolist to keep running. So unless it is someone with very deep pockets and the absolute will to muscle into the territory of a competitor, who is also willing to be bleeding money left and right for years without any chance ot see a profit in this decade anymore, let alone recover the loss, you're SOL.

        And nobody is

        • And this is why a pure capitalist model fails in these areas.

          No, it doesn't fail, it does exactly what it's supposed to do, as does the Free Market. It just doesn't provide the results that you and I want it to. This is why most developed nations have turned away from pure laissez-faire capitalism and have adopted various regulations designed to prevent the less desirable outcomes. How well they work is a matter of opinion, of course.

          • The idea of an unfettered capitalist model is that competing suppliers create products that the demander then chooses and awards the best his money, so those that produce what the market desires will prosper while those that offer an inferior product will perish.

            The core idea is that the demand side decides what will be offered because only what they demand can be sold. But this has been perverted by now where the bar to enter the supply side has been raised to a level where it is simply no longer possible

  • via Verizon's VMNO visible.com

    Read more about the details here.

    http://nerdvittles.com/verizon... [nerdvittles.com]

    Read the comments too.

    • via Verizon's VMNO visible.com

      After reading about Visible, I concluded that $25/month is far too much to pay for that terrible service. In the past, I may have considered it to be on the razor's edge of acceptably bad service. But after getting symmetrical gigabit fiber to the home (where I spend 99.9% of my time) without caps, data shaping, or other artificial restrictions (including business use) for $65/month, I find this pitiful Visible service to be an affront to common decency.

      • Is it really a fair comparison between gigabit fiber and anything wireless? I mean good for you with your particular options, but for all the folks looking for an alternative US wireless service, this seems like a good deal. It is mobile after all.

  • Trust us (Score:3)

    by sjames ( 1099 ) on Wednesday July 14, 2021 @05:43AM (#61580923) Homepage Journal

    This time it really really triple dog unlimited fer sure! We pinkie swear!

  • The word you want is require.

  • For various values of "unlimited" (Score:3)

    by MachineShedFred ( 621896 ) on Wednesday July 14, 2021 @08:24AM (#61581163) Journal

    Seriously, how is an "unlimited" plan that has limits a legally allowed thing under truth-in-advertising laws, especially when you have multiple "unlimited" plans where one actually is unlimited, but the rest has limits?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by bws111 ( 1216812 )

      What do you think they are lying about? They claim that they do not limit the amount of data, and they don't. They don't make a claim that YOU can transfer all the data you want, just that THEY won't stop you from transferring data.

    • Behold the power of the mighty asterisk!

  • Unlimited slow internet (Score:3, Insightful)

    by sir_smashalot_3rd ( 8248420 ) on Wednesday July 14, 2021 @08:25AM (#61581167)
    What customer that buys "unlimited" internet wants unlimited slow internet ?

  • AT&T Will Let Unlimited-Data Customers Pay Mor (Score:3)

    by oldgraybeard ( 2939809 ) on Wednesday July 14, 2021 @09:07AM (#61581291)
    if they want what they bought. So they have joined the club in redefining unlimited. As usual where is the government when they should care? No where to be found, they are all counting their cash.

    • Re:AT&T Will Let Unlimited-Data Customers Pay (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Ol Olsoc ( 1175323 ) on Wednesday July 14, 2021 @09:37AM (#61581373)

      if they want what they bought. So they have joined the club in redefining unlimited. As usual where is the government when they should care? No where to be found, they are all counting their cash.

      We should have a Slashdot poll where y'all come up with the new acceptable (even to pedants) name for the offensive term.

      I've been hearing and seeing the statements that go along the line of "first X gigabytes at 5G, then 3G." for quite a while now. Meanwhile some folks are still crankin on "Unlimited"

      Even back in the day, it was drop dead easy to understand that unlimited was not infinite.

      It really isn't possible to make a simple term that suffices to allow the bottom layer stupid to understand. And once you go to the effort of airing disclaimers, the bottom layer stupid will be the first to tune out and ignore them.

      And catering to the bottom layer surely hasn't done our nation any good. More the opposite.

      • Up here, Rogers was the first to change "Unlimited" to mean "Unlimited access to internet" when people started to complain.

        You can access the internet unlimited # of times! oh data? no, that's capped at 10 gig a month, then we charge you an extra 10 dollars per 100 meg, unlimited!

        Yo Grark

  • Apparently, any company with enough money is immune from regulation. There's still no lifeline credit for impoverished cellphone customers in California, though, they will give you a spy phone.

  • "Unlimited" data plans are a stupid idea, IMO. Like every all-you-can-eat scenario, from buffets to public parks, to oceans & air, stuff that has no cost to consuming more of it gets abused.

    "Unlimited" data plans just encourage people to dumb stuff like streaming 4K Twitch on tiny phone screens or live video calls on the bus.

    When everyone wants to consume unlimited data, no one actually gets it. Everyone suffers.

    Data plans should have an upper limit, even extraordinarily high, like 1 TB, to at least sti

    • On the contrary, everything you list there as actually a positive.

      Unlimited Throttled Data Plans are the best consumer experience we have. I'm in Canada and we've been through phases; including data caps and overage charges.

      I don't think the average consumer should have to think about how much data they are using. So unlimited data is a great thing.

      Now, as a matter of reality, you just don't have the network capacity to have everyone use their unlimited data and the highest speed. So you throttle them as th

  • You don't want to be stuck in the slow lane do ya? Well, you better pay up then! The slow lane is getting slower ya know! The fast lane is the super fast ultra speeds that you're getting today.

  • Our ATT plan is $110/mo + $10 per line.
    They are taking that away. Now they tell me they want $65 per line with no additional monthly.
    $75 per line if I don't want to be throttled and pay for data overcharges.
    For families with two kids, that would go from $150/mo to $300/mo, with lower caps.
    I looked at Verizon, they would be even more expensive.
    Not even considering T-mobile due to low coverage here.
    Best of all, in our little downtown here, the best I can get is LTE.
    What a screw.

  • Unlimited unlimited then? Nah dawg, I'm holding out for the true unlimited unlimited unlimited plan!

  • Marketing-speak (Score:3)

    by jnork ( 1307843 ) on Wednesday July 14, 2021 @01:56PM (#61582335)

    So customers will be paying more for unlimited data that's more unlimited than unlimited data.

    • No, it won't be more unlimited. It will be just as unlimited as it was before, but with fewer limits.

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