At&t news

[W9WLS]

Was just reading on a news site that as of OCT. 1st AT&T is going to start restricting connection speed on what it considers it's top 5 % users on their "UNLIMITED" plan and possibly other plan's as well.
AT&T stopped selling the "UNLIMITED" plan some time ago.
AT&T is claiming that users who stream video and play on-line games are slowing down the system.

IT SEEMS TO ME: that AT&T is running out of bandwidth or something and instead of putting up more towers / sites to carry the load they are taking the easy way out.
Wonder what's next, PAY PER BYTE ?

I am on my Son's plan with AT&T and the phone is almost useless here in S.W. Indiana in the summer (we live in the boonies) while the XYL's phone which is on VERIZON (daughters plan) and has coverage here and so far everywhere else she's used it, we have made many complaint's to AT&T about this with no satisfaction as yet.

Just thought Ya'll might find this bit of news interesting ( and maybe useful).

73, John

[AE5BI]

I am a full time Investor and stream market data from 6 AM to 5 PM PT and I have long suspected Verizon throttles data during peak hours. They did not announce it though. I am on unlimited data via a USB modem and couldn't stream video if I wanted to. I think as 4G rolls out things will get a little better on line. Just my 2 cents :)

[wa8yxm]

I spend a major portion of my of my life using Verizon 2-way Satellite and we see serious speed reductions during the day as well.

AT&T announced this ill-thought plan some months ago.. Make me glad I dumped them.. Finding a truly unlimited plan is getting harder all the time though the Virgin Mobile half Gig high speed for 50/month is close, at least in my life. (it includes unlimited low-speed I might add)

I think when they say "Unlimited" they need to mean it.

Many of the "unlimited" plans out there have serious "Fine Print" as it were.

Hughes 2-way Satellite is, as I recall, unlimited from 3-6 AM,, I'm just not sure which 3 and which 6 (There are, after all, 26 time zones.. The reason what we used to call GMT is still called "Zulu" in some places is that it's zone 26

[W5DOK]

We switched from AT&T to Verizon several years back and have been more than pleased with the service. It works everywhere we go, altho sometimes a bit slow. We also went to Verizon Mi-Fi for internet service and have really been happy with it. It works in places where even the cell service is weak. Since we have had mi fi, they have set a limit on usage, but it doesn't apply to us since we are grandfathered. Good thing, since the YL likes to stream video. The mi fi can support up to 5 users and acts like a mini hot spot. We've had neighbors camped next to us that couldn't get internet service hook onto our service and it never causes any issues for us when they are online. As 4g rolls out nationwide, it should get even better.
Doc

[wa8yxm]

Verizon just turned on the "Download limits" fine print as well.

Sprint claims it's the only company with "True unlimited" but.. Quite frankly. I'm not interested in Sprint.

[W9WLS]

The way these cell company's have written their contracts the common user cannot afford to switch providers easily with out incurring some major expense.
The "end-user" is of course at their mercy as to what the company decides to turn down or up as to services ( and most times with little or no notice ! ).

[KF5BET]

We have AT&T and are constantly having signals drop. I have the unlimited plan and the xyl has a paid plan. We both think that their service has deteriorated drastically over the past few years. Our problem is we just upgraded recently and now have to wait it out before we can jump ship (would cost us way too much IMO).

I've heard good things about Verison. We had Sprint many years ago and were not happy with them. Might be different now. Don't know.

We currently have AT&T at our office and absolutely hate it. The internet speed is sooo slow and we cannot send a file larger than 4 or 5 megs. We routinely have files that are approaching 20 megs. We are trying to move to a local fiber company, but have found out that AT&T automatically renewed our service for a three year contract and to drop them would cost us roughly 1500 buck in penalties.