$15 for 200MB? How can AT&T get away with this?!

[Lkr]

Ok, I was one that complained when Comcast introduced the 250GB cap. Now, to be honest, I pay $42 for Comcast 15mb down, 3mb up, with a 250gb cap. AT&T wants $15 for 200mb or $25 for 2gb. Obviously both of these are bad deals, but the 200mb for $15 is just mind boggling. First of all, how do they get away with such a thing? Second, why would someone pay that much for such little data? I am surprised that AT&T is able to retain customers when they are killing them with prices. Now I will say that they do have the iPhone, and Verizon really isn't cheaper(at least they are unlimited at $30 though), but how does this happen? Why is the US cellular(and internet for that matter too) price to performance ratio SO bad?

 

[Paradox-SJ]

are you talking about cell phone service or internet service?

 

[mike123abc]

It is for people that want a smart phone and do not use the internet. Since they require an internet plan for the iphone or droids, this is a cheap option. I believe AT&T said that 65% or so of their customers are under 200MB. The 2GB plan covers 95%+ of their customers.

It certainly is not as good as the unlimited plans for $30. They are trying to stop those that stream video 24x7 over 3G. These plans are meant for phones, not to run your computer.

 

[diogen]

It's a phone plan.
If you don't tether with a PC and use it only on the road (WiFi when not) you will have a hard time to use more...

But yes, in terms of $/MB it's outrageous...

Diogen.

 

[Lkr]

It's a phone plan.
If you don't tether with a PC and use it only on the road (WiFi when not) you will have a hard time to use more...

But yes, in terms of $/MB it's outrageous...

Diogen.

If you are on the road, I think it would be quite easy to go over 200mb. I think I could easily break 2GB depending on if I'm on vacation or if its business.

 

[wallyhts]

I downgraded to this plan since it will save me $180 a year

I look over my data for the last year and never went over 200 mb

 

[diogen]

I think I could easily break 2GB depending on if I'm on vacation...

If this is the only way to get online - of course.
But if it's an add-on to your existing internet plan at home and WiFi at home and at work - then not.

I use a $15/250MB Rogers plan in Canada with a Nexus One. Data plan only!
Used only on the road: to call, GPS, RDP, etc. No video streaming.
Hardly break half the allotted amount...

The moment I'm at home/work - it jumps to WiFi.


Diogen.

 

[meStevo]

I use wifi when I am at home, and I've still gone well over 200mb... sitting at 350mb for the month with a VZW Droid 1.

 

[DetFan]

for 25 bucks I think the 2gb plan is great, I never get close..Im glad they are trying to limit this stuff..People just hog the bandwidth..If you want over 2Gb on your phone get a computer.. I don't get why people always whine about this. Now the 200mb for 15 is a rip off for sure.

 

[mdram]

there are some rural locations that cannot get high speed other then sattelite. tethering a cell phone is a good option over dialup.
trust me i know
its possibel to use over 10gb a month at times.

 

[Lkr]

a rep offered me a deal of $9.99/line for unlimited data today on my phones if I upgraded them to smart phones. I upgraded them all to Palms and an iPhone, and did not get the deal. I've written an e-mail to AT&T's president, let's see if I get a C&D letter

 

[Big Dawg 23]

My wife has a BB Curve on Verizon and never goes over 50-100MB a month. I would take a $15 decrease on my bill. Now for me that will never work I am at 2.5-4GB per month.

 

[Ramy]

It's a phone plan.
If you don't tether with a PC and use it only on the road (WiFi when not) you will have a hard time to use more...

But yes, in terms of $/MB it's outrageous...

Diogen.

That's not true. I don't tether and I used over 4gig last month and average about 3gig a month.

 

[TheForce]

Maybe my example can shed some light on this with my two phone Verizonwireless account-

I have two phones, both are smart phones but mine is used lots more for data and tethering. My wife has the 25 Mb data plan It costs us $9.95 per month. I have her phone set up to download e-mail headers only every 3 minutes. She, like me, gets lots of spam. We don't waste data bandwidth on spam full e-mail downloads. Most cell phone e-mail programs work like this. You get your e-mail in three stages. 1. Header, then select which e-mails to 2. download the body. Finally, select which 3. attachments to download.
Using this conservation procedure, she downloads about 60 e-mails ( headers) a day but in one month she has only consumed 0.73 Mb ! Now she did tell me that a few times she has accessed the internet and looked up a few things but she rarely uses that. Just e-mail and cell phone voice.

MY consumption is listed as "unlimited" as I am grandfathered in. I average between 3 - 4 Gb per month tethering plus I have about 12-15 long podcasts ( 40-70 Mb each) on auto download each week. Maybe use the cell phone for video from sling box but tether to my ipad often, about 2-3 hours a week. Here I download HD video webcasts and lots of surfing, weather maps and other stuff. Rarely, even with tethering do I go beyond 5 Gb a month.

 

[diogen]

That's not true. I don't tether and I used over 4gig last month and average about 3gig a month.

100MB a day. Every day.
We definitely have different definitions of average phone usage...

Diogen.

 

[Ramy]

100MB a day. Every day.
We definitely have different definitions of average phone usage...

Diogen.

I stream music everyday at work and I also use Sling to watch TV on occasion.

 

[mikej0530]

I just switched carriers. I decided to leave Tmobile and now I am with Verizon. I almost went with Att but chose not to because they cap there internet. I was able to watch the whole Dallas game on my cell phone because I wasn't around a tv last night on my cell phone via the internet on my cell and if there was a cap I wouldn't of done that.