AT&T Mobility To Throttle Unlimited Users
- Thread starter Steve Mehs
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Hard to see how an app could convince the local tower to not throttle...
Hopefully they will set the limit pretty high, and not set the throttle too low.
It is done at the air interface. Just like how I could configure my router to throttle someone in my house. All done via software...essentially the same thing when it determines if you can have data based on if you paid your bill or not. The air interface would do a quick lookup based on the rules they supply to determine the throttle rate. No app could counteract it. Just like how an app couldn't get you free service without paying your bill.
I am assuming it is turned on when a lot of bandwidth is currently being used? They cannot create an APP to temporarily full a tower as to who is using and how much they are currently using?
I have an APP that fools my true location
That app doesn't fool the network though. Someone inside AT&T could still see exactly which tower you were on.
Think about what you are asking. The air interface at the base of the tower has all the power. It can choose how much it feeds you, or if it feeds you at all (not paying).
Think about it this way. Take a wireless router, set up the wireless MAC filter to only allow certain devices on it. Put your neighbor's laptop on the whitelist to use the router. Now remove his MAC ID. Can he use the wireless now? The air interface(in your case, the router) holds all the power.
And before you say well he can spoof his MAC ID to one of mine and hack it. Well go ahead and hack your phone to clone your neighbors un-throttled cell phone and see how much trouble that gets you in
I would bet it is a nightly database update. I bet once a day they look at your usage to date for the billing cycle, and if you have crossed the limit they simply flag your account as throttled until the next billing cycle. From that point in time onward when you talk to the tower (ATT system) it knows to throttle your bandwidth to whatever they have decided to limit it. I do not think it will be a sophisticated system or anything, i.e. it does not count the bytes sent to you and instantly cut you down when you cross a certain point, that would be too much overhead. Instead it simply adds up your usage every day as it gets the usage reports in from around the system.
The system is already pretty much in place. They after all sell limited data accounts and they bill you more when you pass the threshold. Now instead of selling you another block of data, they simply give you a block of slow data.
This is a pretty under-handed way to go after the grandfathered plans. I would be willing to bet the "abusers" will be those who exceed 5 GB. What a slimey way to set the mark. Calling it the top 5% is absurd. They just don't want to advertise the limit because, coincidentally, it is the same limit that Sprint and T-Mo use. The press release also mentions how this demonstrates the "need" for the T-Mo merger to go through.
Why does it seem That whatever Verizon does -AT&T does and viceversa..not everything but enough to make u wonder if they really are competitors or just coconspirtators
Like I've said many times, AT&T (SBC) and Verizon's roots can be traced back directly to AT&T Corp which was broken up almost 30 years ago. They may compete in many aspects legitimately, but I firmly believe the ultimate goal here is to bring back Ma Bell, but do it one the wireless side, which is where all the money is now. It would not surprise me the least in a few years after AT&Ts acquisition of T-Mobile is complete and well forgotten about that AT&T approaches Vodafone to buy their part of Verizon Wireless. I do honestly believe AT&T and Verizon are in some sort of collusion together, their roots are too strong not to be
I just got a notice by mail (no text and no e-mail) that they detect I was using tethering over the last billing cycle. Interesting thing is that I haven't used tethering in months. The last billing cycle I was in Mammoth, was using my phone for hours each day (streaming radio, baseball, and using outdoor APPs), and away from WiFi so my data usage jumped from about 1gb/month to 4gb/month (no tethering at all). I called the number and they said that they detected tethering due to the information from their network, not by the amount of data usage. Really? Then why did they claim I was tethering during a time my data usage quadrupled and no tethering was being used?
And this is why AT&T sucks. Complaining about it on an internet message board isn't going to do anything. Cancel your AT&T service and tell them to shove it.
Unfortunately, if I leave, then I will end up playing much more with someone else. I have a grandfathered PacBell plan that nobody can match, not even ATT
Here is what I decided I am going to do. Since they want to play these games with me, I am going to play back. Since I am paying for unlimited, I am going to get my moneys worth. I will use 3G and all times, and not use WiFi at all.
Today I am playing my MLB APP and streaming games. I will do this for the whole 6+ hours games are on. I will try to do this all day every day for at least a month. Lets see how they like me using much more than 4gb of data.
Today I am playing my MLB APP and streaming games. I will do this for the whole 6+ hours games are on. I will try to do this all day every day for at least a month. Lets see how they like me using much more than 4gb of data.
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