AT&T to penalize users that tether phones?
Uh oh. I really hope this isn’t true but I just heard from Matt Whitlock that AT&T might be putting the hammer down on customers that tether their phones for use as notebook modems. Over at Techlore, Matt has all of the details on what he’s heard direct from an AT&T rep; or not so direct as it’s actually conversation he overheard, but that doesn’t change the potential impact here.
Apparently, sometime this month AT&T will start to monitor for "tether-ees" that are on the lower priced data plans. Standard data plans for unlimited modem / device data start at $59.99 a month; lower priced plans like the iPhone plan start at $19.99, so the company will be looking to stop that $40 a month shortfall. This is the first report I’ve heard on this topic, so let’s wait and see what happens; if anyone can confirm or deny in the meantime, please do. I’m all for the cellular companies to turn a fair profit for their services, but I still have a problem when I can’t use the full functionality of a device. If the lower priced plans are indeed unlimited for the consumer, what difference does it make which device I use with it?
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I’m curious to find out how they would monitor accounts. Wonder if privacy concerns come up from this.
What I don’t get is that the iPhone’s data plan is dirt cheap compared to the Blackberry plan, but both fit fairly data-heavy profiles.
The BB can easily push 20MB in just push email each month. The iPhone can do the same.
The BB has maps and a web browser. So does the iPhone.
The BB has a REALLY crappy web browser which serves to keep users off of the web. The iPhone has Safari.
If anything, I’d expect the iPhone users to suck up MORE data than the BB users, but the iPhone users pay less. I’d happily pay a fair rate for different tiers of unlimited data, if they actually classified them in any sort of sane fashion. I can’t imagine that tethering is driving up their costs all that much.
This has been an issue with Verizon for ages. Their “monitoring” consisted of shutting down people who passed an unpublished threshhold of data usage, presuming they “must be” tethering or otherwise breaking the terms of service.
They have since come somewhat cleaner and published the threshhold (5GB/mo, I believe).
I still think they should have automatically tiered pricing, which I think would drive more data usage across users and overall revenue. It would work something like this: less than 1 MB (all units per month), might be something like 1.99. 10 MB – 3.99, 50 MB – 4.99, 250 MB – 9.99, 400 MB – 14.99, 1 GB – 19.99, 4 GB – 29.99, 10 GB – 49.99, and then capped if they are concerned about abuse. I bet a lot of people who don’t have a data feature now may spend a few dollars a month if the access were on all accounts and tiered like that. (An option to turn it off would be there too, for folks that don’t want it.)
D.
Even though the iPhone is only an EDGE device, I am surfing quite a bit with it and MUCH more than I was with EDGE on T-Mobile. If AT&T tries to shut me down from using the iPhone all that I want wirelessly, then I’ll drop them straight away. Don’t sell me an iPhone and tell me it is unlimited and then try to place limits on me.
They are going to need a better way to monitor this than just viewing the amount of data consumed. Man, these guys will do anything to take money from your pockets won’t they?
Privacy concerns? Only terrorists have privacy concerns, at&t wrote the book on helping the US government catch terrorists via snooping their internet access. :-)
If a $19.99 account monthly usage is “too high” then at&t can take a page out of the FBI playbook: javascript code injection. When the “cellphone” makes an http request they would inject javascript probe code into the returned content. The code is run by the browser and if the OS isn’t mobile the javascript code can just load a URL that flags your account as a piggy backer.
Matt, you should definitely not be shut down for surfing 7×24 on your iPhone over EDGE. The issue looks to be related to tethering only. I don’t necessarily agree with it, but AT&T sold the iPhone with the understanding that you could use unlimited data to surf and e-mail on your iPhone, so that use should be safe. It’s using the iPhone (or any other phone) to get data viewed on another device that would be the issue.
Cingular/AT&T has always as far as I could tell blocked data tethering on the Blackberries plan. According to the reps I talked with we had to pay 79.99 for them to unblock the port needed to tether. I have read different things about people making it work without that plan but never been able to get it work myself. I think this has something to do with Blackberries using the BES server to do web surfing and needing a link to the actual Internet for tethering.
I have to side with AT&T on this one.
A restaurant that offers an all-you-can-eat buffet charges a cheaper price for children because they’re not going to eat as much. Despite the fact that it’s an “unlimited eating plan,” the restaurant can reasonably assume that your 4-year-old rugrat isn’t going to eat as much as you. And you recognize this. If you had to pay $8.99 (or $12.99 on steak night) for your child to eat, you’d cry “foul!”
The same is true for phone usage. You’re not going to surf as much on your mobile phone as you would do on your laptop, so in return, AT&T charges you less.
While it’s true that you’re required to pay extra for tethering by design, it doesn’t change the usage profiles that highlight the real problem here.
Push email is fairly data heavy, and it’s not just a Blackberry thing. Treos can use Exchange ActiveSync with Direct Push, the iPhone can do it from Yahoo, and Blackberry has the BES. However, the Blackberry plans cost the most, with the Smartphone plans coming up next, followed by the iPhone as a distant third.
If all three suck up as much data, then the only real difference I see is RIM’s licensing model. That still doesn’t explain the separation, especially when the iPhone is *designed* to make you use the mobile network. No matter what, I’ve got push-email, and I’m using the web for grabbing small chunks of data as needed. I may even use Google Maps. However, with the iPhone, I can see myself *goofing off* on the web much more readily, since the browser is that much more usable. Sure, that’s an experience issue, but why am I paying MORE when I’m using less data? Because the iPhone is more crippled? Does that really make a difference when I’m doing so much more with so much less?
I’d much rather see a tiered pricing model for data, since my own usage sans tethering isn’t all that high. I’m basically forced to pay for a gallon of water when all I need is a glass, while the iPhone users pay less than half for the same gallon, and use well more than a glass.
This is sure to piss off a lot of people…I can only imagine the letters we’re gonna see posted on the Internet that are being posted on the Internet. It’s going to be like the Verizon data limitation scam all over again!