New AT&T data plans for iPhones, iPads, more

[kjk]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20006534-1.html

Tethering, which allows a laptop to connect to the Internet via a phone's 3G connection, will be available with the new data plans as soon as Apple releases iPhone OS 4 this summer, AT&T said in its Wednesday announcement. Tethering will cost an extra $20 and won't work with existing iPhone data plans; it will need to be added onto the new, lower-priced plans.
Monday, by the way, is also the first day of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference and the day that Apple CEO Steve Jobs is scheduled to give a keynote address.

The main difference between AT&T's new plans and the old is that the word "unlimited" is now gone, which at first sounds like bad news. But the unlimited plans, like many other broadband plans, had murky, inscrutable limits.

The low-end plan, DataPlus, includes 200MB of data for $15 a month. If the 200MB limit is exceeded, another 200MB block is added on for $15. This continues for as much data as is used.
The high-end plan, DataPro, includes 2GB of data--10 times more than DataPlus--for $25. When the 2GB threshold is reached, another 1GB can be tacked on for $10. Each 1GB after that is $10, as much as is used. That's far better than the old overage rate of $100 per GB, or 10 cents per MB.

So much for "unlimited" :P

From AT&Ts site:

For new iPad customers, the $25 per month 2 GB plan will replace the existing $29.99 unlimited plan. iPad customers will continue to pre-pay for their wireless data plan and no contract is required. Existing iPad customers who have the $29.99 per month unlimited plan can keep that plan or switch to the new $25 per month plan with 2 GB of data.

So...AT&T's revolutionary $30/unlimited data plan lasted a month?

[poohbear_nc]

Were there any stats yet on just how many people jumped onto the "unlimited" plan?

[Fotoman]

My condolences.

AT&T makes our Canadian carriers seem downright philanthropic by comparison... no shared data plans yet for iPads and we have never had unlimited plans but at least our tethering has been free since OS 3.0.

[kjk]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

Were there any stats yet on just how many people jumped onto the "unlimited" plan?

No, but they claim 98% of smartphone users were under 2G of data/month.

I used up my 250MB plan in about 3 weeks, and rolled over into another 250MB plan. I guess the 2GB plan is next for me.

Not sure what to do about the iPhone plan though...before the iPad, I was pretty interested in tethering my Macbook. Now? I'm considering going to an iMac/iPad setup instead.

[kjk]

Originally Posted by Fotoman

My condolences.

AT&T makes our Canadian carriers seem downright philanthropic by comparison... no shared data plans yet for iPads and we have never had unlimited plans but at least our tethering has been free since OS 3.0.

And the U.K. has THREE carriers to choose from!

Well, in his D8 talk last night, Jobs mentioned "There might be" advantages to multiple carriers in the US, and "the future is long", but he did defend the AT&T deal as being pretty beneficial to both companies, esp. for launching a new phone. Which I take to mean that AT&T is going to get screwed, very shortly

[scottjl]

well. for what it's worth, i'm a pretty heavy user since i'm on the road quite a bit, but i still have yet to hit 2G, let alone 5G (which was the "unlimited" cap on the iphone plan) on my iphone. sure i can at home downloading over my broadband, but downloading 2G, over the 3g connection? you'd have to stream netflix all day all month. i really wonder what people are doing to get that high.

if you use AT&T's online account management you can get a nice report of your wireless data usage, mine goes back as far as 10/08 and i can see just how much i used each month. even in my heaviest month i wasn't over 2G of data.

has AT&T been screwing with us? yes. will they continue to do so? yes. but until Apple gives us some actual choice in our provider we're kind of stuck if we want to continue to use Apple products.

as for US carriers and their plans, there are certainly places who have worse rates (canada) and places who have better (asia).

[CyGuy]

Wonder if they will have "rollover gigs" for your unused bytes

[scottjl]

lol. they'll introduce that next year when they're hemorrhaging customers as a perk to keep them.

[kjk]

Originally Posted by CyGuy

Wonder if they will have "rollover gigs" for your unused bytes

I want to trade in my rollover voice minutes for data gigs on my iPhone

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by scottjl

well. for what it's worth, i'm a pretty heavy user since i'm on the road quite a bit, but i still have yet to hit 2G, let alone 5G (which was the "unlimited" cap on the iphone plan) on my iphone. sure i can at home downloading over my broadband, but downloading 2G, over the 3g connection? you'd have to stream netflix all day all month. i really wonder what people are doing to get that high.

Yeah, seems like plenty for an iPad only plan.

If it was a shared 3G plan I could see people going over it as I know some that use the Verizon 3G as their home broadband. They use the little jump drive modem when on the road, and have the MiFi 3G wireless router thing to use at home.

Not sure if they go over the caps or not, but I could see someone that was wanting to use 3G as their only internet could easily go over it.

I would think streaming video could get there relatively quickly though, especially if streaming HD content. So maybe you could hit it on the iPad if video watching was your main use.

I don't know how accurate the numbers are, but this article says that a standard def movie streamed from Netflix on the Xbox 360 involves transferring 1.8 GBs of data and an HD one 3 GB....

http://blog.streamingmedia.com/the_b...am-movies.html

Those sound really high to me, but they are based on the average encoding rates....and it just can't be right or everyone on an iPad would be over their limit with one movie. So something's either fishy with those numbers, or the streaming files are smaller on the iPad or something.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by kjk

And the U.K. has THREE carriers to choose from!

Four, at the moment, actually: O2, Vodafone, Orange, and "3".

and each of these offers a range of different plans.

[scottjl]

harry, care to give us non UK folk a summary..? i'm curious what your options are.

[HarryT]

Well, for example, I've gone for O2, and they offer three different plans:

1 day's access for £2, with a 500MB data limit.
1GB/month for £10.
3GB/month for £15.

Vodafone are much the same, with:

1GB/month for £10
3GB/month for £15
5GB/month for £25.

While "3" offer:

1GB/month for £7.50
10GB month for £15

(which is clearly better for heavy users).

Orange are perhaps best for occasional users, with:

5p/MB "pay as you go", capped at £40/month.
1 day for £2, with 200MB data.
1 week for £7.50, with 1GB data
3GB/month for £15
10GB/month for £25

All the monthly plans are "rolling" 1 month contracts, which can be stopped (and restarted) at any time.

In addition, with their monthly plans, Orange give you unlimited access to "BT Openzone" WiFi hotspots (of which there are lots), while O2 give you unlimited access to both "BT Openzone" and "The Cloud" hotspots. WiFi use doesn't count against your data limits.

So, as you see, there are lots of choices!

[Lotus Esprit]

Originally Posted by kjk

No, but they claim 98% of smartphone users were under 2G of data/month.

I used up my 250MB plan in about 3 weeks, and rolled over into another 250MB plan. I guess the 2GB plan is next for me.

Not sure what to do about the iPhone plan though...before the iPad, I was pretty interested in tethering my Macbook. Now? I'm considering going to an iMac/iPad setup instead.

If only 2% of users are using over 2GB then does it really make a difference? The only reason to do this is to recoup revenues from lost market share. It said that the new plans go into effect on June 7th so does that mean that the unlimited is available until then?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Lotus Esprit

If only 2% of users are using over 2GB then does it really make a difference?

Yes. It only takes a tiny percentage of heavy downloaders to cripple a network. For example, when my ISP introduced data caps (pretty much all UK ISP's have caps) they said that, at the time, 1% of users were using 80% of the available bandwidth, and slowing things down for everybody. Data caps are pretty essential for everyone's benefit.