What do you think of AT&T throttling data usage for the top 5%?

AT&T is applying the "Angel Customer Demon Customer" approach from Best Buy:
http://www.amazon.com/Angel-Customers-Demon-Discover-Turbo-Charge/dp/1591840074

As a demon customer I would hate this, but it means AT&T can support more customers without building infrastructure and that will help their stock. The best part? Their worst customers will leave for services that offer unlimited data, such as Sprint, thus bringing down the quality of other networks.

I think this is appropriate BUT... it should be intelligent throttling down. Throttle only when these 5% users are in a location where they are hurting the experience of the rest of the 95%. Makes no sense to throttle them down at 3 AM in the morning when network bandwidth is not being used anyways. I am an unlimited user but my usage spikes up only when I am at a location where there is no w-fi available and my average monthly usage probably falls in the bottom 25%.

I think we're going to see more and more of this. Unlimited flat-rate bandwidth was the tease that got you in the door but in the age of Cloud computing, Netflix, Facebook, Siri and streaming media the bandwidth companies are looking for ways to get a bigger piece of the pie from the now-dependant customers.

And it's something that needs to be factored into our deliberations when it comes to on-premises vs. cloud hosted data. Access to the cloud is increasingly not "free" - especially as the data volume grows.

Companies such as AT&T are in business for profit. If they are not making profit out of the unlimited plan then one of two things has to happen, increase the cost of unlimited plan or charge folks for data usage. I am for charging folks for data usage. Unlimited data is a sort of socialism where the cost is spread across many customers. Even though I currently have a grandfathered unlimited plan, I only use my PDA to pick up email or use maps to find direction when I am lost.

Of course all good things have to end because of abuse and if AT&T was not throttling bandwidth then they probably will have to cut off unlimited usage for their existing customers like Sprint did with their 3/4G card.

I have one of those grandfathered "unlimited" accounts. Haven't been really using it but kept it "just in case." In reality I'll save money by just dropping back to the 2GB plan. Frankly, if I need it, I don't mind paying for it. Going rate seems to be $10/GB. I'd just as soon see them just charge that rate and allow you to set a "safety" or "runaway app" cap instead of having all these "tiers." If I have a need, then I can choose to pay the extra when I need it. If I don't, then I save.

Now competition will fix this ultimately. Even today you can always move to Sprint if you want truly "unlimited." Frankly, I like the idea of "pay as you go." First, it is fair. Second, it deters frivolous bandwidth hogging. But perhaps more importantly, it is an incentive to the providers to maximize their bandwidth because they are making more money if they deliver more GB per unit time.

I'm simply going to drop my "Unlimited" plan as it is clearly no longer "Unlimited" in the original sense of the term.

Bottom line, Vote With Your Wallet.

It's not cool, but it's also not unexpected either.

This allows them to get the benefit of being able to offer "unlimited bandwidth" (vs capping everyone) while not having to upgrade any faster than they might have wanted to previously.

Upgrades cost money, and interfere with their bottom line, and they are having to compete with Verizon and others from a marketing perspective as well.

Some of the other players (i.e. Sprint) can afford to offer unlimited unlimited because they don't have the number of customer AT&T does. We'll see how they react when they either get more customers or see how AT&T is able to profit from this.

To me, it was inevitable that the unlimited bandwidth scenarios would eventually bite the dust -- especially in the mobile arena, where people can literally be on the devices all day.

Will they lose enough customers to matter? Only time will tell.

-ASB: http://XeeMe.com/AndrewBaker

Welcome to the real world guys. Many countries operate this way

1- If the service providers had not been so irresponsible to offer a class of service that spawned wasteful usage and applications, they would not have this problem today...
2- Coming from an era when my network access was measured and charged by the *kilo* bit (that makes me slightly older than dirt!).
3- Realizing that network capacity is similar to every other capacity and has a certain percentage of users who require greater expenditure to build the infrastructure to keep up with demand (which we all get to subsidize with higher rates for smaller amounts of use (my 2Gig plan costs almost as much as an unlimited plan))
... I have little sympathy for users who think that unlimited data is not costly to us others, but I have even less sympathy for the providers who got themselves into this spot... How about this for a solution: Go to a tiered system (which has no unlimited) and credit (back to their current payment) the "unlimited" users with the number of months that they have had their unlimited service (sooooo, somebody who has been paying for "unlimited" for 39 months at $30 per month gets say 6Gig for $30 until May of 2015... That (to a lesser extent) would throttle the excessive users, and would punish the service providers for making such a silly contract for unlimited data in the first place... J

If my plan calls for unlimited, it should be a breach of contract to throttle my download.

If they are going to throttle the top 5%, will they be refunding all of the customers that are using below average bandwidth? That's the real question! The answer? No.

It's probably not going to win them any fans, especially since T Mobile is still offering true unlimited access for their customers. Just as the Bank of America announcement they were going to charge ATM fees raised the ire of it's customers and prompted several to jump ship so too will a number of AT&T customers.

AT&T and Verizon are the only REAL nationwide competitors. With an oligopoly what do you expect? They are going to 'earn' as MUCH money as possible by charging as MUCH as they can and spending as LITTLE as they can.

Ridiculous, phone companies have been buying competitors and now are in cahoots to give less value and charge more money.

AT&T sucks and always has sucked the blood from up and coming people to make their bottom line, alas they have no shame, just like most Republicans.