Have a grandfathered unlimited data plan on AT&T with that shiny iPhone of yours? Well, you’re in for some bad news. Reports are coming in that users who consume over 2 GB of data in a month using their unlimited data plan are now being throttled to the point of near-uselessness.
Over on his blog, John Cozen describes his own experience being throttled at a mere 2.1GB a month. When he contacted AT&T, he was told firmly that there was no mistake, and that going over 2GB per month on his unlimited data plan automatically made him one of the “top 5% of data users.” The only way to get his 3G speeds back? Predictably, AT&T wanted Cozen to change to a tiered data plan. And Cozen is not alone.
Of course, if you switch to their newer tiered-style plans, you won’t be throttled any more. You’ll just be paying an arm and a leg. “You wouldn’t want something bad to happen to your data, Mr. Johnson, would you? For a small fee every month, we can… protect you.”
That said, this is only a problem for legacy customers. You can’t even buy an unlimited data plan from Verizon or AT&T anymore. The only company that offers unlimited plans (for the time being) is Sprint. Who knows how long that will last? We’re living in a data-hostile environment at a time where everything under the sun wants to use data. Somethings gotta give, and we don’t think it is going to be pretty.
Source: Cult of Mac
