By Lori Soard on February 14, 2012 in
When AT&T stopped offering unlimited data plans for smartphones in 2010, customers already locked into the unlimited contract breathed a sigh of relief to learn they would be grandfathered in and the changes would not impact their data usage. Moving forward, only new AT&T customers were supposed to be limited. But then, in June 2011, the company announced further changes: it would begin slowing connection speeds for the top 5 percent of data consumers on unlimited plans.
According to the Associated Press, AT&T has about 17 million customers still on the unlimited data plan -- about half of the company's smartphone customers. Even for the average consumer who only uses a smartphone for the basics like texting, GPS, and occasional web browsing, the limits seem to be pretty low for an "unlimited plan." In the AP piece, Mike Trang, a customer with an unlimited plan, estimated he used about 2.3 gigabytes (GB) of data halfway through the month when AT&T throttled his data and slowed down his speed as much as 99 percent. Web pages and maps that would normally load in a few seconds were loading at dial-up speeds, taking minutes.
AT&T charges around $30 for the grandfathered unlimited data plans. Those not grandfathered in pay about the same for 3 GB a month. (For $50, customers get 5 GB per month, well over Trang's usage of 2.3 GB). Although the change may be necessary for AT&T to meet growing usage demands, the move could spell trouble for the company in a time when consumers are only loyal as long as their pocketbook is happy. Smartphone customers displeased with these limits may consider other AT&T issues that come up in reviews, such as poor customer service, dropped calls and higher plan costs, and take their business to a competitor. Those who are otherwise happy with their AT&T service, aside from this limitation, can take advantage of Wi-Fi access in order to lower their monthly data usage.