06-05-2010, 10:31 PM
I caught some discussion on http://twit.tv/ the other day about this. One point that seemed interesting to me was that one of the people they had talking said there was data showing that iphone users use a significant amount more data than other smart phone users. Now I have no details on this so I don't know what was being compared or how valid it is. The way they talked though was that for a section of users, they would be able to go to the lower plan. What was it...200M? It seemed insanely low to me since the next level was 2G. Anyway, they were saying that since that plan is something like $15 cheaper per month than the current unlimited plans and still would be plenty for those users...that it could actually be huge savings for them. So there seems to be a portion of consumers who this is good for.
They also weren't entirely against it for iphone users either. They looked at their (the host's) usage and found that they pretty much averaged less than 2G per month currently. These being tech media professionals who pretty much use their devices a ton. One reason they gave for this is that while at work or home their phones use the wireless networks at those places which cuts down the usage over the phone network a ton. This may or may not be the case for more normal users. The 2G plan is cheaper than current unlimited plans though (so they said...I've not verified). So if most people end up not using 2G of data on their phone then it is still a savings actually.
Another thing they discussed was the fear of limits. People just hate having them. Many will pay more to have no limit even when they don't come close to the limit in the first place. So I think there is a big mental negative about these new plans even though in use they may not be so bad.
A big problem area they pointed out was tethering. Apparently AT&T is charging an extra fee for tethering and then if you do tether you figure your usage will skyrocket since you are using multiple devices on the network. So that is where they are going to really be getting people. In my mind it is the reason behind it all even. I think AT&T is fine with the usage of normal iphones, but either fears how much will be used by tethered devices or simply wants to milk such for all the money they can.
The people on the show also mentioned that AT&T claims that the network simply can't support unlimited with tethering and everything. That there would just be too much data from too many iphone users. The hosts went on to say that it is actually a reason to let the iphone go to other networks. They believe the other networks would be in the same situation if they had all the iphone users, but that if you spread the load...let iphones be on any network...then all the networks come out in better shape. Once again, I don't really know much about this stuff...I'm just relaying what I heard on the show hoping maybe it will spur discussion.
The conclusion I came away with from listening to the discussion was that in general, these plans will likely be a discount for 90% of AT&T users that are currently on an unlimited plan. (It should also be mentioned that if you are on an unlimited plan already, you get to keep it until you decide to change to do a different one) I do agree though that the future is in unlimited due to tethering and people just plain not liking to have to worry about going over caps which they do worry about even if they never get close to them.
It should also be mentioned that, in general, I hear a lot of complaints about AT&T from the people on TWIT. So when I hear them saying it might not be too bad actually...basically not being too hard on AT&T...I start wondering if maybe I need to consider the plans more than the initial "OMG! Caps! Nooooooo!" reaction I had (which I very much did have).
They also weren't entirely against it for iphone users either. They looked at their (the host's) usage and found that they pretty much averaged less than 2G per month currently. These being tech media professionals who pretty much use their devices a ton. One reason they gave for this is that while at work or home their phones use the wireless networks at those places which cuts down the usage over the phone network a ton. This may or may not be the case for more normal users. The 2G plan is cheaper than current unlimited plans though (so they said...I've not verified). So if most people end up not using 2G of data on their phone then it is still a savings actually.
Another thing they discussed was the fear of limits. People just hate having them. Many will pay more to have no limit even when they don't come close to the limit in the first place. So I think there is a big mental negative about these new plans even though in use they may not be so bad.
A big problem area they pointed out was tethering. Apparently AT&T is charging an extra fee for tethering and then if you do tether you figure your usage will skyrocket since you are using multiple devices on the network. So that is where they are going to really be getting people. In my mind it is the reason behind it all even. I think AT&T is fine with the usage of normal iphones, but either fears how much will be used by tethered devices or simply wants to milk such for all the money they can.
The people on the show also mentioned that AT&T claims that the network simply can't support unlimited with tethering and everything. That there would just be too much data from too many iphone users. The hosts went on to say that it is actually a reason to let the iphone go to other networks. They believe the other networks would be in the same situation if they had all the iphone users, but that if you spread the load...let iphones be on any network...then all the networks come out in better shape. Once again, I don't really know much about this stuff...I'm just relaying what I heard on the show hoping maybe it will spur discussion.
The conclusion I came away with from listening to the discussion was that in general, these plans will likely be a discount for 90% of AT&T users that are currently on an unlimited plan. (It should also be mentioned that if you are on an unlimited plan already, you get to keep it until you decide to change to do a different one) I do agree though that the future is in unlimited due to tethering and people just plain not liking to have to worry about going over caps which they do worry about even if they never get close to them.
It should also be mentioned that, in general, I hear a lot of complaints about AT&T from the people on TWIT. So when I hear them saying it might not be too bad actually...basically not being too hard on AT&T...I start wondering if maybe I need to consider the plans more than the initial "OMG! Caps! Nooooooo!" reaction I had (which I very much did have).