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I’ve written in the past about how ATT has instituted a policy of data throttling for it’s top 5% of bandwidth users. I was curious as to how much speed would be cut back and the folks over at AppAdvice uploaded a video demonstrating the extreme nature of the slowdown. Using the popular Speedtest app on two identical iPhone 4S the download speeds on the throttled device are almost ten times slower. What’s even crazier is that the throttled speeds are similar to Edge! Now I haven’t tested this myself as I don’t want to suffer through these slow speeds until my next billing cycle. However, the video is quite clear as to what happens. ATT’s reduction of the data speed by such an extreme amount serves a purpose. It encourages their heavy users to cut back or switch to another carrier altogether. I’m sure ATT doesn’t mind losing the bandwidth hogs. The reduced speeds make it impossible to stream video and make apps like Maps and Safari quite slow. So where does the throttling begin. In the past ATT stated that 98% of it’s users use less than 2GB of data. However, I went over that amount last month and didn’t get throttled. In any event, if you want to avoid this keep an eye on your data usage and use wifi whenever possible. You can easily check your ATT data usage at any time by dialing *3282# (star DATA pound) on your iPhone. You’ll get a text showing how much data you’ve used, when your next billing cycle beings and how many texts you’ve sent. Not sure where this is going as I’m confident Verizon and Sprint are or will be doing something similar. In the meantime just hope you don’t get the text displayed here!

Starting Sunday January 22, ATT is once again changing their data plans for smartphones and tablets. Current ATT customers can keep their existing plans, but any new ones will be subject to the new contract pricing. Why are they doing this? Simple, just like any company they are doing it to make more money. The bottom line is that they raising prices $5 per month putting them more in line with Verizon. To see the new pricing and comparison to Verizon and Sprint Continue Reading…

After numerous reports, it’s quite clear now that in the United States ATT has the fastest data speeds for your iPhone or iPad. Mush faster if you have the iPhone 4S due to ATT being the only one supporting HSDPA technology. Verizon is next best with Sprint having the slowest speeds. This surprises me as Sprint only has about 1.5 million data hog iPhones on its’ network. I thought it would be faster for sure. On the positive for Sprint customers, it’s being reported Apple and Sprint are working to improve 3G data speed. This first step to a fix is admitting there is a problem. Expect 5.1 software update for Sprint soon. All this will remain the same for about a year. Once true 4G iPhones (and despite what they market, ATT’s iPhone 4S is NOT 4G) hit the market the question of which carrier has the fastest network will start again. Anyone feel your iPhone’s data speed is too slow?

Love my new baby! Here is video of first speed test I ran. This is for 3G on ATT in Nashville, Tennessee. As you can see the HSDPA technology which is only available on an ATT iPhone 4S makes the download data speeds 50% faster. If you haven’t decided which carrier to go with yet, I highly suggest ATT for this reason. Think of how much faster you’ll download all those videos.

I’ve had ATT as my carrier for years. When Verizon finally got the iPhone, I posted an article saying you shouldn’t buy it because of lower data speeds and not being able to use voice and data at the same time. That said, you have to call BS when you smell it. Like when Apple released Ping or when Research in Motion released the 7′ Playbook. ATT is about to claim the iPhone 4S is a 4G phone and Apple is playing along. Check my article from two days ago. While it’s true that ATT’s GSM network is the only one to support the iPhone 4′S HSPA+ technology which is faster, it is not 4G. While twice as fast as 3G, it’s no where near 4G and I hope next year when Apple likely releases an LTE iPhone 5 Verizon and Sprint put ATT in their place. Heck, at that point they should market it as 5G since there is no truth in carrier advertising when it comes to data speeds.

One thing not getting a lot press is if you are buying the iPhone 4S, which carrier should you choose? I’m really not trying to bash Verizon despite what many people said about my video stating ATT was a better choice than Verizon back in February. I’ve never used their service before. I just know what I’ve read and to me data is much more important than voice. Maybe if I dropped calls or couldn’t get reception more often I would care, but here in Nashville ATT does fine. Of course if you are on a family plan, your company pays for your contract or you live in an area where only Verizon offers reliable voice service then they should be the carrier you choose. So why there are compelling reasons to buy an ATT iPhone 4S or a Sprint iPhone 4S, there is no reason to select Verizon as the carrier. Continue Reading…

I saw a stat yesterday that said 34% of iOS users think they are already on 4G? It’s hard to blame them too much when the carriers (ATT, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon) all market like they offer that service already. The reason this is a big deal is that once 4G finally hits, way more that 34% of users are gonna flip out when they see their iPhone’s data speeds. Faster than cable. This will cause you to consume much more data than you presently do. A lot more people will start to use the mobile hotspot feature and might give up cable for good. The carriers see this coming and are dropping unlimited data plans and/or throttling data speeds. Verizon is only offering three data plans for smartphones. $30 for 2GB, $50 for 5GB and $80 for 10GB. For any of these plans overage is charged at $10 per 1 GB. So while I guess the majority of you use less than 2GB of data per month, I bet some of you are like me. Last month I used over 50 GB and have used 30 GB halfway through this billing cycle (see bill below). That’s one expensive plan compared to my current $35 unlimited. Once 4G hits Nashville I could see myself using 102 GB a month which would be $1,000.00! Don’t think so. With a wife and two boys I’d be streaming hours of video daily. I know those of you outside the United States pay more. All I can say is that stinks. So how do you reduce your monthly usage? Continue Reading…

Reports are coming in that many jailbroken iPhone users whom use MyWi for tethering are getting text messages and emails from ATT hinting that ATT knows what they are doing. The text reads, “Did you know tethering your Smartphone to a computer requires a tethering plan?” It then gives a number to call and link for details. The email gets more specific stating that, “Our records show that you use this capability, but are not subscribed to our tethering plan.” Recall MyWi is the number one reason to jailbreak. For $20 you get tethering and don’t have to pay ATT or Verizon for a monthly plan. This is espeically great if you are under an unlimted data plan. So could this be the end of the good times? Luckily, I highly doubt it and here’s why. Continue Reading…

A long time ago I was on Sprint and hated it. Then I tried Vonage at the house for awhile and decided Sprint was just bad, not horrible like Vonage. IMO, ATT falls somewhere around the bad level and my friends on T-Mobile and Verizon typically use the word terrible. The most annoying thing about this industry right now is the lying going on about 4G and whose network is the fastest. I really don’t understand it well and frankly don’t care much. What I do know is you can’t trust any of them. Continue Reading…

ATT has announced major changes to their iPhone data plans that will take effect June 7. Don’t worry, existing plans will remain the same AND you are grandfathered in if you were planning on upgrading to a new iPhone 4G HD (or whatever they are going to call it) and taking advantage of the big discounts offered with new contracts. Overall, while not a huge deal to me or exisiting customers, this is a HUGE negative for anyone who has never owned an iPhone and is considering one. IMO, you should buy one this week or wait til Sprint of Verizon or someone gets and unlimited plan as these caps are extremely low and expensive. Continue Reading…