AT&T CEO regrets ever offering unlimited data plans...

[Rafagon]

AT&T CEO regrets ever offering unlimited data plans, cites that "Every additional megabyte you use in this network, I have to invest capital.” He's also concerned about services like iMessage, because "If you’re using iMessage, you’re not using one of our messaging services, right? That’s disruptive to our messaging revenue stream.” Well, let's just install a money press in his house so he can print unlimited cash without ever having to invest a dime and without any risk or worry whatsoever.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/04/att-randall-stephenson/

 

[Laylapotata]

Rich bastard can cry me a river. While they charge 20 a month for texting which costs them NOTHING !

 

[whereweare]

From a networking facet, unlimited data is a horror story. Since there are so many connections happening with every person's device, it adds to the network stress. To keep the network from crapping out and producing no throughput At&t has to constantly invest in high-end routers, high-end servers and constant re-networking. It can be very expensive.

 

[Bennyboy]

And I regret the day I switched to AT&T.
These kinds of speeds must be putting lots of stress on the towers that I hope someone strong enough can pull out of the ground and stick up his arse.

 

[Iloveiphones]

More MHz needs to be in the system, and stop using it all in texas is my advice! To my knowledge, the 2nd largest city in the US has download of 5Mbps. Our city gets about 2mbps. And iMessage uses data sometimes also! So AT&T is getting that, maybe on overages.


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[Tattooed Alex]

Unfortunately crying misery with record breaking profits is typical with major companies now. AT&T sure wasn't complaining about all the new customers that the iPhone brought over when they were the exclusive carrier.

 

[(L)]

And I regret the day I switched to AT&T.
These kinds of speeds must be putting lots of stress on the towers that I hope someone strong enough can pull out of the ground and stick up his arse.

Where do you live that you're getting such low speeds?

 

[Bennyboy]

I'm throttled. That's about 10 days each month. That's speaking of unlimited, it doesn't feel unlimited to me when it's unusable.

 

[IceCold357]

And AT&T customers regret choosing AT&T.


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[Iloveiphones]

And AT&T customers regret choosing AT&T.


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I don't.


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[Kgd0630]

I don't.


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Me either. Had Verizon for years, their customer service is crap & their plans cost more! AT&T is my best option and they have been good to me for 3 years now!


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[Rafagon]

And I regret the day I switched to AT&T.
These kinds of speeds must be putting lots of stress on the towers that I hope someone strong enough can pull out of the ground and stick up his arse.

Tell us how you really feel, Benny!

I could do that for you, but I'll need plenty of caffeine!

 

[Iloveiphones]

Me either. Had Verizon for years, their customer service is crap & their plans cost more! AT&T is my best option and they have been good to me for 3 years now!


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They have been good to us for 7! Especially giving us 2GB of data for $19!


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[Laylapotata]

not only do they throttle unlimited users, they punish low users like me. The rates for 300 megabytes is only ten dollars away from 3 gig. I will never even come close to using 3 gig, in fact I average about 100 megabytes a month, but still pay 2/3 of what a full 3 gig user pays.

 

[Chancellor]

I'm not familiar with atts infrastructure, maybe someone can shed some light on how the "one extra" mb costs them money. As far as I knew CDMA revA could literally handle 10xs the amount of data with minimal up keep. Now I know CDMA isn't gsm, but was gsm really that un data friendly? If only tdma died with tdma ;-(

 

[Rafagon]

I'm not familiar with atts infrastructure, maybe someone can shed some light on how the "one extra" mb costs them money. As far as I knew CDMA revA could literally handle 10xs the amount of data with minimal up keep. Now I know CDMA isn't gsm, but was gsm really that un data friendly? If only tdma died with tdma ;-(

The CEO is referring to the effect of one extra MB multiplied many, many times. Nonetheless, his comment is so outrageous, because it is very obvious that users using extra bandwidth will require monetary investment on the part of AT&T. Just like it would with any other provider. It just angers me that he is complaining about investing money into his own company, the company that his netted him millions! Even in the most extreme of cases, like someone investing a mere $1 on a lottery ticket and winning $1 million, there is SOME form of investment involved!

 

[Santa]

To be fair, he's just highlighting that they created a fixed price model for a variable cost commodity:

“And it’s a variable cost model. Every additional megabyte you use in this network, I have to invest capital.”

And it did cost them a lot in infrastructure upgrades. On the other hand, the iPhone/fixed data plan led to a zillion new customers.

On the other hand, his text message whine is silly. If they didn't charge stupid rates like $0.10 per message, people wouldn't build alternatives. Yes it hurts his businesss model, but it's an outrageously high margin model.

 

[(L)]

And I regret the day I switched to AT&T.
These kinds of speeds must be putting lots of stress on the towers that I hope someone strong enough can pull out of the ground and stick up his arse.

These are my speeds here in Phoenix.

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[Bennyboy]

These are my speeds here in Phoenix. View attachment 23360View attachment 23361


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and these is mine near west Chester PA. Can't complain, but I reach 3 gigs within 20 days, so I've been throttled a lot lately.

 

[(L)]

I think I've only went over 2 gigs twice since I've had AT&T. I'm usually on wifi.


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