Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: AT&T, unlimited, Data, GoPhone | Themes: Smartphones, Business
AT&T has reportedly decided to discontinue the $19.99 unlimited data plan it offered for Pay As You Go customers.
Starting November 12th, AT&T will no longer offer users the option of paying just under $20 per month for unlimited data as part of the telecommunications company’s GoPhone service. It seems a significant number of customers were abusing the data plan by tapping into it with their laptops. While we’d be of the opinion that AT&T should have expected no less, the company has said that the laptop option, DataConnect will now cost $59.99 as well as being capped at 5GB.
Reports doing the rounds suggest that AT&T will be charging for overages on the DataConnect plan at a rate of $0.00048 per kilobyte or $480 per gigabyte. While this seems pretty hefty, rumor suggests the phone company will cut you off once your over-use charges hit $100 so you likely won’t end up with a thousand dollar bill.
We’ve contacted AT&T for comment on the supposed changes to DataConnect plans as well as the cancellation of the GoPhone unlimited data option. At the time of writing, we had yet to receive a response however, Phonenews.com reports confirmation from call center representatives in AT&T’s GoPhone division who said the offer was meant as a trial exercise and that AT&T is exploring other options for PAYG data offerings.
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And like a domino effect begins. Cap and charge more!
I've used AT&T for years and they're garbage, just like every other carrier.
And what do you justify as "abuse"? A feature of a lot of these phones (for example the Blackjack II by Samsung) is to be able to use the phone as an internet connection for your laptop. That's something built into the phone, so why would it be abuse to use AT&T's services? That's like getting yelled at for using the minutes you paid for.
These telecommunications companies are horrible, and they're greedy. As far as I'm concerned, if it were worth time, I'd "abuse" the services I paid for enough to put those jerks out of business. AT&T can go die in a fire.
It depends on what the definition of abuse is. I have seen people drop their DSL/Fios/Cable service for using just their wireless phone, this is not a bad thing unless you are downloading tons of data (Movies, Music, etc).
The casual user that is checking their emails and sending small or medium size files should not feel as if they were the ones abusing the system.
I mean seriously, if you really need the DL 5GB or more of data per month, then you need a home connection. Not only are you wasting bandwidth, but you are also killing anyone else connection...
Looks like I'm dropping at&t.
I wouldn't mind the lack of unlimited data, but their current rates are ridiculous. 1 cent/kb is outrageous. That's $10/MB and $10,000/GB. If they had a plan that was $10 for 100 MB, and $20 for 1GB I think that would satisfy most people's data needs and they would be able to cap the laptop tethering crowd.