[Networking] sitizenx:
Perhaps lack of education is actually what is leading to the "degradation" of society. Yes?

I don't know. I am assuming they are idiots. A recent study came out illustrating unlimited customers were not using anymore data than the "capped" customers. The gist of the study was by eliminating tiers of service between 300mb and 3 gb they (the carriers) were forcing people onto 3gb plans to avoid overage fees. On at&t the 300mb plan costs $20. You go over you get charged $20 for the next 300mb. Now the 3gb plan costs $30. So why take chances? Get the 3gb plan. But now that a bunch of people are getting the 3gb plan they mean to use it. Instead of having a 800mb plan or a 1gb plan they forced people onto a 3gb plan. So now that people have paid for 3gb they mean to use 3gb which means the network takes an exponential hit. Now at&t is whining about excessive use. But there are far fewer unlimited plan users out there than new 3gb users.

I have a new unlimited plan. I doubt I'll go over 3gb in normal usage. I got the plan because through my company it costs the same as a 3gb plan. Honestly with a little common sense and restraint I doubt I would go over 300mb. But if I want to relax why not pay $10/month more? Well now you are on the 3gb plan and if you have it use it.

at&t's strategy makes no sense. The solution to their network woes is having a plan in between 300mm and 3gb. An order of magnitude?! Are you serious? They need to rework their price structure and bandwidth tiers. Hammering unlimited plan customers ain't gonna solve their problems.

I don't know, but to me that would make sense. If you are streaming tons of data on a lightly used LTE tower on a Sunday afternoon why should they throttle you? Most of my heavy data use does NOT occur during the business day. Data should be like minutes. If you are using it off peak and on a non-congested tower they should let you download away.

That's the real question. We don't want to be gouged but at the same time carriers have costs. I would really love to know what the TRUE costs are. I think at&t should make a profit. I just don't think they should make an exorbitant profit. Plus I like things to make sense. $20 for unlimited text and $30 for "unlimited" data doesn't make sense. My text messaging puts zero strain on the at&t network. If I abused by unlimited data plan it would definitely make a dent... until throttling kicked in.

You do realize with modern technology you can download video podcasts at night over wifi while your phone charges.

The network should not be required to accommodate excessive "speed tests."

I have no plans of abusing at&t's network. But if I am on the road and I plug my phone in overnight I should be able to download all the latest podcasts with minimal hassle. I think that is a reasonable accommodation. Unfortunately at&t or Microsoft has denied that. They will not download podcasts over cellular even during off hours. So if I am on the road and it is midnight and I want to download a podcast for the next day I have to sign up for hotel wifi even if there is a 30 Mbits/sec unused LTE tower near by. Total technology fail.

I'm with you on that... till a point. Wait until the iphone LTE hits. Then tell me what is and is not "strained." If it's not strained then they should let us unlimited LTE guys download with impunity. If it's strained then some sensible temporary throttling makes sense in my opinion.