4 ms·

Which principle?

steveklabnik 16y ago
The principle that there's a psychological difference between 'free' and 'not free.' Under an unlimited plan, bandwidth feels like it's free, because there's no cap. With caps, I'll _constantly_ worry about how much data I'm using. Now I feel glad I went with Android... new OS update just straight up gives me tethering, and T-Mobile's still got unlimited data plans.
- briansmith 16y ago
  The previous plans were not unlimited--they were capped at 5GB, IIRC. AT&T said that 98% of its customers will save money by switching to these plans. And, AT&T doesn't have the capacity to handle many people who would exceed these limits. AT&T will now send alerts directly to your phone when you get close to reaching the caps. I think this is a much better solution to the "worrying" problem than forcing everybody to over-pay for under-provisioned service.
  - steveklabnik 16y ago
    > AT&T said that 98% of its customers will save money by switching to these plans. When trying to overcome debt, many financial advisors recommend paying off the smallest debt first, even if it has relatively lower interest than other debts. This is because the psychological win of paying off an entire debt quickly has a much bigger impact upon the ability of people to stick with their payments, rather than the mathematically better path of paying down a higher-interest debt first. So yes, people may be saving money. But that doesn't mean that it's necessarily better. I'd rather pay an extra $5/mo or whatever for the peace of mind. > And, AT&T doesn't have the capacity to handle many people who would exceed these limits. As a consumer, I don't care what AT&T has the capacity to do. They're supposed to figure out how to serve me and give me what I want. It's obviously possible, as they were doing it before, and other companies still have unlimited bandwidth plans. Innovate or die. But I guess I'm expecting too much out of the telecom industry...
    - jrockway 16y ago
      But of course, 98% of AT&T's customers barely know what the Internets are. It's the 2% that do that will be punished. Fortunately, these people also know that AT&T has competitors.
  - zaidf 16y ago
    The previous plans were not unlimited--they were capped at 5GB, IIRC. That is reasonable. I think even your local internet cable connection has a max. 250GB transfer limit. Thing is, these are rarely enforced and present for worst case scenerios. AT&T said that 98% of its customers will save money by switching to these plans. I am more concerned about the future consequences. High bandwidth content over mobile is in its infancy right so usage is no where what it will be a few years from now. That is when AT&T will be making a killing because by then, use would go up and people would be used to this notion of paying by the GB. I know this because I saw this in action in India. Initially, in the 90s, the ISPs had few gb limits. It didn't matter because all you used the net for was email. Then came broadband, napster, and torrents and guess what? The concept of buying by the GB carried over.

Which principle?

The principle that there's a psychological difference between 'free' and 'not free.' Under an unlimited plan, bandwidth feels like it's free, because there's no cap. With caps, I'll _constantly_ worry about how much data I'm using. Now I feel glad I went with Android... new OS update just straight up gives me tethering, and T-Mobile's still got unlimited data plans.

briansmith 16y ago
The previous plans were not unlimited--they were capped at 5GB, IIRC. AT&T said that 98% of its customers will save money by switching to these plans. And, AT&T doesn't have the capacity to handle many people who would exceed these limits. AT&T will now send alerts directly to your phone when you get close to reaching the caps. I think this is a much better solution to the "worrying" problem than forcing everybody to over-pay for under-provisioned service.
- steveklabnik 16y ago
  > AT&T said that 98% of its customers will save money by switching to these plans. When trying to overcome debt, many financial advisors recommend paying off the smallest debt first, even if it has relatively lower interest than other debts. This is because the psychological win of paying off an entire debt quickly has a much bigger impact upon the ability of people to stick with their payments, rather than the mathematically better path of paying down a higher-interest debt first. So yes, people may be saving money. But that doesn't mean that it's necessarily better. I'd rather pay an extra $5/mo or whatever for the peace of mind. > And, AT&T doesn't have the capacity to handle many people who would exceed these limits. As a consumer, I don't care what AT&T has the capacity to do. They're supposed to figure out how to serve me and give me what I want. It's obviously possible, as they were doing it before, and other companies still have unlimited bandwidth plans. Innovate or die. But I guess I'm expecting too much out of the telecom industry...
  - jrockway 16y ago
    But of course, 98% of AT&T's customers barely know what the Internets are. It's the 2% that do that will be punished. Fortunately, these people also know that AT&T has competitors.
- zaidf 16y ago
  The previous plans were not unlimited--they were capped at 5GB, IIRC. That is reasonable. I think even your local internet cable connection has a max. 250GB transfer limit. Thing is, these are rarely enforced and present for worst case scenerios. AT&T said that 98% of its customers will save money by switching to these plans. I am more concerned about the future consequences. High bandwidth content over mobile is in its infancy right so usage is no where what it will be a few years from now. That is when AT&T will be making a killing because by then, use would go up and people would be used to this notion of paying by the GB. I know this because I saw this in action in India. Initially, in the 90s, the ISPs had few gb limits. It didn't matter because all you used the net for was email. Then came broadband, napster, and torrents and guess what? The concept of buying by the GB carried over.