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On the surface it seems like a fair and balanced approach to the problem. I wish there was an actual number set, rather than the top 5% of each month's users wh

On the surface it seems like a fair and balanced approach to the problem. I wish there was an actual number set, rather than the top 5% of each month's users which means that they're promising to always throttle speeds of 5% of their customers. Perhaps they're hoping this will cause a race among the customers who use the most data to reduce their data usage every month? I also find great humor in the throw-away line concerning the necessity of the acquisition of T-Mobile at the end.

hugh3 15y ago
I also find great humor in the throw-away line concerning the necessity of the acquisition of T-Mobile at the end. Apparently AT&T has hired Cato the Elder to do their PR. This is bad news for Carthage.
- gtank 15y ago
  We shall lay low their towers and sell their engineers to the Shanzhai.
phereford 15y ago
Preface: What I am about to say is a complete and utter assumption. One would assume that ATT did some analysis on bandwidth usage patterns amongst heavy users. They probably came to the conclusion that the top 5% of bandwidth hogs account for X% of their entire bandwidth throughput. ATT's approach doesnt really solve their problem very much though. If someone has extremely sporadic bandwidth usage but uses gigs at a time, limiting these users won't do much for solving whatever problem they are trying to solve. Maybe their data modeling/forecasting is so accurate that they are able to segment those 5% into various segments and limit that way.
jerrya 15y ago
That's not amusing at all. And in fact, what is more likely: competition on GSM will bring better service and more data cheaper to users, or a monopolistic single service on GSM will bring better service and more data cheaper to users. If I was at the FTC or in Congress, or at Sprint, I would definitely be waving this AT&T policy around, and use it to stop the merger. What AT&T needs is more competition, not less.

hugh3 15y ago

I also find great humor in the throw-away line concerning the necessity of the acquisition of T-Mobile at the end. Apparently AT&T has hired Cato the Elder to do their PR. This is bad news for Carthage.

gtank 15y ago
We shall lay low their towers and sell their engineers to the Shanzhai.

phereford 15y ago

Preface: What I am about to say is a complete and utter assumption. One would assume that ATT did some analysis on bandwidth usage patterns amongst heavy users. They probably came to the conclusion that the top 5% of bandwidth hogs account for X% of their entire bandwidth throughput. ATT's approach doesnt really solve their problem very much though. If someone has extremely sporadic bandwidth usage but uses gigs at a time, limiting these users won't do much for solving whatever problem they are trying to solve. Maybe their data modeling/forecasting is so accurate that they are able to segment those 5% into various segments and limit that way.

jerrya 15y ago

That's not amusing at all. And in fact, what is more likely: competition on GSM will bring better service and more data cheaper to users, or a monopolistic single service on GSM will bring better service and more data cheaper to users. If I was at the FTC or in Congress, or at Sprint, I would definitely be waving this AT&T policy around, and use it to stop the merger. What AT&T needs is more competition, not less.