Okay, first of all, I know that the name of this blog is, “The TJDraper Family Blog,” and I’ve been posting a lot of techie stuff lately. Maybe my blog is having an identity crisis, I don’t know. But it’s the only blog I have, and it’s where I write about anything that interests me, or that I’m currently involved in or miffed about. And right now, I’m a little miffed at AT&T. So allow me to beat this dead horse just a bit.

Unless you’ve been living under the Verizon rock you can’t have missed that AT&T today announced restructured data plans, and at long last, the official means of tethering for the iPhone.

But there’s a catch (isn’t there always with AT&T?). No more unlimited data.

I will be the first one to admit that unlimited mobile data is just a bad idea. Ask AT&T how it’s worked out for them. It’s not been a picnic I can assure you. But up to this point I really haven’t cared how much mobile data I use since my plan is “unlimited.” However, being the techie geeky kind, I happen to know that my data has never gone over 1.5 gigabytes in one month. And typically, my usage is in the 800 meg, to 1 gig range. But that is really beside the point. Tiered data pricing makes a lot of sense to me and I support tiered data pricing. And since AT&T’s “unlimited” data is actually really soft capped at 5 gigs a month anyway, I was thinking tiered data would save me a good bit of money. My thinking was that 500 megabyte incremented tiers would be fantastic. I’d fit in nicely at 2 gigs with plenty of head room.

So what’s my beef? Well, AT&T didn’t introduce very many tiers today. There’s the 200 meg per month plan for $15.00. Obviously that’s just garbage. Anyone with a smart phone is going to use more than that. And these are smartphone plans. And then there’s 2 gigs per month for $25.00.

And that’s it.

Those are the 2 tiers…

I’m serious.

It’s not a joke.

It’s utterly ridiculous. My unlimited plan is $30.00 and the new plans are capped at 2 gigs and only $5.00 cheaper. Okay fine, I can deal. I know a few folks who won’t be able to live with that, but I can. As I say, I’ve never gone over 1.5 gigs myself so I can deal, even if I was hoping for better pricing.

But here’s the real kicker. You would think, if I pay for 2 gigs a month I should be able to use that data in any way I please right?

WRONG!!!

In order to use that data on my computer via iPhone tethering, I must shell out an additional $20.00 per month. And that does not increase my bandwidth cap at all. I still only get 2 gigs. Let me rephrase, in order for my iPhone to act as a conduit for the data I’m already paying for it to have access to, I must pay an additional $20.00 a month. This reminds me of the days when ISPs wanted to charge additional fees for each computer in the house. It’s completely ludicrous!

I refuse. I’m already paying for data. I could understand this if it was an unlimited data plan. But if I’m paying for a specific amount of bandwidth then I better be able to use it in any way I please.

It’s such a joke!

Well, I’m out of rant. But this article is pretty good!