Caretaker1379 wrote:thanks for that info but what i'm saying if i got a navigation app say i want to go to Starbucks... Turn left here... type app... would refreshing the map and follow path use data?
i know ATT can't legally say why they can't offer unlim everything to newer customers but if u offered that would there be to much data through the pipeline? or does ATT not feel the need for that?
i'm not upset... im just curious
i love chatting via forum.
Thanks again
![:heart:]( "Heart")
i love chatting via forum.
For the first question, it would depend upon the app. If the app caches the maps to the device internal memory while you are connected to your computer or home wifi, then they would not use your cellular data, but they would potentially use a large portion of your device storage capacity. If the app doesn't do that, then it will have to use your cellular data connection to download the information it will be displaying on the screen. There are some SPG/Nav apps which use about 5GB storage on your device, but load maps for the entire US so that you don't need to use your data connection. Those apps also tend to cost you about $50-100 for the app too.
As for the unlimited data question... In the past, AT&T offered unlimited data for smartphone users. At that time, they found that the top 5% of users were using 50% or more of the bandwidth consumed. As long as you allow unlimited consuption there will be some who feel that they should be allowed to stream data at the top allowable speeds 24x7 the entire month. Those users will cause excessive drain on system resources slowing the whole network down for everyone. AT&T first tried to curb their usage by implementing the "fair use" and "terms of service" but that didn't stop the users who felt that paying a small fee entiteld them to use whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, no matter who it would impact. After enough of these users reducing the overall satisfaction for the majority of the users, AT&T stopped offering the "unlimited data" options, and started to throttle the "bandwidth hogs". Many of these customers threated to leave AT&T for this practice, wo which many of the rest of us said "please do, then the system will get much better for everyone else". It's not hard to find some of these threads in the forms even now, over 4 years after AT&T stopped offering those data plans...