shellyu@yahoo.com (Shelly) wrote in
news:I22PAO9X39259.8799537037@anonymous.poster:
> So what does this all mean for iPhone buyers? Are these plans cheap,
> or are they expensive? It's an important question to ask, particularly
> since iPhone owners will be shelling out $500 or $600 for the handset
> alone. And remember that those service plans come with a two-year
> contract and a $36 activation fee.
> http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/ar...hone-terms.jsp
I think the closer word will be "Useless". ATT has a special Iphone
terms-of-use webpage from the Iphone webpage. Click on FAQ from the
Iphone page, then click "Terms of use" and read:
"Prohibited and Permissible Uses: Data Service sessions may be conducted
only for the following purposes: (i) Internet browsing; (ii) email; and
(iii) corporate intranet access (including access to corporate email,
customer relationship management, sales force automation, and field
service automation applications). PROHIBITED USES INCLUDE, BUT ARE NOT
LIMITED TO, USING SERVICES: (I) WITH SERVER DEVICES OR WITH HOST COMPUTER
APPLICATIONS, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, WEB CAMERA POSTS OR
BROADCASTS, CONTINUOUS JPEG FILE TRANSFERS, AUTOMATIC DATA FEEDS,
TELEMETRY APPLICATIONS, PEER-TO-PEER (P2P) FILE SHARING, AUTOMATED
FUNCTIONS OR ANY OTHER MACHINE-TO-MACHINE APPLICATIONS; (II) AS
SUBSTITUTE OR BACKUP FOR PRIVATE LINES OR DEDICATED DATA CONNECTIONS;
(III) FOR VOICE OVER IP; (IV) IN CONJUNCTION WITH WWAN OR OTHER
APPLICATIONS OR DEVICES WHICH AGGREGATE USAGE FROM MULTIPLE SOURCES PRIOR
TO TRANSMISSION; (V) USING THE SERVICES FOR ANY ACTIVITY THAT ADVERSELY
AFFECTS THE ABILITY OF OTHER PEOPLE OR SYSTEMS TO USE EITHER THE SERVICES
OR OTHER PARTIES' INTERNET-BASED RESOURCES INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO
EXCESSIVE CONSUMPTION OF NETWORK OR SYSTEM RESOURCES (WHETHER INTENTIONAL
OR UNINTENTIONAL) AND "DENIAL OF SERVICE" (DOS) ATTACKS AGAINST ANOTHER
NETWORK HOST OR INDIVIDUAL USER; OR (VI) INTERFERENCE WITH OR DISRUPTION
OF OTHER NETWORK USERS, NETWORK SERVICES OR NETWORK EQUIPMENT. EXCEPT FOR
CONTENT FORMATTED IN ACCORDANCE WITH AT&T'S CONTENT STANDARDS, UNLIMITED
PLANS CANNOT BE USED FOR UPLOADING, DOWNLOADING OR STREAMING OF VIDEO
CONTENT (E.G. MOVIES, TV), MUSIC OR GAMES. FURTHERMORE, UNLIMITED PLANS
(EXCEPT FOR DATACONNECT AND BLACKBERRY TETHERED) CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY
APPLICATIONS THAT TETHER THE DEVICE (THROUGH USE OF, INCLUDING WITHOUT
LIMITATION, CONNECTION KITS, OTHER PHONE/PDA-TO-COMPUTER ACCESSORIES,
BLUETOOTH® OR ANY OTHER WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY) TO LAPTOPS, PCS, OR OTHER
EQUIPMENT FOR ANY PURPOSE. Service is not intended to provide full-time
connections, and the Service may be discontinued after a significant
period of inactivity or after sessions of excessive usage. AT&T reserves
the right to (i) limit throughput or amount of data transferred, deny
Service and/or terminate Service, without notice, to anyone it believes
is using the Service in any manner prohibited above or whose usage
adversely impacts its network or service levels or hinders access to its
network and (ii) protect its network from harm, which may impact
legitimate data flows. You may not send solicitations to AT&T subscribers
without their consent. You may not use the Services other than as
intended by AT&T and applicable law. Plans are for individual, non-
commercial use only and are not for resale."
EXACTLY like every other cellular phone gadget from all the carriers, you
CAN look at spam-soaked webpages....as long as those webpages aren't
YouTube where there is STREAMING, a forbidden usage of ATT's data
service. You can get your email....as long as it doesn't have a lot of
"downloading" associated with it (see above legaleze BS). EVERYTHING
ELSE IS FORBIDDEN, unless you have a company intranet and are a business
bigshot. Unlike Verizon Wireless, ATT doesn't SAY, up front, 5GB/month
is the data limit we're going to hack off service to your new $600
toyphone iPod, I'm sure the limit is somewhere around that figure,
between there and 10GB/month. If you look at the rest of the VERY LONG
legal document, you'll soon see ATT is still old Ma Bell, selling data by
the KILObyte whenever they can....like in Canada.
Now, note CAREFULLY this webpage is SPECIFICALLY formulated with these
forbidden uses on a SPECIAL iPHONE TERMS OF USE page.....not just the
run-of-the-mill Blackberry usage terms....Leaving no room for nonsense
that ATT has no intention of letting you use the iPhone for any kind of
new uses....like Skype for instance. That wasn't, obviously, part of the
deal with Jobs and Apple, to let iPhone users stream video/audio,
download music, videos, pictures, ad nauseum or use any kind of new,
radical iPhone use over their little cellular network...NAY, NAY! iPhone
will have the same usage privies as the guy with the little dataphone
from Nokia.....WEBPAGES - EMAIL - COMPANY INTRANET ONLY!
Notice how it connects to iTunes on your COMPUTER? So, you'll need your
COMPUTER to download iTunes and MP3s with it as downloading music is
SPECIFICALLY FORBIDDEN by your usage agreement with the ATT lawyers!
Poopoo it all we want, kiddies, but ATT isn't gonna let you play with
your iPhone on THEIR network!....and say so!
Larry
--
http://www.spp.gov/
The end of the USA and its Constitution....RIP
iPhone data plans: Cheap or pricey? 
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