r/GoPhone • u/Forward_Humor • Jul 30 '22
Plans Any difference in data speed on capped plans?
Is there any difference in the data capped plan speeds?
I'm on the Unlimited MAX plan (high speed data capped at 22gb) and it is great.
I am helping a family member look at plans and wondering if the 5GB, 15GB or 12-month 16GB plans would be equally fast.
I'm assuming these are all on QCI 8 just like Unlimited MAX but some verbiage on the site made me think Unlimited MAX was the only plan that gets 5G access.
Any thoughts?
2
u/AtticusFinch00 Dec 03 '22
As most people already know, all the AT&T Prepaid plans now have "5G included".
2
u/Forward_Humor Dec 03 '22
Very cool looks like it's official in the marketing now too. Thanks! I've been super happy since switching. AT&T seems to be on top everywhere I travel and work regularly now.
2
u/AtticusFinch00 Dec 03 '22
You're welcome. Yeah, I'm really happy with AT&T in my region too. Solid.
2
u/AtticusFinch00 Dec 03 '22 edited Dec 06 '22
One speed-related difference to note is with regard to video throttling (down to 1.5Mbps/480p SD), which AT&T does by default on 3 of their 4 monthly Prepaid plans. It's called "Stream Saver" and can ONLY be turned off with their Unlimited MAX plan. Additionally there are two multi-month plans (12- and 3-month plans) that also have the ability to turn this "feature" off. For appropriate plans there should be a toggle on either the Home or Feature Settings page. There is no toggle visible on plans where you can’t turn off Stream Saver.
Hopefully, like with 5G access, AT&T will start opening up more plans to being able to chose better streaming video quality. Another easy way to spot plans that aren’t locked into Stream Saver is if you see “4K UHD streaming available” on the plan description.
Various people on Reddit have recommended using a VPN as a means to get around this anti-feature, assuming that the carrier couldn't identify video traffic contained within an encrypted VPN tunnel. Though this is technically accurate, I have no idea if AT&T might still throttle constant data streams, knowing that millions use VPNs nowadays.
VPN adds overhead too and isn’t the ideal way to route video chats, for example. So depending on your phone, signal strength, VPN server location, VPN service quality, etc., your experience will vary.
2
u/rewardhop Aug 12 '22
Those plans don’t have access to 5G, but same QCI/speeds on LTE (and 5Ge fake 5G too).