AT&T would like you to know that they are relentless in their quest to redefine the term “unlimited.”

Perhaps you’ve signed on for a 2-year contract for your iPhone or smartphone, and are tethering using your “unlimited” data plan. Consumerist posted a friendly plea from the carrier to customers suspected of tethering their devices without paying an additional $20 a month on top of pricey unlimited data plans for the tethering privilege. According to the email, AT&T has noticed your tethering, and would like you to please stop it now. Oh, and call them by May 13th, or you’re out another $240 a year on your cellphone bill.

Full text of the email below. This isn’t the first time AT&T has complained that customers are using their unlimited service too liberally- is it time for AT&T to just find a new word for that particularly limited plan?

We’ve noticed your service plan may need updating.

Many AT&T customers use their smartphones as a broadband connection for other devices, like laptops, netbooks or other smartphones — a practice commonly known as tethering. Tethering can be an efficient way for our customers to enjoy the benefits of AT&T’s mobile broadband network and use more than one device to stay in touch with important people and information. To take advantage of this feature, we require that in addition to a data plan, you also have a tethering plan.

Our records show that you use this capability, but are not subscribed to our tethering plan.

If you would like to continue tethering, please log into your account online at www.wireless.att.com, or call us at 1-866-679-7118 Monday – Friday, 7 a.m. – 9 p.m. CST or Saturday, 8 a.m. – 7 p.m. CST, by May 13, 2011 to sign up for DataPro 4GB for Smartphone Tethering….

If we don’t hear from you, we’ll plan to automatically enroll you into DataPro 4GB after May 13, 2011. The new plan – whether you sign up on your own or we automatically enroll you – will replace your current smartphone data plan, including if you are on an unlimited data plan.

If you discontinue tethering, no changes to your current plan will be required.

AT&T asks users nicely not to tether… or else is a post from: The Inquisitr

If you ask anyone who doesn’t have an iPhone what they know about the ubiquitous smartphones, you’re likely to hear comments about frequently dropped calls or the devices doing everything but making phone calls.

Despite rampant criticism about the level of service available on AT&T’s network, the company’s CEO told investors that he personally does not believe poor signal quality or other service complaints will drive customers from the carrier even if AT&T loses their exclusivity for the popular handset. At a Goldman Sachs sponsored conference of investors, Randall Stephenson said:

“If you look at the iPhone base, about 80% is either on a family-talk plan or in a business relationship with us,” Stephenson added. “Those customers tend to be very sticky. They don’t churn very frequently.”

Stephenson said two-thirds of subscribers were contract customers prior to obtaining iPhones, and 53% of users with contracts are smartphone users- leaving signficant room for expansion for those who might upgrade to devices that generally warrant more expensive data plans.

AT&T CEO not concerned about post iPhone exodus, or so he claims to investors is a post from: The Inquisitr

Earlier this week, I posted about how AT&T is whining that people who have iPhones want to like, use them and stuff and that’s causing them to have to put hard earned profits into shoring up their network. A waaahmbulance may have been called.

Consumerist posted about Operation Chokehold- editor Ben Popken, like me, can’t seem to make a phone call in New York. Apparently, we’re not the only ones, because a fed up Fake Steve Jobs called for users to implement “Operation Chokehold” to teach AT&T a lesson about withholding bandwidth. The staged “digital disobedience” is scheduled for this Friday at 3pm EST, noon Pacific. Participants are organizing through a Facebook group, and plan to simultaneously use data-heavy applications to strangle AT&T’s already weak data network:

Subject: Operation Chokehold

On Friday, December 18, at noon Pacific time, we will attempt to overwhelm the AT&T data network and bring it to its knees. The goal is to have every iPhone user (or as many as we can) turn on a data intensive app and run that app for one solid hour. Send the message to AT&T that we are sick of their substandard network and sick of their abusive comments. THe idea is we’ll create a digital flash mob. We’re calling it in Operation Chokehold. Join us and speak truth to power!

While some users are already complaining that the “digital flash mob” will impact everyone on the network Friday, the fact remains that AT&T users signed a contract (with heavy ETFs) in exchange for a service. We should all be able to use the service we pay for, which includes unlimited data, whenever the hell we want to- even if our friends plan on using it at the same time. At this point, I’d personally be thrilled if I could make a phone call without getting the dreaded “call failed” screen, much less watch a YouTube video on the iPhone I pay well over $100 for the privilege of not being able to use every month.

Cult of Mac posted a response from AT&T downplaying the threat of a few people using YouTube on their iPhones at the same time:

We understand that fakesteve.net is primarily a satirical forum, but there is nothing amusing about advocating that customers attempt to deliberately degrade service on a network that provides critical communications services for more than 80 million customers. We know that the vast majority of customers will see this action for what it is: an irresponsible and pointless scheme to draw attention to a blog.

AT&T has also hinted that services like 911 will be adversely impacted if enough users participate but again I posit- isn’t it their problem to ensure we can connect to emergency services? What if one of my kids starts choking or my house catches fire on a day where a particularly popular video of a cat riding a segway is being passed around, am I just SOL?

AT&T users staging “Operation Chokehold” to protest sucktastic network is a post from: The Inquisitr

AT&T, who recently ranked last across 26 cities for customer satisfaction, has hinted at “incentives” to get customers who have the audacity to use the service they pay for to limit their unlimited data.

Oh, cry me a river. As an AT&T iPhone customer, I pay a lot for the service that serves as my sole phone. Most iPhone users pay at least $100 a month, without extras like unlimited texts. Over the past three months, nearly every call I make is cut off with a message of “call failed,” hours pass without data push updates- and reports are rampant on the internet of missed texts and voicemails, dropped calls and call failures. But apparently reliable unreliability isn’t enough of a disincentive for potential customers (current ones are often trapped by contract)- hints at charging a larger amount for the same sucky service seems to be on the docket:

“We’re going to try to focus on making sure we give incentives to those small percentages to either reduce or modify their usage, so they don’t crowd out the customers on those same cell sites,” he said.

The company might consider a “pricing scheme that addresses the usage,” Mr. de la Vega said. But he said that would be determined by regulatory factors and industry competition, among other issues.

Indeed, if AT&T has proven anything this year, it’s that they excel at whining. They ran crying to the FCC when Google hurt their feelings, were exposed for encouraging employees to astroturf against net neutrality and got all pissy over the Verizon “there’s a map for that” ads. (They also introduced an app this week conceding their coverage sucks.) With their track record of acting hard done by while raking in cash after nabbing iPhone exclusivity, does anyone else think these “incentives” might be the type Tony Soprano would employ behind the Bing?

AT&T: Stop using the service you’re paying for, please is a post from: The Inquisitr

The plan will let MySpace users have their profile data dynamically shared with pages on Twitter, Yahoo, Photobucket, and eBay.

“The walls around the garden are coming down,” MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe said in a statement today.

“We…are pioneering a new way for the global community to integrate their social experiences web-wide.”

An soon-to-be-introduced interface will let users choose from sharing profile information, photos, videos, and friend networks with any of the partnering sites.

MySpace Launches New Data Sharing Service is a post from: The Inquisitr