No More “Miss Smarty-Pants”

For about the past 10 months I’ve read some blog posts where mention was made of a monthly online usage limit of 5gb.  What?  We didn’t have that.  We had signed up for unlimited usage several years ago, and when we checked into it (several times over the 10 months) we were always assured we still had the unlimited service.  We have AT&T wireless and although many people claim better service with Verizon, we weren’t planning to change our service plan.

OK, you know what’s coming now, don’t you?  Last week we got an e-mail from AT&T that said we were very close to going over our online usage limits.  Bruce called the service number and talked with some idiot (aren’t most of them?).  He didn’t get very good information, so he called again about 30 minutes later to get a new idiot on the line. 

        Bougainvillea shrub we see on our morning walks.  This shrub grows well in warm, coastal areas. 

This tech-support person was better informed.  We learned that our 2-year contract was going to expire on October 2 (e-mail date was Sept. 30) and that they had now discontinued the “unlimited” usage plan.  Up to Sept. 30 we had used 4gb of our 5gb limit, so it didn’t seem likely we’d use 1gb in one day until we got to our monthly roll-over date of Oct. 2. 

                            Bougainvillea have thorny, woody vines and are used as ornamental plants. 

My days of being a silent “Smarty-Pants” for the past 10 months are over.  I’d been thinking we somehow had escaped the imposed usage limit for some reason….wrong!  AT&T just waited patiently until our contract was up and then let the axe fall.  Are we going to cancel AT&T and go with something else?  No.  They all seem to have usage limits now and we have a package with wireless/cell phone service that has been working fine for us.  Our kids all have the AT&T cell phone service, so we can talk to them any time, any day for free.  We don’t use the phone enough with other calls to go over our monthly calling minutes, plus roll-over minutes. 

                                                The flowers feel papery to the touch.

I don’t think we’ll have too much trouble staying within the 5gb usage limit.  I don’t download videos on Youtube, via e-mails, etc.  I think those use up a lot of that bandwidth stuff I don’t even totally understand.  I Googled “what is bandwidth” and they explained it as a multi-lane highway with each of the lanes representing bandwidth.  As you use up the bandwidth you lose lanes of usage bit by bit.  If this explanation is incorrect, I’m sure there are enough techies out there to set me straight.  Feel free.

The most annoying part is that when we check our account online it always shows “unlimited”.  Every category listed says “unlimited”.  And yet, it is not.  Yep, it’s always something! 

Until next time…..so long for now!