I'm finding this plan confusing. I assume that the additional $40 per device also includes voice plans. I'm glad to see that you can share data to a tablet with only a $10 fee as I was expecting that to not be an option at all for the iPad.
No way AT&T gets me to move. I have old plans and this doesn't get close. I have two iPhones on my plan, and it is a shared line plan. So I pay $50 for voice +$10 for the second line. We have never come close to using our 850 minutes, I have 3K+ rollover minutes at any given time (told you, OLD plan). Then I've got unlimited data on both phones for another $60 and we each pay $5 a month for 200 texts so another $10 right there. With the new SMS messaging, we never even get close to that number either.
So we pay ($50+$10)+($30+$30)+($5+$5)= $130
I would need the 4GB plan to share, and that would start at $150 for two phones. To this date I have not needed to increase my data, voice, or texts. If I ever did, then perhaps it would be worth it to switch. For now I'll stick with that heartburn (for AT&T) inducing unlimited plan until they give me a TRUE incentive to get off of it. This falls short.
In reality though, even matching what I currently pay wouldn't be enough to convince me to give up unlimited data. They would have to save me more than $20 a month to get me to give that up.
So two iPhones with 6GB = $160 ($35 + $35 + $90), which I had said before. I didn't really go into talk/text, but when I read it, I interpreted it as $30 a month PER device for unlimited talk and texting. So that is then another $60. Total is now $210.
I don't see anything on tethering, but that could make it more worthwhile. Although I still don't understand why you have to pay a premium for tethering. The data is still coming out of a cap and it's streamed through the device itself so they can throttle it if they want. And while $30 seems like a great price for unlimited talk and text, I wonder who that actually benefits, I have the base 450 minute plan now and continue to have more rollover minutes than I know what to do with.
The lack of competition in the industry is pathetic. I imagine I'll shop around carriers when the iPhone 5 comes out. I'm not saying Verizon or Spring are any better, but I've been with AT&T since the original iPhone and it may be time for a change.
Today, we have 3 phones on our plan pay $50 for one phone with voice and $10 or the other 2 so that is $70 just for voice, have unlimited data on one for $30 and unlimited family text $30 and data on the second phone at $20 so the total for me is $150.
Under AT&T new plan I would be paying $70 for voice and $40 for 1GB and text which is less than what I have today, plus $45 x 2 = $90 so the grant total would be $200 a month for less than I have today. So explain to me how this is any value to me.
This would be cheaper than each Smart phone having their own plan, but more costly than having a family plan today
Also, this deal would save me money ($10/mo assuming I can still tether), but I'm loathe to change anything with my plans because I currently get annual phone upgrades and don't want to risk changing that.
You may as well dive in. AT&T discontinued annual upgrades for primary line account holders beginning earlier this year. I used to get them, too. Now, I can't upgrade until 20 months, just like everyone else.
Man, these guys just make me love my Virgin Mobile plan more and more. I'm still grandfathered in to their old plan, so I have unlimited data and 300 minutes of talk on my (kinda crappy Android) smartphone for $25 a month, and no complaints about tethering data. If only I had $600 to drop on an iPhone with them, I would be happier than a pig in slop.
A cell phone with unlimited data, text, and talk shouldn't cost more than 50 bucks a month.
It doesn't - if you switch to Straight Talk. Since they use AT&T's network, you're not giving anything up, but you get unlimited text and talk and data for $45 per month ($35 for dumb phones, IIRC).
I've been happy with the service since I switched. There are only two problems that may interfere:
1. I had to jailbreak my phone to get MMS working. There are third party services that allow texting and data to work without jail breaking, but none of them enabled MMS.
2. Even after jail breaking, there's one oddity. You can't send or receive an MMS message if WiFi is enabled (even if you're not near a WiFi network). You have to turn WiFi off to receive MMS. I asked Straight Talk about that and they said there's no way around it - and implied that everyone else works the same way (which is not true).
If you can live with those limitations, the savings can be substantial. I saved at least 40% off my bill - AND got a better plan (previously, both phone calls and data were limited).
Mobile access to the internet should become a right and not a paid privilege. Sure, someone has to pay for it, but not at these fees!!
Imagine if Apple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook got together to build free WiFi networks across major cities around the world. With Skype or some other VoIP service, we will no longer have to pay exorbitant fees to carriers for voice, text or anything else. I know Google tried this before and gave up. But the landscape is different now, as smartphones are true computers.
Cities can share some of the annual network support costs. All of these companies have something to gain by doing this. In fact, I bet the ROI is well worth it. For sure, the disruptive impact on the mobile industry would be permanent.
Heck, if I were Tim Cook or Larry Page, I would go it alone in SF or NYC just because I could, and just to show how disruptive this can be. Does anyone know what happened to the WiFi network that Google was building in SF?
Not that I'm surprised ATT is playing it out this way, but there is just no reason to make a switch to shared data at these rates. I have 2 iPhones that are still on the grandfathered "unlimited" plan and one iPhone on a $30 3gb plan, plus one dumb phone. We pay for the unlimited text, which gives us unlimited mobile to mobile calls and have 1400 shared minutes which I can probably reduce down to 700 given so many calls are "free" mobile to mobile. But as it is, we pay $30 + $30 + $30 + $10 + $10 + $10 + $80 + $30 = $230. We never come close to using 5gb of data per "unlimited" plan, it's more like 3gb, so to be safe, we'd choose the $120 10gb plan, then add in the other charges of 3 phones at $30 (smartphones) plus another $30 for a basic phone and the total is $240.00, $10 more than we're paying now. The only way we could save a little is to go down to 6gb of data, but then the per iPhone charge is increased by $5 each, so we'd pay $90 + $105 + $30 = $225. That's a whopping $5 savings per month which would be eaten up by data overages which I expect will be ridiculously priced.
All they are doing here is upping the data cost by making us pay for something worth almost nothing (unlimited talk and text) given talk usage has been decreasing precipitously each year.
None of us are currently looking for or needing an upgrade, so I hope they don't force discontinuation of the grandfathered unlimited data plan. I get that things will change once an LTE iPhone comes to market, but right now I am not looking to pay more for effectively less from ATT and my guess is that others will feel the same. Verizon and Sprint better not follow suit with similar plans, but I am guessing that they will. There will be no better options for us consumers. We're not much different than an addict who needs their drugs - and we'll keep paying whatever we're told we need to pay.
This is one of those "you gotta do the math" things. In general it seems that the fewer devices you have, and the less you use them, the less attractive the bundle is—and the reverse.
As one example, I have a 3G iPad, but I've never activated its data plan (except with a local SIM when traveling in Europe) because to me that's not worth the money for the occasional convenience it would give. My wife, on the other hand, is paying $25/month for hers because she needs it for business use. We also both have iPhones, plus there are three other people on our "family plan" sharing from the same big bucket of voice minutes. We pay extra for unlimited texts, but didn't get tethering.
I'll have to put together a spreadsheet to figure it out for sure, but I suspect that the combined data bucket and the included texting, plus the added convenience of being able to tether our laptops, may make it attractive as a bundle.
But every person's/group's situation is going to be different.
I'm no fan of these new plans, but what are you guys doing? I don't know how you're coming up with some of these numbers. Unlimited talk and text appears to be part of the mobile share plan, not an additional charge.
Quote:
Originally Posted by commandercrash
So two iPhones with 6GB = $160 ($35 + $35 + $90), which I had said before. I didn't really go into talk/text, but when I read it, I interpreted it as $30 a month PER device for unlimited talk and texting. So that is then another $60. Total is now $210.
For 2 iPhones with unlimited voice, unlimited text, and 6 GB shared data: $90 + ( $35 * 2 ) = $160 total.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Maestro64
Under AT&T new plan I would be paying $70 for voice and $40 for 1GB and text which is less than what I have today, plus $45 x 2 = $90 so the grant total would be $200 a month.
For 2 iPhones with unlimited voice, unlimited text, and 1 GB shared data: $40 + ( $45 * 2 ) = $130 total.
Why we don't have an uprising against these ridiculous "data plans" is beyond me.
Guess what AT&T? 1GB of data on my iPad looks the same to your network as 1GB of data on my iPhone! Having a discrepancy in the pricing of data between the two should be illegal! If only you could be fined billions to compensate those that you are overcharging.
My oldest son, who's getting throttled almost every month since they started that b.s., has sucked up as much as 9 gigs of data a month.
I think you're putting the BS hat on the wrong head. Your son has never heard of WiFi? Carriers are throttling precisely because people like that are sucking up limited cellular capacity.
I'd make you a bet that if he paid his own cellular data bill he'd be using a whole bunch less.
I really don't understand why there is a cost for sharing the data with another device. It would be like if Con Ed charged you $20 a month for your electricity for x number of units if you only use a lamp. But if you use 2 lamps half as much, you pay $20 still, plus $10 for the extra lamp.
I find their new plans ridiculous. Sharing data should mean a cost savings for people with multiple devices. Clearly ATT wanted this to be revenue neutral worst case and revenue generating best case.
Once again the carriers come up with new barriers to innovation and progress. It's time the FCC review their spectrum licenses and revoke them since they are not serving the public good, but hindering it.
I really don't understand why there is a cost for sharing the data with another device. It would be like if Con Ed charged you $20 a month for your electricity for x number of units if you only use a lamp. But if you use 2 lamps half as much, you pay $20 still, plus $10 for the extra lamp.
You guys make it sound so simple to push data. it's not a downstream only service. 1,000 devices on a node sending 1MB of data at the same time is more difficult than one device sending 1,000MB of data. Are the plans excessive? I think so, but that doesn't mean there is no additional cost and overhead when you add more devices to a network.
Comments
And what's with the asterisk after Smartphones?
No way AT&T gets me to move. I have old plans and this doesn't get close. I have two iPhones on my plan, and it is a shared line plan. So I pay $50 for voice +$10 for the second line. We have never come close to using our 850 minutes, I have 3K+ rollover minutes at any given time (told you, OLD plan). Then I've got unlimited data on both phones for another $60 and we each pay $5 a month for 200 texts so another $10 right there. With the new SMS messaging, we never even get close to that number either.
So we pay ($50+$10)+($30+$30)+($5+$5)= $130
I would need the 4GB plan to share, and that would start at $150 for two phones. To this date I have not needed to increase my data, voice, or texts. If I ever did, then perhaps it would be worth it to switch. For now I'll stick with that heartburn (for AT&T) inducing unlimited plan until they give me a TRUE incentive to get off of it. This falls short.
In reality though, even matching what I currently pay wouldn't be enough to convince me to give up unlimited data. They would have to save me more than $20 a month to get me to give that up.
So two iPhones with 6GB = $160 ($35 + $35 + $90), which I had said before. I didn't really go into talk/text, but when I read it, I interpreted it as $30 a month PER device for unlimited talk and texting. So that is then another $60. Total is now $210.
I don't see anything on tethering, but that could make it more worthwhile. Although I still don't understand why you have to pay a premium for tethering. The data is still coming out of a cap and it's streamed through the device itself so they can throttle it if they want. And while $30 seems like a great price for unlimited talk and text, I wonder who that actually benefits, I have the base 450 minute plan now and continue to have more rollover minutes than I know what to do with.
The lack of competition in the industry is pathetic. I imagine I'll shop around carriers when the iPhone 5 comes out. I'm not saying Verizon or Spring are any better, but I've been with AT&T since the original iPhone and it may be time for a change.
Yep these plans are a rip off,
Today, we have 3 phones on our plan pay $50 for one phone with voice and $10 or the other 2 so that is $70 just for voice, have unlimited data on one for $30 and unlimited family text $30 and data on the second phone at $20 so the total for me is $150.
Under AT&T new plan I would be paying $70 for voice and $40 for 1GB and text which is less than what I have today, plus $45 x 2 = $90 so the grant total would be $200 a month for less than I have today. So explain to me how this is any value to me.
This would be cheaper than each Smart phone having their own plan, but more costly than having a family plan today
Quote:
Originally Posted by siromega
Any word on tethering?
Also, this deal would save me money ($10/mo assuming I can still tether), but I'm loathe to change anything with my plans because I currently get annual phone upgrades and don't want to risk changing that.
You may as well dive in. AT&T discontinued annual upgrades for primary line account holders beginning earlier this year. I used to get them, too. Now, I can't upgrade until 20 months, just like everyone else.
Man, these guys just make me love my Virgin Mobile plan more and more. I'm still grandfathered in to their old plan, so I have unlimited data and 300 minutes of talk on my (kinda crappy Android) smartphone for $25 a month, and no complaints about tethering data. If only I had $600 to drop on an iPhone with them, I would be happier than a pig in slop.
It doesn't - if you switch to Straight Talk. Since they use AT&T's network, you're not giving anything up, but you get unlimited text and talk and data for $45 per month ($35 for dumb phones, IIRC).
I've been happy with the service since I switched. There are only two problems that may interfere:
1. I had to jailbreak my phone to get MMS working. There are third party services that allow texting and data to work without jail breaking, but none of them enabled MMS.
2. Even after jail breaking, there's one oddity. You can't send or receive an MMS message if WiFi is enabled (even if you're not near a WiFi network). You have to turn WiFi off to receive MMS. I asked Straight Talk about that and they said there's no way around it - and implied that everyone else works the same way (which is not true).
If you can live with those limitations, the savings can be substantial. I saved at least 40% off my bill - AND got a better plan (previously, both phone calls and data were limited).
Mobile access to the internet should become a right and not a paid privilege. Sure, someone has to pay for it, but not at these fees!!
Imagine if Apple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook got together to build free WiFi networks across major cities around the world. With Skype or some other VoIP service, we will no longer have to pay exorbitant fees to carriers for voice, text or anything else. I know Google tried this before and gave up. But the landscape is different now, as smartphones are true computers.
Cities can share some of the annual network support costs. All of these companies have something to gain by doing this. In fact, I bet the ROI is well worth it. For sure, the disruptive impact on the mobile industry would be permanent.
Heck, if I were Tim Cook or Larry Page, I would go it alone in SF or NYC just because I could, and just to show how disruptive this can be. Does anyone know what happened to the WiFi network that Google was building in SF?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bandman999
This is like the water company charging you for the water, and also for each faucet that dispenses water.
It's more like when cable companies use to charge per TV, even though you didn't need extra hardware.
Not that I'm surprised ATT is playing it out this way, but there is just no reason to make a switch to shared data at these rates. I have 2 iPhones that are still on the grandfathered "unlimited" plan and one iPhone on a $30 3gb plan, plus one dumb phone. We pay for the unlimited text, which gives us unlimited mobile to mobile calls and have 1400 shared minutes which I can probably reduce down to 700 given so many calls are "free" mobile to mobile. But as it is, we pay $30 + $30 + $30 + $10 + $10 + $10 + $80 + $30 = $230. We never come close to using 5gb of data per "unlimited" plan, it's more like 3gb, so to be safe, we'd choose the $120 10gb plan, then add in the other charges of 3 phones at $30 (smartphones) plus another $30 for a basic phone and the total is $240.00, $10 more than we're paying now. The only way we could save a little is to go down to 6gb of data, but then the per iPhone charge is increased by $5 each, so we'd pay $90 + $105 + $30 = $225. That's a whopping $5 savings per month which would be eaten up by data overages which I expect will be ridiculously priced.
All they are doing here is upping the data cost by making us pay for something worth almost nothing (unlimited talk and text) given talk usage has been decreasing precipitously each year.
None of us are currently looking for or needing an upgrade, so I hope they don't force discontinuation of the grandfathered unlimited data plan. I get that things will change once an LTE iPhone comes to market, but right now I am not looking to pay more for effectively less from ATT and my guess is that others will feel the same. Verizon and Sprint better not follow suit with similar plans, but I am guessing that they will. There will be no better options for us consumers. We're not much different than an addict who needs their drugs - and we'll keep paying whatever we're told we need to pay.
SAVE $10/month !!! Plus $130 up front...
If you can tether, just get a WIFI iPad and tether it to your phone for free.....
This is one of those "you gotta do the math" things. In general it seems that the fewer devices you have, and the less you use them, the less attractive the bundle is—and the reverse.
As one example, I have a 3G iPad, but I've never activated its data plan (except with a local SIM when traveling in Europe) because to me that's not worth the money for the occasional convenience it would give. My wife, on the other hand, is paying $25/month for hers because she needs it for business use. We also both have iPhones, plus there are three other people on our "family plan" sharing from the same big bucket of voice minutes. We pay extra for unlimited texts, but didn't get tethering.
I'll have to put together a spreadsheet to figure it out for sure, but I suspect that the combined data bucket and the included texting, plus the added convenience of being able to tether our laptops, may make it attractive as a bundle.
But every person's/group's situation is going to be different.
I'm no fan of these new plans, but what are you guys doing? I don't know how you're coming up with some of these numbers. Unlimited talk and text appears to be part of the mobile share plan, not an additional charge.
Quote:
Originally Posted by commandercrash
So two iPhones with 6GB = $160 ($35 + $35 + $90), which I had said before. I didn't really go into talk/text, but when I read it, I interpreted it as $30 a month PER device for unlimited talk and texting. So that is then another $60. Total is now $210.
For 2 iPhones with unlimited voice, unlimited text, and 6 GB shared data: $90 + ( $35 * 2 ) = $160 total.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Maestro64
Under AT&T new plan I would be paying $70 for voice and $40 for 1GB and text which is less than what I have today, plus $45 x 2 = $90 so the grant total would be $200 a month.
For 2 iPhones with unlimited voice, unlimited text, and 1 GB shared data: $40 + ( $45 * 2 ) = $130 total.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Harbinger
Mobile access to the internet should become a right and not a paid privilege. Sure, someone has to pay for it, but not at these fees!!
Gee, no sense of unearned entitlement there...
As usual, a total rip-off.
Why we don't have an uprising against these ridiculous "data plans" is beyond me.
Guess what AT&T? 1GB of data on my iPad looks the same to your network as 1GB of data on my iPhone! Having a discrepancy in the pricing of data between the two should be illegal! If only you could be fined billions to compensate those that you are overcharging.
Telecom on this continent sucks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by WisdomSeed
My oldest son, who's getting throttled almost every month since they started that b.s., has sucked up as much as 9 gigs of data a month.
I think you're putting the BS hat on the wrong head. Your son has never heard of WiFi? Carriers are throttling precisely because people like that are sucking up limited cellular capacity.
I'd make you a bet that if he paid his own cellular data bill he'd be using a whole bunch less.
I really don't understand why there is a cost for sharing the data with another device. It would be like if Con Ed charged you $20 a month for your electricity for x number of units if you only use a lamp. But if you use 2 lamps half as much, you pay $20 still, plus $10 for the extra lamp.
I find their new plans ridiculous. Sharing data should mean a cost savings for people with multiple devices. Clearly ATT wanted this to be revenue neutral worst case and revenue generating best case.
Once again the carriers come up with new barriers to innovation and progress. It's time the FCC review their spectrum licenses and revoke them since they are not serving the public good, but hindering it.
You guys make it sound so simple to push data. it's not a downstream only service. 1,000 devices on a node sending 1MB of data at the same time is more difficult than one device sending 1,000MB of data. Are the plans excessive? I think so, but that doesn't mean there is no additional cost and overhead when you add more devices to a network.