It's amazing that so many people use the word grandfathered incorrectly. There is absolutely no requirement for AT&T to give you unlimited data for life. They can drop your plan, your contract, and you any time they wish, just as you can drop them as you wish. The only difference is if they alter the plan you are not required to pay the ETF fee since it was them who broke the contact. So why do they continue to let you use an unlimited data plan? Because it's currently in their best interest. I bet you don't even know how much data you use per month.
Saying "being grandfathered in" is accurate. There is no implication in using that term that says AT&T is required to do so.
Saying "being grandfathered in" is accurate. There is no implication in using that term that says AT&T is required to do so.
It's not. There is no grandfather clause with your contract that protects you. You are not protected from the carrier making changes to your plan after your contact is up or during your contract except for the aforementioned carrier forfeiting any early termination penalty if you then leave. This is legally quite distinct. If you still don't think so then you might as well call any normal duration of a service as somehow being a grandfathered clause.
If I switch my existing 4 line plan to the new Share plan at the level I use (the level I currently have is even worse). I pay an extra $50 per month with no added benefit. Thanks but no thanks ATT
It's amazing that so many people use the word grandfathered incorrectly. There is absolutely no requirement for AT&T to give you unlimited data for life. They can drop your plan, your contract, and you any time they wish, just as you can drop them as you wish. The only difference is if they alter the plan you are not required to pay the ETF fee since it was them who broke the contact. So why do they continue to let you use an unlimited data plan? Because it's currently in their best interest. I bet you don't even know how much data you use per month.
Quote:
A grandfather clause is a provision in which an old rule continues to apply to some existing situations, while a new rule will apply to all future cases.
Yes, I was grandfathered in when I purchased my iPhone 4 and was actually asked if I wanted to keep my unlimited or upgrade (cough) to their new plan. So by definition of grandfathered, I was, and still am, and will be for as long as they allow.
Yes, I was grandfathered in when I purchased my iPhone 4 and was actually asked if I wanted to keep my unlimited or upgrade (cough) to their new plan. So by definition of grandfathered, I was, and still am, and will be for as long as they allow.
The "they allow" is key. If you were truly grandfathered it would be like a rent controlled apartment but in this case it's just a landlord that has chosen not to raise your rent.
The "they allow" is key. If you were truly grandfathered it would be like a rent controlled apartment but in this case it's just a landlord that has chosen not to raise your rent.
Do you just like to argue or something? Seriously, who really gives a crap.
My current T-mobile plan is just under $80/month after taxes and fees. On AT&T it would be over $140 after taxes & fees. And what happens if I run out of data transfer on AT&T: extra per MB fees, while T-Mobile would just throttle me to Edge speeds. I prefer the throttle over the $20%u2013$30 more I was hit with once which was the month just before my switch.
It's not. There is no grandfather clause with your contract that protects you. You are not protected from the carrier making changes to your plan after your contact is up or during your contract except for the aforementioned carrier forfeiting any early termination penalty if you then leave. This is legally quite distinct. If you still don't think so then you might as well call any normal duration of a service as somehow being a grandfathered clause.
As long as you pay your bill you're effectively 'extending' the contract past the date of expiration.
The "they allow" is key. If you were truly grandfathered it would be like a rent controlled apartment but in this case it's just a landlord that has chosen not to raise your rent.
Then you don't know what grandfathering is. Anyone can grandfather anything they want. Once again, the definition is:
Quote:
A grandfather clause is a provision in which an old rule continues to apply to some existing situations, while a new rule will apply to all future cases.
If they had it before, and don't have it now, but allow those that did have it to remain on it, that's grandfathering.
“I see. Well, starting tomorrow, we won’t offer unlimited data to anyone anymore. Just two giga thingies.”
“Gigabytes, sir.”
“That’s the one. After two, strangle them down…”
“Throttle, sir.”
“I like strangle… and charge overages for so much as a chew…”
“Byte, sir…”
“…over that limit. That should solve the problem.”
“Very good, sir. Shall we also remove the requirement of purchasing a data plan for certain phones?”
Gasps are heard from the other CEOs present; Verizon’s faints.
“ARE YOU INSANE?! WHAT SORT OF FOOL DO YOU TAKE ME FOR?!”
“But… but sir… if fewer devices are forced to use our network’s data, it wouldn’t be so overtaxed, and service could be better for everyone…”
“GET OUT OF MY SIGHT, YOU INCOMPETENT BUFFOON! I WON’T HAVE ANY TALK OF FEWER PHONES WITH DATA PLANS IN THIS OFFICE! DATA PLANS MEAN MONEY, BOY, MONEY! I DON’T CARE IF THEY CAN GET THEIR PRECIOUS DATA AS LONG AS THEY’RE PAYING ME FOR IT!”
AT&T now forcing the stupid plans, when I first heard them, I assumed a fee lets say $50 2gb and no matter how many devices you have its same, but no $45 for each. So for two devices it's $130-1gb, $140-2gb, $160-4gb, come on AT&T drop your prices, If they had this, it would be good with mobile share unlimited the $30-50 per extra device, but the share is just to expensive.
With the shared data plan on AT&T it is not $45 per phone straight. It depends on how much data you have in the plan. We have 4 on our shared data plan and it is $30 per phone. Your 4GB shown above is $150 according to the AT&T website (looking at it now). $70 + $40 per phone. 6GB would be $160 and 10GB would be $180 in your example.
We have the 10GB plan since it lowered the per phone price by $10 each with our 4 phones the difference between 4gb and 10gb is $10/month. I switched form my unlimited grandfathered plan and my wife's 250mb plan (part of a family plan with 700 minutes) plus one dumb phone for my sister to this shared data 10gb plan (not that we usually use anywhere near that amount but for $10 a month for 6gb more it was worth it for those times we might). I got my sister to upgrade her dumb phone to an iPhone and added one for her husband (which made the 4). I charge them $35/month I think for each one plus $15 per GB they use (combined) plus taxes so they are happy and I got my per phone costs down etc. After taking off the money my sister and her husband pay for their part of the service, my monthly costs were almost the same to what I was playing before I get the tethering and stuff for free.
Now if AT&T can follow T-Mobiles lead on the international I'll be a happy camper. We don't travel that often but will be in Japan in a few months for 3 weeks. I have an unlocked 5 and 4S to use with local data prepaid SIMs my SILs will get for me while there. 1GB for about $32 of up to LTE speed data plus unlimited at 300kb for our MiFi device... If AT&T can follow T-Mobiles lead it would save me some.
Just going through an attwireless.com sample purchase of some iPhones to get some actual cost estimates and it is still offering individual and family plans in addition to shared data plans, so, at least online, it has not gone away as an option quite yet. Get it while you can if that is what you want.
If I switch my existing 4 line plan to the new Share plan at the level I use (the level I currently have is even worse). I pay an extra $50 per month with no added benefit. Thanks but no thanks ATT
That's what happened to me the last time they changed their plans when I was still using AT&T. No change in service, rate went up quite a bit ($30-40, IIRC).
That's exactly why I switched from AT&T to Straight Talk over a year ago. I've been completely happy with the change. I lose visual voice mail and have to settle for 3G data speeds, but considering that my monthly bill was cut in half, I'm OK with that.
You do realize Straight Talk and Net10 now offer LTE via AT&T, right? You'll have to buy an updated SIM card for it to work. That's what I did with Net10 for my iPhone 5. I'll get to test it out within a week or so when I get to an LTE area. They also started allowing streaming with a clearly printed 2.5GB data allowance before being throttled to EDGE for both services.
I bet the vast majority of commenters on AI know pretty well how much data they use each month.
Well I don't (although I just looked), as I don't care because I'm one of those people who are indeed "grandfathered" with an unlimited data plan, therefore it's not necessary to know. I'm sure that there are months where I could have saved money with a capped plan because I didn't use all that much data, but I'd rather not take the chance because with the changes in technology and applications each year, I don't really know how I'll be using my phone in the future. I don't really download movies to the phone now, but I might in the future, etc. Looking at my usage for 2013, it varies tremendously from a low of 113MB to a high of 600MB. I have no idea why it varied so much.
The advantage for AT&T is that I don't drop them at the end of each contract period because I want to keep the unlimited plan. Should they ever kill the ability to keep the unlimited plan, I'll be dropping them and switching to Verizon (who I had before the iPhone and actually worked much better in my apartment) or Sprint, which seems to offer better deals, but probably doesn't have as good coverage.
People obsess over the price of their phones, but they really should obsess over the price of these plans, which in my opinion are all vastly overpriced in spite of the capital costs necessary to expand/improve infrastructure.
As I read the plan, 10GB with one phone costs $150 a month, with an additional Pad, $160 a month. And fees probably add at least another $20. I'm currently paying $70 + $10.40 in taxes and fees for the unlimited data plan with 450 phone minutes, 5000 night/weekend minutes and unlimited mobile/mobile. Under that new fee structure, I'd be limited to 300MB per month of data in order to pay the same price. Based on recent usage, I'd have to go to a $95 plan. If I decided to add a Pad with phone carrier service, I'd be screwed because they'd probably force me to drop my unlimited plan and that would cost at least $105 + taxes and fees.
AT&T claimed 95 million wireless customers in 2012. At $1200 per year each, that's $114 billion per year. How greedy do they need to be?
It's amazing that so many people use the word grandfathered incorrectly.
They are using the word correctly. In a broad common language sense. The issue is that you are not. You are restricting it to a very specific legal definition and implying that any other is wrong etc.
But you are correct that many folks think there is some legal requirement for ATT to continue it. There isn't. And they could do as Verizon did and say if you want a subsidy you have to sign a new contract with no more unlimited.
As for these plans I don't get why tablets etc should have any add on fee. It's not as if they are getting voice minuts etc. A one time $5-10 activation fee perhaps. To me it's still a bit silly when it's all computerized but whatever.
They should break it out and have it something like $20 subsidy pay back (until you pay it off) + $30 for unlimited calling and texts per phone line and then whatever you pick for data shared by up to say ten devices of any kind. The whole NEXT thing would be easy. You want to upgrade, you have to pay off any previous device fees on that line first. Whatever that amount is. Then you can 'finance' a new one. Including an option to trade in your device and have any value used to help cover that completion
Comments
It's amazing that so many people use the word grandfathered incorrectly. There is absolutely no requirement for AT&T to give you unlimited data for life. They can drop your plan, your contract, and you any time they wish, just as you can drop them as you wish. The only difference is if they alter the plan you are not required to pay the ETF fee since it was them who broke the contact. So why do they continue to let you use an unlimited data plan? Because it's currently in their best interest. I bet you don't even know how much data you use per month.
Saying "being grandfathered in" is accurate. There is no implication in using that term that says AT&T is required to do so.
It's not. There is no grandfather clause with your contract that protects you. You are not protected from the carrier making changes to your plan after your contact is up or during your contract except for the aforementioned carrier forfeiting any early termination penalty if you then leave. This is legally quite distinct. If you still don't think so then you might as well call any normal duration of a service as somehow being a grandfathered clause.
They say no more "per-device" data plans, but, it's MORE expensive this way, and STILL adds a premium MONTHLY fee "per device".
No, I'm never going to use AT&T ever again.
Yet another reason for us to petition for good, PUBLIC ACCESS Wi-Fi nationwide.
It's amazing that so many people use the word grandfathered incorrectly. There is absolutely no requirement for AT&T to give you unlimited data for life. They can drop your plan, your contract, and you any time they wish, just as you can drop them as you wish. The only difference is if they alter the plan you are not required to pay the ETF fee since it was them who broke the contact. So why do they continue to let you use an unlimited data plan? Because it's currently in their best interest. I bet you don't even know how much data you use per month.
Yes, I was grandfathered in when I purchased my iPhone 4 and was actually asked if I wanted to keep my unlimited or upgrade (cough) to their new plan. So by definition of grandfathered, I was, and still am, and will be for as long as they allow.
The "they allow" is key. If you were truly grandfathered it would be like a rent controlled apartment but in this case it's just a landlord that has chosen not to raise your rent.
Do you just like to argue or something? Seriously, who really gives a crap.
looks like Forums doesn’t like en-dashes… I wonder what it will do with this ellipsis?
As long as you pay your bill you're effectively 'extending' the contract past the date of expiration.
The "they allow" is key. If you were truly grandfathered it would be like a rent controlled apartment but in this case it's just a landlord that has chosen not to raise your rent.
Then you don't know what grandfathering is. Anyone can grandfather anything they want. Once again, the definition is:
If they had it before, and don't have it now, but allow those that did have it to remain on it, that's grandfathering.
“Um… sir?”
“What is it now?! Can’t you see we’re colluding?”
“Sir… our data network is getting overtaxed.”
“I see. Well, starting tomorrow, we won’t offer unlimited data to anyone anymore. Just two giga thingies.”
“Gigabytes, sir.”
“That’s the one. After two, strangle them down…”
“Throttle, sir.”
“I like strangle… and charge overages for so much as a chew…”
“Byte, sir…”
“…over that limit. That should solve the problem.”
“Very good, sir. Shall we also remove the requirement of purchasing a data plan for certain phones?”
Gasps are heard from the other CEOs present; Verizon’s faints.
“ARE YOU INSANE?! WHAT SORT OF FOOL DO YOU TAKE ME FOR?!”
“But… but sir… if fewer devices are forced to use our network’s data, it wouldn’t be so overtaxed, and service could be better for everyone…”
“GET OUT OF MY SIGHT, YOU INCOMPETENT BUFFOON! I WON’T HAVE ANY TALK OF FEWER PHONES WITH DATA PLANS IN THIS OFFICE! DATA PLANS MEAN MONEY, BOY, MONEY! I DON’T CARE IF THEY CAN GET THEIR PRECIOUS DATA AS LONG AS THEY’RE PAYING ME FOR IT!”
AT&T now forcing the stupid plans, when I first heard them, I assumed a fee lets say $50 2gb and no matter how many devices you have its same, but no $45 for each. So for two devices it's $130-1gb, $140-2gb, $160-4gb, come on AT&T drop your prices, If they had this, it would be good with mobile share unlimited the $30-50 per extra device, but the share is just to expensive.
With the shared data plan on AT&T it is not $45 per phone straight. It depends on how much data you have in the plan. We have 4 on our shared data plan and it is $30 per phone. Your 4GB shown above is $150 according to the AT&T website (looking at it now). $70 + $40 per phone. 6GB would be $160 and 10GB would be $180 in your example.
We have the 10GB plan since it lowered the per phone price by $10 each with our 4 phones the difference between 4gb and 10gb is $10/month. I switched form my unlimited grandfathered plan and my wife's 250mb plan (part of a family plan with 700 minutes) plus one dumb phone for my sister to this shared data 10gb plan (not that we usually use anywhere near that amount but for $10 a month for 6gb more it was worth it for those times we might). I got my sister to upgrade her dumb phone to an iPhone and added one for her husband (which made the 4). I charge them $35/month I think for each one plus $15 per GB they use (combined) plus taxes so they are happy and I got my per phone costs down etc. After taking off the money my sister and her husband pay for their part of the service, my monthly costs were almost the same to what I was playing before I get the tethering and stuff for free.
Now if AT&T can follow T-Mobiles lead on the international I'll be a happy camper. We don't travel that often
but will be in Japan in a few months for 3 weeks. I have an unlocked 5 and 4S to use with local data prepaid SIMs my SILs will get for me while there. 1GB for about $32 of up to LTE speed data plus unlimited at 300kb for our MiFi device... If AT&T can follow T-Mobiles lead it would save me some.
Just going through an attwireless.com sample purchase of some iPhones to get some actual cost estimates and it is still offering individual and family plans in addition to shared data plans, so, at least online, it has not gone away as an option quite yet. Get it while you can if that is what you want.
That's what happened to me the last time they changed their plans when I was still using AT&T. No change in service, rate went up quite a bit ($30-40, IIRC).
That's exactly why I switched from AT&T to Straight Talk over a year ago. I've been completely happy with the change. I lose visual voice mail and have to settle for 3G data speeds, but considering that my monthly bill was cut in half, I'm OK with that.
You do realize Straight Talk and Net10 now offer LTE via AT&T, right? You'll have to buy an updated SIM card for it to work. That's what I did with Net10 for my iPhone 5. I'll get to test it out within a week or so when I get to an LTE area. They also started allowing streaming with a clearly printed 2.5GB data allowance before being throttled to EDGE for both services.
I bet the vast majority of commenters on AI know pretty well how much data they use each month.
Well I don't (although I just looked), as I don't care because I'm one of those people who are indeed "grandfathered" with an unlimited data plan, therefore it's not necessary to know. I'm sure that there are months where I could have saved money with a capped plan because I didn't use all that much data, but I'd rather not take the chance because with the changes in technology and applications each year, I don't really know how I'll be using my phone in the future. I don't really download movies to the phone now, but I might in the future, etc. Looking at my usage for 2013, it varies tremendously from a low of 113MB to a high of 600MB. I have no idea why it varied so much.
The advantage for AT&T is that I don't drop them at the end of each contract period because I want to keep the unlimited plan. Should they ever kill the ability to keep the unlimited plan, I'll be dropping them and switching to Verizon (who I had before the iPhone and actually worked much better in my apartment) or Sprint, which seems to offer better deals, but probably doesn't have as good coverage.
People obsess over the price of their phones, but they really should obsess over the price of these plans, which in my opinion are all vastly overpriced in spite of the capital costs necessary to expand/improve infrastructure.
As I read the plan, 10GB with one phone costs $150 a month, with an additional Pad, $160 a month. And fees probably add at least another $20. I'm currently paying $70 + $10.40 in taxes and fees for the unlimited data plan with 450 phone minutes, 5000 night/weekend minutes and unlimited mobile/mobile. Under that new fee structure, I'd be limited to 300MB per month of data in order to pay the same price. Based on recent usage, I'd have to go to a $95 plan. If I decided to add a Pad with phone carrier service, I'd be screwed because they'd probably force me to drop my unlimited plan and that would cost at least $105 + taxes and fees.
AT&T claimed 95 million wireless customers in 2012. At $1200 per year each, that's $114 billion per year. How greedy do they need to be?
How much of that do they take home? Why does Apple get a pass to make large amounts of money but nobody else does?
According to their 2012 report http://www.att.com/Investor/ATT_Annual/2012/downloads/att_ar_2012_financials.pdf they had about $127B in gross revenue and $114B in expenses. The numbers are there to see in the report. (I am not claiming they make too much money or are greedy).
They are using the word correctly. In a broad common language sense. The issue is that you are not. You are restricting it to a very specific legal definition and implying that any other is wrong etc.
But you are correct that many folks think there is some legal requirement for ATT to continue it. There isn't. And they could do as Verizon did and say if you want a subsidy you have to sign a new contract with no more unlimited.
As for these plans I don't get why tablets etc should have any add on fee. It's not as if they are getting voice minuts etc. A one time $5-10 activation fee perhaps. To me it's still a bit silly when it's all computerized but whatever.
They should break it out and have it something like $20 subsidy pay back (until you pay it off) + $30 for unlimited calling and texts per phone line and then whatever you pick for data shared by up to say ten devices of any kind. The whole NEXT thing would be easy. You want to upgrade, you have to pay off any previous device fees on that line first. Whatever that amount is. Then you can 'finance' a new one. Including an option to trade in your device and have any value used to help cover that completion