The thing is more people are going to be using more data services. 300mb is absolutely ludicrous And so is 2 and 3Gs. They need to find a way to open the damned data pipes and quit playing around. The tiers should be 5G, 10G and 30G. 300MB makes me so mad I could punch a baby. Overages should be $1 per gigabyte. They need to get ready and make a way for this to happen.
Sure most people don't use 5G in a month, but I use up 300mb on the way to work. Why are they being so antagonistic about this? Especially after they ganked everyone on text messaging for years.
It is crazy to see how AT&T is increasing its prices.
$20 is the price paid by one of my friend in France for unlimited calls, text, MMS and 5G of Internet.
I guess the US is not ready yet for such plan :-) So we have to look for back-up solutions. They do exist.
You have 3 MVNO that are using AT&T network : H2Owireless, Red Pocket and Straight Talk.
Red Pocket is offering a plan including unlimited call, txt and 2GB of data for $59.99/month with no 2 years commitment.
The best solution available is Straight Talk with $45 unlimited call, txt and data. The trick is, you need to buy a Nokia e71 ($49 on their website). Then port your number. Once the SIM is active you can remove it from the Nokia e71 and use it with any GSM phone (android, iPhone...)
Both solution are compatible with AT&T 3G network.
Now when it's time to renew your plan think twice :-)
It is crazy to see how AT&T is increasing its prices.
$20 is the price paid by one of my friend in France for unlimited calls, text, MMS and 5G of Internet.
I guess the US is not ready yet for such plan :-) So we have to look for back-up solutions. They do exist.
You have 3 MVNO that are using AT&T network : H2Owireless, Red Pocket and Straight Talk.
Red Pocket is offering a plan including unlimited call, txt and 2GB of data for $59.99/month with no 2 years commitment.
The best solution available is Straight Talk with $45 unlimited call, txt and data. The trick is, you need to buy a Nokia e71 ($49 on their website). Then port your number. Once the SIM is active you can remove it from the Nokia e71 and use it with any GSM phone (android, iPhone...)
Both solution are compatible with AT&T 3G network.
Now when it's time to renew your plan think twice :-)
I put in bold the part of the plan that makes this ridiculous. I have enough money that saving $5/month* Red Pocket would save me over my AT&T plan** with 2GB data isn't worth all that hassle.
These plans are lower than the MNOs, but they should be because they are MVNOs. You do get less service for a lower cost; that's how they work. Also note that it's $49.99 for all things the same the $59.99 plan except for data which is only 250MB. That mean the higher plan gives you 1.75GB for $10. That's 7x more data than the 250GB plan for only $10... which means they are abusing customers who pay for lower data. Shame, shame¡
* I say $5/month but I noticed it's actually less. Red Pocket charges you per 30 days of service, not month. There are 12 months in the year which at 30 days per month only comes out to 360 days. That leaves 5 days of 17% of a month remaining that Red Pocket gets to charge for each year. You still can save money with Red Pocket but it's something I felt that should be noted since it's not the same plan length as with the MNOs.
** I have thousands of roll over minutes I don't use and completely removed my SMS/MMS a couple months ago in favour of only using iMessages, Email, et al. to communicate. I have no plans to go back to SMS/MMS.
I knew they'd have to up it before long. I have been over my data plan so much, and I can't be that much of a data hog! And they knew that users would increase usage, but they probably used the $25 plan to entice users to not backlash about losing unlimited data for $30. Damn marketing!
AT&T said my wife was going over her 2GB plan 3 months in a row. when we noticed that "something" was downloading 50-150 mb every night, we began shutting her phone off at night. the 50-150 mb overnight downloads still showed up [AT&T plan] WITH her phone off. After two calls and some not-so-nice language to customer service they credited us 6 months of data usage for both of our phones.
CHECK to see when your phone is using data... it may be bullshit or some odd rogue app.
AT&T execs are unable to plan adequately for growth and want to limit CAPEX dollars year after year so that each executive fiefdom meets it's goals and they qualify for bonuses.
So instead of investing well and planning their company's future, the execs are in a mad scramble to get spectrum already built out. Ooops, that fell through. Quick, let's watch the AT&T execs now go and charge more because their "customers using too much data"
The single best thing that could ever happen to the US market is for the FCC to insist that carriers share bandwidth just like the FM broadcasters do. You don't have to go buy a new FM radio to listen to a different network, and you certainly are not limited to just one type of programming. Sheesh. The US market is like buying a cell phone that ONLY get country music broadcast by a single provider.
Single most telling statistic on AT&T's on-the-cheap approach: compare the number of cell sites in Spain vs the number of cell sites in California.
What's the answer to this problem of the high price for data in the U.S.? Is there any way to protest?
Yes,
When your contact ends cancel your service. I would guess it would take about 6 weeks for AT&T to back off. Even if only 10% of their customers did cancel. No chance in hell of this ever happening since most think they will die if they didn't have a cell phone.
I can make calls all day long, including Canada and Mexico. I can surf the Internet and text all I want and all this costs me $38/mo. in the US. The only limitation is I have to be in my house. It is called what is referred to as a landline. I could leave the house and do the same thing for about $100 more each month. Someone want to explain how that works. Does it not cost more to string wires all over the place than to put up towers??
$20 for 300MB?! Are you kidding? I pay £6 for 500MB, and I thought that was quite expensive by UK standards...
In Australia it's $4 for 700MB or $10 for 2GB.
Most voice plans above $30 have over a GB included.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kent909
I can make calls all day long, including Canada and Mexico. I can surf the Internet and text all I want and all this costs me $38/mo. in the US. The only limitation is I have to be in my house. It is called what is referred to as a landline. I could leave the house and do the same thing for about $100 more each month. Someone want to explain how that works. Does it not cost more to string wires all over the place than to put up towers??
I don't even have a landline phone, well I have a number as part of my ADSL plan but I never even bothered plugging a phone in.
All the more reason to leave AT&T when my current contract is up
Or leave the smart phone... My six year old phone that has plastic buttons, sucky menus, dopey UI, wierd options to text and I have to attach a crappy camera module to take fuzzy pictures BUT my rates, scratch that, my reasonable rates haven't changed since day one!
But having no smart phone is just my choice... my priority.
just have email pushed to my phone eats 10-15MBs daily for me, which puts me right up against that 200MB ceiling at the end of a month. that leaves me with what, five to ten minutes of web browsing afterwards?
the 200MB plan is a joke.
I see you don't get it.
(sigh)
The fact of the matter is that there are different levels of consumerism. The cellular carriers have different offerings for different people. So your usage habits don't fit into the smallest plan. Fine, that's why they have different plans for you.
Let's use an analogy.
You and a friend are going to dinner at the Cellular Smorgasbord. You're hungry, so you get the $50 all-you-can-eat buffet. Your friend doesn't have a big appetite and instead orders a bowl of soup, $5.
Now you're a better consumer, at least in the eyes of Cellular Smorgasbord, but you're not better or superior to your friend. You just have a larger appetite, at least when you're dining out at the Cellular Smorgasbord. But guess what? Your friend works in a restaurant, and happened to get a free staff lunch plus some leftovers at the end of the shift.
I spend $12 a month on cellular services because that's all I want to consume. Like your friend, I am happy with a bowl of soup. Maybe some months, I want a little extra, so I'll order a side for $3. But I'm not paying for the buffet, there's no way I want to consume that much.
But for sure, if I am not going to use $55 worth of cellular service or food, I'm not going to pay that much.
Why would anyone pay $50/month to tether? I bought a t-mobile 4G hotspot that gives me 2GB of data for $20/month and I can use it for my iPad, macbook air, iPhone, and iPod Touch. And I get a separate battery so it doesn't drain my phone. Real world download speeds are 8 Mb/sec, which is almost as good as my home DSL line.
Anyone paying ATT for more data than they have to to get the phone is getting screwed.
For all the people griping about Sprint, how many of you have actually tried it yourselves instead of just repeating what you have read on the internet? Now I am not saying that Sprint is perfect, far from it. I also believe the people that have complained about poor speeds or other complaints. But the vast majority off people that are happy with their service don't bother writing about it. You can also hear the same complaints about all carriers.
I use my iPhone 4S a lot since it is used for business and personal use. I average anywhere from 3GB to 10Gb a month in data, around 2,000 texts, and 2,000 talk minutes. My data is fast and consistent and I have no dropped calls. My bill also never changes regardless of my usage and is $50/mo thanks to an older plan I grandfathered into called SERO premium.
Everyone uses their phone differently. So if you don't need unlimited data, or texts, or unlimited calls to mobile phones then you can tailor an AT&T or Verizon plan to suit your needs that may be as cheap if not cheaper than Sprint. But for those cheaper plans you only get a few hundred MB of data. But for people that want pretty much unlimited everything AND have good Sprint service where you live it is a pretty good alternative and a lot cheaper at $79/mo before corporate discounts are applied. Sprint's native network is actually pretty good and getting a lot better with their Network Vision improvements. I have never been throttled even when I went over 15GB a month once while on holiday. Sprint's 3G is slower on average than AT&T but about the same as Verizon and it really won't matter since all 3 carriers are moving to LTE and that will be equalized. But Don't believe that everyong on Sprint suffers from dog slow speeds because that is not the case. I consistently get between 850k to 1.9m.
I can already predict the Sprint sucks, Sprint is slow, Sprint will cancel unlimited data, blah blah....replies to follow. But for me it works well and is the only remaining carrier that allows new customers to have not only unlimited data, but also texts and calls. If you are happy with your carrier, no reason to consider changing, but if you aren't happy, do something about it.
Comments
The thing is more people are going to be using more data services. 300mb is absolutely ludicrous And so is 2 and 3Gs. They need to find a way to open the damned data pipes and quit playing around. The tiers should be 5G, 10G and 30G. 300MB makes me so mad I could punch a baby. Overages should be $1 per gigabyte. They need to get ready and make a way for this to happen.
Sure most people don't use 5G in a month, but I use up 300mb on the way to work. Why are they being so antagonistic about this? Especially after they ganked everyone on text messaging for years.
Money. Greed.
$20 is the price paid by one of my friend in France for unlimited calls, text, MMS and 5G of Internet.
I guess the US is not ready yet for such plan :-) So we have to look for back-up solutions. They do exist.
You have 3 MVNO that are using AT&T network : H2Owireless, Red Pocket and Straight Talk.
Red Pocket is offering a plan including unlimited call, txt and 2GB of data for $59.99/month with no 2 years commitment.
The best solution available is Straight Talk with $45 unlimited call, txt and data. The trick is, you need to buy a Nokia e71 ($49 on their website). Then port your number. Once the SIM is active you can remove it from the Nokia e71 and use it with any GSM phone (android, iPhone...)
Both solution are compatible with AT&T 3G network.
Now when it's time to renew your plan think twice :-)
It is crazy to see how AT&T is increasing its prices.
$20 is the price paid by one of my friend in France for unlimited calls, text, MMS and 5G of Internet.
I guess the US is not ready yet for such plan :-) So we have to look for back-up solutions. They do exist.
You have 3 MVNO that are using AT&T network : H2Owireless, Red Pocket and Straight Talk.
Red Pocket is offering a plan including unlimited call, txt and 2GB of data for $59.99/month with no 2 years commitment.
The best solution available is Straight Talk with $45 unlimited call, txt and data. The trick is, you need to buy a Nokia e71 ($49 on their website). Then port your number. Once the SIM is active you can remove it from the Nokia e71 and use it with any GSM phone (android, iPhone...)
Both solution are compatible with AT&T 3G network.
Now when it's time to renew your plan think twice :-)
I put in bold the part of the plan that makes this ridiculous. I have enough money that saving $5/month* Red Pocket would save me over my AT&T plan** with 2GB data isn't worth all that hassle.
These plans are lower than the MNOs, but they should be because they are MVNOs. You do get less service for a lower cost; that's how they work. Also note that it's $49.99 for all things the same the $59.99 plan except for data which is only 250MB. That mean the higher plan gives you 1.75GB for $10. That's 7x more data than the 250GB plan for only $10... which means they are abusing customers who pay for lower data. Shame, shame¡
* I say $5/month but I noticed it's actually less. Red Pocket charges you per 30 days of service, not month. There are 12 months in the year which at 30 days per month only comes out to 360 days. That leaves 5 days of 17% of a month remaining that Red Pocket gets to charge for each year. You still can save money with Red Pocket but it's something I felt that should be noted since it's not the same plan length as with the MNOs.
** I have thousands of roll over minutes I don't use and completely removed my SMS/MMS a couple months ago in favour of only using iMessages, Email, et al. to communicate. I have no plans to go back to SMS/MMS.
It is crazy to see how AT&T is increasing its prices.
$20 is the price paid by one of my friend in France for unlimited calls, text, MMS and 5G of Internet
Greener grass?
Perhaps. Not, if you know what FUP'ing could mean. http://wiki.maemo.org/Data_plans
CHECK to see when your phone is using data... it may be bullshit or some odd rogue app.
AT&T execs are unable to plan adequately for growth and want to limit CAPEX dollars year after year so that each executive fiefdom meets it's goals and they qualify for bonuses.
So instead of investing well and planning their company's future, the execs are in a mad scramble to get spectrum already built out. Ooops, that fell through. Quick, let's watch the AT&T execs now go and charge more because their "customers using too much data"
The single best thing that could ever happen to the US market is for the FCC to insist that carriers share bandwidth just like the FM broadcasters do. You don't have to go buy a new FM radio to listen to a different network, and you certainly are not limited to just one type of programming. Sheesh. The US market is like buying a cell phone that ONLY get country music broadcast by a single provider.
Single most telling statistic on AT&T's on-the-cheap approach: compare the number of cell sites in Spain vs the number of cell sites in California.
What's the answer to this problem of the high price for data in the U.S.? Is there any way to protest?
Yes,
When your contact ends cancel your service. I would guess it would take about 6 weeks for AT&T to back off. Even if only 10% of their customers did cancel. No chance in hell of this ever happening since most think they will die if they didn't have a cell phone.
I have just received newmodel of T-Mobile HotSpot device (4G) for free. 5GB data for $29.99 with 2-years commitment, but up to 5 WiFI devices.
$20 for 300MB?! Are you kidding? I pay £6 for 500MB, and I thought that was quite expensive by UK standards...
In Australia it's $4 for 700MB or $10 for 2GB.
Most voice plans above $30 have over a GB included.
I can make calls all day long, including Canada and Mexico. I can surf the Internet and text all I want and all this costs me $38/mo. in the US. The only limitation is I have to be in my house. It is called what is referred to as a landline. I could leave the house and do the same thing for about $100 more each month. Someone want to explain how that works. Does it not cost more to string wires all over the place than to put up towers??
I don't even have a landline phone, well I have a number as part of my ADSL plan but I never even bothered plugging a phone in.
All the more reason to leave AT&T when my current contract is up
Or leave the smart phone... My six year old phone that has plastic buttons, sucky menus, dopey UI, wierd options to text and I have to attach a crappy camera module to take fuzzy pictures BUT my rates, scratch that, my reasonable rates haven't changed since day one!
But having no smart phone is just my choice... my priority.
/
/
/
just have email pushed to my phone eats 10-15MBs daily for me, which puts me right up against that 200MB ceiling at the end of a month. that leaves me with what, five to ten minutes of web browsing afterwards?
the 200MB plan is a joke.
I see you don't get it.
(sigh)
The fact of the matter is that there are different levels of consumerism. The cellular carriers have different offerings for different people. So your usage habits don't fit into the smallest plan. Fine, that's why they have different plans for you.
Let's use an analogy.
You and a friend are going to dinner at the Cellular Smorgasbord. You're hungry, so you get the $50 all-you-can-eat buffet. Your friend doesn't have a big appetite and instead orders a bowl of soup, $5.
Now you're a better consumer, at least in the eyes of Cellular Smorgasbord, but you're not better or superior to your friend. You just have a larger appetite, at least when you're dining out at the Cellular Smorgasbord. But guess what? Your friend works in a restaurant, and happened to get a free staff lunch plus some leftovers at the end of the shift.
I spend $12 a month on cellular services because that's all I want to consume. Like your friend, I am happy with a bowl of soup. Maybe some months, I want a little extra, so I'll order a side for $3. But I'm not paying for the buffet, there's no way I want to consume that much.
But for sure, if I am not going to use $55 worth of cellular service or food, I'm not going to pay that much.
And think of the millions of dollars they'd lose monthly if they did that.
That's not renegade, that's stupid, big difference.
Hmmm, you must mean stupid like the wifi only iPad.
That's the iPad that's captured approximately 60% of the sales versus wifi/3G version.
Thank goodness there's strategic thinkers at Apple who think differently.
Try it sometimes, you might find it liberating.
Anyone paying ATT for more data than they have to to get the phone is getting screwed.
I will take advantage of this only if you offer a dataplan that spans 2 more devices.
It is RIDICULOUS to pay for separate dataplans because I have an iPhone and an iPad.
Signed
Very disgruntled AT&T User who will change the minute Verizon offers a device spanning plan
I use my iPhone 4S a lot since it is used for business and personal use. I average anywhere from 3GB to 10Gb a month in data, around 2,000 texts, and 2,000 talk minutes. My data is fast and consistent and I have no dropped calls. My bill also never changes regardless of my usage and is $50/mo thanks to an older plan I grandfathered into called SERO premium.
Everyone uses their phone differently. So if you don't need unlimited data, or texts, or unlimited calls to mobile phones then you can tailor an AT&T or Verizon plan to suit your needs that may be as cheap if not cheaper than Sprint. But for those cheaper plans you only get a few hundred MB of data. But for people that want pretty much unlimited everything AND have good Sprint service where you live it is a pretty good alternative and a lot cheaper at $79/mo before corporate discounts are applied. Sprint's native network is actually pretty good and getting a lot better with their Network Vision improvements. I have never been throttled even when I went over 15GB a month once while on holiday. Sprint's 3G is slower on average than AT&T but about the same as Verizon and it really won't matter since all 3 carriers are moving to LTE and that will be equalized. But Don't believe that everyong on Sprint suffers from dog slow speeds because that is not the case. I consistently get between 850k to 1.9m.
I can already predict the Sprint sucks, Sprint is slow, Sprint will cancel unlimited data, blah blah....replies to follow. But for me it works well and is the only remaining carrier that allows new customers to have not only unlimited data, but also texts and calls. If you are happy with your carrier, no reason to consider changing, but if you aren't happy, do something about it.