I'm definitely not one of them but thanks for the info.
It behooves T not to end their unlimited plans as we are the base that built them. We will leave in droves and they know it. I am not afraid.
We are one.
At some point it'll likely end but I think you have at least a few more years.
I bet the vast majority of commenters on AI know pretty well how much data they use each month.
...but don't seem to understand how the 'Grandfathered "unlimited"' plan works or why they think it's so important to hold on to. Once you use 3gb of data in a billing cycle, your speed is throttled to the point of being unusable. At least with the new plans, you have an option to pay extra for additional data use.
Currently it works out in my favor to keep my three iPhones (and one feature phone) on a legacy family plan. Once we add a couple of new iPad Minis, I'll probably move them all to a mobile share plan. It will be cheaper (not by much) and will allow for more data use (plus tethering).
I'm not arguing that it's not gouging all around, I'm just saying that these so-called unlimited plans we're grandfathered to (yes, two of the iPhones on my family plan have them) aren't really anything to be so excited about.
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.
I am almost certain that most months I could save money using shared data. Right now I have four iPhones on my plan,two of them still have unlimited (initially all did, but two weren't using it so I lowered them, and of course I am now paying the old price with a cap on their data). My son, who is now in college has downloaded as much as 9 gigs in a month, and now that LTE is faster than the wifi at his school, I'm sure he won't be letting up. If they end it, then we will find a way to live with it, but until then, I can download that!
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.
300mb?! 300 megabytes! I can fart that much in a day. Where the hell did that come up with such a stupid number? Automobile manufacturers with their 36 Month or 36,000 mile warranties?
...but don't seem to understand how the 'Grandfathered "unlimited"' plan works or why they think it's so important to hold on to. Once you use 3gb of data in a billing cycle, your speed is throttled to the point of being unusable. At least with the new plans, you have an option to pay extra for additional data use.
Currently it works out in my favor to keep my three iPhones (and one feature phone) on a legacy family plan. Once we add a couple of new iPad Minis, I'll probably move them all to a mobile share plan. It will be cheaper (not by much) and will allow for more data use (plus tethering).
I'm not arguing that it's not gouging all around, I'm just saying that these so-called unlimited plans we're grandfathered to (yes, two of the iPhones on my family plan have them) aren't really anything to be so excited about.
Firstly- It's never been proven that everyone gets throttled. You all must be data hogs if you get throttled and need mobile share plans for iPad Mini's too with the amount of Wifi out there.
Secondly- If you have a consistent bill every month without any slowdown- that a great thing.
I am almost certain that most months I could save money using shared data. Right now I have four iPhones on my plan,two of them still have unlimited (initially all did, but two weren't using it so I lowered them, and of course I am now paying the old price with a cap on their data). My son, who is now in college has downloaded as much as 9 gigs in a month, and now that LTE is faster than the wifi at his school, I'm sure he won't be letting up. If they end it, then we will find a way to live with it, but until then, I can download that!
9g in a month? Isn't he getting throttled? One of our phones hit 3gb a few months ago and we got a text message saying that if it happened again, we'd get throttled...
He did get throttled once in the last year. Before that though, I'd check the data and I've seen him do 9 and 7 gigs in a month. When he got the 5 and it was choosing LTE over wifi, he downloaded half of the internet that month too.
Firstly- It's never been proven that everyone gets throttled. You all must be data hogs if you get throttled and need mobile share plans for iPad Mini's too with the amount of Wifi out there.
Secondly- If you have a consistent bill every month without any slowdown- that a great thing.
If I'm misinformed, then I stand corrected. I thought it had been reported that people were getting throttled for going over that hidden 3gb 'cap' and so I assumed it was everyone. And as I mentioned in my last post, we got hit with a warning and assumed we'd also get throttled if it happened again. If it's not really happening, then I'll not worry about it so much
As for the iPads, I've got a wifi-only Mini and we've also got a 3G-enabled iPad 2 in the house that had service for awhile but we turned it off because it was hard to justify. I just know when the new Minis come out, we'll get them both LTE-enabled and I figure we'll switch to a mobile share for the flexibility of having data available wherever. You're right though, most of the time I don't miss not having it on my Mini. I download the newspaper before I leave the house and any books and magazines I want to have when traveling. And I have a PlexPass for downloading video content for offline viewing. I just figure it'd be nice to have sometimes.
Thank god I am grandfathered into their unlimited data plan now LTE. Looks like I'm stuck with T for life!
I used to be "grandfathered" into "unlimited" when AT&T decided that "unlimited" to them meant 2GB, after which they throttled to "dial-up speeds" (in practice, so slow that you couldn't even get your email or browse simple pages without timeouts).
I started looking into alternatives. I'm now with MetroPCS and I pay a lot less for 2 lines of FULL UNLIMITED LTE SERVICE (yes, talk, SMS and DATA) than I paid for a single line with AT&T (for 1400 minutes talk, 200 SMS and 2GB data). Oh, and not a single dropped call in 3 months, compared to 3 dropped calls per day with AT&T. I'm so glad AT&T pushed me away with their throttling. I would have never realized how much they were ripping me off. Screw them. I will never, ever do business with this bunch of lousy rip-off artists again. Losers.
I used to be "grandfathered" into "unlimited" when AT&T decided that "unlimited" to them meant 2GB, after which they throttled to "dial-up speeds" (in practice, so slow that you couldn't even get your email or browse simple pages without timeouts).
I started looking into alternatives. I'm now with MetroPCS and I pay a lot less for 2 lines of FULL UNLIMITED LTE SERVICE (yes, talk, SMS and DATA) than I paid for a single line with AT&T (for 1400 minutes talk, 200 SMS and 2GB data). Oh, and not a single dropped call in 3 months, compared to 3 dropped calls per day with AT&T. I'm so glad AT&T pushed me away with their throttling. I would have never realized how much they were ripping me off. Screw them. I will never, ever do business with this bunch of lousy rip-off artists again. Losers.
Does it not work out to cost about the same though because you're buying phones off-contract and paying full price? I'm looking at their plans and it looks like it's honestly about the same price. If I take the three iPhones on my plan now, I'm paying about $195. MetroPCS would charge $135 (for their 2.5gb data plan). Over a two-year contract that saves $480 per line. But I'd pay about that much more to buy a phone off-contract.
If I wanted unlimited data, my savings would go down to $240 per line so it would actually cost more over the two-year contract period. The only upshot would be unlimited everything. Since my first smartphone, the most data I've ever used in a month is 1.8gb. I'm on a 1400 minute plan, but never use that many and have nearly 6000 minutes banked.
Lastly, MetroPCS doesn't appear to offer data-only plans, so if I add any tablets or laptop cards I'm out of luck.
I'm not trying to defend AT&T's high prices, I'm just saying I'm not seeing how it costs "a lot less" to go with a reseller.
Firstly- It's never been proven that everyone gets throttled. You all must be data hogs if you get throttled and need mobile share plans for iPad Mini's too with the amount of Wifi out there.
Secondly- If you have a consistent bill every month without any slowdown- that a great thing.
Exactly. I was on ATT since about 1997, it switched to Cingular, and then went back to ATT. Since my iPhone 3G, I think, I've had unlimited data. I use over 3GB per month consistently-usually 3-5. I don't recall at all being throttled. I have friends also with unlimited that report no throttling despite using 5 or even 10 GBs per month. I'm sure throttling happens.
In my case, I have a $103.00 per month bill for unlimited data, unlimited voice, and unlimited text. My company discount lowers my bill by almost 20%, so that helps. Anyway, I like having a regular bill and have no need to download movies and music on cellular; I just download over wifi. What I do know is that I WILL be hot with an overage bill if I were not on unlimited.
My wife is on Sprint and I could switch to her plan to save about $20 bucks, but I'd rather not-still waiting to hear more about their network speed and coverage. We both have iPhone 4Ss and her data speeds are godawful.
Does it not work out to cost about the same though because you're buying phones off-contract and paying full price? I'm looking at their plans and it looks like it's honestly about the same price. If I take the three iPhones on my plan now, I'm paying about $195. MetroPCS would charge $135 (for their 2.5gb data plan). Over a two-year contract that saves $480 per line. But I'd pay about that much more to buy a phone off-contract.
If I wanted unlimited data, my savings would go down to $240 per line so it would actually cost more over the two-year contract period. The only upshot would be unlimited everything. Since my first smartphone, the most data I've ever used in a month is 1.8gb. I'm on a 1400 minute plan, but never use that many and have nearly 6000 minutes banked.
Lastly, MetroPCS doesn't appear to offer data-only plans, so if I add any tablets or laptop cards I'm out of luck.
I'm not trying to defend AT&T's high prices, I'm just saying I'm not seeing how it costs "a lot less" to go with a reseller.
I don't know about MetroPCS, but with Straight Talk, you pay $45 per month for unlimited text, voice calls and data (although the data can allegedly be throttled if you're a big user, but I've never noticed that). So your three phones would be $135 per month - or $60 less than you're paying. Over 2 years, that's $1440 per line - easily enough to buy a phone off contract and pocket quite a bit. Plus, you'd have unlimited data whereas your AT&T plan doesn't appear to be unlimited.
My contract is up on Monday and I just got off the phone with AT&T. I use just a fraction of my minutes and data and I've accumulated 4100 rollover minutes, so I'm only looking to lower my monthly fee. The rep did her search and could not come up with anything like T Mobile's $50 unlimited talk, texts and 500 mb of data. AT$T is going to be in a world of hurt if they don't reinvent themselves. Now I'm looking forward to porting my number on Monday.
I don't know about MetroPCS, but with Straight Talk, you pay $45 per month for unlimited text, voice calls and data (although the data can allegedly be throttled if you're a big user, but I've never noticed that). So your three phones would be $135 per month - or $60 less than you're paying. Over 2 years, that's $1440 per line - easily enough to buy a phone off contract and pocket quite a bit. Plus, you'd have unlimited data whereas your AT&T plan doesn't appear to be unlimited.
So, yes, it can make sense to use the resellers.
Unless my math is off, it's $1440 for the account, $480 per line. I think that's still more than the difference (or close to it) in cost between a contract and off-contract phone. And you're right - it comes with unlimited data. Not as huge a savings as the original message (or yours) implied, but still it's a savings and true unlimited data.
And I guess it has the additional benefit of not requiring a contract. Sounds like a win-win
Does it not work out to cost about the same though because you're buying phones off-contract and paying full price? I'm looking at their plans and it looks like it's honestly about the same price. If I take the three iPhones on my plan now, I'm paying about $195. MetroPCS would charge $135 (for their 2.5gb data plan). Over a two-year contract that saves $480 per line. But I'd pay about that much more to buy a phone off-contract.
If I wanted unlimited data, my savings would go down to $240 per line so it would actually cost more over the two-year contract period. The only upshot would be unlimited everything. Since my first smartphone, the most data I've ever used in a month is 1.8gb. I'm on a 1400 minute plan, but never use that many and have nearly 6000 minutes banked.
Lastly, MetroPCS doesn't appear to offer data-only plans, so if I add any tablets or laptop cards I'm out of luck.
I'm not trying to defend AT&T's high prices, I'm just saying I'm not seeing how it costs "a lot less" to go with a reseller.
The upfront cost is higher, but you quickly make up for the subsidy. Essentially AT&T gives you $450 (the 16GB iPhone 5s is $200 with them instead of $650 unlocked) in exchange for a 2 year commitment. That's wonderful, until you realize that you're going to pay at least $50 more per month. Over the course of 2 years, that's $1200 more. In other words, by going with Metro you break even after 9 months, and after that you start saving. And I'm not even factoring in the overages, fees, and other pleasantries AT&T keeps coming up with to rip you off.
Oh, also Metro usually runs promotions. I got a $50 cash card for signing up with a new line and another $50 to transfer an existing number from another operator, which means my breakeven point is at 7 months. Buy a used phone off Craigslist or unlock your existing phone and you could be saving right away.
But somehow, lots of people balk at paying $600 up front -- they prefer getting slowly bled by the AT&T vampires.
My contract is up on Monday and I just got off the phone with AT&T. I use just a fraction of my minutes and data and I've accumulated 4100 rollover minutes, so I'm only looking to lower my monthly fee. The rep did her search and could not come up with anything like T Mobile's $50 unlimited talk, texts and 500 mb of data. AT$T is going to be in a world of hurt if they don't reinvent themselves. Now I'm looking forward to porting my number on Monday.
Part of the reason I'm not switching to a mobile share is because I still have a feature phone on the account under contract. My Mom uses is about three times a year when she drives from California to Seattle. The rest of the time it sits in a drawer. Moving from a family plan to a shared data plan would up that phone from $10/month to $30/month. Just dumb. In November that phone is off contract. It looks like I can sign her up for a pre-paid account on T-Mobile for $10 for 30 minutes when she travels and save a bunch of cash.
I was on StraightTalk and switched to Metro. StraightTalk is $45/month + tax, Metro is $40/month including tax, and they give you extra discounts for family plan (4 lines all unlimited = $100 including tax).
The benefit of StraightTalk is that you can choose which network you want (AT&T or T-Mo) when you buy the SIM card; if you have an iPhone 4S or earlier, StraightTalk on AT&T is your best option. If you have an iPhone 5c, or an AT&T iPhone 5 with the right serial number for T-Mo (google it), MetroPCS is the best choice (assuming T-mo has good coverage in your area)
The upfront cost is higher, but you quickly make up for the subsidy. Essentially AT&T gives you $450 (the 16GB iPhone 5s is $200 with them instead of $650 unlocked) in exchange for a 2 year commitment. That's wonderful, until you realize that you're going to pay at least $50 more per month. Over the course of 2 years, that's $1200 more. In other words, by going with Metro you break even after 9 months, and after that you start saving. And I'm not even factoring in the overages, fees, and other pleasantries AT&T keeps coming up with to rip you off.
Oh, also Metro usually runs promotions. I got a $50 cash card for signing up with a new line and another $50 to transfer an existing number from another operator, which means my breakeven point is at 7 months. Buy a used phone off Craigslist or unlock your existing phone and you could be saving right away.
But somehow, lots of people balk at paying $600 up front -- they prefer getting slowly bled by the AT&T vampires.
I think what makes me more frustrated (and all the major carriers do this) is that that subsidy is allegedly built-in to the monthly service charge. Over the two-year contract, you pay off that subsidy (and as you noted, and then some...). I kept my iPhone 4 for a year extra after the contract was over, yet I still paid that same monthly charge. The carriers should lower the monthly service charge after the contract is up in an attempt to retain their customers!
The thing I don't get with these shared data plans is that the baselines all include unlimited voice minutes. If you go with prepaid or individual plans, the providers will typically list pricing tiers based on the number of talk minutes. They provide the option for unlimited talk, but also less expensive options with fewer minutes.
Before I finally went over to a smartphone, I had an AT&T GoPhone plan. $25 for 90 days with $0.10/minute and $0.20/text. I rarely used up my allotment within that three-month time frame. Unlimited talk is something that I do not want or need, yet AT&T (as well as Verizon and Sprint) are trying to maneuver the customers into these bundled plans. With a smartphone plan, I want data and not much else.
After looking over all these options, I wound up on T-Mobile's $30 prepaid plan for my iPhone 5s. It provides 100 voice minutes and unlimited text and data, which is exactly what I wanted. Even though going prepaid requires that I pay the full cost for the phone up front, there overall costs are substantially lower across the board. For example, the T-Mobile plan only charges $0.10/minute if you go over the voice allotment.
Also, even though T-Mobile does not have true "unlimited" data because it limits the 4G data and throttles down to 2G afterwards, the $30 plan still provides a monthly allowance of 5 GB of 4G data. And this is on an individual $30 plan. My understanding of AT&T's plans is that once you exceed the monthly data allotment, they will charge for each additional bloc of data.
Comments
At some point it'll likely end but I think you have at least a few more years.
I bet the vast majority of commenters on AI know pretty well how much data they use each month.
...but don't seem to understand how the 'Grandfathered "unlimited"' plan works or why they think it's so important to hold on to. Once you use 3gb of data in a billing cycle, your speed is throttled to the point of being unusable. At least with the new plans, you have an option to pay extra for additional data use.
Currently it works out in my favor to keep my three iPhones (and one feature phone) on a legacy family plan. Once we add a couple of new iPad Minis, I'll probably move them all to a mobile share plan. It will be cheaper (not by much) and will allow for more data use (plus tethering).
I'm not arguing that it's not gouging all around, I'm just saying that these so-called unlimited plans we're grandfathered to (yes, two of the iPhones on my family plan have them) aren't really anything to be so excited about.
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.
I am almost certain that most months I could save money using shared data. Right now I have four iPhones on my plan,two of them still have unlimited (initially all did, but two weren't using it so I lowered them, and of course I am now paying the old price with a cap on their data). My son, who is now in college has downloaded as much as 9 gigs in a month, and now that LTE is faster than the wifi at his school, I'm sure he won't be letting up. If they end it, then we will find a way to live with it, but until then, I can download that!
300mb?! 300 megabytes! I can fart that much in a day. Where the hell did that come up with such a stupid number? Automobile manufacturers with their 36 Month or 36,000 mile warranties?
Firstly- It's never been proven that everyone gets throttled. You all must be data hogs if you get throttled and need mobile share plans for iPad Mini's too with the amount of Wifi out there.
Secondly- If you have a consistent bill every month without any slowdown- that a great thing.
I am almost certain that most months I could save money using shared data. Right now I have four iPhones on my plan,two of them still have unlimited (initially all did, but two weren't using it so I lowered them, and of course I am now paying the old price with a cap on their data). My son, who is now in college has downloaded as much as 9 gigs in a month, and now that LTE is faster than the wifi at his school, I'm sure he won't be letting up. If they end it, then we will find a way to live with it, but until then, I can download that!
9g in a month? Isn't he getting throttled? One of our phones hit 3gb a few months ago and we got a text message saying that if it happened again, we'd get throttled...
He did get throttled once in the last year. Before that though, I'd check the data and I've seen him do 9 and 7 gigs in a month. When he got the 5 and it was choosing LTE over wifi, he downloaded half of the internet that month too.
Firstly- It's never been proven that everyone gets throttled. You all must be data hogs if you get throttled and need mobile share plans for iPad Mini's too with the amount of Wifi out there.
Secondly- If you have a consistent bill every month without any slowdown- that a great thing.
If I'm misinformed, then I stand corrected. I thought it had been reported that people were getting throttled for going over that hidden 3gb 'cap' and so I assumed it was everyone. And as I mentioned in my last post, we got hit with a warning and assumed we'd also get throttled if it happened again. If it's not really happening, then I'll not worry about it so much
As for the iPads, I've got a wifi-only Mini and we've also got a 3G-enabled iPad 2 in the house that had service for awhile but we turned it off because it was hard to justify. I just know when the new Minis come out, we'll get them both LTE-enabled and I figure we'll switch to a mobile share for the flexibility of having data available wherever. You're right though, most of the time I don't miss not having it on my Mini. I download the newspaper before I leave the house and any books and magazines I want to have when traveling. And I have a PlexPass for downloading video content for offline viewing. I just figure it'd be nice to have sometimes.
Thank god I am grandfathered into their unlimited data plan now LTE. Looks like I'm stuck with T for life!
I used to be "grandfathered" into "unlimited" when AT&T decided that "unlimited" to them meant 2GB, after which they throttled to "dial-up speeds" (in practice, so slow that you couldn't even get your email or browse simple pages without timeouts).
I started looking into alternatives. I'm now with MetroPCS and I pay a lot less for 2 lines of FULL UNLIMITED LTE SERVICE (yes, talk, SMS and DATA) than I paid for a single line with AT&T (for 1400 minutes talk, 200 SMS and 2GB data). Oh, and not a single dropped call in 3 months, compared to 3 dropped calls per day with AT&T. I'm so glad AT&T pushed me away with their throttling. I would have never realized how much they were ripping me off. Screw them. I will never, ever do business with this bunch of lousy rip-off artists again. Losers.
I used to be "grandfathered" into "unlimited" when AT&T decided that "unlimited" to them meant 2GB, after which they throttled to "dial-up speeds" (in practice, so slow that you couldn't even get your email or browse simple pages without timeouts).
I started looking into alternatives. I'm now with MetroPCS and I pay a lot less for 2 lines of FULL UNLIMITED LTE SERVICE (yes, talk, SMS and DATA) than I paid for a single line with AT&T (for 1400 minutes talk, 200 SMS and 2GB data). Oh, and not a single dropped call in 3 months, compared to 3 dropped calls per day with AT&T. I'm so glad AT&T pushed me away with their throttling. I would have never realized how much they were ripping me off. Screw them. I will never, ever do business with this bunch of lousy rip-off artists again. Losers.
Does it not work out to cost about the same though because you're buying phones off-contract and paying full price? I'm looking at their plans and it looks like it's honestly about the same price. If I take the three iPhones on my plan now, I'm paying about $195. MetroPCS would charge $135 (for their 2.5gb data plan). Over a two-year contract that saves $480 per line. But I'd pay about that much more to buy a phone off-contract.
If I wanted unlimited data, my savings would go down to $240 per line so it would actually cost more over the two-year contract period. The only upshot would be unlimited everything. Since my first smartphone, the most data I've ever used in a month is 1.8gb. I'm on a 1400 minute plan, but never use that many and have nearly 6000 minutes banked.
Lastly, MetroPCS doesn't appear to offer data-only plans, so if I add any tablets or laptop cards I'm out of luck.
I'm not trying to defend AT&T's high prices, I'm just saying I'm not seeing how it costs "a lot less" to go with a reseller.
Firstly- It's never been proven that everyone gets throttled. You all must be data hogs if you get throttled and need mobile share plans for iPad Mini's too with the amount of Wifi out there.
Secondly- If you have a consistent bill every month without any slowdown- that a great thing.
Exactly. I was on ATT since about 1997, it switched to Cingular, and then went back to ATT. Since my iPhone 3G, I think, I've had unlimited data. I use over 3GB per month consistently-usually 3-5. I don't recall at all being throttled. I have friends also with unlimited that report no throttling despite using 5 or even 10 GBs per month. I'm sure throttling happens.
In my case, I have a $103.00 per month bill for unlimited data, unlimited voice, and unlimited text. My company discount lowers my bill by almost 20%, so that helps. Anyway, I like having a regular bill and have no need to download movies and music on cellular; I just download over wifi. What I do know is that I WILL be hot with an overage bill if I were not on unlimited.
My wife is on Sprint and I could switch to her plan to save about $20 bucks, but I'd rather not-still waiting to hear more about their network speed and coverage. We both have iPhone 4Ss and her data speeds are godawful.
I don't know about MetroPCS, but with Straight Talk, you pay $45 per month for unlimited text, voice calls and data (although the data can allegedly be throttled if you're a big user, but I've never noticed that). So your three phones would be $135 per month - or $60 less than you're paying. Over 2 years, that's $1440 per line - easily enough to buy a phone off contract and pocket quite a bit. Plus, you'd have unlimited data whereas your AT&T plan doesn't appear to be unlimited.
So, yes, it can make sense to use the resellers.
I don't know about MetroPCS, but with Straight Talk, you pay $45 per month for unlimited text, voice calls and data (although the data can allegedly be throttled if you're a big user, but I've never noticed that). So your three phones would be $135 per month - or $60 less than you're paying. Over 2 years, that's $1440 per line - easily enough to buy a phone off contract and pocket quite a bit. Plus, you'd have unlimited data whereas your AT&T plan doesn't appear to be unlimited.
So, yes, it can make sense to use the resellers.
Unless my math is off, it's $1440 for the account, $480 per line. I think that's still more than the difference (or close to it) in cost between a contract and off-contract phone. And you're right - it comes with unlimited data. Not as huge a savings as the original message (or yours) implied, but still it's a savings and true unlimited data.
And I guess it has the additional benefit of not requiring a contract. Sounds like a win-win
Does it not work out to cost about the same though because you're buying phones off-contract and paying full price? I'm looking at their plans and it looks like it's honestly about the same price. If I take the three iPhones on my plan now, I'm paying about $195. MetroPCS would charge $135 (for their 2.5gb data plan). Over a two-year contract that saves $480 per line. But I'd pay about that much more to buy a phone off-contract.
If I wanted unlimited data, my savings would go down to $240 per line so it would actually cost more over the two-year contract period. The only upshot would be unlimited everything. Since my first smartphone, the most data I've ever used in a month is 1.8gb. I'm on a 1400 minute plan, but never use that many and have nearly 6000 minutes banked.
Lastly, MetroPCS doesn't appear to offer data-only plans, so if I add any tablets or laptop cards I'm out of luck.
I'm not trying to defend AT&T's high prices, I'm just saying I'm not seeing how it costs "a lot less" to go with a reseller.
The upfront cost is higher, but you quickly make up for the subsidy. Essentially AT&T gives you $450 (the 16GB iPhone 5s is $200 with them instead of $650 unlocked) in exchange for a 2 year commitment. That's wonderful, until you realize that you're going to pay at least $50 more per month. Over the course of 2 years, that's $1200 more. In other words, by going with Metro you break even after 9 months, and after that you start saving. And I'm not even factoring in the overages, fees, and other pleasantries AT&T keeps coming up with to rip you off.
Oh, also Metro usually runs promotions. I got a $50 cash card for signing up with a new line and another $50 to transfer an existing number from another operator, which means my breakeven point is at 7 months. Buy a used phone off Craigslist or unlock your existing phone and you could be saving right away.
But somehow, lots of people balk at paying $600 up front -- they prefer getting slowly bled by the AT&T vampires.
My contract is up on Monday and I just got off the phone with AT&T. I use just a fraction of my minutes and data and I've accumulated 4100 rollover minutes, so I'm only looking to lower my monthly fee. The rep did her search and could not come up with anything like T Mobile's $50 unlimited talk, texts and 500 mb of data. AT$T is going to be in a world of hurt if they don't reinvent themselves. Now I'm looking forward to porting my number on Monday.
Part of the reason I'm not switching to a mobile share is because I still have a feature phone on the account under contract. My Mom uses is about three times a year when she drives from California to Seattle. The rest of the time it sits in a drawer. Moving from a family plan to a shared data plan would up that phone from $10/month to $30/month. Just dumb. In November that phone is off contract. It looks like I can sign her up for a pre-paid account on T-Mobile for $10 for 30 minutes when she travels and save a bunch of cash.
I was on StraightTalk and switched to Metro. StraightTalk is $45/month + tax, Metro is $40/month including tax, and they give you extra discounts for family plan (4 lines all unlimited = $100 including tax).
The benefit of StraightTalk is that you can choose which network you want (AT&T or T-Mo) when you buy the SIM card; if you have an iPhone 4S or earlier, StraightTalk on AT&T is your best option. If you have an iPhone 5c, or an AT&T iPhone 5 with the right serial number for T-Mo (google it), MetroPCS is the best choice (assuming T-mo has good coverage in your area)
The upfront cost is higher, but you quickly make up for the subsidy. Essentially AT&T gives you $450 (the 16GB iPhone 5s is $200 with them instead of $650 unlocked) in exchange for a 2 year commitment. That's wonderful, until you realize that you're going to pay at least $50 more per month. Over the course of 2 years, that's $1200 more. In other words, by going with Metro you break even after 9 months, and after that you start saving. And I'm not even factoring in the overages, fees, and other pleasantries AT&T keeps coming up with to rip you off.
Oh, also Metro usually runs promotions. I got a $50 cash card for signing up with a new line and another $50 to transfer an existing number from another operator, which means my breakeven point is at 7 months. Buy a used phone off Craigslist or unlock your existing phone and you could be saving right away.
But somehow, lots of people balk at paying $600 up front -- they prefer getting slowly bled by the AT&T vampires.
I think what makes me more frustrated (and all the major carriers do this) is that that subsidy is allegedly built-in to the monthly service charge. Over the two-year contract, you pay off that subsidy (and as you noted, and then some...). I kept my iPhone 4 for a year extra after the contract was over, yet I still paid that same monthly charge. The carriers should lower the monthly service charge after the contract is up in an attempt to retain their customers!
The thing I don't get with these shared data plans is that the baselines all include unlimited voice minutes. If you go with prepaid or individual plans, the providers will typically list pricing tiers based on the number of talk minutes. They provide the option for unlimited talk, but also less expensive options with fewer minutes.
Before I finally went over to a smartphone, I had an AT&T GoPhone plan. $25 for 90 days with $0.10/minute and $0.20/text. I rarely used up my allotment within that three-month time frame. Unlimited talk is something that I do not want or need, yet AT&T (as well as Verizon and Sprint) are trying to maneuver the customers into these bundled plans. With a smartphone plan, I want data and not much else.
After looking over all these options, I wound up on T-Mobile's $30 prepaid plan for my iPhone 5s. It provides 100 voice minutes and unlimited text and data, which is exactly what I wanted. Even though going prepaid requires that I pay the full cost for the phone up front, there overall costs are substantially lower across the board. For example, the T-Mobile plan only charges $0.10/minute if you go over the voice allotment.
Also, even though T-Mobile does not have true "unlimited" data because it limits the 4G data and throttles down to 2G afterwards, the $30 plan still provides a monthly allowance of 5 GB of 4G data. And this is on an individual $30 plan. My understanding of AT&T's plans is that once you exceed the monthly data allotment, they will charge for each additional bloc of data.