AT&T will always be one of these former monopolies that's really bad for consumers - I don't think they will ever change. God forbid you even try to see how much a plan would cost you on AT&T. I've tried and you have to enter in your phone number for porting and so on and even then you can't get the price lists for family plans and whatnot. With T-Mo they are very upfront about cost and you can actually read and understand the bills. We used to be with AT&T and the ONLY thing I missed was coverage, which is not even an issue for an urban person 99.9% of the time. We don't miss paying $100 a month and dealing with trying to read the bills and fixing billing issues. And with streaming free music on T-Mo, you can't go wrong. I really like them.
Yup, instead of developing innovations that their customers might happily pay for (a la Apple) they focus instead on customer-hostile tactics for getting more money from customers while minimizing their operational costs. Don't forget their idea of innovation used to be charging customers for ring tones and pay as you go driving directions. Textbook definition of an industry that's ripe for disruption.
I doubt this will happen. AT&T's sales in Apple stores would drop like a stone, especially if Verizon didn't respond in-kind. And if it does happen, expect it to revert back quickly after it backfires.
AT&T's retail sucks. I'm grandfathered into an unlimited data plan with AT&T and when I was considering buying the iPhone6 long after my previous 2-year contract with AT&T was up, the AT&T sales reps gave me a really hard time and told me that I was no longer eligible for that plan. Any plan they suggested would have substantially increased my cost and I found the plans largely illogical and indecipherable. When I tried to explain to the rep why a given plan didn't make sense to me, they replied with gibberish. They might have made some sense for families with multiple devices, but they made no sense for me.
I walked into an Apple store and they said, "no problem" and I got EXACTLY the same AT&T plan for the iPhone 6 that I've had since my first iPhone. I was in and out in about ten minutes. Bravo Apple.
That grandfathering is such a scam. You have a 5GB plan, WITH THROTTLING. You're clinging onto a worthless plan with a worthless company. Don't believe me? Try going over 5GB in a month and see what happens. Hello throttling, good bye data. Ditch AT&T and go T-Mobile. You'll save tons of money and won't patronize a business run by thieves.
Yup, instead of developing innovations that their customers might happily pay for (a la Apple) they focus instead on customer-hostile tactics for g]etting more money from customers while minimizing their operational costs. Don't forget their idea of innovation used to be charging customers for ring tones and pay as you go driving directions. Textbook definition of an industry that's ripe for disruption.
It's been disrupted a few times already, and this is their response. You can't keep taking revenue streams away, and expect them not to fight back.
It's been disrupted a few times already, and this is their response. You can't keep taking revenue streams away, and expect them not to fight back.
Taking revenue streams away? Revenue streams must be earned, not demanded. Also they're "fighting back" against competitors by attacking their own customers.
AT&T is a dumb pipe and should be priced accordingly. If they want to increase their revenues they should come up with something their customers will actually want to pay for.
And if their business is so mature (i.e., stagnant) and their company so lacking in talent that this is not possible, then perhaps wireless service should be made into a public service.
In my case, I'm on a grandfathered unlimited data plan with a 22% discount. With the unlimited data plan, the discount applies to the entire bill. If I switched to a share plan, only the data portion would be discounted as such what I'm paying now is basically the same as what I'd pay if I switched to a Mobile Share with the $15 savings a month.
For me AT&T Next makes absolutely no sense since I'd be paying hundreds of dollars more over a 2 year period. The only downsides are I can't get a new phone every year (though I can sell my phone when I get a new one) and I can't tether.
We don't want to trade in our old phones at the end of the contract. Every two years when we upgrade our iPhones, AT&T has always unlocked our off contract phones so we can use them with a local SIM when we travel internationally. I wouldn't mind buying the phones outright but the monthly fee is the same regardless. We have five devices on AT&T at the moment. This news sucks.
I wish that would change. I would prefer to pay for the phone outright, but have a cheaper monthly plan versus a 2 year contract plan. There is no incentive for buying a phone full price since the plan won't cost any different.
This is the same reason that I bought my (and my wife's) iPhone 4s and my (and my wife's) iPhone 6 directly from an Apple store. We both have an unlimited data plan which puts us at around $150 per month.
I had some friends that were in the same situation, who upgraded their phone from the AT&T store, and were told that they had to change their plan, so they lost their unlimited plan.
So, I think AT&T is trying to do this for multiple reasons, and getting rid of all of us that were grandfathered into the unlimited plans is just another reason.
I think their new system is confusing and only benefits them. If I read it correctly, I can either pay $200 for the mid-grade phone, and then pay an extra $40 per month for 2 years, or I pay the full price of the phone, and then pay $15 per month.
My wife and I average more than 10GB of data per month, so I'm not even sure what plan I would get that would get us what we need.
I thought about getting an iphone for my son, but know that they would put me into a different family data plan for that which would upset the whole apple cart, so I will just need to wait until I am ready to get him an iphone, and then switch carriers, I guess.
That grandfathering is such a scam. You have a 5GB plan, WITH THROTTLING. You're clinging onto a worthless plan with a worthless company. Don't believe me? Try going over 5GB in a month and see what happens. Hello throttling, good bye data. Ditch AT&T and go T-Mobile. You'll save tons of money and won't patronize a business run by thieves.
I don't watch all that much video on my phone, so throttling is not an issue. I would switch to T-Mobile or Credo, but I'm concerned about coverage. I know that with T-Mobile, for example, I probably would not receive any coverage at my daughter's house in upstate NY.
It's been disrupted a few times already, and this is their response. You can't keep taking revenue streams away, and expect them not to fight back.
Taking revenue streams away? Revenue streams must be earned, not demanded. Also they're "fighting back" against competitors by attacking their own customers.
AT&T is a dumb pipe and should be priced accordingly. If they want to increase their revenues they should come up with something their customers will actually want to pay for.
And if their business is so mature (i.e., stagnant) and their company so lacking in talent that this is not possible, then perhaps wireless service should be made into a public service.
It's not the competition that's taken away their revenue streams. It's been the manufacters, and the users.
The pipes might be dumb, but they're expensive to install, and maintain. Funny how everyone ridicules manufacters because they're in a race to the bottom, but that's exactly what the MVNOs, and T-Mobile are doing for service.
That grandfathering is such a scam. You have a 5GB plan, WITH THROTTLING. You're clinging onto a worthless plan with a worthless company. Don't believe me? Try going over 5GB in a month and see what happens. Hello throttling, good bye data. Ditch AT&T and go T-Mobile. You'll save tons of money and won't patronize a business run by thieves.
AT&T recently stopped automatically throttling at 5 GB, except in cases of network congestion. So the unlimited plan truly is unlimited again. The only thing you can't do with the grandfathered plan is tether.
Combined with my 23% FAN discount, my cell phone bill before taxes and fees is $53.89. That's for unlimited data. Yes I don't get unlimited calling and texts, but I never exceed my voice allowance per month and nearly everyone I know has an iPhone so I don't pay for texting anyway.
I looked at the cheapest comparable Mobile Share plan from AT&T which is the 3 GB plan, which comes to $55.80 with my FAN discount and that's only if I use buy my next phone with AT&T Next or outright. I didn't look at T-Mobile, but their network isn't as good as AT&T's. I know this because I have their free 200 MB plan on an iPad.
Another great thing about T-Mo is no shared data. You can't share data with a teenager. Add in 2 teenagers and you will have no data.
I like that on T-Mo we each have 2.5 GB, then throttled. So still data, but slow after 2.5.
Some of us don't need a lot of data all of the time. We do all of our downloading of podcasts and so on at home on wifi. The rest of the day when we are out and about, we have free (on T-Mo) streaming music and we have the occasional website or map search.
Funny how everyone ridicules manufacters because they're in a race to the bottom, but that's exactly what the MVNOs, and T-Mobile are doing for service.
From everything I've read and heard from acquaintances, T-Mobile seems to be doing a pretty good job of beefing up their network and providing good service while offering simplified plans at reduced pricing. AT&T has the advantage because of the size of their network given how long they've been around, but their attitude towards their customers is deplorable for a company supposedly in the premium tier of their industry.
Apple charges higher prices for their products, but their products are worth it and they treat their customers like royalty. AT&T, not so much.
Now if there is only a way I can find out how to add another line with data, without losing my unlimited, I would be happy enough to stay. But if this policy goes into affect, then I days with AT&T are numbered until I want/need the next iphone. I've had one with them since 08-08-2008, but all things must end eventually.
<span style="line-height:1.4em;">Funny how everyone ridicules manufacters because they're in a race to the bottom, but that's exactly what the MVNOs, and T-Mobile are doing for service.</span>
From everything I've read and heard from acquaintances, T-Mobile seems to be doing a pretty good job of beefing up their network and providing good service while offering simplified plans at reduced pricing. AT&T has the advantage because of the size of their network given how long they've been around, but their attitude towards their customers is deplorable for a company supposedly in the premium tier of their industry.
Apple charges higher prices for their products, but their products are worth it and they treat their customers like royalty. AT&T, not so much.
For me, when it comes to service, good enough ain't good enough. T-Mobile has been around long enough, and for them to just now start beefing up their service is a joke.
Hummm,,, how can we shoot ourselves in the foot a little more?!?! How stupid is this!! Oh well, I haven't been with ATT for years, went with Verizon, a much better network much more coverage especially if you travel much.. If you live in one of the major cities and don't travel much, check the coverage maps and maybe one of the smaller network providers will work for you, and save yourself some money too. ATT must really be in a pompous fit to do something like this!
Comments
AT&T will always be one of these former monopolies that's really bad for consumers - I don't think they will ever change. God forbid you even try to see how much a plan would cost you on AT&T. I've tried and you have to enter in your phone number for porting and so on and even then you can't get the price lists for family plans and whatnot. With T-Mo they are very upfront about cost and you can actually read and understand the bills. We used to be with AT&T and the ONLY thing I missed was coverage, which is not even an issue for an urban person 99.9% of the time. We don't miss paying $100 a month and dealing with trying to read the bills and fixing billing issues. And with streaming free music on T-Mo, you can't go wrong. I really like them.
Yup, instead of developing innovations that their customers might happily pay for (a la Apple) they focus instead on customer-hostile tactics for getting more money from customers while minimizing their operational costs. Don't forget their idea of innovation used to be charging customers for ring tones and pay as you go driving directions. Textbook definition of an industry that's ripe for disruption.
I doubt this will happen. AT&T's sales in Apple stores would drop like a stone, especially if Verizon didn't respond in-kind. And if it does happen, expect it to revert back quickly after it backfires.
AT&T's retail sucks. I'm grandfathered into an unlimited data plan with AT&T and when I was considering buying the iPhone6 long after my previous 2-year contract with AT&T was up, the AT&T sales reps gave me a really hard time and told me that I was no longer eligible for that plan. Any plan they suggested would have substantially increased my cost and I found the plans largely illogical and indecipherable. When I tried to explain to the rep why a given plan didn't make sense to me, they replied with gibberish. They might have made some sense for families with multiple devices, but they made no sense for me.
I walked into an Apple store and they said, "no problem" and I got EXACTLY the same AT&T plan for the iPhone 6 that I've had since my first iPhone. I was in and out in about ten minutes. Bravo Apple.
That grandfathering is such a scam. You have a 5GB plan, WITH THROTTLING. You're clinging onto a worthless plan with a worthless company. Don't believe me? Try going over 5GB in a month and see what happens. Hello throttling, good bye data. Ditch AT&T and go T-Mobile. You'll save tons of money and won't patronize a business run by thieves.
It's been disrupted a few times already, and this is their response. You can't keep taking revenue streams away, and expect them not to fight back.
It's been disrupted a few times already, and this is their response. You can't keep taking revenue streams away, and expect them not to fight back.
Taking revenue streams away? Revenue streams must be earned, not demanded. Also they're "fighting back" against competitors by attacking their own customers.
AT&T is a dumb pipe and should be priced accordingly. If they want to increase their revenues they should come up with something their customers will actually want to pay for.
And if their business is so mature (i.e., stagnant) and their company so lacking in talent that this is not possible, then perhaps wireless service should be made into a public service.
In my case, I'm on a grandfathered unlimited data plan with a 22% discount. With the unlimited data plan, the discount applies to the entire bill. If I switched to a share plan, only the data portion would be discounted as such what I'm paying now is basically the same as what I'd pay if I switched to a Mobile Share with the $15 savings a month.
For me AT&T Next makes absolutely no sense since I'd be paying hundreds of dollars more over a 2 year period. The only downsides are I can't get a new phone every year (though I can sell my phone when I get a new one) and I can't tether.
We don't want to trade in our old phones at the end of the contract. Every two years when we upgrade our iPhones, AT&T has always unlocked our off contract phones so we can use them with a local SIM when we travel internationally. I wouldn't mind buying the phones outright but the monthly fee is the same regardless. We have five devices on AT&T at the moment. This news sucks.
I wish that would change. I would prefer to pay for the phone outright, but have a cheaper monthly plan versus a 2 year contract plan. There is no incentive for buying a phone full price since the plan won't cost any different.
This is the same reason that I bought my (and my wife's) iPhone 4s and my (and my wife's) iPhone 6 directly from an Apple store. We both have an unlimited data plan which puts us at around $150 per month.
I had some friends that were in the same situation, who upgraded their phone from the AT&T store, and were told that they had to change their plan, so they lost their unlimited plan.
So, I think AT&T is trying to do this for multiple reasons, and getting rid of all of us that were grandfathered into the unlimited plans is just another reason.
I think their new system is confusing and only benefits them. If I read it correctly, I can either pay $200 for the mid-grade phone, and then pay an extra $40 per month for 2 years, or I pay the full price of the phone, and then pay $15 per month.
My wife and I average more than 10GB of data per month, so I'm not even sure what plan I would get that would get us what we need.
I thought about getting an iphone for my son, but know that they would put me into a different family data plan for that which would upset the whole apple cart, so I will just need to wait until I am ready to get him an iphone, and then switch carriers, I guess.
That grandfathering is such a scam. You have a 5GB plan, WITH THROTTLING. You're clinging onto a worthless plan with a worthless company. Don't believe me? Try going over 5GB in a month and see what happens. Hello throttling, good bye data. Ditch AT&T and go T-Mobile. You'll save tons of money and won't patronize a business run by thieves.
I don't watch all that much video on my phone, so throttling is not an issue. I would switch to T-Mobile or Credo, but I'm concerned about coverage. I know that with T-Mobile, for example, I probably would not receive any coverage at my daughter's house in upstate NY.
It's not the competition that's taken away their revenue streams. It's been the manufacters, and the users.
The pipes might be dumb, but they're expensive to install, and maintain. Funny how everyone ridicules manufacters because they're in a race to the bottom, but that's exactly what the MVNOs, and T-Mobile are doing for service.
That grandfathering is such a scam. You have a 5GB plan, WITH THROTTLING. You're clinging onto a worthless plan with a worthless company. Don't believe me? Try going over 5GB in a month and see what happens. Hello throttling, good bye data. Ditch AT&T and go T-Mobile. You'll save tons of money and won't patronize a business run by thieves.
AT&T recently stopped automatically throttling at 5 GB, except in cases of network congestion. So the unlimited plan truly is unlimited again. The only thing you can't do with the grandfathered plan is tether.
Combined with my 23% FAN discount, my cell phone bill before taxes and fees is $53.89. That's for unlimited data. Yes I don't get unlimited calling and texts, but I never exceed my voice allowance per month and nearly everyone I know has an iPhone so I don't pay for texting anyway.
I looked at the cheapest comparable Mobile Share plan from AT&T which is the 3 GB plan, which comes to $55.80 with my FAN discount and that's only if I use buy my next phone with AT&T Next or outright. I didn't look at T-Mobile, but their network isn't as good as AT&T's. I know this because I have their free 200 MB plan on an iPad.
Another great thing about T-Mo is no shared data. You can't share data with a teenager. Add in 2 teenagers and you will have no data.
I like that on T-Mo we each have 2.5 GB, then throttled. So still data, but slow after 2.5.
Some of us don't need a lot of data all of the time. We do all of our downloading of podcasts and so on at home on wifi. The rest of the day when we are out and about, we have free (on T-Mo) streaming music and we have the occasional website or map search.
Funny how everyone ridicules manufacters because they're in a race to the bottom, but that's exactly what the MVNOs, and T-Mobile are doing for service.
From everything I've read and heard from acquaintances, T-Mobile seems to be doing a pretty good job of beefing up their network and providing good service while offering simplified plans at reduced pricing. AT&T has the advantage because of the size of their network given how long they've been around, but their attitude towards their customers is deplorable for a company supposedly in the premium tier of their industry.
Apple charges higher prices for their products, but their products are worth it and they treat their customers like royalty. AT&T, not so much.
Now if there is only a way I can find out how to add another line with data, without losing my unlimited, I would be happy enough to stay. But if this policy goes into affect, then I days with AT&T are numbered until I want/need the next iphone. I've had one with them since 08-08-2008, but all things must end eventually.
For me, when it comes to service, good enough ain't good enough. T-Mobile has been around long enough, and for them to just now start beefing up their service is a joke.
Bye bye AT&T, hello Verizon!