Give up my unlimited data plan?

Tofray · Nov 12, 2012

I have an unlimited data plan with two iPhones I pay $160 a month. I just bought a fourth generation iPad with no 3G, and I am regretting not waiting for the 3G.

I'm considering either going to a shared family plan, so that I can use my iPhone to tether to the iPad, or buy a MiFi plan with Sprint or Verizon. The cheapest MiFi plan on sprint is $35 a month, and $50 a month on Verizon.

AT&T said my wife and I average 4 to 5 GB per month. We've never gone past 5 GB in a month, so I'm second-guessing what the advantages are to unlimited data plan, versus tethering my iPhone 5 to my iPad.

Either way I would be spending anywhere from $185-$215 a month. But at least I wouldn't have an additional MiFi contract, and additional hardware.

What do you guys think? Even though I've never gone over 5 GB, I'm afraid we'll regret it.

Small White Car · Nov 12, 2012

You'll have to do the price comparisons and decide if they make sense for you, but I can say that I gave up my unlimited plan and don't regret it. (And I didn't save money by doing that.)

Besides gaining tethering and cellular facetime (which are both nice), here's the main thing: If I ever do hit my limit I'd MUCH rather be charged the extra $15 instead of throttled. It has never happened, even, but if it were to happen I decided that's the outcome I'd prefer.

So when I frame it in those terms the 'unlmited' plan just really doesn't hold a lot of appeal for me anymore.

EDIT: And for the record, my family plan has 4 iPhones on it and we usually use something around 6 GB. Everyone is different, but the fact that you can keep 2 phones under 5 GB doesn't surprise me in the least.

Tofray · Nov 12, 2012

Thanks for the reply. That's exactly what I'm thinking...that being able to tether will be worth giving up the unlimited package. I'm beginning to think that the additional risk of going over (and subsequently paying $10-15 more a GB) is still less than if I bought a Mifi + 2 yr contract. I think it would even be cheaper than if I would have bought the LTE iPad and paid the monthly subscription.

BFizzzle · Nov 12, 2012

Tofray said:
Thanks for the reply. That's exactly what I'm thinking...that being able to tether will be worth giving up the unlimited package. I'm beginning to think that the additional risk of going over (and subsequently paying $10-15 more a GB) is still less than if I bought a Mifi + 2 yr contract. I think it would even be cheaper than if I would have bought the LTE iPad and paid the monthly subscription.

fyi.. you can sell your unlimited data plan to somone on craigslist/ebay.. and get $300-500 dollars.. i got $450 for mine.. they take over the contract.. you keep your phone... then you can take out a new line.. with the unlimited (sell your new phone..for $650 etc or just use it etc)
of course if you didnt want a new contract this wouldn be a good idea.

tl01 · Nov 12, 2012

BFizzzle said:
fyi.. you can sell your unlimited data plan to somone on craigslist/ebay.. and get $300-500 dollars.. i got $450 for mine.. they take over the contract.. you keep your phone... then you can take out a new line.. with the unlimited (sell your new phone..for $650 etc or just use it etc)
of course if you didnt want a new contract this wouldn be a good idea.

Did you lose your phone number when you did that?

BFizzzle · Nov 12, 2012

tl01 said:
Did you lose your phone number when you did that?

oh yeah.. that too LOL
yeah you do.. you can have the buyer change the number.. but theres a cooling off period on numbers.. so you'd have to wait a few months before that number would be active again.

donrsd · Nov 12, 2012

BFizzzle said:
fyi.. you can sell your unlimited data plan to somone on craigslist/ebay.. and get $300-500 dollars.. i got $450 for mine.. they take over the contract.. you keep your phone... then you can take out a new line.. with the unlimited (sell your new phone..for $650 etc or just use it etc)
of course if you didnt want a new contract this wouldn be a good idea.

Thats a good idea!
I have 2 lines on my family plan (my mother is on my plan) and both iPhones have unlimited data

Very interesting

EstaVidaLoca · Nov 12, 2012

I don't bother with craiglist but on Ebay I've seen the same plans listed over and over again for Verizon and AT&T. Apparently nobody is willing to pay $300 to take over another line during the holidays. Business might pick up after Xmas though.

lelisa13p · Nov 12, 2012

I, too, gave up my AT&T Unlimited Data plan 3 weeks after upgrading my iPhone 4 to iPhone 5. My account has two iPhones and we never (in 4 years) exceeded a total of 2 GB/month; wifi is readily available for us most of the time. I switched to Mobile Share plan with shared 4 GB/month because of the ability, should we need it, to tether and to use Face Time without being bound to wifi. We are in different cities so those factors are important. I did save a few $$$.

Applejuiced · Nov 12, 2012

I will never give up my unlimited data plan.

lelisa13p · Nov 12, 2012

Applejuiced said:
I will never give up my unlimited data plan.

I said that, too. And then I analyzed our actual use and our changed needs and realized that for us, it made sense now. YMMV, of course.

ECUpirate44 · Nov 12, 2012

Applejuiced said:
I will never give up my unlimited data plan.

Me too

It's awesome on LTE. Once I can jailbreak, i'll tether all the time. I don't care about Verizon's T&C, we overpay enough as is.

mohsy90 · Nov 12, 2012

I could give up my unlimited plan but I have no idea what the future holds. Who knows how much faster networks are going to get and how much more data phones will consume. I'm not saving any money by going into a shared plan, so i'll stay put for now.

Applejuiced · Nov 12, 2012

ECUpirate44 said:
Me too It's awesome on LTE. Once I can jailbreak, i'll tether all the time. I don't care about Verizon's T&C, we overpay enough as is.

I agree.

lelisa13p said:
I said that, too. And then I analyzed our actual use and our changed needs and realized that for us, it made sense now. YMMV, of course.

Your actual usage or habits might change down the road or at any time.
I rather not pay more to get less and then have to deal with overages or have to chase any line on my account to tell them make sure you dont use any more data cause user 2 used up 2GB so far and now we dont have that much available for the rest of us.
Dont stream any music or videos or you will pay extra.
I can guarantee that my bill will be the same every month no matter how much data will be used. And those that use a lot in one month will have to deal with throttling after 5GB but that still wont cost any extra money.

georgia-svt · Nov 12, 2012

Jailbreak your iphone and buy MYWI or PDANet and use the data your already paying for to tether.
Jeff

RenoG · Nov 12, 2012

georgia-svt said:
Jailbreak your iphone and buy MYWI or PDANet and use the data your already paying for to tether.
Jeff

Are folks still getting threating emails from their carriers doing this? I know I did last year so I shut it down because like others I want to hold onto my unlimited and not be forced off of it because of my MYWI usage..

lelisa13p · Nov 12, 2012

ECUpirate44 · Nov 12, 2012

RenoG said:
Are folks still getting threating emails from their carriers doing this? I know I did last year so I shut it down because like others I want to hold onto my unlimited and not be forced off of it because of my MYWI usage..

Not Verizon.

RenoG · Nov 12, 2012

ECUpirate44 said:
Not Verizon.

Sweet....for you, but not me..

Tofray · Nov 12, 2012

Well, I took the plunge and switched from unlimited to family share at 6GB/mo. After crunching the numbers, I'm saving $45/mo on my plan (15% government rate). Even if I was paying the same rate, tethering to my iPad would be worth it. I also realized that I'll be saving $25 more a month, by not having to pay for the iPad data plan I just cancelled when I upgraded to the 4th gen iPad (Wifi-only) yesterday. It was a tough decision, but saving $70/mo and having the ability to tether to the iPad was well worth it. In reality, I wasn't ever taking advantage of an unlimited plan anyways, since we never went over 5GB combined.

Also, I researched selling my unlimited plan but it was too much of a pain in the arse to deal with, plus I could never give up this number...I've had it for 13 years.

Thanks for all the feedback, everyone!

wknapp0924 · Nov 12, 2012

Tofray said:
Well, I took the plunge and switched from unlimited to family share at 6GB/mo. After crunching the numbers, I'm saving $45/mo on my plan (15% government rate). Even if I was paying the same rate, tethering to my iPad would be worth it. I also realized that I'll be saving $25 more a month, by not having to pay for the iPad data plan I just cancelled when I upgraded to the 4th gen iPad (Wifi-only) yesterday. It was a tough decision, but saving $70/mo and having the ability to tether to the iPad was well worth it. In reality, I wasn't ever taking advantage of an unlimited plan anyways, since we never went over 5GB combined.

Also, I researched selling my unlimited plan but it was too much of a pain in the arse to deal with, plus I could never give up this number...I've had it for 13 years.

Thanks for all the feedback, everyone!

I took the plunge also. My hand hovered for what seemed to be 10 minutes before I clicked to give it up. We just got two Ipad Minis and want to be able to tether when we travel and FaceTime when we want.

One thing they told me on the phone was that the 15% Gov rate only applies to the actual share plan which in our case was 120 for 10gb data. Let me know If they tell you differently. Thanks.

Tofray · Nov 13, 2012

Yes, you are right, it's only 15% of the share plan, which was $90 for me. After adding up all the savings though, another $12 was just a bonus!

And after my first night of tethering, I'm finally over the doubts...It's been pretty cool being able to quickly tether my iPad, and I'm actually surprised at the LTE tethering speeds. Very happy...and the shakes have gone away

pooleman · Nov 13, 2012

Tofray said:
Yes, you are right, it's only 15% of the share plan/QUOTE]

So as a government employee I can't get the 15% discount on a single line? I have the unlimited plan with AT&T but have been considering switching to a different plan so I can tether to my iPad mini.

wknapp0924 · Nov 13, 2012

pooleman said:
Tofray said:

Yes, you are right, it's only 15% of the share plan/QUOTE]

So as a government employee I can't get the 15% discount on a single line? I have the unlimited plan with AT&T but have been considering switching to a different plan so I can tether to my iPad mini.

Click to expand...

[/I]

I dont see why not. I had the 15% off our unlimited plans and now 15% off our shared plan. It is only off the plan, and not off the device. If you have a single line plan it would only be off the Voice part of plan and not the data.

----------

Tofray said:

Yes, you are right, it's only 15% of the share plan, which was $90 for me. After adding up all the savings though, another $12 was just a bonus!

And after my first night of tethering, I'm finally over the doubts...It's been pretty cool being able to quickly tether my iPad, and I'm actually surprised at the LTE tethering speeds. Very happy...and the shakes have gone away

Click to expand...

Yea, tell me about it. We went to the beach this weekend and it was awesome to keep my iphone 5 in the beach bag and just tether it to the ipad so I could browse the web or read my book. I dont think my family back in the cold on the mainland appreciate my new found freedom, because they didn't like when I faceTimed them haha. I am over unlimited data and feel much better about it.

SolRayz · Nov 13, 2012

My wife and I will never give up our unlimited plans. We have had them since the first gen iPhone and we will have it until AT$T forcefully stops our service or go elsewhere.

Never really bought into AT$T's bs, like many did, about network abuse, bandwidth hogs, blah blah blah. And why do I care, not my problem, AT$T's problem. I pay for data with a great plan they intially offered. Why would I want anything less. Then screwing us with throttling speeds, disabled Apple features, facetime, tethering. AT$T has lost any shred of decency it may have had. These overpriced tiered and shared plans are a total SCAM and violations of net neutrality.

If AT$T is good for something, it's scamming the end user with less service for higher cost.

Give up my unlimited data plan?

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