AT&T's Aio Wireless Prepaid Brand to Roll Out Nationwide in September

MacRumors · Aug 30, 2013

AT&T has announced that its prepaid cellular service Aio Wireless will begin offering service nationwide starting in mid-September, with service plans running between $40 and $70 per month and including unlimited talk, text, and data with 4G LTE.

Customers who sign up for service in an Aio Wireless retail store or on the brand's website by September 29 will also receive an additional month of service at no additional cost. The service will offer a catalog of mobile phones and tablets from makers including Apple's iPhone, and will allow customers to bring in devices to activate on the network.

Aio makes wireless easy with a friendly in-store and online experience and three simple plans to choose from. All three plans include unlimited talk, text, and data--with a pre-established amount of high-speed access, including 4G LTE. Plans range from $40 to $70 per month, with taxes and fees included.

Aio Wireless originally launched operations in Houston, Orlando and Tampa this past May, and expanded to several other cities in the following months. The launch of the service has been one of a number of changes made by AT&T in the past few months, including the rollout of a new smartphone upgrade program.

Article Link: AT&T's Aio Wireless Prepaid Brand to Roll Out Nationwide in September

levl289 · Aug 30, 2013

Confirmed via online chat - no tethering is permitted. OTOH, they do offer visual voicemail (StraightTalk doesn't for example). In comparison, T-Mobile offers 2.5GB for $60, but also has a family plan with every add'l phone for $20 more. In addition, T-Mobile does tethering. If you're ok with their coverage (TMO's), and I'm still trying to figure out if I am, TMO is a better deal. If you want to check out the aio plans, enter "32856" as your zip code on their site.

talmy · Aug 30, 2013

levl289 said:
If you're ok with their coverage (TMO's), and I'm still trying to figure out if I am, TMO is a better deal.

I'm in the same boat. T-Mobile's data here is pretty spotty. And I rarely use the phone service so "unlimited" means nothing to me and the TMO $30 plan would be ideal. But the big win with prepaid is you can try it out and if it doesn't work, switch, being out only the small SIM+activation fee.

Captfatface · Aug 30, 2013

No tethering = deal breaker.

xmaseve · Aug 30, 2013

One BIG issue I have with AIO is that you only get service from AT&T Towers. They DO NOT have roaming agreements set up with other carriers.

topmounter · Aug 30, 2013

Did they rebrand Gophone?

If not how is this different?

Chupa Chupa · Aug 30, 2013

xmaseve said:
One BIG issue I have with AIO is that you only get service from AT&T Towers. They DO NOT have roaming agreements set up with other carriers.

But that is true with every pre-paid service. It's not meant for adventurers, and not marketed in areas where there is no service available. It's for people that live in an offered area and don't leave it often or only visit other areas with service. That's how they keep the monthly cost down. If you need true coast to coast service then post paid is still the only route.

levl289 · Aug 30, 2013

xmaseve said:
One BIG issue I have with AIO is that you only get service from AT&T Towers. They DO NOT have roaming agreements set up with other carriers.

AT&T has towers all over the country, with pretty much complete coverage. I'm not sure which provider you'd roam to. This isn't the analog wireless days, nor is AT&T a 2nd tier provider needing to use Verizon's towers (like Sprint iirc). Out of the country on the other hand, and you just setup international roaming, or put in a foreign SIM card.

Chupa Chupa · Aug 30, 2013

topmounter said:
Did they rebrand Gophone?

If not how is this different?

Biggest difference is that AIO is only 4G and I believe speed is throttled at 4Mbps whereas GoPhone is LTE and speed is not capped.

It looks like ATT is just trying to build separate products for each demographic vs having one-size fits all. But it does get confusing.

xmaseve · Aug 30, 2013

levl289 said:
AT&T has towers all over the country, with pretty much complete coverage. I'm not sure which provider you'd roam to. This isn't the analog wireless days, nor is AT&T a 2nd tier provider needing to use Verizon's towers (like Sprint iirc). Out of the country on the other hand, and you just setup international roaming, or put in a foreign SIM card.

I agree they have good coverage but take a state like Nebraska. AT&T has virtually no coverage there...only partner coverage. Also, Wisconsin has a large amount of partner coverage as well.

mikeheenan · Aug 30, 2013

So I wonder if now they'll be redoing their grandfathered unlimited plans which currently only offer 5gb of data before throttling.

Metatron · Aug 30, 2013

xmaseve said:
One BIG issue I have with AIO is that you only get service from AT&T Towers. They DO NOT have roaming agreements set up with other carriers.

I have been using AIO for two months. I live in Texas and travel often. I just took a road trip to DC and had LTE/4g everywhere except some deep mountains valleys. I did byod with my iPhone 5 with the 40 plan. Minus tethering, AIO is as good as it gets. I have blown past my 250 MB limit with no noticeable effect. I still got full speeds, which with AIO is limited to 8 Mbps.

With my corporate discount, I was paying 76 a month with AT&T w/ unlimited data, 1000 messages, and 500 min. talk. Cancelled my contract and went to t-mobile with a corporate discount @ 42 a month with unlimited everything, high speed data throttled at 500 MB. T-mobile service was to spotty for my travels and I went hunting for another provider. Found AIO two weeks into their new business and loving it. My whole family is switching.

levl289 · Aug 30, 2013

xmaseve said:
I agree they have good coverage but take a state like Montana. AT&T has virtually no coverage there...only partner coverage. Also, Wisconsin has a large amount of partner coverage as well.

Zoinks, clearly I live in a bubble here in Southern California. Never even thought AT&T did roaming in the US anymore. My mistake.

xmaseve · Aug 30, 2013

Chupa Chupa said:
Biggest difference is that AIO is only 4G and I believe speed is throttled at 4Mbps whereas GoPhone is LTE and speed is not capped.

It looks like ATT is just trying to build separate products for each demographic vs having one-size fits all. But it does get confusing.

AIO does have LTE with a max speed of 8Mbps, but you are correct that 4G has a max of 4Mbps.

----------

levl289 said:
Zoinks, clearly I live in a bubble here in Southern California. Never even thought AT&T did roaming in the US anymore. My mistake.

LOL. It surprised me too on my last trip to Minnesota. I found out that its doesn't always show that you're roaming on the iPhone display when in fact you really are.

Oops, I meant to say Nebraska, not Montana. I need more coffee

BruiserB · Aug 30, 2013

I have the Tmobile $30 prepaid plan and when I was in Great Falls, Montana and some places around Grand Rapids, Michigan I roamed on AT&T so there is roaming. But it was voice only...data didn't work.

Chupa Chupa · Aug 30, 2013

xmaseve said:
AIO does have LTE with a max speed of 8Mbps, but you are correct that 4G has a max of 4Mbps.

Thanks for clarification. Now the lines between AIO and GoPhone really are blurred for me.

xmaseve · Aug 30, 2013

Metatron said:
I have been using AIO for two months. I live in Texas and travel often. I just took a road trip to DC and had LTE/4g everywhere except some deep mountains valleys. I did byod with my iPhone 5 with the 40 plan. Minus tethering, AIO is as good as it gets. I have blown past my 250 MB limit with no noticeable effect. I still got full speeds, which with AIO is limited to 8 Mbps.

With my corporate discount, I was paying 76 a month with AT&T w/ unlimited data, 1000 messages, and 500 min. talk. Cancelled my contract and went to t-mobile with a corporate discount @ 42 a month with unlimited everything, high speed data throttled at 500 MB. T-mobile service was to spotty for my travels and I went hunting for another provider. Found AIO two weeks into their new business and loving it. My whole family is switching.

That's interesting. Maybe I should give them a try and see how it is. Makes it easy with an unlocked iPhone

Alfuh · Aug 30, 2013

Does anyone who has Aio know if when you are done with your LTE / 4G monthly allotment do you get 3G speeds or are we talking EDGE?

It would be worth the extra $10 per month to get LTE and visual voicemail, but if that drops to a crawl after hitting 2GB (which is rarely) it wouldn't be as worth it ...

xmaseve · Aug 30, 2013

Alfuh said:
Does anyone who has Aio know if when you are done with your LTE / 4G monthly allotment do you get 3G speeds or are we talking EDGE?

It would be worth the extra $10 per month to get LTE and visual voicemail, but if that drops to a crawl after hitting 2GB (which is rarely) it wouldn't be as worth it ...

They told me 256kbps...so Edge speeds

Alfuh · Aug 30, 2013

xmaseve said:
They told me 256kbps...so Edge speeds

Thanks for the answer and ... damn!

mcalict · Aug 30, 2013

Perspective is important. I'm on Sprint, in a virtual dead-zone, at my house. I literally have to sit near a front or back window or calls drop. I rely on WiFi for data at home as 3G data is around 256kb Edge speeds, at best. Even after they finish their Network Vision upgrades I doubt coverage will improve at my house. I've only stayed because of my legacy $50 SERO plan.

So if I could switch and get truly usable 4Mb 4G/3G for similar money, with a fallback to Edge, that's a win for me. I just need a new phone. And testing my friends AT&T iPhone at my house proved better coverage and data speeds (4G and LTE).

Bring it!

PsyOpWarlord · Aug 30, 2013

xmaseve said:
It surprised me too on my last trip to Minnesota. I found out that its doesn't always show that you're roaming on the iPhone display when in fact you really are.

If you call AT&T customer service, you can request them add a free feature called 4EON to your account. When you have that added to your account the phone will show when your roaming instead of showing you the AT&T symbol.

It's a handy feature for those that travel a lot.

xmaseve · Aug 30, 2013

PsyOpWarlord said:
If you call AT&T customer service, you can request them add a free feature called 4EON to your account. When you have that added to your account the phone will show when your roaming instead of showing you the AT&T symbol.

It's a handy feature for those that travel a lot.

Interesting...thanks for the info. That works with the iPhone as well?

Metatron · Aug 30, 2013

xmaseve said:
They told me 256kbps...so Edge speeds

I have not been throttled to date...but it will happen at some point. Just remember, when your phone was on edge, you never got 256 Kbps. You would have been lucky to see 150 Kbps. LTE throttled for people @ 256 Kbps will not notice issues with email, iMessage, and basic web browsing. YouTube may be a problem :-/

HangmanSwingset · Aug 30, 2013

Has anyone mentioned how AT&T is making Aio look like a cheap T-Mobile clone? Even down to subtle word choice and the magenta coloring? For that I feel it's a terrible move for AT&T, since the lawsuit DT opened against them over how the 'Magenta' color choice is a trademark they hold.
So in short, this just tells me more money and possibly spectrum for T-Mobile.

AT&T's Aio Wireless Prepaid Brand to Roll Out Nationwide in September

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