Unlimited Data? NO WAY!
And to sign up for this offer, most likely you'll need to give up your unlimited data too...
Gary
And to sign up for this offer, most likely you'll need to give up your unlimited data too...
Gary
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AT&T's Plans for Shared Data Packages Firming Up
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With a family plan AT&T can be similar price. I am not going to compare your tethering because you are probably violating your terms of service, whether StraightTalk is checking or not.
Family plan 2000 voice minutes with rollover: $99
4 extra lines at $10 each: $40
Unlimited text (also gets us unlimited voice minutes to ANY mobile): $30
3GB data plan at $30 each: $150
Monthly cost: $320
2 years service: $7,680
iPhone 4s: $199 * 5 = $955
Total for 5 phones: $8,675
2 year price per line: $1,735
This is pretty much what my actual family plan looks like except our data plans are 2 GB, 2 GB, 300 MB, Unlimited, and 4 GB w/ tethering for a total of $145 monthly for our data plans. With unlimited mobile to mobile we never use many of our minutes, we currently have 11,000+ rollover minutes, so that is practically unlimited voice.
Not everyone can get the ideal 5 people on one plan, but the per line cost is pretty much the same as your StraightTalk example.
I strongly suspect the pricing and feature will be identical to DataPro 5GB Personal plan. Share 5GB across family for $50/month, with hotspot capability thrown in. And pay $10 for each additional GB.
This price would be identical to having DataPro (3GB) and DataPlus (300MB) features, but you get more bandwidth shared across two or more iPhones, with option to use Hotspot.
This price would be identical to having DataPro (3GB) and DataPlus (300MB) features, but you get more bandwidth shared across two or more iPhones, with option to use Hotspot.
I like this idea, it's simply and save money (depends on you I guess). I'm lucky, I have 4 VZW phone lines that is grandfather into the unlimited data plan right now. However, looking at our data usage over the last 6 months, the most we have ever got close to was the 4Gb (about 200mb under). But it is also currently running me $120+tax for the 4 lines. Now, I have the iPhone and use it mostly for email, social networking, web surfing, and very rarely Skype with people overseas. I personally average about 400-500mb per month, over 6 months period. That means if we adopt the penny/mb plan, I'd be paying about 4-5 dollars a month and I think that is a lot better than paying $30 monthly. Even for the most heavy user in my plan, about 1.5Gb per month, that will still run me $15 vs. $30 dollars. So I'd say the penny/mb plan would certainly benefit a certain group of people.
I think the analogy is like going to a buffet. Most people are full after about the second or third plate, they simply won't and don't want to eat more. But the idea of knowing that you can have what you want and how much you want plays a funny thing with your brain. I for one would gladly give up my unlimited plan to adopt this one, if I can save close to $80 a month (assume I use 4Gb on average). But again, I do agree with most people here, that these companies are not out to help us they are out to get us...
This is how it is with Bell. I have 3 iphones and paying the same price for 5 gb of data. I think about $65 each. They are a shared plan but all that means is that if I go over the 5gb in a month I can use either the data from my wife or daughters' iphone plan. No savings but up to 15 gb of data a month.
Times change & things change. It's just a fact. Some people embrace change without getting emotional and enraged. Others? Well perhaps owning a smartphone is not for you.
I've enjoyed stellar service from AT&T and nearly equal service from Verizon. I thoroughly enjoy my iPhones. The cost to operate them is simply a part of smartphone ownership.
If you can't afford it, that's not the carriers problem. Nor has crying about it, ever solved anything.
This moment of honesty, brought to you by one happy iPhone owner
I've enjoyed stellar service from AT&T and nearly equal service from Verizon. I thoroughly enjoy my iPhones. The cost to operate them is simply a part of smartphone ownership.
If you can't afford it, that's not the carriers problem. Nor has crying about it, ever solved anything.
This moment of honesty, brought to you by one happy iPhone owner
Or they can charge you what they are now and still make money. Businesses are in the business to make money first, not to help customers or create a better world. Don't forget that.
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And people need to remember that these smartphones (iPhones) are still just beta. The Nokia Lumia is out now.
I am paying $100/mo now for data (2x30+25+15) There is no way way AT&T is going to cut my data bill in half. Even to get rid of 2 unlimited data plans.
More likely you will get one 400mb plan for what you're paying now for two 200mb plans. But they'll tell you you're coming out ahead because you can share the mb's between the two of you.
While this is technically true, it's not going to be some huge windfall for people. That's probably what's taking them so long to figure out; how to make it look like we're "getting something," with minimal impact to their revenue...
Canada Rocks!
And on the down side we have 3 year plans for fully subsidized phones.
However, data sharing and tethering are included, no charge with Rogers (for sure), Bell and Telus (I think). And have been for over a year. When the iPad first came out I was like "no way I'm paying an extra $150 for the 3G capability just to pay my carrier extra every month for a data plan. By the time iPad 2 came out, the big 3 up here were all offerening data sharing and tethering for free.
I have watched a hockey game on my iMac, when my internet/cable was out, buy plugging my iPhone into the computer. It was only a tiny bit laggy.
EDIT: probably 6 of one, half dozen of the other...
And on the down side we have 3 year plans for fully subsidized phones.
However, data sharing and tethering are included, no charge with Rogers (for sure), Bell and Telus (I think). And have been for over a year. When the iPad first came out I was like "no way I'm paying an extra $150 for the 3G capability just to pay my carrier extra every month for a data plan. By the time iPad 2 came out, the big 3 up here were all offerening data sharing and tethering for free.
I have watched a hockey game on my iMac, when my internet/cable was out, buy plugging my iPhone into the computer. It was only a tiny bit laggy.
EDIT: probably 6 of one, half dozen of the other...
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good excuse for a price hike
good excuse for a price hike seeing how they like to hide things the will make it as hard to understand as possible
good excuse for a price hike seeing how they like to hide things the will make it as hard to understand as possible
I agree with your statement of having to pick on what is best for you in the areas you are in the most. Although, the part where you refer to one tower in the downtown area and hint at this being a marketing gimmick that only Verizon is capable of doing seems flawed. I do not doubt that AT&T has not tried the same marketing gimmick. One bigger one that is somewhat irritating to me is the fact that my iphone 4s HSPA+ has a 4G on the top left hand corner. Is it faster than Verizon's 3G...yes. But to state it being 4G is in my opinion false advertising.
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I agree with choosing what works in your area, but with LTE being the next thing it seems stupid to stick with a company (once the new phones come out) that is years behind Verizon with regards to their LTE rollout. I'm stuck with AT&T and have not really had problems with them, but as a customer I will not stick with a company simply because they have been nice. I will leave them for being unpleasant (yes i know this is a double standard..but let's face it, you're paying for the service). Either way, the first rule of choosing what works in your area is a smart one, but once technology changes you have to re-evaluate. For now AT&T has my business, but in a couple of years when it's time to upgrade to LTE, I seriously doubt they will have the best option in my area.
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Best point yet...I do love my watchespn app...even though they disabled airplay to apple tv recently.
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I agree with choosing what works in your area, but with LTE being the next thing it seems stupid to stick with a company (once the new phones come out) that is years behind Verizon with regards to their LTE rollout. I'm stuck with AT&T and have not really had problems with them, but as a customer I will not stick with a company simply because they have been nice. I will leave them for being unpleasant (yes i know this is a double standard..but let's face it, you're paying for the service). Either way, the first rule of choosing what works in your area is a smart one, but once technology changes you have to re-evaluate. For now AT&T has my business, but in a couple of years when it's time to upgrade to LTE, I seriously doubt they will have the best option in my area.
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Best point yet...I do love my watchespn app...even though they disabled airplay to apple tv recently.
There's no way any power user will save money. Right now I'm paying $50 for 5GB and tethering and $30 for my wife's 2GB. I see the pricing going something like this:
$50 for 5GB for up to 2 devices
$60 for 5GB for up to 3 devices
$80 for 8GB for up to 3 devices
$90 for 8GB for up to 4 devices
$100 for 10GB for up to 5 devices
Plus $20 and 2GB for each device you want Personal Hotspot/Tethering on.
Plus $10 for each additional 1GB overage.
This stays in line with their $10/GB pricing scheme.
So don't think you're gonna sign up a family of 5 for 5GB for $50. They'll have a maximum number of devices you can have sharing a certain amount of data and the lowest will be 2 but I'm thinking possibly 3 sharing 5GB but that's pushing it. If they let 3 devices share 5GB it'll be $60. There's no way they're losing money on this. They'll make more off of Power Users and less off the couples or 3 phone families.
$50 for 5GB for up to 2 devices
$60 for 5GB for up to 3 devices
$80 for 8GB for up to 3 devices
$90 for 8GB for up to 4 devices
$100 for 10GB for up to 5 devices
Plus $20 and 2GB for each device you want Personal Hotspot/Tethering on.
Plus $10 for each additional 1GB overage.
This stays in line with their $10/GB pricing scheme.
So don't think you're gonna sign up a family of 5 for 5GB for $50. They'll have a maximum number of devices you can have sharing a certain amount of data and the lowest will be 2 but I'm thinking possibly 3 sharing 5GB but that's pushing it. If they let 3 devices share 5GB it'll be $60. There's no way they're losing money on this. They'll make more off of Power Users and less off the couples or 3 phone families.
Let's pretend that we work for ATT and...
the CEO of ATT has asked us to come up with the Shared Data Plan feature that will...
1. Show a carrot to customers and make them feel that the plan is good
2. Make more money to ATT on Data than the current structure.
3. Has better future growth in revenue than the current plan.
Okay not let's see what we can do.
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Let's start...
Usually the goal of such companies is, give customers more even though they don't need it and use it and charge them more i.e. force them to buy something that they don't need and don't leave any option where they can purchase the same product for cheap.
the CEO of ATT has asked us to come up with the Shared Data Plan feature that will...
1. Show a carrot to customers and make them feel that the plan is good
2. Make more money to ATT on Data than the current structure.
3. Has better future growth in revenue than the current plan.
Okay not let's see what we can do.
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Let's start...
Usually the goal of such companies is, give customers more even though they don't need it and use it and charge them more i.e. force them to buy something that they don't need and don't leave any option where they can purchase the same product for cheap.
There probably will be usually $10 per line surcharge (with second line possibly free), but I don't think the plan will be significantly differently priced than DataPro Personal.
The goal is to attract more customers adding data feature to their plan, while still making enough revenue and profit to balance out subscribers that will be saving money.
I was wondering why no one seemed to get that this wasn't just about saving money for existing customers. Right now, my wife and I would love to both have iPhones. What holds us back is the data cost. I have a 3G iPad 2, which I sometimes purchase data for, but I buy the 250MB package. There's just no way that, even if we both had iPhones and put my iPad onto our account, we would ever exceed 2 GB in a month altogether, let alone individually. Wifi is just too ubiquitous to need data that much. But, if they allowed us to get a 2GB plan that could be shared, we could probably justify the cost.
Thus, while they might be giving some customers a price break by allowing them to have shared data, they'd also be gaining new (data) customers like me and my wife. So, of course it's a balancing act. If there's effectively no price break with a shared plan, then there's no motivation for new customers (like me and my wife) to sign up. Thus there is, in essence, lost revenue.
tido2012 said:
See rule 1, 2 and 3.
It does not matter if LTE is coming for Verizon. If Verizon service is not as good as AT&T where you live then what makes you think it will get better with LTE.
As for LTE and AT&T. Sorry not a reason for me yet again. AT&T LTE is faster than Verizon and I was in one of the first cities (Houston) AT&T turned it on in. Future improvements get turned on here first as well. So As I pointed out I followed 3 basic rules and where I live and spend my tim.
Never count on "promises" from any of the companies. Verizon for example "promised" to be in Lubbock in 6 months at one point to keep my family on them. That 6 months turned into 4 years and even then it was crap at best. Mind you we left them after as our contracts start coming up.
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That is exactly what popped into my head when I read that quote. Anything that guy is comfortable with isn't good for consumers. Shared plans usually equate to less service for just a bit more money for the privilege of "sharing" it.
see roll over data and family plan might push me over the edge to give up my unlimited since my data usage and my families data usage has huge swings in it. Some months it is fairly low other months it is very high.
Same here, depends on how much a travel for work. When I was traveling a lot I almost always went over 2 gigs. Now it's rare, I am hoping the family plans are attractive, if not I'd love for a rollover option.
Um, dude. I didn't say any of what you quoted. I request you correct your attribution because frankly the quote was kind of stupid.
I believe this is the correct post.
Edit: Thanks for the quote fix.
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This is not appealing to carriers for two reasons:
(1) Wall Street - Wall Street likes to see smooth predictable results. If you went to pay per use, carriers could not forecast future results as easily and there could be huge swings in stock price as a result of down quarters and up quarters.
(2) Network capacity- Carriers like to know that the customers will stick to whatever their limit is and rarely go over that. If you let customers vary their usage, you are less likely to predict when they may decide to spike their usage. The current tiered model probably helps them predict a little more accurately how much capacity is needed in various locations.