AT&T to Begin Offering Shared Data Plans in Late August

Service discounts

I wonder how the service discounts will play in here. I know right now you don't get discounts on the messaging, just the actual minute plan and data plans (22%). I doubt the 22% discount will still apply to the whole bill, maybe just the plan you choose, or the devices added, but surely not both. Will have to wait and see

This is just bs. I was planning on going to att for a 3 phone family plan. So that would cost me $70 for 4gb of data for all 3 phones which is garbage plus $120 for all three phones? So $210 plus fees and taxes would be what like $240ish?

alm99 said:

Ah, now it makes sense.....way to go AT&T....

Click to expand...

The nice thing is though, for $5/mo more, you'll be able to nearly double your data.

Something no one seems to be talking about is now ATT is your only option (besides Sprint) if you need 15 or 20GB.

So at first they complain they can't support all these heavy usage users, but as it turns out they can... just so long as you pay out the a$$ for it.

so $10 more per month for about the same service...
I'd go to unlimited voice (big whoop as I roll over 6,000+ minutes a month)
I'd get unlimited texting (big whoop as I iMessage mostly and 4-5 txts a month so pay for them as i get them)
and tethering to use WiFi iPad on the go, I suppose.

BUT, what is odd is that with Verizon and ATT, they should include one phone for the starting price. be it smartphone, regular phone, whatever but include on device from the start. then add phones/gadgets as you need them. if it was $85 for service and one device they'd be losing some on smartphones but gaining on tablets/dumb phones. And they could even say it goes toward the cheapest device on the plan so as to fully get all the more expensive gadgets on the additional pricing.

Don't forget these plans don't include taxes and fees.... Those get added after. Add a ballpark $20-40 to the plans to get the out the door costs.

Looks like I'm switching to straight talk sooner rather than later. I can easily come out ahead buying a new iPhone for full price every 2 years that way.

charlieegan3 said:

Originally Posted by Yelmurc
What laptops can you buy that have cellular data built in?

Click to expand...

Some netbooks do. Don't know of any laptops though.

Click to expand...

Look above at https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/15273292/ ...

lou2ser said:

The real value seems to be in having a bunch of devices. My breakdowns:

Our current bill (4 iPhones, 1 dumbphone) is $230. Split 5 ways is $45 a person. The 4 iPhones use roughly 6GB a month, split between one unlimited plan and three 2GB plans. Say I want to add an iPad to the mix, it would be $30 for 3GB bringing my monthly total to $270, split 5 ways is $54.

If we add a four more, low bandwidth users it breaks down to:
10GB: $120
User 1: $30
User 2: $30
User 3: $30
User 4: $30
User 5: $30
User 6: $30
User 7: $30
User 8: $30
User 9: $30
iPad: $10
Total: $400
minus discount (24%): $96
Grand total: $304
Divided 10 ways: $30.40 + a few bucks in taxes

Click to expand...

That's EXACTLY correct, and more insidious. Having so many devices means are ingrained deeper into AT&T and less likely to switch. Because with so many devices the odds are there are several people sharing that plan. Which seems great. Until one person wants to leave, it makes it financially more painful for everyone left behind. And if a device is replaced mid-contract then keeping everyone on the same contract end date is increasingly less possible, and thus less likely to break away.

edonohoo said:

I wonder how the service discounts will play in here. I know right now you don't get discounts on the messaging, just the actual minute plan and data plans (22%). I doubt the 22% discount will still apply to the whole bill, maybe just the plan you choose, or the devices added, but surely not both. Will have to wait and see

Click to expand...

I'm in the same boat. If the service discount applies to the entire bill then these changes will save my family a TON of money.

I also wonder if we'd have to pay ETF to close another account and move the phone to this account. For example, close my mother-in-law's AT&T account and move her line to my account under the new plan.

Anyone know yet if FAN discounts will be applied to the entire bill? Right now, my discount only applies to voice/text. Not sure if that's across the board. If that's changing then I stand to save about $40 per month.

Good thing all your content is in the cloud and keeping your money
flowing through the carriers mafiosa tollbooth every time you want to access it.
No wonder they wanted to take an early profit beating on
the subsidized phone racket when it first started. Brilliant.

lou2ser said:

I'm in the same boat. If the service discount applies to the entire bill then these changes will save my family a TON of money.

Click to expand...

Considering the AT&T and Verizon duopoly, whatever Verizon does, AT&T will do. Unbelievable.

At least AT&T is offering this as an option....I like choices.

Verizon is forcing this onto their customers.

duxy said:

So - could I keep my current plan and just add an iPad for $10 more a month? I would like this...

Click to expand...

Nope. Gotta switch to shared, else pay for the iPad separately (what's that, something like $25/2GB?).

mysticbluebmw said:

Good grief. Hate much? $5 more to go from 700 minutes to UNLIMITED and you think that's collusion, lol?

Click to expand...

Collusion and price signaling. Mere weeks after Verizon drops their strategy, AT&T does the same with very fine differences? Don't pretend as if this caught AT&T with their pants down. This is an effort by AT&T and Verizon to recognize their voice minute billing cash cow is now dry and keep people from dropping to lower minute tiers, or use iMessage/Google Voice.

lou2ser said:

I'm in the same boat. If the service discount applies to the entire bill then these changes will save my family a TON of money.

I also wonder if we'd have to pay ETF to close another account and move the phone to this account. For example, close my mother-in-law's AT&T account and move her line to my account under the new plan.

Click to expand...

Transferring billing responsibility has no effect on contract status.

That's great news. Well actually I don't really care. Costs would be about the same as I pay now.

1. Already grandfathered to unlimited data.

2. About time you got tethering.

3. You stance on FaceTime is still ridiculous. If it is data, why consider a surcharge.

4. If you don't get LTE deployed in more major cities, and stop calling your network 4G when it isn't, I'll hold off till next May when my wife's iP4 is 2 yrs old and we are out of contract and go to Verizon or Sprint. Probably less dropped calls.

$30/mo. more for the same data I am paying for now?

AT&T can go suck on a skidmark...

lifeinhd said:

Something no one seems to be talking about is now ATT is your only option (besides Sprint) if you need 15 or 20GB.

Click to expand...

Actually, not true. Verizon's shared data plans go up to 20 gbs as well, presumably further if you want. The offer to extend beyond 10GB is buried on their website and they will automatically offer it to you if you have a large multi-phone accounts or big data consumption already. When I switched, I was given the option to go as high as 18 gbs and its discounted versus just paying the $15/extra gb overage charge. Their website says you can add 2GB of data for $10/month with Share Everything which means 10GB=$100/month, 12GB=$110/month. I was offered 18GB for $140/month.

**EDIT** Found the numbers on Verizon's site:

12GB/$110, 14GB/$120, 16GB/$130, 18GB/$140, 20GB/$150.

That means that Verizon, on purely data charges, is $50/cheaper per month than AT&T at the highest published tier (20GB). The price per handset discount likely nullifies this for large multi-line accounts, however.

tasset said:

That's EXACTLY correct, and more insidious. Having so many devices means are ingrained deeper into AT&T and less likely to switch. Because with so many devices the odds are there are several people sharing that plan. Which seems great. Until one person wants to leave, it makes it financially more painful for everyone left behind. And if a device is replaced mid-contract then keeping everyone on the same contract end date is increasingly less possible, and thus less likely to break away.

Click to expand...

True, but when you're bill is only $30ish a month for unlimited talk, text, and (seemingly) unlimited data who wants to leave? We've been on our current plan for 3 years and honestly, I have no idea when our contract expires. I keep track of when phone's are eligible for discounted upgrades but we're not leaving AT&T. It's my experience that everyone hates their ISP and cell phone company. They all suck, you just have to pick the one that sucks the less for you.

MacRumors said:

Each plan includes tethering and unlimited domestic calls and texts for smartphones and basic or quick messaging phones.

Click to expand...

Learn to read, people.

The minimum plan seems to have gone up.

My plan is the MINIMUM for 2 smart phones:
My family plan is now $60 (700 minute plan) + $10 (phone 2) + $15 (250mb data phone 1) + $15 (250mb data phone 2) = $100 + taxes

New plan (with 1gb minimum - twice the data of my current plan):
$40 + $45 + $45 = $130 + taxes

$30 more!

I do get unlimited phone calls, and unlimited texts (which I already have with iPhone to iPhone anyways).... but looks like my bill would go up $30.

jayhawk11 said:

Transferring billing responsibility has no effect on contract status.

Click to expand...

So my brother can close his account and my mother-in-law can close her account? Then they can both move to my new shared plan? With no additional fees?

This keeps getting better and better. These changes will probably shave $200 a month off my extended family's bills. :-D

Trying to figure if this would save me any money or not.

Currently on the 700 minute plan
iPhone UNLIMITED Data
iPhone 200MB
iPhone 200mb
iPhone 200MB
"Dumbphone" (may be an iPhone in a few weeks).

Don't really care about my Unlimited plan since I barely eek over 2GB a month anyway (currently at 54MB!). My previous bill was about $210. It would be nice to add my iPad to this as well (though it's WiFi only...so no hotspot?)

Eh, The pricing is what I expected.

For some it will be a marginal decrease, for others it would be a marginal increase.

Basically, their customers who were paying the most (Unlimited voice/text with higher tier GB plans and tethering) stand to save a fair amount. Particularly if they are only single device, or device + tablet.

Their customers who are paying the least, low minute plan, low/no texting, and unlimited or lower tier GB without tethering; will need to stay where they are, or pay more. Now you will be getting more if you paid more, but if don't need it, stay where you are.

Their customers who have a few (less than 3) lines, probably continue to make sense on the old plans unless you have a lot of high-end features on said lines.

Their customers who have a lot (more than 5) lines will probably do quite well on this plan assuming everyone needs data.


At the end of the day it's not like its a big discount or anything, but it does what it was supposed to do: Many more people now feel like it's going to be possible to spring the 10$ for the tablet, or 20$ for the computer and use their "pool" of data.

It's also good to see tethering thrown in.

My guess is FaceTime over the air will be thrown in with this package, not available on unlimited, and either not available, free, or charged for on the per GB individual packages purely based on how they think people will react to the news about the unlimited plan.

AKA: Per GB users may be deemed as acceptable collateral damage in order to smooth over the unlimited people.

There is a good chance that whatever the plans were, they are being reformulated right now due to the chatter.

Karl P