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AT&T Says No More Data Packages on GoPhone PAYGO Starting April 18

MaxBurn

MaxBurn

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 25, 2010
1,488
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Incredibly unhappy about this, especially as I had to find out about it on a forum with nothing official posted on AT&T officially that I can see. This could be just the kick I needed to go to verizon, but I will be checking into the tmobile along the way. Thanks for the unlock AT&T so I can check out tmobile I guess.

http://www.prepaidphonenews.com/2012/04/developing-at-says-no-more-data.html

http://www.prepaidphonenews.com/2012/04/alternatives-to-gophone-for-pay-as-you.html

http://forums.att.com/t5/Prepaid/Data-only-with-monthly-plans/td-p/3154977/highlight/false

NO mention of it here where the plans are mapped out!
http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-ph...ans.jsp?wtSlotClick=1-005ZH4-0-1&WT.svl=title
 
You are unhappy with changes made to a pay as you go service so you are switching to a contracted service with another carrier (presumably, since Verizon doesn't have the iPhone, I suppose you could do pay as you go on TMO and hardly get to use your data plan.)
 
Tmobile/Walmart have the $30 5gb data plan/100 voice minutes

But until tmobile reframes their 1900 MHz to HSPA iPhone compatible. Those who want to switch to tmobile are stuck with edge service on the iPhone.
 
Personally I'm going to research this "Air Voice Wireless" mentioned elsewhere and tmobile minus the 3g.
 
aneftp said:
Tmobile/Walmart have the $30 5gb data plan/100 voice minutes

But until tmobile reframes their 1900 MHz to HSPA iPhone compatible. Those who want to switch to tmobile are stuck with edge service on the iPhone.
Click to expand...

This is the plan I'm moving to. I'm usually around wifi anyway so the EDGE only speeds don't hurt so bad. And lets face it, GoPhone was heavily throttled anyway. I do text a lot so the Air Voice $10 plan wouldn't give me all that much in the data department. The only other cheap plan is H20's $25 plan. For an extra 5 bucks you get a lot more from T-mobile.
 
Just be careful on Air Voice - data is 33 cents per megabyte. Will get expensive very quickly, especially on 3G/HSPA+...

GoPhone sucks any way not surprised they pull this got to get that average revenue per user figure going up - it has been falling or remaining pretty stable for some time now. Obviously they did the calculations in the bean counters office.

T-Mobile $30 plan is OK but only if native T-Mobile coverage is acceptable for your area. There is no roaming outside of a few limited areas and it is very limited even there. It's a decent deal for data, at least.
 
If you're planning on starting a new service anyway - I recommend Straight Talk. $45/month gets you unlimited voice/text and, depending on what you choose to believe from forum posts, anywhere from 2-6 gigs of data/month. It's vague because they advertise as 'unlimited data' but actually cut you off at a certain amount due to some loopholes in the terms and services. But unless you are a super duper power user, it's a great plan. And if you were buying gophone data, you can't be a power user because that would be insanely expensive (isn't it like $25 for 500MB?) At that rate, 2 gigs would = $100. For $45, you get the 2 gigs plus unlimited voice/text.
 
Straight Talk is fine but has some caveats like them cutting you off and you losing both your phone number and any balance remaining - with no refunds - at a whim of their choosing, for any reason they desire.

6GB...keep dreaming. 2GB is thought to be the cap but I personally would stay below it, well below it, if you are not looking to gamble.
 
For those defecting from AT&T Go Phone we are generally very light users at several hundred MB's per month or less. Appears Straight Talk just jumped to the head of my list if you get 3G data, do you? I'm not really up on who uses what bands/frequencies etc.
 
MaxBurn said:
For those defecting from AT&T Go Phone we are generally very light users at several hundred MB's per month or less. Appears Straight Talk just jumped to the head of my list if you get 3G data, do you? I'm not really up on who uses what bands/frequencies etc.
Click to expand...

Yes Straight Talk uses 3G data.
 
macrazee said:
Straight Talk is fine but has some caveats like them cutting you off and you losing both your phone number and any balance remaining - with no refunds - at a whim of their choosing, for any reason they desire.

6GB...keep dreaming. 2GB is thought to be the cap but I personally would stay below it, well below it, if you are not looking to gamble.
Click to expand...

I also choose to believe the 2GB posts over the 6GB posts. And yes, in a way straight talk service is a gamble....but if you are aware of the policy and are a light-moderate user, I think you can use it without much worry. I, for example, have been happy with it (only first month though). But I've been monitoring my data - and in a week and a half of straight talk service, I've used 274 MB. At this rate, in a month I'll be at 1GB tops. And I have been using the phone generously while out and about - push notifications on, browsing, maps, etc. I do keep wifi on so whenever I am home or elsewhere with wifi it switches, so that helps with data consumption too.

MaxBurn said:
For those defecting from AT&T Go Phone we are generally very light users at several hundred MB's per month or less. Appears Straight Talk just jumped to the head of my list if you get 3G data, do you? I'm not really up on who uses what bands/frequencies etc.
Click to expand...

Yep - you can use a regular locked at&t iphone on straight talk and get 3g service, pretty much same coverage you get with at&t. I live in NY and it's been good so far.
 
MaxBurn said:
For those defecting from AT&T Go Phone we are generally very light users at several hundred MB's per month or less. Appears Straight Talk just jumped to the head of my list if you get 3G data, do you? I'm not really up on who uses what bands/frequencies etc.
Click to expand...

Yes, Straight Talk has access to both 3G and HSPA+ where available.

I'm not sure ST is the best choice for light GoPhone users, however. $45+tax is probably more than they were looking to spend. Air Voice seems a good choice but that data will be a killer for all but the lightest users.
 
Thanks for the replies. $45 a month takes me up to what I think my Verizon costs were with my company discount. I will have to check that tomorrow. I already know my coverage with AT&T isn't that great at home, so if straight talk is just resold AT&T it will be the same bad coverage and just time to switch to CDMA.
 
MaxBurn said:
Thanks for the replies. $45 a month takes me up to what I think my Verizon costs were with my company discount. I will have to check that tomorrow. I already know my coverage with AT&T isn't that great at home, so if straight talk is just resold AT&T it will be the same bad coverage and just time to switch to CDMA.
Click to expand...

Yeah, to my knowledge Straight Talk just piggybacks on AT&T's network...so if you have AT&T issues it may not be best for you. There are several other similar options around, I would check regionally what is available to you. For example, I was in California last week and saw some ads for $40 and $45 plans that were similar to Straight Talk, but different companies...don't recall the names though...
 
If u buy 3 months refills from ST it will be $42 + tax. A bit cheaper. I'm switching to ST from sprint. With my 2 year $20 monthly credit over and the way sprint changed their corp discount my bills went up to $135 a month for 2 lines. on ST I will be paying $90. I've tested ST in NYC and get around 3-7 mbits down and around 1-3 up on my iphone 4s with "4g" signal
 
kalex said:
If u buy 3 months refills from ST it will be $42 + tax. A bit cheaper. I'm switching to ST from sprint. With my 2 year $20 monthly credit over and the way sprint changed their corp discount my bills went up to $135 a month for 2 lines. on ST I will be paying $90. I've tested ST in NYC and get around 3-7 mbits down and around 1-3 up on my iphone 4s with "4g" signal
Click to expand...

I wouldn't recommend the 3, 6, 12 months cards.
 
I'd personally go the whole $30 a month for 5GB of data, unlimited texting and 100 minutes with T-Mobile USA. Sure it's Edge, but 5GB worth of data will ensure that you won't have to worry about going over what so ever. You could say it's an unlimited plan. :p
 
Spectrum Abuser said:
I'd personally go the whole $30 a month for 5GB of data, unlimited texting and 100 minutes with T-Mobile USA. Sure it's Edge, but 5GB worth of data will ensure that you won't have to worry about going over what so ever. You could say it's an unlimited plan. :p
Click to expand...

Except for the edge part, it sounds good. Edge makes a lot of the iphone/smartphone features practically unusable. Deal breaker for me. There is a BIG difference between edge and 3g. If you use any data intense function at all on a regular basis, you will definitely appreciate the bump in speed.

I came to the iphone from a 4g Android phone, and even that drop in speed has been tangible. I couldn't imagine dropping down to full-time edge data. Not worth it IMO.
 
I reviewed my options for AT&T, verizon and sprint and they are all within a couple bucks of each other for the low end options, and all right at $60-65 minimum.

I guess I will run the GoPhone into the ground and then switch to Straight Talk. Will have to give AT&T hell when I call in, I have yet to receive anything from them on this.
 
Charcoalwerks said:
I've been using ST for three months now and have not had any problems at all. It's sooo much better than GoPhone.
Click to expand...
I've been using StraightTalk on my iPhone 4 for a month and, so far, quite delighted with the service. 2 weeks ago I was able to get MMS working without jailbreaking so it is working as if it were a full contract plan.

Having been an Android user since the original G1, I especially appreciate iOS' multitasking and intelligent use of WiFi and 3G. In order to get more than a day worth of usage out of an Android phone, I needed to manually manage wifi and 3G settings. But the iPhone simply manages it all very well... the result I'm gettings DAYS of use without having to juggle those elements.

After exactly 1 month of usage on StraightTalk, my cellular data usage (if the Settings -> General -> Usage stats are to be believed) was only 60MB (combined send/receive). That includes moderate daily usage of Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, blog reading, emailing, and browsing. Obviously a reflection of how often WiFi is available.
 
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