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AT&T has announced that it will be introducing new "Mobile Share Value Plans" on December 8, which includes an option for no annual contracts that brings a $15 monthly discount to shared data customers that meet one of four requirements. The requirements include getting a smartphone for no down payment with the "AT&T Next" early upgrade program, bringing a separate off-contract device, purchasing a smartphone at full retail price, or switching to a new plan after a phone is no longer under contract.

att_mobile_share-800x372.png
With the 'No Annual Service Contract' options, smartphone customers can save $15 a month on Mobile Share Value plans. 2 Customers can receive these monthly savings when they: Get a new smartphone for no down payment with AT&T Next; bring their own smartphone; purchase a smartphone at full retail price; or when their smartphone is no longer under contract and they switch to the new plans. All Mobile Share Value plan customers will benefit from shared data plus unlimited talk and text on their phones. Consumers will have the ability to connect up to 10 devices, including tablets and other wireless devices, while business customers will be able to connect up to 10, 15, 20 or 25 devices, depending on the plan.
The carrier also announced that it is adding a new option for its "AT&T Next" early upgrade program on December 8, which allows a customer to get a new phone after 18 monthly payments and spreads total payments over the course of 26 months. This option joins the existing option of getting a new phone after 12 monthly payments and spreading payments over 20 months, and comes after the company cut pricing on the program in August after launching it in July.

In October, AT&T ended traditional voice and data plans for new customers in favor of offering Mobile Share plans, which were first introduced during the summer of 2012. AT&T's Mobile Share plans offer unlimited talk and text while providing a pool of data that can be used across multiple devices, and include a monthly data cost and a per-device charge that ranges from $10 to $50 based on the type of device and the selected data plan. Data is priced between $20 and $500, for between 300MB and 50GB of usage.

Article Link: AT&T Launching New 'Mobile Share Value Plans' with Monthly Discount, 18-Month 'AT&T Next' Option
 

tarproductions

macrumors member
Mar 27, 2010
98
1
San Diego, CA
They did this because I went in there a few weeks ago and told them they should. Glad my idea was run up the flagpole and accepted. You're welcome.
 

JoshGlzBrk

macrumors 6502a
Aug 27, 2009
760
15
Wow, one of the evil two actually making the early upgrade payment plans not a total rip off.

I doubt Verizon will follow. Lady in Red only seems to follow price increases.

Thank you T-Mobile. Competition actually does work.

Just need to push them more in the cheaper direction...
 
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Tiger8

macrumors 68020
May 23, 2011
2,479
649
This changes everything!

$15!!! Wow!!! So they are only screwing you by $20 every month instead of $35!!! Where do I sign?
 

zorinlynx

macrumors G3
May 31, 2007
8,144
17,475
Florida, USA
Knocking $15 a month off an obscenely overpriced plan only turns it into a merely ridiculously overpriced plan.

You can do so much better with T-Mobile; why do they even bother? They need to cut plan prices across the board.

I only have another nine months in my contract, then I'm off to T-Mobile. AT&T can suck a... you know.
 

sziehr

macrumors 6502a
Jun 11, 2009
742
832
In reality this is a major step forward. The reason i say it is major is i can now buy a unlocked verizon handset and have 3 options out of 4. I had that option before but now 2 of them are not penalizing me for bring my own phone and not taking there contract. I agree big blue is still priced way to high but at least from a finance spread sheet they are not longer flat out stealing my money for being off contract. The largest gripe i had was that if i bring my phone i am in essence giving you 15 dollars extra a month more than a contract person cause i own my equipment and i did not use your capital to get it thus i am paying for a subsidy i received zero benefit from which always makes my blood boil which is why i ended up renewing my verizon contract. I calculated it would have cost me a cool 700 bucks over the life of the contract more for my two handsets than if i went with the contract and that is just money i would just burn for burning sake ugh why can t-mobile model not be the standard by which all carriers operate.
 

WaxedJacket

macrumors 6502a
Oct 18, 2013
690
1,071
I instantly thought "how is this new plan going to screw over the customers?"

AT&T always play to the family plans and bulk prices. They never help out the individuals. Will they ever allow me to share data with an iPad without charging me extra? Nope.
 

Thanatoast

macrumors 65816
Dec 3, 2002
1,007
177
Denver
You know, as far as I'm aware t-mobile doesn't do shared data. It's a minimum charge of $70 per smartphone and like $40 for a tablet with a decent amount of data. With my wife and our four devices it's cheaper to run AT&T with shared data. Dunno about this Next plan though, I'll have to look into it.
 

c0LdFire

macrumors regular
Jul 10, 2013
234
143
This is huge. I can't believe people are bitching about $15 off not being enough. Especially if it's $15 per line - I didn't read in to it enough to find out. Yes, it's still overpriced compared to the competition coming from MVNOs and T-Mobile, but their network IS better than T-Mobile's. If you need the better network, would you rather pay your current price or $15 less? For me, that's a no-brainer.

Personally, I'm stuck on Verizon. I work in a lot of rural areas in Illinois that only have coverage through them. I really hope they follow suite here. $15 (or $30 if it covers both my lines) off my bill once my contract ends sounds pretty damn nice, and might make me reconsider upgrading right away to the 6S.
 

Enrico

macrumors 6502
Feb 6, 2007
292
89
Milano / Roma
$500 for 50GB?:eek:
Here in Italy, even if it's not an equal comparison, the equivalent of $42 circa for 30GB of 4G LTE able to tether.
 

Psypher

macrumors member
Jul 14, 2008
55
12
I currently have a Mobile Share plan and one of my phones is on AT&T Next. Can anyone find where I can change my plan to this "Value" plan? I can't see it on the website.
 

Ivan0310

macrumors member
Mar 1, 2011
97
72
Dallas, TX
This article was brought to you by AT&T! Visit us today at http://www.att.com.

Or perhaps you can take a step back and understand that this site deals with all things Apple and that Apple consumers generally speaking have mobile devices and might like to stay up to date with current trends in carrier pricing and plans which may affect the use of their Apple mobile device. I for one appreciate MacRumors helping us stay in the know about these things.
 

Boatboy24

macrumors 65816
Nov 4, 2011
1,092
1,224
1 Infinite Loop
So, I have to give up my unlimited data to get this. The shared plans are such a gigantic rip-off. Not that mine is any great deal, but this stuff should get cheaper, not more expensive, over time.
 

barkomatic

macrumors 601
Aug 8, 2008
4,518
2,821
Manhattan
They aren't doing it for grandfathered plans it seems, either the old unlimited data plans or the more recently discontinued individual plans.

I think I'll hang onto my unlimited for awhile longer. $15 a month is nothing compared to overages.
 

T5BRICK

macrumors G3
Aug 3, 2006
8,313
2,387
Oregon
You can do so much better with T-Mobile; why do they even bother? They need to cut plan prices across the board.

T-Mobile has better pricing yes. Do they have equal coverage? That is important to some people. T-Mobile doesn't work at all where I work or very well where I live, and it only has EDGE data at the beach where I spend a lot of time.

Why would I want to save money on a service I can't use, vs paying a little more for a service that actually works where I go.
 

AppleScruff1

macrumors G4
Feb 10, 2011
10,026
2,949
Knocking $15 a month off an obscenely overpriced plan only turns it into a merely ridiculously overpriced plan.

You can do so much better with T-Mobile; why do they even bother? They need to cut plan prices across the board.

I only have another nine months in my contract, then I'm off to T-Mobile. AT&T can suck a... you know.

Because in many areas T-Mobile service is no match for Verizon and AT&T.
 

davidjacobs21

macrumors 6502
Jul 7, 2010
261
9
This is huge. I can't believe people are bitching about $15 off not being enough. Especially if it's $15 per line - I didn't read in to it enough to find out. Yes, it's still overpriced compared to the competition coming from MVNOs and T-Mobile, but their network IS better than T-Mobile's. If you need the better network, would you rather pay your current price or $15 less? For me, that's a no-brainer.

Personally, I'm stuck on Verizon. I work in a lot of rural areas in Illinois that only have coverage through them. I really hope they follow suite here. $15 (or $30 if it covers both my lines) off my bill once my contract ends sounds pretty damn nice, and might make me reconsider upgrading right away to the 6S.

Its not really 15 dollars off each line. Like right now i have a 10gb plan with 5 phones. Right now i pay 30 dollars a phone. With this new plan they bump it up to 40 a phone but once it out of contract it goes to 25 bucks. thats how they get to 15 dollars off. But really its only 5 dollars less then what im paying now
 

aristobrat

macrumors G5
Oct 14, 2005
12,292
1,403
They found another way to make it even more complicated
IMO, it doesn't seem complicated.

If you don't buy a phone from AT&T at the subsidized price, they'll discount your bill by $15/month.

That's $360 you save over a 24-month period.
 

phr0ze

macrumors 6502a
Jun 14, 2012
513
0
Columbia, MD
$500 for 50GB?:eek:
Here in Italy, even if it's not an equal comparison, the equivalent of $42 circa for 30GB of 4G LTE able to tether.

I checked the major Italian provider TIM.IT. Its 5 Euro for 1GB. or about $6.80 USD.

Thats $340 for 50GB. Better but not $42. And the infrastructure the italian service provider needs to support is much smaller.
 
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