Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
AT&T Drops Price of Single-Line Data Plans, 2GB Now $65/Month
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I just switched to this from my 450 minute / 1000 text plan. Mobile hotspot now setup and my bill will drop $15/mo. further once my contract ends.
Thanks T-Mobile!
Thanks T-Mobile!
how is this different from the previous contracts? I have a ATT GoPhone plan that is $60 for Unlimited Voice/Text and 2GB data for $60 plus $3.75 Tax.
I still don't think the difference is $10-$15. My current AT&T bill is $75 without tax and fees and $82 with. If my bill became $65, fees are the same but tax goes down a little? Even if I paid the same tax and fees it would be $72. How much does GoPhone charge for tax and fees? Less than post-paid?
No kidding; it's shocking how much they pay over there!
True but we rather deal with higher cell phone fees than the $9-10 usd per gallon of gasoline in European and Asian countries.
I see a problem with this offering.
While this is great for AT&T to lower the cost ($65 for 2GB MS Value Plan with $40 for the voice/data/text + $25 to add the Smartphone), I noticed that on this website: https://www.att.com/shop/wireless/data-plans.html#fbid=24DHStzWyfC
If you scroll to "Step 2: Add Smartphones to your plan", you can see that the +$25 for the 2GB plan is only if your 2 years plan is currently instated before 3/8/14 or if your contract has expired. The catch here is that if you decided to upgrade to say... iPhone 6 this fall, you will have to pay the $40 rate instead of the $25 as I've confirmed with AT&T rep today.
This is pretty deceptive imho. The rep then recommended me to do AT&T Next installment plan because apparently you can keep the $25 if you do AT&T Next.
So I asked him how much is it for iPhone 5S 32GB for now and he informed me approx $37.50 for 20 months which is basically a total payment of $750.
Now you tell me if this is worth it? You basically pay $750 for a locked phone (on top of your wireless bill) for 20 months OR you can pay $299 upfront but get an increase to $40 per month (which amounts to $360 for 24 months on top of the $299 you paid).
For someone who is currently using 39.99 plan (tons of rollover though) + 20 (2GB) + 5 (200 text), this plan makes no sense because with my plan, I can upgrade next year and pay $299 upfront without getting the $15 a month increase from Mobile Share.
I realize there are few benefits with Mobile Share (tethering on iPhone and Unlimited overseas text for instance) but I don't think those are worth the extra hassle because I either have to fork out $750 upfront to Apple to keep the plan cheap at 40+25, pay the $750 in installment to AT&T with AT&T next to keep the plan cheap at 40+25, or incur the $15 increase a month for 24 months (now the plan becomes 40+45 on top of the $299 I paid for the phone).
Devil in the details all right.
While this is great for AT&T to lower the cost ($65 for 2GB MS Value Plan with $40 for the voice/data/text + $25 to add the Smartphone), I noticed that on this website: https://www.att.com/shop/wireless/data-plans.html#fbid=24DHStzWyfC
If you scroll to "Step 2: Add Smartphones to your plan", you can see that the +$25 for the 2GB plan is only if your 2 years plan is currently instated before 3/8/14 or if your contract has expired. The catch here is that if you decided to upgrade to say... iPhone 6 this fall, you will have to pay the $40 rate instead of the $25 as I've confirmed with AT&T rep today.
This is pretty deceptive imho. The rep then recommended me to do AT&T Next installment plan because apparently you can keep the $25 if you do AT&T Next.
So I asked him how much is it for iPhone 5S 32GB for now and he informed me approx $37.50 for 20 months which is basically a total payment of $750.
Now you tell me if this is worth it? You basically pay $750 for a locked phone (on top of your wireless bill) for 20 months OR you can pay $299 upfront but get an increase to $40 per month (which amounts to $360 for 24 months on top of the $299 you paid).
For someone who is currently using 39.99 plan (tons of rollover though) + 20 (2GB) + 5 (200 text), this plan makes no sense because with my plan, I can upgrade next year and pay $299 upfront without getting the $15 a month increase from Mobile Share.
I realize there are few benefits with Mobile Share (tethering on iPhone and Unlimited overseas text for instance) but I don't think those are worth the extra hassle because I either have to fork out $750 upfront to Apple to keep the plan cheap at 40+25, pay the $750 in installment to AT&T with AT&T next to keep the plan cheap at 40+25, or incur the $15 increase a month for 24 months (now the plan becomes 40+45 on top of the $299 I paid for the phone).
Devil in the details all right.
Last edited:
I bought an iPad as a gift. I got the local sales tax back, paid official UK duty (which was a pain as customs is always empty and it took an hour to get sorted) and it was still cheaper.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottatlas/2013/07/05/happy-birthday-to-great-britains-increasingly-scandalous-national-health-service/
AT&T Drops Price of Single-Line Data Plans, 2GB Now $65/Month
Great overview for those of us still on ancient plans.
My wife and I are still on FamilyTalk Nation 550 with rollover plan (crap tons of rollover too) with unlimited data for me and 300MB for my wife and we pay just slightly more than $100/month. That's with a fairly big FAN though.
They sure are making it bloody confusing to see if you'll save money or pay more with the new plans and options they're offering. I'm sure that's the point though.
Great overview for those of us still on ancient plans.
My wife and I are still on FamilyTalk Nation 550 with rollover plan (crap tons of rollover too) with unlimited data for me and 300MB for my wife and we pay just slightly more than $100/month. That's with a fairly big FAN though.
They sure are making it bloody confusing to see if you'll save money or pay more with the new plans and options they're offering. I'm sure that's the point though.
AT&T is joining T-Mobile in making it cheaper for you if you bring your own device to the table. They are being open about the hidden subsidy fee that you've been paying all these years. The problem with this (Nexus 5 aside) is that you probably won't find a latest and greatest phone for cheap used or refurbished. So if you want the S5 or iPhone 6 you can either pay for it on-contract plus $15 a month or finance it via Next or buy it outright off-contract at the start. Either way you are paying $600 or more for that new phone no matter what road you take.
I think it's staring and Verizon is caught off guard. I called them a couple weeks ago to get a porting PIN as we ported one line to PagePlus. The lady was very apologetic when I said what I wanted and said they were sad to see us go and that if we wanted to come back the door was open.
I also noticed that before when you would port out the line would disappear immediately and now that line is showing "suspended".
I think they are feeling the T-Mobile effect. I know I'm playing with a T-mo prepaid for a couple months as Verizon wants me to pay full price for a phone + full rates to keep my unlimited data. Or switch to an family share plan that would make our rates go up quite a bit. Uh, no thanks.
The big difference for a lot of people will probably be the discounts available on postpaid. My employer has offered a 20% AT&T discount but I've always used StraightTalk. I'm kind of tempted to switch now. It seems like for about $10 a month I can get uncapped data speeds, the ability to register a Microcell (I have one now registered under a family members account), tethering, and visual voicemail. With the $100 switch promotion that's getting pretty close to being worth it.
I don't think this is deceptive. They are pretty open about that this plan is attractive for people who bring their own phone. If you want to continue on the latest iPhone versions then of course it gets expensive. if you however keep your phone for 4-5 years or buy a cheap Android you finally get cheaper plans. before you paid full price regardless if you bring your own phone or if you upgrade every two years to a subsidized new phone.
The parent company of T-Mobile wants to sell them off so it will happen sooner or later. We should find out by the end of the year if Sprint buys out T-Mobile.
----------
Like that's ever going to happen
Sprint seems to be running into the same regulatory resistance that AT&T did a few years ago. DT has said they still want to sell T-Mobile USA but think it could take a while. The buyer could well be someone like Dish or a cable operator who wants to break into mobile. There aren't many companies who can commit all the capital needed to build out and maintain a network. After LTE it will be LTE-A.
Also, there is a limit to how far this can all go. T-Mobile raised the price of the unlimited plan by $10 yesterday. While they did increase the data allowances for the other plans, they seem to be encouraging the capped plans now.
I stated that after upgrading to my 5s with AT&T I was going to drop them as soon as I can get out of the contract. I hated the charges they sneaked in to my upgrade. But as the price keeps on dropping thanks to the competition I am in a quandary. Do I still drop AT&T on principle? I mean, the price is staying competitive with T-Mobile (which I love for creating this competition) and moving to T-mobile means I will get less coverage at least where I live and work. So principle vs. coverage? I think I will wait for the iPhone 6 to decide.
GoPhone has no tax if you buy a reload code online. The taxes are built into the monthly price. If you buy a $60 card in a store, you would pay sales tax on it.
So in your case, GoPhone = $60, Postpaid = ~$70, so within the range I posted. I believe I heard that Nevada has the lowest tax on phones, while New York and California have the highest.
It's about time. They've been buttering up the family plans and screwing over the single phone plan people.
This still won't really win me over because Straight Talk is still $45 out the door for nearly the same figures.
This still won't really win me over because Straight Talk is still $45 out the door for nearly the same figures.
Verizon and Sprint won't have a BYOD plan with a lower monthly cost anytime soon because those two carriers will not activate any devices on their networks except the ones they sell.
Maybe when Verizon gets VoLTE up and running nationwide, they can finally ditch CDMA and potentially stop their insistence on selling every phone that's used on their network. Not holding my breath, though.
Maybe when Verizon gets VoLTE up and running nationwide, they can finally ditch CDMA and potentially stop their insistence on selling every phone that's used on their network. Not holding my breath, though.
This has always been the worst aspect of CDMA for me. Thankfully it looks like the FCC is requiring a BYOD option for their LTE network. Hopefully they do not try to ban devices like the Nexus 7 again.
Wow, AT&T has finally made a plan that works for me! One device, ~2GB data, tethering. That is all I wanted and I finally got it at a decent price.
$25 for device and $40 for the 2GB Mobile share, $65 a month. My current AT&T plan was $80 after 17% discount and taxes/fees, for limited minutes/texts and 3GB of data.
Apparently if you have an already existing contract they let you get the $25 price. To stay on I think you will either have to use Next or up it to the $40 plan, but the main thing was that I wanted tethering with my already limited data...
$25 for device and $40 for the 2GB Mobile share, $65 a month. My current AT&T plan was $80 after 17% discount and taxes/fees, for limited minutes/texts and 3GB of data.
Apparently if you have an already existing contract they let you get the $25 price. To stay on I think you will either have to use Next or up it to the $40 plan, but the main thing was that I wanted tethering with my already limited data...
Unless of course, a government bean counter decides that you don't need it...or you don't die from something else during the sometimes years long wait to actually get the medical treatment that you do need. No thanks, but you can keep the socialized medicine.
Interesting. There is a $30 difference between the 2GB and 4GB data plans.
The overage fee is $15 per GB you go over.
Doesn't this mean there's NO REASON to get the 4GB plan? Better to get the 2GB and save money when you use less than 3GB? This seems counterintuitive to the way AT&T has done things in the past.
Also, does anyone know if there's a fee to change plans? I'm on the 10GB plan now, and seeing how much I'll save on light usage months, I'm tempted to switch to 2GB and just pay overages on the really busy months.
The overage fee is $15 per GB you go over.
Doesn't this mean there's NO REASON to get the 4GB plan? Better to get the 2GB and save money when you use less than 3GB? This seems counterintuitive to the way AT&T has done things in the past.
Also, does anyone know if there's a fee to change plans? I'm on the 10GB plan now, and seeing how much I'll save on light usage months, I'm tempted to switch to 2GB and just pay overages on the really busy months.