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Any AT&T Unlimited data

Applejuiced said:
You alone used 10gb last month and went with a 15gb share plan for all 4 of you?
Get ready to start paying data overages soon.
And will have to pay in full or make monthly payments on all devices you get in the future.
What you think you saved doesn't include $450* of subsidies you were getting for each line or the peace of mind of unlimited data.
Click to expand...
I bet I know me and my needs better than you do. The subsidies are about $200* on each line, plus the data usage has gone down where all of the data is pooled, rather than each person having their own bucket. I did a report, and the maximum data that I have used (I'm the data hog) is 15.5Gb. At the current rate, I'm about to roll over 10GB of data to the January billing, so if that happens, I don't have to worry about it.

I did the figures. The 15.5GB was a max for me over the last year (the 10GB was the total for all of our phones. I should have pointed that out), and the kids use about 1GB/month. As for the paying for devices in the future, here's how the math worked out:

Phone plan: $75/month for unlimited talk, text, and 15GB of data.

Mrs. Thequik: Was on the 2GB plan, never went over. Buys a 128GB phone for $850 over 24 months at 0% interest: $35.42/month for 24 months, $0/month thereafter. Before it was $650 up front, and +$10 month forever for the "subsidy", which didn't go away after 2 years, so for her, it's a $40-50 savings every 2 years. Her line was $34 before, and now it will be $45 for two years, then it drops to $10, and she'll have the phone forever. Actually, the kids have it forever when she gets her 7S.

Me: Buys a 128GB iPhone 6 in September 2014, and I have the termination waived, and the cost of the plan is $75, including unlimited text and voice, plus Mexico and Canada (I travel to both, and this is a boon). My previous cost was $87.50.

Son: Has an Galaxy, and 3GB of data, occasionally goes over, and we get a $10 charge when he does. He pays it. His plan was $44.63, and he buys an iPhone 6S Plus 64GB, and pays the $100 memory upgrade surcharge, and his monthly amount is now $24 + $10 (access fee), so it's $34, and after two years, it's $10.

Regarding "peace of mind", I have greater peace of mind when I'm looking at the data usage and see that there is plenty of room left, and I don't have to worry about Mrs. thequik going into data danger, and I have the fences on my data usage far enough from the farm house to not worry about it. I guess what I'm getting at is I know me, and this works for me. I thought they'd have to take unlimited data from my cold dead hands, and I found that this plan worked for me. It may not work for you, but that's what makes America great!

*As for the subsidy, the $450 is a number that seems large, and I thought it was $200, since I last bought an iPhone 6 128GB last year, I paid $450 for it, and the retail cost, I thought, was $650.
 
Subsidy is $450 per line.
You get a $650 device for $199 with 2 year agreement.
The 128gb version costs $850 full price. You paid $399 plus taxes.
The subsidies are $1800 over 2 years. Factor that in along with next payments. Not just the service without phones.
 
sluggozmom said:
.. I live in Mass on the tax free NH border, so naturally I'd rather not pay the tax. I've always bought from the NH Apple Store.
So when the 6s came out I started running around to the NH att stores. What I was pissed at though is that the store told me to come on in, only to try and sell me NEXT!

Come to find out, YUP.... I can only buy online if I want to keep my 2 year contract.
So I bought online and had the phone in just a few days..

I'd like to keep my subsidy thank you very much
Click to expand...
Nope, that's incorrect.

I'm in Boston and the Boylston Street AT&T store sold me my 6S+ on contract. They didn't even try to sell me on NEXT. In and out in under 15 minutes.
 
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Rayfire said:
Wow, thanks for the heads up. I wonder if I should get the early upgrade now, lock it in, then break free of the contract due to the unlimited price hike. Hmm time to do some thinking.
Click to expand...

I'm glad I got my 2 year contract subsidized pricing before the shoe fell. I don' t like the Next plan at all. I don't see any advantage to using their installment plan because the phone is still full price. I'll, probably, just pay full price for my next iPhone. I'll have 2 years to save up for it ;) I'd rather do that then pay for it in installments.
 
Applejuiced said:
Man, that's bad news.
That's the only reason I stuck with AT&T and my unlimited data plan.
Will be switching to Tmobile when that happens.
Click to expand...

Okay, that sounds like an option. I didn't know that T Mobile had 2 year contracts with subsidized pricing.
 
Applejuiced said:
Subsidy is $450 per line.
You get a $650 device for $199 with 2 year agreement.
The 128gb version costs $850 full price. You paid $399 plus taxes.
The subsidies are $1800 over 2 years. Factor that in along with next payments. Not just the service without phones.
Click to expand...
I guess with the recent news*, the point will be moot now, or on 1/8/16. You are right on the $450, I don't know why I thought it was $200; I think it was due to the termination fee being that amount, and I conflated the two.

The good news is that my bill is going down with the shared data, and I'm not too worried about the overages.

* https://www.macrumors.com/2015/12/3...source=osx&utm_medium=push&utm_campaign=front
 
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AutoUnion39 said:
Nope, that's incorrect.

I'm in Boston and the Boylston Street AT&T store sold me my 6S+ on contract. They didn't even try to sell me on NEXT. In and out in under 15 minutes.
Click to expand...

I went to a franchise on 101A in Nashua, had the 6s plus in my hand until I told them I wasn't budging from my plan, and then both corporate stores on DW Highway. All 3 told me the only way I could stay in contract was to buy online.
 
sluggozmom said:
I went to a franchise on 101A in Nashua, had the 6s plus in my hand until I told them I wasn't budging from my plan, and then both corporate stores on DW Highway. All 3 told me the only way I could stay in contract was to buy online.
Click to expand...

Those jerks! The franchise store doesn't have access to it, but the corp stores, most certainly, can do it.

I wonder if they get extra commission for selling devices on Next...
 
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I had a feeling this was coming. Oh well, glad I locked in fresh back in September with my 6S. I am good until 2017 now. After that, it looks like I'll get to pay full retail to keep my plan and avoid NEXT pricing.
 
I'm keeping it on all three of my lines. My FAN discount applies to it so it comes out to $29. Not bad.

The way I see it, it's pretty clear that the future will be increased data usage and not voice. That is, voice will become data and we will use more of it. With LTE essentially being as good as wifi (save for highly congested areas) it's only a matter of time before this happens. Undoubtedly AT&T sees this and would like to bump as many people off of unlimited data plans as possible, knowing that they'll make more money on people with metered plans over time. And the metered plans will get progressively more expensive over time as data usage increases.

The bottom line is that it's not in their interest to have customers on grandfathered plans because it makes it difficult to slowly usher customers to more expensive plans over time.

I still remember having a $5.99 unlimited data plan with T-Mobile. Oh how far we've come!
 
I have 2 lines unlimited for $145 and now that the contract pricing will drop will the price of my bill drop as well since I am no longer paying for a subsidy? If not T-Mobile here I come.
 
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Smtevo said:
I have 2 lines unlimited for $145 and now that the contract pricing will drop will the price of my bill drop as well since I am no longer paying for a subsidy? If not T-Mobile here I come.
Click to expand...
No your price will not drop.

Unfortunately T-Mobile is offering 140 a month for 2 lines of unlimited data so that isn't much of savings for you. (unless you want unlimited minutes too)
 
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So are most people going to keep the att UNlimited plans ? I was so close to switching to Verizon the other day but Verizon would be close to 85 dollars more for 15gb data, and as far as I can tell the service is about equal to att . I think the future will be pricing and not who's network is better because soon if not now they will all have the same performance
 
richxps said:
So are most people going to keep the att UNlimited plans ? I was so close to switching to Verizon the other day but Verizon would be close to 85 dollars more for 15gb data, and as far as I can tell the service is about equal to att . I think the future will be pricing and not who's network is better because soon if not now they will all have the same performance
Click to expand...
Keeping mine just cause the new cost of UDP at $35 is still favorable due to my employer discount. If they increase it more, then I might think about switching.
 
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Applejuiced said:
Subsidy is $450 per line.
You get a $650 device for $199 with 2 year agreement.
The 128gb version costs $850 full price. You paid $399 plus taxes.
The subsidies are $1800 over 2 years. Factor that in along with next payments. Not just the service without phones.
Click to expand...

and how much of that subsidy is built into the plan cost?
 
bking10 said:
and how much of that subsidy is built into the plan cost?
Click to expand...

$163 before taxes. Family plan with 4 lines, 3 of them on unlimited data.
All 4 got full upgrades every 2 years. Figure it out if it's a good deal with all subsidies already built in.
Yes technically it's already built in there but the monthly price is great.
 
richxps said:
So are most people going to keep the att UNlimited plans ? I was so close to switching to Verizon the other day but Verizon would be close to 85 dollars more for 15gb data, and as far as I can tell the service is about equal to att . I think the future will be pricing and not who's network is better because soon if not now they will all have the same performance
Click to expand...
I switched to T-Mobile. Service is slightly worse indoors but I am currently using a iPhone 6; the 6S is supposed to be get better indoor service because of the 700MHz Band 12 support, can't verify yet tho. Even as-is, the difference isn't enough to make me want to return to AT&T because I got a deal with T-Mobile: 5 lines for 220 a month, unlimited everything. It's still more expensive than my old AT&T plan with the subsidies but without the subsidies T-Mobile is a better deal.
 
richxps said:
So are most people going to keep the att UNlimited plans ? I was so close to switching to Verizon the other day but Verizon would be close to 85 dollars more for 15gb data, and as far as I can tell the service is about equal to att . I think the future will be pricing and not who's network is better because soon if not now they will all have the same performance
Click to expand...
I had already upgraded 3 of my 4 lines to iPhone 6s and 6s Plus phones in the last few months but my personal line wasn't due for an upgrade until April 2016 so I did the early upgrade for my line to get a $200 discount because I do plan to keep my unlimited account for at least another 2 years. My phone should be here tomorrow. If you plan to keep your unlimited plan or the old grandfathered subsidized plans you should considering upgrading if you can before 1/8 because after that date you are either paying full price up front or paying extra per month for device financing (either through apple or the next program).

In 2 years when these contracts are up I'll have to consider my options and maybe by then the mobile share plans will make more sense (right now my costs would go up switching to those plans without even adding any device payments). I do have a generous FAN discount on my plan that would only apply to the share portion of the mobile share plans but currently applies to my entire grandfathered plans (voice, text, data, etc.) which is why mobile share is quite a bit more money for me.
 
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