the only good thing for me is that my FAN is applied to the older plan, I never used hotspot so is there any reason to move to the new unlimited plus ? What is everyone else doing ? Will I still get high speed lte on the grandfathered plan ?
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Anyone keeping att grandfathered plan ?
- Thread starter richxps
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I had the grandfathered plan since the beginning and swore I'd never let it go. Had it on 2 phones, wife and I.
I have 3 teenage kids who didn't have phones at the time of the UDP's and they were on the 3GB plan, cost me $40 each for the data/phone/text plans all-in. But their usage became unmanageable, all that Snapchat and Instagram, all those streaming videos, they were costing me an average of $90 a month in overages.
By taking all 5 lines to the new Unlimited Plus plan, my monthly bills will go from near $400 a month to $205. Couldn't be happier to not have the aggravation of the kids overages, the arguments towards the end of the billing cycle. And as far as the wife and I, no real change other than we get tethering for the first time and I must tell you it's really nice to have. Not going to need it more than 10x a year, but on those days you need it it's very cool.
Hotel wi-fi can be very inconsistent and at low speed, logging onto free wi-fi at a cafe or an airport can take 5 aggravating minutes and be limited to 30 minutes of use, at a conference you often have to fight for a wi-fi connection with others around you, and there are always security concerns on a public network. I can now take out my iPhone, hit a slider, and have my notebook on high speed internet in about 10 seconds.
BJ
I have been on the grandfathered plan since the beginning as well (3 lines). I also said AT&T would have to pry it away from me in order to get me off of it, but I switch. We were paying $185 for 550 minutes, unlimited text and 3 UDP plans with a 21% FAN. That was going up to $200 because of the data line increase. My bill is now $194 but will be dropping down to $184 once auto-pay kicks in. So I am getting tethering (much wanted), unlimited talk + unlimited Mexico & Canada all for $1 dollar less a month, even without FAN.
I dropped my old grandfather UDP to the (now retired) DTV UDP. I haven't switched to the new "plus" plan because my FAN discount of 25% will not apply and I'll end up paying roughly $20 more if I go to the plus plan.
That's a good move.
But we lost the subsidies with 2 year agreements. $450 worth of devices per line times 3 for you
That's one of the main reasons I dropped AT&T.
This is pretty much what scared me off. I have a 24% FAN discount through employer, and tethering isn't important enough for me to switch. I'm just gonna wait and see what happens
But we lost the subsidies with 2 year agreements. $450 worth of devices per line times 3 for you
I know it appeared that you only had to pay $199 for a $650 phone... but you were paying the other $450 one way or another.
It was built into your monthly payment.
The carriers weren't giving you a gift.
I never understood why the word "subsidy" was used to describe this practice anyway. Seems like a misnomer.
Call it what it is: $199 down payment... with the remainder tucked in your bill every month.
Sure... they got rid of "subsidies" but they replaced them with payment plans. And it actually makes more sense now because you actually know what it costs for service and how much it costs for the phone itself.
The real crime was letting people believe the iPhone only cost $199. That should have never happened.
I'm sorry, but you're wrong.
The carriers were giving us a gift, it was not buried in the bill. Similar to what they are doing now, the carriers were fighting for market share and deeply discounting the iPhone as a result. They figured that the cost of acquiring a customer to drive up their stock prices was worth the $400 hit. And they were right. An industry was born.
The shell game you refer to- small monthly payments or leasing- that came about last year when the carriers colluded and shut off the subsidy spigot. "Pay $650 cash or $29 a month!" that's brand new baloney, didn't happen back in 2006 through 2015.
BJ
Yeah that's what they all think.
Not.
My old plan was killer and a very good deal.
Don't assume everyone was in the same boat with those scam family share plans that were an arm and a leg and costed way more. I had an old legacy family plan with rollover minutes and every additional line was $9.99 plus $30 for unlimited data. Minus 24% fan discount code.
Main line qualified for yearly full upgrades. Other lines qualified for every 18-20 months full subsidy.
I'm not going to bother explaining it all over.
False assumptions
I'm still sticking with the original unlimited plan on my iPhone 5. No value add in downgrading to the newer plans.
It only came out to be a good deal because the carriers charged the same for service whether or not you got subsidized equipment and were on the contract. So those who got the cheaper phones were just paying them off via the payments that were accounted for the subsidy in the price of their service, but those who kept their devices after their contract was up or brought their own devices were actually essentially being overcharged by also still paying for that subsidy that they basically weren't using at all.
He actually does have a point. Those on the old style plans didn't receive a discount once the phone was no longer under contract. There was an extra $20 per line factored into the cost of the plan. That is why if you were on the new Mobile Share plans and your device was not under contract your line service was $20 a month. If you were under contract it was $40 a month. Giving people incentive to not do 2 year upgrades and to use Next or BYOD.
I clearly remember, even back in the old flip-phone days, that phones were "cheap" or "free" to get you to sign the contract. Were those gifts too?
The whole point of the contract was to keep you paying for two years... since the actual cost of the device was inside your monthly bill.
The "free" flip-phones and $199 iPhones were a myth.
Yeah, except the monthly rate did *not* go down if you chose not to take advantage of an upgrade offer. So if you stayed off contract, you were basically forfeiting $450 every 2 years per line. Or sometimes as much as $450 every year if your plan cost >$100/month (which was usually the "main" line on a family plan). If you did not anticipate changing carriers, there was no reason not to take advantage of those offers.I clearly remember, even back in the old flip-phone days, that phones were "cheap" or "free" to get you to sign the contract. Were those gifts too?
The whole point of the contract was to keep you paying for two years... since the actual cost of the device was inside your monthly bill.
The "free" flip-phones and $199 iPhones were a myth.
Right, it wasn't so much as a gift for staying on, it was almost more of a penalty for not taking advantage of it since you'd be paying for it whether or not you took advantage of the subsidy.
No discount once phone is paid off but new plans ( unlimited or unlimited plus)
Cost more. If You use tethering then it may be worth it otherwise new plans show no value and FAN discount is not even applicable Att giving ice in the winter once again. When we see how many customers they lost this quarter maybe they'll get the message
Cost more. If You use tethering then it may be worth it otherwise new plans show no value and FAN discount is not even applicable Att giving ice in the winter once again. When we see how many customers they lost this quarter maybe they'll get the message
Lol
well said.Seems like they didn't learn from last time they jacked up the price and released many longtime customers etf free.
This time was going to be another big wave of exodus from AT&T. So Verizon saw it coming and made a move that surprised everyone to take many of those AT&T subscribers.
Then T-Mobile stepped up their game even more with a sweeter deal. That left AT&T for a while sitting there unresponsive just thinking wtf?
And after 2 long and awkward delays they came out with their water downed versions that is worst and more expensive than Verizon and T-Mobile.
Gotta love carrier wars though. The consumers on any network win with healthy competition.
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But for many, new plan is cheaper even without FAN. Check the first few posts, I described that I'm getting more for less.
I had my unlimited plan since the beginning but gave it up and went to T-Mobile for 3lines for $80 month with unlimited/talk/text/data after 16years with AT&T and don't miss paying $150 with FAN discount for 3lines
You will eventually. Methinks ATT will do away with the grandfathered plans now and force everyone to the unlimited plus plan.
BJ
Wife and I were on a grandfathered plan for years until the phone company would not let us upgrade either phone or letting us activate a new phone on the same line without changing to a new plan. After 6 and a half years we finally gave in as our kids were teens and our phones were shot to hell and barely working. If your on one and they want you off they will get their way.
YMMV. If you have a family that requires adding lines, then it likely makes sense. I initially switched, but cancelled and went back to the grandfathered UDP. The process of getting those data plans put back on our account was a nightmare. Wasted an entire day fighting with AT&T.
I think I should switch back, because now my data say shared but customer service say its not sharing all 4 are unlimited so why the wright shared on it site?