AT&T 5GB plan: why bother?

[Cagle]

When choosing a data plan for iPhone5 on AT&T, I see you can choose either 3GB for $30 or 5GB for $50, but why would you bother getting the higher priced one when you're only charged $10 per gigabyte if you go over the 3GB plan?

You might as well get the lower priced one on the off chance you won't go over your limit, even if do use 5GB, I'll not pay any extra than if I would have gone with the higher plan.

Am I missing something? (excluding the obvious advantage of the hotspot feature you get with the 5GB plan)

 

[r.j.s]

Hot spot is why I went for it ... plus my discount was only for the 5GB plan, not the 3GB.

 

[SR45]

You have a good point OP. Get the 3 GB plan and if by chance you go over its just $10 bucks. If you chose the 5 Gb plan and only use 4 GB or less instead, you are still paying $50.00, and that is a waste. I don't use Hotspot features myself.

 

[sviato]

I think AT&T is really screwing its customers by double charging for data usage, i.e. requiring certain plans and addons if you want to use tethering, hotspot, and facetime. I currently pay $30 for data and it includes all those "features".

I'm not looking forward to choosing a carrier when I move to the states, hopefully things change in the next few years.

 

[techiegirl]

Before switching to mobileshare, I had the 5gb $50 plan because the 5gb plan had the FAN discount (25% off for me) but the 3gb plan had no discount. The price difference was $37.50 vs $30.

 

[Mr Hill]

I think AT&T is really screwing its customers by double charging for data usage, i.e. requiring certain plans and addons if you want to use tethering, hotspot, and facetime. I currently pay $30 for data and it includes all those "features".

I'm not looking forward to choosing a carrier when I move to the states, hopefully things change in the next few years.

All 4 carriers should have strong LTE networks 2 years from now so hopefully you will have several good plans to choose from.

 

[Jman13]

The reason is the 5GB plan comes with tethering, which I use a lot.

 

[Cagle]

Before switching to mobileshare, I had the 5gb $50 plan because the 5gb plan had the FAN discount (25% off for me) but the 3gb plan had no discount. The price difference was $37.50 vs $30.

yeah it seems employee discounts will only apply to the 5GB plan, not the 3GB plan, which is kinda annoying but the difference in my case will roughly be the same as yours. thanks