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AT&T Again Raising Price of Grandfathered Unlimited Data Plans

Need some help here guys --

I currently have 4 lines with AT&T. 3 out of the 4 are out of contract. 1 has the UDP. However, I just picked up the iPhone 7+ when it came out on that UDP line. My monthly bill is around $300. I'm 1000% switching over to the T-Mobile One plan. Now my questions is, does this price increase waive the monthly installments owed to AT&T if I decide to switch carriers due to the break of contract ? I know the ETF's are waived but being that I am not under contract, does the same rules apply to the remaining balance of the phone ?
 
I pay nearly $4,500 a year for cell service to AT&T for 5 phones. 2 are grandfathered Unlimited. They have given me NO unlimited options to switch to because I have no option of using Direct TV due to property restrictions. Cheers, AT&T, for giving me the big F**K you for being a loyal customer since 1992 (Cellular One) and taking in approximately $80k of my money since then. I heard that Yahoo! is giving up its name... you should grab it, you are complete Yahoos.
 
I switched to GEIKO and saved more money on car insurance... oh
T-Mobile rocks!
AT&T is horrible. Had them for 7 yrs. gave them my youth! I'll never get that back.
Thank you T-Mobile now I know how a cellular providing relationship should be.
 
I dropped my unlimited plan recently after a few months of paying the $5 bump, and moved to a family plan, dropping my cost from like $75/month to $15/month.

I badly miss unlimited data. I'd convince my parents to switch to T-mobile, but unfortunately their coverage in chicago is apparently some of the worst in the nation.

Down to around 3-5gb of usage now depending on what everyone else is using.
 
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Deep Dish said:
Why does anybody still use AT&T? I switched to Cricket a couple years ago, I'm still on the AT&T network, and I pay $30/month for unlimited everything. Yeah, my friends make fun of me for using Cricket, but I haven't noticed any difference in quality of service despite paying less than half of what I used to.
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My wife switched to cricket and is absolutely loving it. No complaints at all and she can make unlimited international calls to family for $5 a month.
 
My plan never increased in price. I still pay 30.46 monthly since i got years ago.
 
kellen said:
So can I cancel my contract as they changed their rules?
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I believe at this point, there are no unlimited plans under contract. They were all 2 year contracts and they stopped making this plan available years ago. So they are all month to month. Yes, you may cancel.
 
I switched to T-Mobile yesterday. Saving $40 monthly now. I'm happy so far.

Edit: Ok,so I just wanted to update my review with T-Mobile,lol. Not so good in my location. I go snowboarding almost every weekend during the winter up here in California, so when I went up there in the mountains I wasn't getting no service what's so ever. In town my internet was pretty slow. Therefore , I switched to Verizon and I couldn't be more happy with the the data speeds and coverage. Glad I left At&T. Screw those guys,lol.

Ended up selling my At&T iPhone for $750 on craigslist and ended up buying a sim free matte black iPhone 7 plus. Previously had the jet black, I'm really digging the matte black more for some reason. Loving the change. Happy camper.
 
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lulla01 said:
Companies don't care about losing customers, at this point i think everyone is already really subscribed to something so its just about maximizing profit.
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Huh? Losing a customer is losing a customer, and companies care about that. It's more costly to acquire a new one than to maintain an existing one.

AT&T certainly doesn't care about retaining unprofitable customers.

But, yeah, it would seemingly make more sense for AT&T to tell everyone on UDP "We will be terminating the availability of this plan in X months. Based on your usage patterns, we believe Y plan would fit your needs. We will convert your service to this plan on [date], unless you cancel first. If you contact us to select this plan, or a different one that you would prefer, we will give you a $20 statement credit in your first month on the new plan."

- Customers who don't contact them stay as customers, but with fair warning
- They sell existing customers on a new plan
- They provide an incentive to sign up for a new plan specifically
- People can cancel if they want to go elsewhere.
 
Brookzy said:
So, to clarify, you cannot pay a lower sum in particular low-usage months like you can in other utilities, and even in out-of-contract offerings you cannot pay per unit of consumption: you are coerced into buying blocks before you consume. Fundamentally consumer-hostile behaviour.

In tighter regulatory environments, such as in the EU, wireless providers cannot arbitrarily raise their prices as AT&T have (they are uses limited to rising prices annually in line with the official measure of inflation). Just because you can leave at any time does not vindicate the industry when everyone else can and does arbitrarily rise prices and change terms (as Verizon 'coincidentally' did today!).

Your condescension is a tad unnecessary. Previously you criticised high data users as a 'tax' on the system, but now you cite rural development as a particular cost pressure. So are rural wireless users not deserving of caps and other revenue-raising strategies too because they are a tax on everyone else?
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1. If a user opts for a pay-go plan, sure, they can just be metered for the data they use and pay per mb. People select the plan best for them. Not really sure what your argument is here. Again, for my $40, metered or not metered, there is no other plan I could have where I could consume 22GB of full speed LTE data each month. Even if I only use 8GB it's still relatively cheap.

2. What condescension?

3. Costs are multifaceted. You seem to want me to pigeonhole one cost. My overall point is that networks are expensive to operate and just like other goods and services of life, costs generally increase over time.
 
I have ATT with grandfather unlimited data plan and my gf has t mobile. We live in the bay area and i can tell ATT is much better in regards with speed/reception.

Even though i have 20% fan discount with ATT, i am planning to move to T mobile this weekend. T mobile international program is too good to be true. I hate switching sim card when we travel.
 
cariacou said:
I switched to T-Mobile a couple years ago. Couldn't be happier.
They have similar unlimited plans, and none are anywhere close to $90/user.
I think it's about $140/4 users?

Oh, and did I mention they've never raised my plan's cost? Actually they've "lowered" it several times (added very useful benefits for free, like free international texting/free international data and a lot more).

Disclaimer: I don't work for T-mo, don't own any shares. Just enjoy how they have been treating me.
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I have 2 unlimited grandfathered with AT&T, and after testing T-Mobile with a third line I'm going to drop AT&T and go to T-Mobile, significant savings and more services. What had AT&T provide prices increases and no additional services.
Unlimited data, thetering, free data roaming are bough reasons to move.
 
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EricMacRumors said:
I did the same move to TMO for the 6S plus and have 0 regrets. Really wanted to tether so i can use my laptop or iPad on the train. I first went with a pre-paid sim in my old 5S to test the coverage and speed. I was in NJ commuting to NYC at the time and now mainly stay in NJ. During my testing the speeds smoked ATT and VZ. Recent trips to Denver and Vermont the coverage wasn't terrible and easy to overlook since i have ATT out of my live and a reasonable charge per month. When the 7 launched we switched my wife over and reduced my plan to 6GB to match. Fortunately we were able to put her on the same plan and not the newer plans. We now spend less than 100 per month and very happy. We used to be about $180 with ATT.
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Oh yeah! The tethering for free is clutch! I'm using it right now to peruse the forums here on my iPad mini through my iPhone SE. Most handy. Take notes Verizon and AT&T!
[doublepost=1484256059][/doublepost]
chriscrowlee said:
LOL, you had me interested until you think "service over Wifi" is a benefit they're offering, not a solution to letting you build the network instead of them. The idea is good, but they should credit me for the number of calls and data routed over my home network when using TMO WiFi... you proved my point perfectly though, T-Mo's barking salesman makes their customers think they're getting more than they are. You can have the snake oil. I don't believe I should have to use wifi at home to fill int he gaps in tmobile's industry-acknlowledged sub-par network.
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I suppose getting a credit would be nice, but I don't really see how it's "snake oil," if it's a better solution at no extra charge to me compared to what the other cell companies offer. All four major carriers have weak service where I live due to hills. When I was on AT&T I could've grovelled and wasted my time begging for a micro-cell unit to improve my in home reception, but I have better things to do. I'll take solutions over aggrievement every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
 
LessO2 said:
Crap, I just looked this up, and I'm at $50 now. I thought the increase in my bill was because I switched my home address to another state a couple of months ago, didn't notice this increase until looking at my bill after seeing your post.

Still makes most sense for me right now to keep using this, but when my current situation changes, I'm going to look elsewhere.
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That's very strange. My bill hasn't got an update yet. I still pay $30...
 
Deep Dish said:
Why does anybody still use AT&T? I switched to Cricket a couple years ago, I'm still on the AT&T network, and I pay $30/month for unlimited everything. Yeah, my friends make fun of me for using Cricket, but I haven't noticed any difference in quality of service despite paying less than half of what I used to.
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$30/mo on Cricket only gets you 1GB of data. Unlimited data costs $70/mo.

Don't forget that you also can't tether, speeds are limited to 8Mbps (which for some may not be enough), no international data included, and pings are 3-4x higher.
 
I'm on the grandfathered AT&T unlimited data plan with a nice 20% off FAN

so today I pay $28/month ($35 base)
next month, it will be $32/month ($40 base)

meh... i go though 7 to 8 GB of data a month on average so no reason for me to switch.
pretty sure throttling does not happen anymore, but not positive.
I bet next year (2018) at&t will hike it yet again. AT&T has great service around me, so not sure if I would every switch carriers. Would I use/like tethering, yeah but I live just fine without it.

what gets me is the strange nickle/dime fees...

Administrative Fee $0.76
Federal Universal Service Charge $1.92
Regulatory Cost Recover Charge $1.04
state/municipal telecommunications tax $6.38
(last one, taxes... ok, i understand this one, listed it only because it does make the ones above odd)
 
Deep Dish said:
Why does anybody still use AT&T? I switched to Cricket a couple years ago, I'm still on the AT&T network, and I pay $30/month for unlimited everything. Yeah, my friends make fun of me for using Cricket, but I haven't noticed any difference in quality of service despite paying less than half of what I used to.
Click to expand...

Lower priority
No VoLTE
No VoWiFi
Throttled LTE
Horrible pings
 
Finally left AT&T for good today, almost 10 years of unlimited iPhone data.
Now 3 lines with all unlimited + Canada and Mexico coverage too, 3G tethering which At&T refused to enable, unlimited 3G texting and data roaming in most other countries, and one time $150 cash back per line, plus the Tuesdays free things...No variable fees that change every now and then plus any extra line I would like to add in the future for just $20/month.
Nice competition from T-Mobile they really got it.
They told me that to have better coverage in their upgraded network to use iPhone 6S or newer iPhones.
 
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McGiord said:
They told me that to have better coverage in their upgraded network to use iPhone 6S or newer iPhones.
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Generally, yes, as each newer iPhone provides better reception than the previous (with the exception of the iPhone 7 / 7+ that use the Intel modems). Mainly, it's the addition of band 12 LTE that the 6s and up support, which itself depends on whether or not it's deployed in your areas.
 
admirk said:
Need some help here guys --

I currently have 4 lines with AT&T. 3 out of the 4 are out of contract. 1 has the UDP. However, I just picked up the iPhone 7+ when it came out on that UDP line. My monthly bill is around $300. I'm 1000% switching over to the T-Mobile One plan. Now my questions is, does this price increase waive the monthly installments owed to AT&T if I decide to switch carriers due to the break of contract ? I know the ETF's are waived but being that I am not under contract, does the same rules apply to the remaining balance of the phone ?
Click to expand...
Call or go to one of their T-Mobile stores they will have some offers for you to get rid of you previous carrier.
Keep in mind that you could bring your own phone to their system. $150 cash back per line may help you offset the payment of what you own AT&T too.
 
Yes they raised the rate again, but they're the only ones that allow you to iMessage or email while talking to them on the phone.
I would rather be with AT&T then Verizon, Sprint or T-Mobile.

That's not to say, I'm not streaming 24/7 in protest!
[doublepost=1485094344][/doublepost]Yes they raised the rate again, but they're the only ones that allow you to iMessage or email while talking to them on the phone.
I would rather be with AT&T then Verizon, Sprint or T-Mobile.

That's not to say, I'm not streaming 24/7 in protest!
 
johnwwwatson said:
Yes they raised the rate again, but they're the only ones that allow you to iMessage or email while talking to them on the phone.
I would rather be with AT&T then Verizon, Sprint or T-Mobile.

That's not to say, I'm not streaming 24/7 in protest!
[doublepost=1485094344][/doublepost]Yes they raised the rate again, but they're the only ones that allow you to iMessage or email while talking to them on the phone.
I would rather be with AT&T then Verizon, Sprint or T-Mobile.

That's not to say, I'm not streaming 24/7 in protest!
Click to expand...
What exactly do you mean by "they're the only ones that allow you to iMessage or email while talking to them on the phone"?
 
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