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AT&T Bumps 10 GB Mobile Share Plan to 15 GB for a Limited Time

I love the idea of these shared mobile plans but its the device fees that get me. $40 to attach a smart phone. does it really cost that much for unlimited calls and texts. Especially in this day and age where folks arent likely doing either outside of Skype, Viber etc. Half that seems more reasonable.

And $10 a month to add a tablet. For what? it doesnt make calls etc. $10 one time fee is more like it. And even that is extreme since a computer system does all the work of attaching your info to the system and that's maybe 10 cents in 'labor'
 
charlituna said:
I love the idea of these shared mobile plans but its the device fees that get me. $40 to attach a smart phone. does it really cost that much for unlimited calls and texts. Especially in this day and age where folks arent likely doing either outside of Skype, Viber etc. Half that seems more reasonable.

And $10 a month to add a tablet. For what? it doesnt make calls etc. $10 one time fee is more like it. And even that is extreme since a computer system does all the work of attaching your info to the system and that's maybe 10 cents in 'labor'
Click to expand...

$25 of that $40 is to subsidize the phone on a two-year contract. What AT&T is saying is that unlimited talk and text is worth $15 since that's the price it is to add a basic (dumb) phone to a mobile share plan and for a smart phone off contract.
 
Currently have the 10gb moving up to the 15gb for the same price. Here is the fine print

FYI

Note: Changing your plan does not commit you to an additional two-year contract term.

*Includes corporate discount. Savings is for service only and is an estimate. Devices sold separately. Excludes taxes, fees, add-on features, and other monthly charges. This discounted pricing is available as long as you keep your phone. If you upgrade to a 2-year wireless contract, you will lose the Mobile Share Value discount of $15/mo. or $25/mo. To receive the discount, upgrade with AT&T NextSM, pay full price for a new smartphone, or bring your own smartphone.
 
Although I use the bulk of the data since I added my mom to my plan, we don't come anywhere close to the 10GB. Although I'll take the extra 5GB anyday, so I just switched without an issue.
 
giantfan1224 said:
$25 of that $40 is to subsidize the phone on a two-year contract. What AT&T is saying is that unlimited talk and text is worth $15 since that's the price it is to add a basic (dumb) phone to a mobile share plan and for a smart phone off contract.
Click to expand...

If you have the capital, it's cheaper to buy an unlocked phone up front and you don't have a contract.
 
devfarce said:
If you have the capital, it's cheaper to buy an unlocked phone up front and you don't have a contract.
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Or if you don't have the capital, try Next. You still get the off-contract pricing and an interest free loan to pay off the phone with no penalty for early payoff.
 
iolinux333 said:
If you spent a few days in Europe or Asia I think you would stop apologising for the oligopolists.
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I have. And my pre-paid plan in the UK wouldn't work on the continent; and any other plan had exorbitant roaming fees. At least in the US I can go anywhere and not have to pay roaming charges; even on Wal-Mart's $30 for 5 GB and 100 minutes plan.

Sure, I'd love to play less but considering what I used to pay way back when the current plans are cheap.
 
nburwell said:
Although I use the bulk of the data since I added my mom to my plan, we don't come anywhere close to the 10GB. Although I'll take the extra 5GB anyday, so I just switched without an issue.
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And that's where still keeping the 10 GB but lowering the price of it would come beneficial to even more people, in addition to doing this--basically what Verizon started offering a few weeks ago. Sometimes AT&T is ahead on what they offer, and sometimes Verizon is, even if overall they are fairly close to being the same for the most part as far as plans and pricing.
 
John.B said:
Also, the Verizon Edge plans have no activation fee. Not sure if AT&T's Next works the same way...
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I'm not sure if there's an activation fee but in the past when I upgraded under contract I've been able to get them to waive activation. I'm currently only using off-contract phones on my plan but am considering Next to upgrade my wife to an iPhone 6.
 
giantfan1224 said:
$25 of that $40 is to subsidize the phone on a two-year contract. What AT&T is saying is that unlimited talk and text is worth $15 since that's the price it is to add a basic (dumb) phone to a mobile share plan and for a smart phone off contract.
Click to expand...

oh yeah. so i buy my phone full price cause i have to be able to use it overseas for work then I get to pay the $15 rate.

nope, I still have to pay $40. unless i mess with that Next etc stuff. which i dont care about because I can sell my iphone next year to Gazelle or such to cover the difference
 
charlituna said:
oh yeah. so i buy my phone full price cause i have to be able to use it overseas for work then I get to pay the $15 rate.

nope, I still have to pay $40. unless i mess with that Next etc stuff. which i dont care about because I can sell my iphone next year to Gazelle or such to cover the difference
Click to expand...
You can still do that with next: keep on paying off in interest-free monthly installments and then pay off whatever remains whenever you want and do what you want with your phone (continue using it, give it to someone else, sell it to Gazelle, etc.).
 
charlituna said:
oh yeah. so i buy my phone full price cause i have to be able to use it overseas for work then I get to pay the $15 rate.

nope, I still have to pay $40. unless i mess with that Next etc stuff. which i dont care about because I can sell my iphone next year to Gazelle or such to cover the difference
Click to expand...

I'm not following you. Why do you have to pay the full $40?
 
iolinux333 said:
One slightly nice thing is my data counter was reset when the plan switched.
Click to expand...

They will prorate your data. So if you had 10gb for 15 days and switched to the 15gb on the 16th day, your available data is 12.5gb.

5 plus 7.5 = 12.5
 
dmylrea said:
Glad I held out and didn't upgrade to the 30GB deal.
Click to expand...

I had exactly the same thought this morning, as I used the AT&T app to upgrade our mobile share plan.

We rarely need even 10G/month, but when I did the math I found that we had to reduce our data allowance to a much lower amount to get the monthly fee below what we currently have. Our break-even point is somewhat different due to my corporate discount.

So, we stuck with 10G/month. And when they offered 15G for the same price, I upgraded. Maybe I can use it at some point in the future. My next car offers Pandora integration, so maybe I'll try that.
 
charlituna said:
oh yeah. so i buy my phone full price cause i have to be able to use it overseas for work then I get to pay the $15 rate.

nope, I still have to pay $40. unless i mess with that Next etc stuff. which i dont care about because I can sell my iphone next year to Gazelle or such to cover the difference
Click to expand...

I'm fairly sure you can BYOD on AT&T's Next plan and get that same $15 rate without signing a 2 year contract. Dependent on, IIRC, a minimum 10GB shared data plan.

The reason you don't want to get an AT&T Next iPhone (even at 0% interest) is that you would be at their mercy to get it unlocked when you went overseas. You'd be better off buying an unlocked/full price T-Mobile iPhone or any Verizon iPhone (all Verizon iPhones since the 5s are SIM unlocked), to BYOD to your AT&T plan.
 
giantfan1224 said:
I'm not following you. Why do you have to pay the full $40?
Click to expand...

Because ATT are greedy bastards who will only give you the reduced price if you sign up for Next? Which is a pain in the ass to bother with. I don't want to have to fill out a bunch of forms to buy a financed phone blah blah. I want to hand you a damn credit card, walk out and that's that. Wash rinse and repeat next year if I wish.

If t-mobile didn't have crap reception where I work I'd have switched already. Because they are doing it right on that front.
 
charlituna said:
Because ATT are greedy bastards who will only give you the reduced price if you sign up for Next? Which is a pain in the ass to bother with. I don't want to have to fill out a bunch of forms to buy a financed phone blah blah. I want to hand you a damn credit card, walk out and that's that. Wash rinse and repeat next year if I wish.

If t-mobile didn't have crap reception where I work I'd have switched already. Because they are doing it right on that front.
Click to expand...

Then buy the phone outright. Or bring a phone in off-contract. I'm not sure where the angst is coming from. Does AT&T owe you a free $650+ phone?
 
0815 said:
There is no automatic limit - but I constantly monitor how much the kids are using and I can turn data off per phone, never had to use it, but they know that I can do that.

And yes, I won't tell my kids about the extra data .... don't want to spoil them too much :)
Click to expand...

Same here...16 year old will never know about that extra 5!:D
 
charlituna said:
Because ATT are greedy bastards who will only give you the reduced price if you sign up for Next? Which is a pain in the ass to bother with. I don't want to have to fill out a bunch of forms to buy a financed phone blah blah. I want to hand you a damn credit card, walk out and that's that. Wash rinse and repeat next year if I wish.

If t-mobile didn't have crap reception where I work I'd have switched already. Because they are doing it right on that front.
Click to expand...
You get the same discounted pricing if you buy the phone outright or just bring your own device (bought or obtained anywhere), it's not just limited to Next. As for signing up for Next, seems like a fairly simple process and far from a pain in the ass really, even if it's sightly more involved than simply buying the phone outright.
 
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