AT&T Doubling Data on Mobile Share Value Plans in Limited Time Promotion

[v3rlon]

AT&T Next, still paying the subsidy tax while paying more than full price of the device. Winner winner chicken dinner.

Incorrect. In fact, a study was just completed that explains the whole thing.

In short, you drive 6000 miles a year. 99% of people drive 15,000 miles a year. I drive 60,000 miles a year. Me and the other folks making up the "60,000 mile a year club" are not hogging up the road. If you took ALL of us off the road at 5:15pm on Friday, you would STILL have traffic congestion.

It has been repeatedly demonstrated that data caps are only a means to increase the size of your bill and do not do anything for network congestion.

If AT&T, Verizon, and company would actually build better networks, this would not be a problem. They took billions from the government to do this (and are working on it). They talk about how letting them out of the agreement to maintain copper wire lines would free up resources to upgrade the network (and didn't). They said letting them charge Netflix to deliver the content that you are already paying them to deliver would finally make it happen (and it didn't, except on Verizon where with was obvious to anyone looking at the chart what happened).

Just try suggesting municipal broadband as a means or relieving network congestion within a mile of an AT&T attorney, and they will quickly point out that they have plenty of bandwidth for everyone and that no municipal broadband is needed.

 

[TigerWoodsIV]

Of course only AT&T next, aka the biggest ripoff ever

 

[ptb42]

I still think a lot of people don't understand this plan. But at least I do now!

If I understand your post, you bought a new phone on regular contract. You pay back that subsidy (and more) over two years. So, I don't know why you were surprised.

If you had paid for the phone outright or had "financed" it via Next, you would still get the discount.

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Of course only AT&T next, aka the biggest ripoff ever

Read upthread. Next is effectively 0% financing now, after AT&T fixed it. Thank T-mobile for forcing them to compete.

Next was a bad deal when it was first announced. It is not any longer. Buying in contract is the ripoff now, at least for shared plans with 10+GB data.

 

[TigerWoodsIV]

This is simply not true. Next worked this way when it was first introduced and was a terrible deal. But it hasn't been like that for quite some time now. If you actually sit down and crunch the numbers, it actually turns out to be cheaper than a traditional 2 year contract.

Gotta appreciate T-mobile for introducing some actual competition into the U.S. cellular market!

Please enlighten me. I haven't looked into it too much, but at the price per month times the number of months, you end up paying hundreds more for the phone.

 

[budselectjr]

Please enlighten me. I haven't looked into it too much, but at the price per month times the number of months, you end up paying hundreds more for the phone.

Incorrect. The full price of the phone is just split up into 24 or 20 payments. Search the forums. The math has been done dozens of times now.

 

[TigerWoodsIV]

Maybe they think this will make up for the fact that a lot of people on the '10GB, 4 lines, unlimited talk and text for $160' plan don't realize that this only lasts until you upgrade your phone. We found this out the hard way (rather than the easy way which have been for one of the AT&T sales people to fess up to it when they sold me on the idea of giving up my unlimited data plan). I 'upgraded' to this plan so I could get smartphones for all my family and then my wife's phone completed her contract a month later. After upgrading her to a 5S we noticed the next month that our $160 plan was now $185, which is when we learned about the 'discount' we received until we upgraded. Basically the plan is $260 per month with a $25 discount per line if you bring your own phone to the party (existing phones being grandfathered in until you upgrade)

We tried to explain to anyone at AT&T who would listen that this was not explained to us otherwise we wouldn't have switched to the plan until after we had upgraded the phone, but that seemed to fall on deaf ears.

I explained that they were going to be in a world of hurt next month when the iPhone 6 upgrades started to see their bills go up even though they thought that they were just on a new contract. In the end we just paid off the contract ($300) and that got us the discount back, but better than paying $600 over the next two years.

I still think a lot of people don't understand this plan. But at least I do now!

Yeah it's a huge ripoff. I didn't see any mention of this when I bought my iPhone 6, so if my bill is higher next month I'm going to be furious. I tried to upgrade my mom's phone for her and noticed this nonsense

 

[Kabeyun]

I'm sure the seven people to whom this applies will be delighted. Meanwhile, the rest of us are getting it right in the rectum with the monthly "smartphone usage fee."

 

[TigerWoodsIV]

Incorrect. The full price of the phone is just split up into 24 or 20 payments. Search the forums. The math has been done dozens of times now.

I meant vs the old way of signing a 2 year contract. The $200 price for an entry level iPhone 6 vs paying almost $30 a month for 18 months or whatever. I'll have to see what I'm missing here.

 

[aajeevlin]

I'd like to see verizon do something similar.

 

[A MacBook lover]

NO! Then guys like you can use as much as you want bogging down the network, which nonetheless affects me. What's your excuse for using so much? "Because I can." Unlimited is GONE. Some of us prefer it that way.

Guys like me? You know how much bandwidth I use? And when has the network ever been 'bogged' down? I bet you can't wait for that home data tiers.

 

[Stratus Fear]

I meant vs the old way of signing a 2 year contract. The $200 price for an entry level iPhone 6 vs paying almost $30 a month for 18 months or whatever. I'll have to see what I'm missing here.

This is why next is cheaper:

With mobile share, you pay a base plan fee that constitutes the data, text, and talk buckets for the entire account. As an example, 10GB is $100.

Each line on a mobile share plan has an "access fee." For smartphones under contract, this is $40. For Next, BYOD, or outright purchase, this is $15. So as an example, the 128GB iPhone 6 Plus is $949 outright. On Next, you'll pay 949/20 for Next 12, 949/24(?) for Next 18, etc. on a monthly basis. In any case, what you pay is the full cost of the device by the end of the financing term, since there is no interest. If you do a contract on the same phone, not only are you paying the up front cost of $500, but also $25 a month extra for 2 years as part of the access fee. This amounts to $1100 total. So yes, Next is cheaper, and is not a bad deal.

Someone needs to make a nice graph and detailed explanation and sticky it at the top of the iPhone forum, I swear. This has been explained ad nauseam for months and so many people still miss it or don't understand it.

 

[A MacBook lover]

Unfortunately, WAY to may people abuse unlimited.

Was on the *highest* shared data plan and I travel ALOT. So that means always on the phone, using Netflix, etc. Every month I went over my limit, how is that fair? Make it unlimited to a degree at least with 50gb cap.

 

[Krispykrme]

I kept my data plan when I left the fruit company.

Unlimited domestic and international data for $64.99. On top of that my new company also uses AT&T and I get 24% discount on my bill. This month I used 4.6GB roaming at $0.00.

My suggestion is if that your company uses AT&T have your company took over your phone number as corporate cellphone and add corporate unlimited data roaming. Then after couple month transfer your phone back to personal and keep the data plan.

I have used $0.00 on phone call internationally because everything is done thru VoIP.

 

[RF9]

Switched to a T-Mobile family plan and pay $40 for unlimited everything with no throttling. Excellent service here in Southern California. As much as I like AT&T, I just can't justify paying twice as much for comparible services.

Well twice as much includes a subsidy on your equipment ($450 over 2 years) That's about $22/month. So $62 on AT&T = $40 on T-Mobile if you buy your phone outright.
Now that's perfect for many people, and I mean that sincerely. But go rural say to Lake Tahoe or to Northern California where you're away from major cities and major highways and you get "no service." So I feel like I'm paying a "roaming" surcharge to get that extended coverage. No unlimited data but I don't need it.

I am severely jealous of the free audio streaming bandwidth that T-Mobile is giving people now. That with the other benefits of T-Mobile almost makes me just want to deal with their limited coverage area and cary a Verizon pre-paid phone for those out of service markets.

 

[kiznar]

Unfortunately, WAY to may people abuse unlimited.

Abuse? You pay for unlimited that you can't use?

 

[samo350]

I don't know your prices whitout contract, but her in France It's a lot cheaper, we have unlimited call and text (Europe and US included) and 20GB for 20€

ps : It's funny to see that we can call US mobile from france much cheaper than US to US

 

[ThatGuyInLa]

At least I know why Verizon is so expensive. I get 40 down and 30 up with their data here in Los Angeles. Until last Month, as fast as charter. The upload is still faster. The bastards know it and keep prices high.:/

 

[T5BRICK]

Isn't NEXT and the shared plan still a really bad deal if you aren't going over your limit currently? I think I am saving over $500/yr by not changing to a shared data plan using Next.

http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/16/4528404/att-next-phone-upgrade-plans-a-huge-ripoff

That article is out of date and has incorrect pricing. Do the math for your usage and see what is the best fit. For the 6 lines on my account the shared data plans save us money.

 

[AppleHater]

I went to ATT Wireless page to see if there is any comparable plans to what T-Mobile offers. OMG, what's on the webpage is so confusing with so many options to choose from...

 

[Apple_Robert]

I looked at the AT&T pricing and it looks expensive to me, compared to the $198 I am paying now for 3 lines of service with unlimited data.

If AT&T wants new customers, they need to come down on their pricing, in my opinion. Hard to justify signing with them, when they appear to be more expensive.

 

[F123D]

Well twice as much includes a subsidy on your equipment ($450 over 2 years) That's about $22/month. So $62 on AT&T = $40 on T-Mobile if you buy your phone outright.
Now that's perfect for many people, and I mean that sincerely. But go rural say to Lake Tahoe or to Northern California where you're away from major cities and major highways and you get "no service." So I feel like I'm paying a "roaming" surcharge to get that extended coverage. No unlimited data but I don't need it.

I am severely jealous of the free audio streaming bandwidth that T-Mobile is giving people now. That with the other benefits of T-Mobile almost makes me just want to deal with their limited coverage area and cary a Verizon pre-paid phone for those out of service markets.

My AT&T plan also had less minutes, less data, no mobile hotspot, no free international messaging or data. And no thank you to that two year contract they lock you into.

Definitely where you live and travel play a huge part in which carrier you choose. I almost never travel anywhere rural and if for some unlikely reason I decide to take a road trip. I can just go prepaid with cricket for a month.

 

[mantan]

Yeah it's a huge ripoff. I didn't see any mention of this when I bought my iPhone 6, so if my bill is higher next month I'm going to be furious. I tried to upgrade my mom's phone for her and noticed this nonsense

It's not a ripoff. It's much more transparent and fair than the old 'subsidy' system which made people think they were buying a phone for $199 ($299 or $399) then charged a higher monthly rate for the life of the phone...even when the 24 months was up and the phone had been paid for.

Now you pay a cheaper rate for 'off contract phones'. When AT&T let people switch the mobile share plans, they basically gave everybody 'off contract' pricing...even if they just bought their phone.

Now if people were naive enough to think they were still think they were getting those discounted rates AFTER they bought at $650 phone with no money down, that's on them.

NEXT is about as fair a way to move from subsidies as a cell company could up with.

 

[CEmajr]

Will reconsider AT&T whenever they decide to offer unlimited or at least unlimited sith soft data caps.

 

[mnsportsgeek]

Unfortunately, WAY to may people abuse unlimited.

Tmobile already proves that unlimited data abusers do not in any way tax the network.

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Will reconsider AT&T whenever they decide to offer unlimited or at least unlimited sith soft data caps.

Yes, I have no problem with soft data caps. I have problems with ridiculous overage fees.

 

[TechZeke]

Make it unlimited and I may switch back. Switched to Tmobile and never looked back.

Much rather have my current 6GB throttle free than pay a bunch of money to have it throttle at 2Gb to unbarable 3G speeds. Would rather not have Internet at all than be frustrated by slow speeds.