AT&T Eliminating $10 Text Messaging Plan for New Customers

[puma1552]

AT&T just gets more arrogant and crappy by the month.

What I never understood was, why aren't cell phone companies regulated by the FCC?

There should be a flat rate for usage, just like a land line. None of this minute-counting crap, with overage charges, various data charges, you can call this person at this time on this carrier, but not this person on that carrier at that time, various texting charges, etc. Cell companies have some of the most cluster**** structures of any offered service I've ever seen, and it's just sheer price gouging for service that is barely passable in many cases.

The FCC should just step in and regulate it--wanna talk on the phone? $20 a month, talk to whoever you want, whenever you want, wherever you want, carrier doesn't matter. Want data? $50 for unlimited, including texts.

That simple. $70 (which is still a lot IMO) a month and it's clear as day and simple.

 

[myjellyass]

WhatsApp

iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Nokia support.

http://www.whatsapp.com/

And now Facebook chat's app. I agree that this is a reaction to these services (not necessarily just iMessage but it's probably played a small part)

 

[MarrkDaviid]

$199 or $299 w/ 2 year contract. Otherwise it's like $700 with no contract.

So $299 for the 32GB model + $85 per month for voice, data and unlimited texts x 24 = $2339 :O

I pay $10 per month ($240) for the 32GB model + $55 per month for voice, data and unlimited texts x 24 = $1560

AT&T really is screwing customers over in America!

 

[OriginalMacRat]

I'd love to have an iPhone, but I can't afford the plans. So instead I've got a Virgin Mobile smartphone, with unlimited data, unlimited text, and 300 voice minutes for $25 a month. (They increased that plan to $35 recently, but it's still a steal.)

This is why I own a factory unlocked iPhone 3GS (purchased from Apple in Hong Kong) and use on T-Mobile's $49.99 500min/2GB data/unlimited text plan.

 

[MarrkDaviid]

If you can trust these apps to deliver your important notifications/messages timely. And convince ALL your friends to use them. I don't trust them. I tried kik and had messages sitting there for weeks that I never was notified of.

It tells you when the message has been read, which is one major advantage over text messages.

 

[maattp]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/9A5288d)

Texting packages are becoming borderline useless. Between iMessage, FB messenger, live profile, kik, ect there is little reason to actually text. If you have to contact someone without a smartphone, you can always use Text+ which gives you a free number and seems to work well.

 

[jackc]

Google Voice gets better every day.

Yep, I use GV Mobile +

Texting plans are such a ripoff

 

[Daws001]

Is it just me or does it seem like telecoms only have bad news? I can't remember the last time there was something to get excited about at AT&T. Just how they're raising costs and cutting options. More of the same.

 

[NoExpectations]

Sure, but the problem is that only a small fraction of the people I text actually have iOS devices.

Is there a data-based standard that works across platforms?

Yes there is.....it is Text Messaging from the Telcos. It is device agnostic....which is why iMessage will fail (just like FaceTime) and why the Telcos can get away with a high cost for their service.

 

[twitt3r]

I would go way over the 1,000 limit right now. Everyone I text has an iPhone but until everyone is on iOS5 I have to stay on unlimited. I have 4 days left in my billing cycle and I'm at 5,027 text messages. An extra $10 isn't that big of a deal it just would have been nice to save it if I could.

On the basis of eight hours sleep and 30 days in a month (less the four remaining), that's over 12 text messages every hour you are awake, or one every five minutes. That is, well, just sad really. Seek help.

 

[MarrkDaviid]

And now Facebook chat's app. I agree that this is a reaction to these services (not necessarily just iMessage but it's probably played a small part)

Facebook should have spent their time fixing their buggy app, or they should have integrated the features of the new app into the old app. Facebook have stuffed up the Mail and IM systems in my opinion.

 

[technopimp]

This is why I own a factory unlocked iPhone 3GS (purchased from Apple in Hong Kong) and use on T-Mobile's $49.99 500min/2GB data/unlimited text plan.

Oh don't worry, that plan will go away once AT&T has finished swallowing up T-Mobile. And they'll do it with a message like "since the vast majority of the recently acquired T-Mobile customers indicated they'd rather pay more and get less, we're implementing...".

Wireless phone plans, cable, internet, etc.-it's all just legalized extortion at this point.

 

[heisenberg123]

If you can trust these apps to deliver your important notifications/messages timely. And convince ALL your friends to use them. I don't trust them. I tried kik and had messages sitting there for weeks that I never was notified of.

you can trust whatsapp as much as any carrier, KIK is a bad exaple becasue you right those messages hang for weeks, sure whatsapp have server problems but for a 99 cent app they fix them super fast

 

[omegaphil6]

Really... if everyone would just get iphones running iOS5 instead of whatever cheap craptacular Android device is being offered that week, then no one would have to have a texting plan at all...

the iPhone having iMessage as a default service now makes them more attractive to buyers. now i wonder if AT&T reps will actually promote iMessage as an actual feature?

 

[zweigand]

Thanks AT&T, you are actively encouraging people to find SMS alternatives.

I really think this will help kill off SMS faster. People are only willing to put up with so much crap.

 

[PeterQVenkman]

I'd love to have an iPhone, but I can't afford the plans. So instead I've got a Virgin Mobile smartphone, with unlimited data, unlimited text, and 300 voice minutes for $25 a month. (They increased that plan to $35 recently, but it's still a steal.) If AT&T / Verizon ever gets their heads out of their butts, I might move over, but there's no way I'd do it for 3-4x the price now.

I'm on a dumb phone for verizon right now, and while I'd like an iPhone so I can stop carrying my iPod touch for the games, I have a feeling that I'll end up getting some other crappy phone on another network to avoid mortgaging my soul to a mobile plan.

If you own an iPhone straight up, can you use the pay as you go plans on AT&T or t-mobile?

 

[tasset]

Carriers have no vision. They think taking away options and forcing people on higher priced plans will shackle them to their service for eternity. This is why AT&T only offers unlimited mobile-ANY-mobile on accounts with higher minute plans with unlimited SMS: if you drop to less minutes you lose that benefit.
Reality is that iMessage, BBM, Facebook, Skype are all chipping away at the voice and messaging revenue streams. And instead of making SMS plans CHEAPER and combating those services the carriers are playing a defensive shortterm game that will backfire.

 

[NAG]

Yes there is.....it is Text Messaging from the Telcos. It is device agnostic....which is why iMessage will fail (just like FaceTime) and why the Telcos can get away with a high cost for their service.

The problem with FaceTime is that it is somewhat clunky to use and has a learning curve. You have to actively use it. iMessage just works so you don't have to teach people how to use it on their iOS devices. They could end up using iMessage without even realizing it. Will it replace a general purpose messaging service? No, but it doesn't really matter because it is designed as a perk for iOS users.

 

[MacDarcy]

Yes there is.....it is Text Messaging from the Telcos. It is device agnostic....which is why iMessage will fail (just like FaceTime) and why the Telcos can get away with a high cost for their service.

All my friends and family and people I care about use Apple devices....so iMessage and Facetime are PERFECT for me. And with Apple's growing market share....it will be fine for ALOT of other people too i imagine.

Maybe the telecom companies see this happening, and that is why they are gouging their customers now to reap as much $ as possible before it gets worse. :->

 

[hexonxonx]

This is when having an original iPhone will get you back the 200SMS message plan by using it to back on the original iPhone plan which included 200 SMS.

You then put the sim back in the 3G/3GS/4/5 and it then changes your plan to the 3G data/200SMS plan automatically.

Always the loophole to fall back on.

 

[Nem Wan]

Pretty soon it will be just ONE giant telcom company charging whatever they want. Its crazy.

If it was a monopoly (like it was in the U.S. before 1984) the government would regulate prices.

 

[El Burro]

The best thing to do is to jailbreak your iphone, then install the GV Extension for the iPhone (http://gvexts.appspot.com/sms/sms.html), & that way you can have native texting through the integrated messaging app using google voice.

I use google voice for texting & it's very reliable & that combined with either bitesms or irealsms (with the ability to speak text out loud & being able to reply in any window = awesome), is awesome.

 

[hexonxonx]

I'm on a dumb phone for verizon right now, and while I'd like an iPhone so I can stop carrying my iPod touch for the games, I have a feeling that I'll end up getting some other crappy phone on another network to avoid mortgaging my soul to a mobile plan.

If you own an iPhone straight up, can you use the pay as you go plans on AT&T or t-mobile?

GoPhone plans are only approved for use on the original iPhone on AT&T.

 

[mattwolfmatt]

Hey all you current iphone customers. You're grandfathered in. Relax.

VZW is looking better, however.

 

[pradeepgj]

Why is texting so expensive?

$20 for texting? Even though its unlimited, who is really going to use it that much other than kids?

For example, SMS rates in india are dirt cheap. IN US you would pay around 20 cents for a SMS with out a contract. In india it is equivalent to 9 Rs. But for a no-contract SMS in India, you would pay only 10 paise, which is 1/10 th of a Rs. Do the math. That is cheaper than 1 Cent. Thats how cheap SMS should really cost. Moreover, receiving SMS is free. Here in US, we even pay for receiving SMS.

We all are treated like fools.