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AT&T Follows Time Warner Acquisition With Reveal of Live 'WatchTV' Service and New Unlimited Phone Plans
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I think they're just referring to the fact that once you're using it, you're invested and less likely to switch. You'd lose all your DVR recordings and preferences and favorites and whatnot.
I don't think DirecTV NOW will lock you in the way Comcast does, where they have idiotic customer service employees who intentionally misunderstand your requests to cancel or downgrade and instead ignore you or add on crap (and charge you for it) that you didn't ask for. This market is far too competitive for them to pull that crap, whereas Comcast runs several regional monopolies where you can either use them or not have internet service at your home at all.
Then perhaps you shouldn’t contribute either, if you don’t care for gross simplifications of the issue. There are plenty of simple comparisons involving public safety where simple barriers thought unnecessary were erected after the first injury. Public regulations are designed to prevent such potential injuries before they occur, in situations where they might reasonably occur, if unlikely. Simply because no one ever fell off a ledge before the barrier was erected is not rationale enough to assume one was not necessary to prevent future injuries. Just because we were fine before NN doesn’t mean we should ignore the opportunity for abuse based on predictable, historical, business practices alone, however unlikely we hope it may be. A simple precautionary barrier will prevent public injury before the failure to self regulate occurs — and history all but guarantees it will.
The irony is you’ve gone full speed into a head-on crash into FUD, by implying NN regulations constitutes “a dictatorship”, to say nothing of the hyperbole that “the government obviously knows what’s best for everyone” by legislating regulation. Last I checked, at least in the US, the government reflects the will of the people who elect representatives to look out for their concerns, which are expressed by votes and lobbying. In the case of NN, the regulation was repealed after public opinion was overwhelmingly rejected by those in power, which is literally the definition of “dictatorship”.
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Haven't you heard???? He's the leader of the comment section police. He, above all others, deems what comments are worthy. We MUST have standards!!!! This is a comment section on a website after all. Where the people writing the articles invite readers to comment, give their opinions. How would we know if a comment.........in a website comment section.......is valid or not? We need these guardians of the comment section to tell us!!!!
As far as Att goes, when I saw the headline I thought, FINALLY, they are changing the unlimited plans, the two plans they already have, and are decreasing the price. Being more competitive with, oh, I dont know, every other provider. Seeing as they have the most expensive plan.Verizon, cheaper, T-mobile, cheaper, and you get more or the same with all other competitors. I wrongly thought, they finally woke up and are bringing down their price. Maybe getting rid of the asinine "unlimited choice " plan and just going with one.
Nope. Their adding two more!!!! So now we have 4 unlimited plans to choose from, three of which suck and the one that doesn't suck costs more then every other competitor.
Oy.
I'm not interested in continuing this conversation when:
- You're going to purposefully twist what I'm saying in order to try and prove a point. I never once said NN implied a dictatorship.
- I never even once said I was for or against NN, but you're going to continue to attack me as if I'm in opposition of it. Unlike most people, I'm not frantically clinging to a belief because the person I voted for has a D or R next to their name. I'm firmly on the fence about NN because I see both sides of it and therefore don't care what way it goes. The only point I was ever trying to make is that people need to stop freaking out over something that hasn't even happened. It was repealed, so move on. IF companies begin taking advantage of us, THEN let's get upset about it.
1.I fail to see the logic of comparing the lack of railings and falling off balconies to living without cell phones, internet, and cable TV. Contrary to popular belief, we might die from falling off a balcony but will really (really) be just fine without a cell phone (home phone, office phone), Cable TV (went without for 2 years and lived) and as much as I would miss the internet at home, there is the option of free internet at the public library for paying bills, e-mail, and shopping. There are many people on fixed incomes who just purchase minutes on a Prepaid phone and who don't have internet or cableTV. It may not be ideal, but is much better than falling off a balcony without railings.
2. Sorry.....I'm laughing in a sad sort of way. I can't remember the last time the government reflected the will of the people, much less the representatives looking out for the peoples concerns. It's been awhile.
Well, all American cellular providers are turd! Interestingly I find at&t to be least turdyI have zero interest in live tv. Even if it's free. And, I will never go back to AT&T.
When I read the headline, I saw: But 1 turd, get 1 turd free.
No thanks. They can keep their crap.
Verizon: consistent billing headache, TMobile: coverage issue, Sprint: existence itself is a question. I have been with at&t for a very long time and I don't know why people complain about it. I have never had any issue.Look carefully; the 'Watch' Plan doesn't include FOX News, CNBC or Bloomberg; just CNN. I think it's a good promo that will bring customers in and then many will 'upgrade' to the full DirecTV Now, especially since it includes more key channels (and as you note locals); plus they will realize if they take the AppleTV 'bundle' they can have a $20 'for life' fee and given that they can use the AppleTV or AirPlay; it replaces a lot of overpriced conventional cable/satellite better than most of the competition. I envision (as I write on ingerletter.com this weekend) AT&T as eventually getting a 'media multiple' and thus nipping at the edges of Netflix and Amazon as they add 4k (it's in the works) and original content ('Condor' is the one of the first; but shows what they can do). Needless to say I envision AT&T stock as a bargain currently.
How much is it to add a line? I usually pay around $82/mo for T-Mobile unlimited on three lines (I go over 2GB and the other two don't so I get kickback credits) with 2GB tablet data line and $35/mo for DirecTV Now. I don't care much about sports because most of the time I don't even get sports access due to blackouts. I'm willing to pay a little more for better coverage from AT&T but I don't trust them as far as I can throw them. Also, to clarify, can this be purchased standalone outside of AT&T mobile? The article seemed to say it can be purchased standalone without an unlimited account but I wasn't sure if that implied you still need to be on AT&T or not. If so I might replace DirecTV Now with this as I'm not sure if we use it frequently enough to justify the $35/mo.
Never once had an issue with buffering or app crashing. Maybe you need to upgrade your internet speeds.
Ajit Pai seems to think so, claiming that throttling download speeds won't happen on his watch after repealing net neutrality and that we should trust the IP companies because well...Does AT&T think consumers are that stupid???
So rather than seeing consolidation with these mergers we see further fragmentation? ATT now have two OTT bundling services competing with each other?
Let's be clear on this: if it makes them more money or hurts their competitors, THEY WILL DO IT. A corporation's ONLY purpose is to make money, regulations and laws are there to stop them from causing harm to the public in that pursuit. As long as the equation of "lost profits from customers leaving due to negative outcry + damage to public perception < new profits" remains true, they're gonna do it if nothing else prevents it.
Also, legislatively, it's a LOT more difficult to stop something already in effect than it is to shoot it down before it starts. If you get too far down that slippery slope, there won't be a way to pull it back. We NEED strong regulations for this reason, more because what comes next will be worse than what we're facing now.
That sort of platform stickiness happens with any of them. Doesn't matter who you're with. Yes it can be a pain, but it is what it is.
Having dropped one DTVN account to order a second ATV4K by prepaying three months service, I can say from experience that cancelling a DTVN account involves simply logging into the website and clicking a couple radio buttons. No phone calls, no runaround, no bull. I was impressed.
A couple months ago I dropped Comcast television but kept internet service. I had just come out of a 24 month agreement and decided to go full-time to DTVN. I didn't sign up for a new agreement with Comcast since AT&T has been putting fiber in the area -- and sure enough a week ago it went live. I'll probably sign up just to get off Comcast a while.
Anyway, to Comcast's credit the dropping the TV service call went smoothly and with no bullsht. I was actually a bit surprised.
FYI - If you don't prepay three months of DTVN to get an ATV4K it's simply month-by-month and just drop if it you want to. I hope things continue in that direction. My AT&T cell service is that way -- the only contracts involve the phone financing and those are a simple matter of paying off the remaining balance and getting the phone(s) unlocked.
Where are all the ATT defenders now? The ones who said ATT owning content would be a good thing for competition, and that ATT in no way would ever make it so they exclusively offer content to their own subscribers.
Next they'll offer HBO "free!" for their own subscribers and charge everyone else $29.99 for it. Then we'll all go back to piracy!
Next they'll offer HBO "free!" for their own subscribers and charge everyone else $29.99 for it. Then we'll all go back to piracy!
Im confused what you pay. T-mobile charges $140 for 3 lines of unlimited. So your either getting a unheard of deal, ($82 a month for three lines) or a awful one, $82 per line for 3 lines, making it $$246 for all three lines.
By comparison, Att charges $170 for three lines of unlimited. You also get 15Gb of hotspot data and HBO free for life. Then the discounted deals of Direct Tv, $15 off. $20 to add a line up to 5 lines. After 5 lines you have to pay $30 for each additional line over 5
I'm failing to see what the problem is here... Which content are the people using cable tv losing? Which content are the people using SlingTV your Youtube TV or Hulu TV losing? List the specific shows and networks they've previously had access to that they're now losing.
You mean like how CBS only lets you watch their star trek reboot if you pay them a subscription?
Or do you mean like how AT&T has offered HBO for free at certain cell phone tiers for quite some time?
Where was everyone and their fears during all the years Time-Warner ran their own cable-TV and ISP service (RoadRunner & Spectrum)?
You can also watch it on your tv with an Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire stick, or chromcast
That’s not my experience. I’ve used DTVN since just after launch, on the cheapest Comcast 15mb broadband package, and with few exceptions everything worked well. The DVR was beta and still mostly worked well for me - no issues since out of beta.
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As the kids say, I'm thrifty AF. I'm getting a REALLY good deal
You wouldn't think it if you only know me from the forums because I like to splurge on tech. However, my budget is a well-oiled machine.So looking at your quote, you have it wrong. I get three lines of "unlimited" service (50GB or so until throttled?) AND a tablet line for $82/mo. I get $10/line/mo for using under 2GB but usually go over on my line only. I got a deal to get the third line free. I combined a Verizon switching deal by delaying a week and adding my wife's line which activated multiple deals combined with the line savings (thrifty haha). I haven't had to travel much and have been spending weekends doing construction on an office in my basement so my data is lower right now using WiFi at work and home.
Don't believe me? Well here are some screenshots. Believe what you will! Also what's weird is I thought my tablet line was 2GB but it's showing unlimited so that's weird. I hardly use it but my bill is so low that I didn't care much. I might replace that with an Apple Watch line this autumn when I upgrade my crappy S0. Anyway, I censored some things like my due dates and other names on my line out of an abundance of caution. I have my wife and grandparents on there. I haven't even used my iPad data this month, lol. Usually it shows something but I think I turned off cellular and forgot to turn it back on when I was troubleshooting something with my Ring Floodlight camera last month. I don't use hotspot very often but I have that too. Only reason I'm interested in AT&T is because sometimes T-Mobile coverage is weak inside buildings and for the potential to bundle TV and save on that. But if it's a lot more then I won't switch because I have a pretty good deal going on. Also T-Mobile coverage is supposed to be better with the new bands they're deploying in our area. We didn't get the first round of 700MHz stuff but there is a new round of spectrum that they're doing here and newer iPhone models are supposed to support that this year so we'll see. I'm just always looking for deals!
