AT&T Introduces New Data Plans Without Overage Charges

[Tech198]

So, new plans would be the equivalent of "shaping" ?

That sounds fair..... cut down on high bills , but people want their cake and eat it too..

You know there will be issues with this... There always are...

 

[C DM]

It is just that this is IT related. People have become used to seeing lower prices for that retail sector than pretty much anywhere else in the world. Whether the price disparity is all that after local taxes are taken into account is another matter. Having said that, the perception of US + computers = cheaper than here still obtains. This is why those super high ATT prices stick out. It seems to be a reversal of fortunes and consequently attracts comment.



I don't think this is close to the reason. There are similarly sparsely populated parts of Europe, like Norway and Sweden with vast distances, less than optimal climate and tricky geography to contend with. Prices there are still much lower than in the US even without the latter's economy of scale. The reality is that it is mostly the same few conglomerates in charge of mobile infrastructure all over Europe and the US. Building regulations are also an issue in Europe, particularly in the more built up areas. You cannot put up a mast anywhere without dealing with a ton of red tape, which drives up costs.

Overall, I think it is a wash in terms of hurdles to climb. You pay more because not enough are voting (or can) with their wallets.

As pointed out, "vast" distances in European countries don't even come close to minor distances between many US cities, let alone distances from one end of US to another. There's really not much of a comparison there. There are of course other factors in play there, but the mere size difference alone is quite a bit of a factor to already provide quite a bit of rational reasoning.

And, again, all that side, it really doesn't matter that different things cost different prices in different places at different times. It's been the reality for all kinds of products and services for ages basically. There's nothing new or strange there, so bringing it up is basically just moot commentary.

 

[Moorepheus]

What I don't understand is why all this HOOPLA about this. It's an unlimited plan that just caps your speed to a specified rate. What I don't like about it, is if one user on the plan uses up all the data, the rest of the users on the plan suffer. Three of the lines on my plan use up 95% or more of our data every month (KIDS), that leaves the parents with little or not data to use and if we go over, then we would be throttled to 128kbs. I know, turn off their data, yea, then we can use "Find My Friends" to know where they are when they don't answer our calls, they can not sent iMessages (yes, all iPhones), etc. What I would like to see is the ability for users to be able to cap the speed of the lines in the plan based on amount used and not be charged a fee for it, unlike the way it is today where AT&T charges a fee for limits (AT&T Smart Limits).

 

[KPandian1]

Otherwise, I'll put a SIM card in every device I have whether I need it or not. If everyone did that, then the carriers would have to eat a lot more overhead. By charging each device a monthly fee, it discourages people from squatting on SIM cards.

What is wrong with using any device on my SIM card? Other than recognizing a different device is being used for billing purposes only, the carrier does not jump thru' any hoops to "allow" the SIM card to function!

I like T-Mobile's BYOD that does not penalize, especially if there is a SIM card with the consumer from T-Mobile that needs no further charges.

 

[C DM]

This seems incredible expensive. I'm on the best operator of our country (The Netherlands) and I'm getting 10GB a month with free 128kbps data hereafter, 500 mins calling and unlimited text for a mere €25. With an iPhone 6S+ 16GB without paying an additional fee for the phone itself, the monthly price would be a simple €45 on a 2-year contract. So as far as I can see the prices are incredibly high, aren't they?

I mean, 80$ for 10GB a month, text and calling free of charge. And you have to pay an additional 20$ if you want a phone maximes this to more than double of our fee? That's sick..

Sounds like you missed quite a bit of discussion that has already taken place about all of these international (basically apples to oranges type of) "comparisons".
[doublepost=1471533885][/doublepost]

I guess you mean the entire rest of the world where data charges are more reasonable? FWIW here in the UK I recently took out a 12 month plan with the operator Three which gives me 15GB data for GBP20 including freedom to use it without roaming charges throughout the USA (and many other countries besides).

But where other prices for other things might be much higher? What's the point of such "comparisons"? Things cost differently in different places for different reasons. It doesn't mean anything in particular about one place because the price is different in another place. Been like that for ages. Nothing new or strange or meaningful about it.

 

[Moorepheus]

Currently, I have a 30GB Mobile Share Value (Promo 2x Data for free) for 130. Each smart phone on my plan is $15, that's 6 of them. So 130 + (15*6) = $220. Now, the new plan. 30GB for 135 + 20*6 = $255. Even with the headache of the kids using up the data, I am saving $35 a month and $420 a year, I won't be switching. Thanks AT&T, but no thanks. Just give us the UNLIMITED PLANS for the family and throttle us when we use up 10GB or more per line in a month. Throw away the whole rollover crap and let us tether with unlimited too. Wonder how the plan works on a 2 year plan deal?

 

[C DM]

Knowing I pay that for unlimited data, then yes it is very ridiculous!

I think that is why I find it so ridiculous. At&T better not ever take unlimited from us.

They can just keep on increasing the pricing.

 

[anthonymoody]

Not switching because we pay $100/20GB (from a promotion) and $15/line (x4). The new plans would be worse for me.

 

[C DM]

As a long time AT&T customer, I'm disappointed by this move. It's so "Verizon-esque". Sneaky pricing increases dressed up as some sort of a gift to their customers. Had they left the per phone charge alone ($15) I'd say this looks nice, but instead they raise the per line charge to $20 but tout "No overages". Who, in this day and age, has overages? If you're unable to manage your data usage and/or buy the right plan so you don't go over, I guess you deserve 128k speed.

Instead of TMobile's UN-CARRIER features making the competition give their customers more, it seems to be having the opposite effect, making TMobile look even more fantastic.

No thanks, ATT. I'll stick with my current 10GB plan, with rollover, and 10GB bonus data they give me each month, 6 lines for $170/mo.

Here's another sneaky thing about that access fee increase. We are all now paying full prices for our phones. To offset that since AT&T is no longer subsidizing phones, AT&T gave us a "discount" of $25/month off the access fee of $40/month. Since before we could upgrade every 20 months, that was worth $500 towards the full price of a phone. Now that discount is only $20/month so that is now only $400 towards the phone.

What next? Keep chipping away at that discount until we are paying full price for phones AND paying full price for phone service?

As far as the monthly phone fee goes, some people paid $15 (because of a $25 discount) while others paid $25 (because of a $15 discount). So in a sense for those who paid $25, the monthly fee would actually be lowering.

 

[BJMRamage]

I think I did the math for us and I would pay the same amount...for 1GB LESS data.

I still haven't found the 10gb overage for $10 or whatever the one poster comment about a page back

 

[CAWjr]

When I read this, I was a little confused when I didn't see my current 10GB family data plan on the chart. Come to find out that apparently AT&T did away with this plan some time ago & for the same price I have been paying ($100 base + $30 for 2 iPhones), they offer 15GB of data now. Literally all things are equal, but I should be getting 5 extra GB of data a month. Apparently they do not automatically upgrade your plan when they change them. My wife & I used to be on the grandfathered unlimited plan until she screwed up & ported her phone to a company line at a job she left after 6 months, which is why we are on the 10GB plan. Unlimited was nice because I was rarely on wi-fi, had zero concerns about overages, and the old plans were about the same as what I pay today.

The new plan launching next week would also be equal in cost to what we are paying today, except it is for 16GB. The data on that plan is only $90, but the per phone charge is $20 each instead of $15 each. Since we only have 2 devices, this still nets out to be the same $130 we are paying today.

Now that we are on a data plan with a cap, we regularly hit the 10GB limit & have to get stingy with data usage for about the last week of the month to ensure we do not go over. Unlimited would be nice for about $20 more a month, but 15GB would be just fine for the same price we are paying today.

We are both going to get the new iPhone 7 when they are released next month (I'm still on a 5S & she is still on a 5) and I have a few questions for the educated masses here:

• Will I get hit with any fees for changing plans? I don't see anything on the upgrade page, but that stuff is usually hidden.
• Should I switch my plan to the 15GB now & just leave it on that plan when the new plans roll out?
• Should I switch my plan to the 15GB now & then change again next week when the new 16GB plan rolls out? AT&T says there are no contracts anymore, so I don't think this would be an issue.
• Should I just wait until 8/21 and switch over to the 16GB plan then?
• Are there any specific hidden limitations with the unlimited plan (other than price) that should stop me from considering it?

 

[TimUSCA]

Well, not really...

Old 15GB plan, 4 lines shared: $100 + 4 x $15 = $160/month
New 16GB plan, 4 lines shared: $90 + 4 x $20 = $170/month

I only have 2 lines. So then that means I'll still be getting 1GB more for the same price. I'm still fine with that.

 

[convergent]

Currently, I have a 30GB Mobile Share Value (Promo 2x Data for free) for 130. Each smart phone on my plan is $15, that's 6 of them. So 130 + (15*6) = $220. Now, the new plan. 30GB for 135 + 20*6 = $255. Even with the headache of the kids using up the data, I am saving $35 a month and $420 a year, I won't be switching. Thanks AT&T, but no thanks. Just give us the UNLIMITED PLANS for the family and throttle us when we use up 10GB or more per line in a month. Throw away the whole rollover crap and let us tether with unlimited too. Wonder how the plan works on a 2 year plan deal?

I am 100% with you on this... have the same exact plan, other than we have 5 phones and 1 iPad, vs. your 6 phones. I didn't realize that the "promo" plan I had was still a promo plan because the non-promo prices used for reference in this article as the "old" prices, are quite frankly ridiculous. So they have raised the price that I pay... even the base price for 30GB, and are calling it a big cut. I hate companies that act like this and intentionally try to confuse people with their pricing.

One of my kids is attending college for 2 more years (1.5 calendar years) in a very remote area where T-Mobile doesn't work. After she finished, I am done with AT&T. I had T-Mobile for work for a while with an unlimited everything plan, including international, and it was worse coverage but definitely usable. If you ever have the need to go out of the country, AT&T becomes very expensive compared to T-Mobile.

 

[Steve686]

They had a special offer a while back that doubled my data and got me 30 GB for $130/mon + roll over. So, I'm already on a better offer than this with Mobile Share.

Plus my per-iPhone connection fee is only $15/mon, because they both carry installment plans.

I pay $268/mon for 2 iPhones (NEXT, 12 month upgrade) and 2 iPads to shared 30 GB of data + roll over. Can't beat it.

Are you referring to the unofficial promotion that you had to get with a chat or phone call to ATT? And this chat was in reference to Verizon doubling their data plans? Or was your promotion official?

If unofficial, ya, I did that. Called them and told them I was switching to Verizon because of the data doubler. So in the end, ATT took my 10gb plan and made it 20gb with rollover data.

 

[Moorepheus]

Are you referring to the unofficial promotion that you had to get with a chat or phone call to ATT? And this chat was in reference to Verizon doubling their data plans? Or was your promotion official?

If unofficial, ya, I did that. Called them and told them I was switching to Verizon because of the data doubler. So in the end, ATT took my 10gb plan and made it 20gb with rollover data.

I have the same plan 30GB for 130 + overage. This was something that AT&T promoted. I didn't have to call and threaten to leave. I just called and got it..

 

[TurboPGT!]

Are you referring to the unofficial promotion that you had to get with a chat or phone call to ATT? And this chat was in reference to Verizon doubling their data plans? Or was your promotion official?

If unofficial, ya, I did that. Called them and told them I was switching to Verizon because of the data doubler. So in the end, ATT took my 10gb plan and made it 20gb with rollover data.

Same as this person -->

I have the same plan 30GB for 130 + overage. This was something that AT&T promoted. I didn't have to call and threaten to leave. I just called and got it..

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[doublepost=1471542652][/doublepost]

Currently, I have a 30GB Mobile Share Value (Promo 2x Data for free) for 130. Each smart phone on my plan is $15, that's 6 of them. So 130 + (15*6) = $220. Now, the new plan. 30GB for 135 + 20*6 = $255. Even with the headache of the kids using up the data, I am saving $35 a month and $420 a year, I won't be switching. Thanks AT&T, but no thanks. Just give us the UNLIMITED PLANS for the family and throttle us when we use up 10GB or more per line in a month. Throw away the whole rollover crap and let us tether with unlimited too. Wonder how the plan works on a 2 year plan deal?

I'm not sure I follow you. I'm on a similar plan. Cost wise, there is no competition for the value I get, from any carrier, or even within AT&T. Trust me, I've looked.
And rollover is brilliant. With 30 GB of shared data per month, and my average month being somewhere between 5-15 GB, I start every month with 40-55 GB of total data to use...so on the occasional month where a child of mine blows through data on a trip or something, I'm never paying overages.

You really can't beat it. I've done the research and the leg work, and I know for a fact that I'm getting simply the best value available for smartphone service in the U.S.

 

[Moorepheus]

Same as this person -->


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[doublepost=1471542652][/doublepost]

I'm not sure I follow you. I'm on a similar plan. Cost wise, there is no competition for the value I get, from any carrier, or even within AT&T. Trust me, I've looked.
And rollover is brilliant. With 30 GB of shared data per month, and my average month being somewhere between 5-15 GB, I start every month with 40-55 GB of total data to use...so on the occasional month where a child of mine blows through data on a trip or something, I'm never paying overages.

You really can't beat it. I've done the research and the leg work, and I know for a fact that I'm getting simply the best value available for smartphone service in the U.S.

What part don't you follow? The part where if I switch to this new Shared Plan w/ rollover and no overage fee that it will cost me $35 more per month or the part about the 2 year contracts. Yes, you can still get smart phones on a 2 year contract with AT&T. However, you don't get the $25 discount on the line, so the Line would be $40 if on a 2 year contract vs 15 on "NEXT" or Bring your own plan. My question is, on the new plans, is it just a flat $20 per line fee? Or was it the amount of data? If you read my other post, I told you, my family normally uses 99% of our data, but even with the new plan, it sucks because normally, we don't go over 1GB extra, so I am still OK, saving money every month over the new plan.

Ok, I might be wrong about the 2 year contract...I tried to start a new service with AT&T with 2 new iPhones, could not get 2 year contract to show up. Just Next or no Contract...so that might be a mute point

 

[Juanded]

I also have a 30gb/$130 plan and $15 access fee for 5 devices. But I do pay $5 in 2 lines for calls to Mexico and sometimes overage charges. I was exited and was thinking i will be saving money but once i review my plan i would actually pay more on a new plan.

 

[macduke]

As most everyone in the thread glares over in your general direction. lol

Turns out all you need is iCloud to flip out, causing Notes to continuously sync data until you've suddenly used double your 6GB data plan, eating 12GB in 45 minutes and running your phone battery down to zero. Then call up Verizon and Apple, have them talk it out, and talk to a higher-up iCloud engineer and run some tests. Then a nice Verizon rep calls you up out of nowhere and gives you an offer you can't refuse. Then pile a 20% work discount on top of that. With 24GB for this cheap, it's probably going to be a long time until I consider leaving.

It was a little confusing during the call, but I think the way it technically worked was I agreed to pay $10/mo more ($8/mo with work discount) to move up to the 12GB plan, which she then added a special "Verizon FiOS customer promotion" code to my line, which gave me an extra 12GB/mo of promotional data once I got on the 12GB plan. So I'm technically paying a little more, but it's worth it to ball out of control with data, which includes tethering. And no, I'm not a FiOS customer. But if someone on here is, it might be worth asking about.

 

[ValiumEater]

I have the same plan 30GB for 130 + overage. This was something that AT&T promoted. I didn't have to call and threaten to leave. I just called and got it..

Same here. 20GB data over 2 lines with rollover data and unlimited voice and text. I get a 15% discount through work, so I won't be budging from that plan anytime soon since my wife and I only use about 6-10GB of data/mo. Nice try AT&T.

 

[Agilis]

If it wasn't for my grand-fathered Unlimited Plan, I'd leave AT&T. AT&T is purposely driving people to choose the plans with the higher data tiers by lowering their cost and increasing the cost/lowering the value of the lower tiered plans. AT&T knows that most of their customers will not use all the data available to them so in the long run, they'll make more money off them. Customers will think the higher tiered plans are a better bang for their buck and go with that mindset. In my opinion, AT&T has a very shady business plan which is pretty similar to a scam.

 

[C DM]

If it wasn't for my grand-fathered Unlimited Plan, I'd leave AT&T. AT&T is purposely driving people to choose the plans with the higher data tiers by lowering their cost and increasing the cost/lowering the value of the lower tiered plans. AT&T knows that most of their customers will not use all the data available to them so in the long run, they'll make more money off them. Customers will think the higher tiered plans are a better bang for their buck and go with that mindset. In my opinion, AT&T has a very shady business plan which is pretty similar to a scam.

How is a business making their higher end offerings more appealing translate to being shady or being a scam? Isn't that basically part of business basics that petty much all business strive for?

 

[avanpelt]

Apparently they do not automatically upgrade your plan when they change them.

Nope, they definitely don't automatically upgrade your plan when they stop offering it.

Case and point, my mom was on a legacy plan with something like 1,000 minutes, 1,000 texts, and 200 MB of data and she was paying something like $75/month (that was with her corporate discount -- wow). She hadn't changed plans in YEARS and I hadn't thought to ask her about it.

Needless to say, once I found out what she was paying and what she was getting, I immediately switched her to a Mobile Share Value plan and she got unlimited talk, text, and 1 GB of rollover data for something like $48/month with the corporate discount.

 

[ecschwarz]

How is a business making their higher end offerings more appealing translate to being shady or being a scam? Isn't that basically part of business basics that petty much all business strive for?

As easy as it is to bash AT&T, these plan changes are going to be great deals for some people, terrible deals for others, but it seems the overall goal was to fix some inconsistencies (no official plan between 5GB and 15GB, the whole $25/$15 device access fee based on data amount, everyone hating overage charges) and maybe make a bit more money off of some customers (they are a business after all).

Everything is pretty clearly spelled out and if you don't like the changes there are a few options: existing customers can keep their plans or leave, new customers can go to another carrier.

Contrast these changes with what T-Mobile introduced yesterday and it's really weird how a lot of T-Mobile fans are saying AT&T has become the better deal/more fair option: https://www.reddit.com/r/tmobile/comments/4ycxdy/tmobile_now_has_the_most_expensive_base_postpaid/

For what it's worth, my current plan would either cost more or I'd get less data per month (although we're not using it anyway) since I'm on a promo retention plan, so I'll keep what I have for now (although the $12/month more option to have no overages is worth considering). On the other hand, a good friend of mine is on a plan with one other person sharing 5GB—they could move to the new 6GB plan and actually pay the same and get 1GB of data more and no overages (technically it would be less since the device access charge would drop, the data price would go up, and her discount would apply to the data). So, not everyone is being "screwed" by the changes.

 

[omegis83]

I'm curious about the underlined part. When I've ordered iPhones or called customer service, I've been routed through Business Customer Care. I think this is due to my corporate discount. This "should" mean my access charge will be $15/device instead of $20.

http://about.att.com/story/att_introduces_mobile_share_advantage.html