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For smartphones with no annual contract (for example, on AT&T Next, AT&T Next Every Year, or other installment agreements, Bring Your Own, purchase at full price, or month to month term), customers will pay a $20 access charge per smartphone a month for Mobile Share Advantage.

The access charge for basic/features phones will be $20 a month per phone on both plans.
 
Why do they charge a device access fee? If it is a legit cost, why is it not a one-time only fee?

Sounds like a rip-off that the consumers are allowing!
 
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Guess I missed it then. Thanks for the FYI!
With all of the shaking up of plans and manipulation of plans and new plan options and, and, and... - you can be forgiven. Next month it'll be something new
So, as long you pay less for gasoline, it's okay you get raped blind on your mobile phone bill? Got it... Flawless logic :D
I'm not getting raped on my mobile bills - I still have UL data on 43 of my legacy VZW lines on my business accounts and 4 of my grandfathered personal accounts (one of which I'm renewing today), none of which we abuse. I wrote "fuel", not "gasoline" - I operate several diesel vehicles as well. And, I'm also buying tomatoes too - my food costs are lower here than in Germany, Italy, and the UK, where I visit regularly even though I'd rather have Italian tomatoes on my plate over the crap we get here.

As to "rape", I'd not choose that word - it has little context here, from the position of a technical writer or a friend of several women who've endured that torture - I'm not taking you out of context, respectfully. Look it up, in the context of either a verb or a noun - it has no place here, pretty much.

Yes, I know that our wireless carriers are gouging us. Yes, fuel costs are profit-based. Yes, I'm feeding into the position we're all getting manipulated, to a degree. I'm also very happy that I can fill up my Benz E550 and use my iPhone 6S+. And, I'm happy that I can engage with you. Cheers! :D
 
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Damn, I know that we can't compare prices 1:1 to other counties, but this is fkin expensive comparing to Europe. I don't think you earn 10x more.
 
How does this work if I was originally on the 10GB for $100, used a backdoor promotion to get the "double your data" to 20GB?

I'm at 40gb with the 20gb doubled. Guess you mean backdoor since it was supposed to be for 15 and up?

Yeah you def lose it, I was hoping their higher tier plans would have come down more reasonably. Unfortunately a rep today confirmed pricing at 180 for 40gb (versus the 150 I'm paying now) and 225 for 50gb. It gets increasingly ridiculous. Even with a 24% discount it's not remotely worth it.

The bigger joke for me is them jumping up and down about "unlimited" data for adding DirecTV when it's throttled at 22. What a joke.
 
I'm fortunate enough to almost always be on wifi, be it at home, work or the gym.

I'm "fortunate" enough to live in a dead zone :eek: so I'm almost always on WiFi via my DSL when I'm home. I'm off contract with a Mobile Share 4GB rollover plan and still have the $15 access discount they give hoping one will upgrade to their Next plan.. I already took a paid-for SE to the off contract plan, so I'll just stick w/ present setup and remain month to month. Even when I travel there's no way I approach the included data.
 
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The funny thing is that they didn't really drop data costs, except for the plans above 15 GB.

AWE4nL2.png
So how would that look if you plot the cost/MB, at the different GB/mo. points (instead of total cost), and compare old vs. new then?
 
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I'm living temporarily somewhere that has no wifi (or television for that matter) and I'm on a 20 GB plan. So my data through AT&T has been my only connection getting me by. Well I've gone over on my data about 10x on the billing cycle which is going to cost me an extra $150. I would have loved this new 'no overage fees' plan but I won't need it once I move to my new place.

Too little too late I guess.
 
Agreed. Right now I use between 1-2GB a month, so I'm on the 2GB plan at $55/mo (which effectively becomes nearly 3GB with rollover). With the new plans, I'd have to get the 3GB plan at $60/mo.? That's not better.

Coincidentally, I was planning on switching to T-Mobile this weekend for the cheaper plans. I thought this might be a last chance grasp to keep my business at AT&T. Guess not.

I'm moving from Europe (where owning a smartphone is super low cost - €10 for 1000 units Talk&Text and 3GB Data) to the USA and the cheapest equivalent in the USA I found so far was the T-Mobile/Walmart plan - $30 for 100 min, Unlimited text, 5GB Data - 100 min doesn't sound much, but with Facetime Audio and the 5GB I have an alternative.
 
Well, I got excited for a minute about possibly saving a few bucks but it looks like the new plan would actually cost me about $6/month more than the deal I got with the retention department a while back.

Currently, I have two off-contract iPhones sharing 6 GB of data with rollover plus the Mexico and Canada Roaming Bonuses and I'm paying $81 plus taxes and fees, which comes out to roughly $93 per month all-in.

The new plan brings the access cost down from $25 to $20, so we'd save $10 there; but the cost of 6 GB of data would be $46 under the new plan (with the corporate discount) and we currently pay $30 with the corporate discount. So we'd save $10 on the access but end up spending $16 more on the data.

Considering we've never come close to going over on data, I think we'll stay with the plan we have.
 
Cellular data plans are the biggest rip off known to man. The old plan has 2gigs for $30 but now you only get 1 gig for $30? And people are going to think that's a good deal? Give me a break!
 
So in total, that'd be $22.50/mo in equivalent USD. Fair enough. The value proposition is definitely there.

But Latvia is also the size of, like, Kansas.:p

I'd be SOL for a wedding that's 6 hours away that I have to travel to in 2 weeks.

Yes Latvia is small. :) But we also have a pretty low population density (only ~2 million total), yet the area coverage is something like 99%. And we have cheap EU-wide roaming (about to be dropped completely).

I'm not gloating, just comparing. I suspect North American telecom market lacks true competition and fair regulation. And thus the prices are very high and service is relatively poor.
 
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If I'm reading this correctly, $80 a month gives you 10GB of data and unlimited talk/text for one line, correct? Plus taxes, but no other fees. Or is it $80 + $20 for a single phone?

I'm still on my grandfathered unlimited plan, but my bill is up to $95 ($40 for 450 minutes, $20 unlimited text, and $35 for unlimited data) plus tax. I also get a FAN discount which probably drops the bill down another $10 or so a month.

On average I use approximately 8GB of data. If it's a straight $80 a month, I would save $15 a month and get the 10GB plan. Or even save $5 a month and get the 16GB plan. If it's $80+20 for my phone, then that makes the deal less compelling.

Does this sound right or am I misreading something?
 
Yes Latvia is small. :) But we also have a pretty low population density (only ~2 million total), yet the area coverage is something like 99%. And we have cheap EU-wide roaming (about to be dropped completely).

I'm not gloating, just comparing. I suspect North American telecom market lacks true competition and fair regulation. And thus the prices are very high and service is relatively poor.
Prices are what the market bears and service is fairly good for most people.
[doublepost=1471474636][/doublepost]
Damn, I know that we can't compare prices 1:1 to other counties, but this is fkin expensive comparing to Europe. I don't think you earn 10x more.
There are various other things are more expensive in Europe, and people likely don't earn 10x or 5x more in that context.
[doublepost=1471474926][/doublepost]
Meanwhile in France, you're living in France.
Seriously. What's with the constant comparisons between different places with different things applying to them that doesn't really say anything one way or another about anything. It's sunny and hot in many places, while it's cold and rainy in many other places at the same time, does that really say anything one way or another aside from that's how things are in different places?
 
With all of the shaking up of plans and manipulation of plans and new plan options and, and, and... - you can be forgiven. Next month it'll be something new

I'm not getting raped on my mobile bills - I still have UL data on 43 of my legacy VZW lines on my business accounts and 4 of my grandfathered personal accounts (one of which I'm renewing today), none of which we abuse. I wrote "fuel", not "gasoline" - I operate several diesel vehicles as well. And, I'm also buying tomatoes too - my food costs are lower here than in Germany, Italy, and the UK, where I visit regularly even though I'd rather have Italian tomatoes on my plate over the crap we get here.

As to "rape", I'd not choose that word - it has little context here, from the position of a technical writer or a friend of several women who've endured that torture - I'm not taking you out of context, respectfully. Look it up, in the context of either a verb or a noun - it has no place here, pretty much.

Yes, I know that our wireless carriers are gouging us. Yes, fuel costs are profit-based. Yes, I'm feeding into the position we're all getting manipulated, to a degree. I'm also very happy that I can fill up my Benz E550 and use my iPhone 6S+. And, I'm happy that I can engage with you. Cheers! :D

Your food might be cheaper than in SOME European countries but it is more expensive than in other European countries such as Spain, etc. Obviously, you might need travel more frequently to various European countries to obtain a better insight.

Let's move on to education, to get a good education at a decent college/university, you have to pay a lot more in the US than in Europe.

I could carry on with housing, cable TV, home internet cost, travelling, etc, but I am hoping you get the point, respectfully!:):rolleyes:.

Let's just leave it with that because it will end up with a never ending argument.
 
I'm going to call ATT after these plans launch and try to get a deal. My family is currently on a loyalty plan giving us 20GB for $100 base price. With 3 family members that makes our bill $145. I'm hoping we can maybe get on the 25GB plan without changing our end price by much.
 
So the "base" rate (the least expensive plan available) is $120/year more than the old one. Looks like I won't be switching to AT&T when my Verizon contract is up next month.

I have no user for "unlimited". I don't need "more". I want "less expensive".
 
The issue is that overage fees are sneaky: you use 1 byte above your limit, you pay the full fee. And of course AT&T doesn't give you an alert: "you have reached your limit, do you want to pay extra?" With AT & T I often experienced going just a little over the limit, and then paying double for my data. One reason I changed to T-Mobile.
That has not been my experience or that of my clients. We are clearly warned prior to going over, at 75% and again at 90%.

Text message that looks like this:
AT&T Free Msg: More than 75% of the 6144 MB of shared data for your AT&T Mobile Share group has been used. If 100% is used, we'll add 1 GB of shared data for $15. To check your data use, dial *DATA# (*3282#). Or you can go to att.com/myattapp to manage your account.
 
The prices for 6GB and under are not competitive and one of the reasons I changed to t-mobile even being an unlimited customer at ATT. Couldn't be happier.
 
Your food might be cheaper than in SOME European countries but it is more expensive than in other European countries such as Spain, etc. Obviously, you might need travel more frequently to various European countries to obtain a better insight.

Let's move on to education, to get a good education at a decent college/university, you have to pay a lot more in the US than in Europe.

I could carry on with housing, cable TV, home internet cost, travelling, etc, but I am hoping you get the point, respectfully!:):rolleyes:.

Let's just leave it with that because it will end up with a never ending argument.
Seems like the real point is that things are different in different places (and even at different times) for different reasons. All these "comparison" type of things are basically moot as far as making any sort of a point one way or another, yet people try to bring them up consistently in threads like this basically just because.
 
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