Then it's a complete ripoff, you can get a much better monthly price from MVNOs like Consumer Cellular.
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AT&T Introduces New Mobile Share Value Plans With More Data
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The per line price would be higher with a contract line vs a line that uses owned equipment or financing.
The photo you attached says your current plan includes text, picture and video messages and ON OUR NEW promotion plans, it includes talk. Your promotional plan is not one of the new ones. It's just saying IF you have a new promotional plan, that is included with Mobile Share Value.
You're correct insofar as interpretation of the wording goes, but that's not what AT&T is telling its customers. I just ended an online chat with an AT&T CSR, who stated plainly that people on existing Mobile Share plans at data levels that qualify for unlimited texting and calls to Canada and Mexico under the new plans will also get this benefit automatically. I saved the chat in case I'm charged for a call.
I took advantage of the double data promotion to go to 30GB when it was made available. However, we're using much less on our four lines, since most of our data is via Wi-Fi. So I can switch to 15GB and save around $25 a month unless I decide that I'd rather keep the 15GB cushion.
One thing I haven't seen mentioned is that the promotion is for some unknown limited time. From their website:
Mobile Share Value 15GB for Price of 10GB: Limited time offer. Select locations. 50% more data compares the new 15GB promotional plan to our previous 10GB plan. Plan is for service only and includes 15GB plan charge of $100/mo. plus per device access charge ($10 to $40/mo.).
Mobile Share Value 15GB for Price of 10GB: Limited time offer. Select locations. 50% more data compares the new 15GB promotional plan to our previous 10GB plan. Plan is for service only and includes 15GB plan charge of $100/mo. plus per device access charge ($10 to $40/mo.).
MVNO service is always de-prioritized, though, as far as I am aware. Depending on the MVNO, your data might also be additionally throttled to some reasonable level (perhaps 8 mbps). You get lower prices and / or more data, but at the expense of being second served ahead of primary carriers own customers. Being second served (de-prioritized) may be little or possibly no problem if there isn't heavy network use by the primary carriers own customers. But if local traffic picked up, you moved, or traveled to a location with congestion, you could find yourself with slow or no effective service.
Otherwise, as you mentioned, MVNOs would always be the better deal. (Please correct me where I am wrong here. But, I'm fairly certain that's how the system works)
Like the previous poster said, MVNO has limits. Being there and done that, last two years been on t-mobile, cricket and back to go-phone. I had iPhone last 8 years (First 5 years or so on ATT), live in metro area, Portland, OR. Always prefer to have unlocked iPhone (for travel reasons).
Compared to Verizon, ATT is not bad at all; It is unfortunate t-mobile does not have low frequency spectrum and sprint took long time to deploy LTE and lock their phones (and CDMA).
Among four, ATT is not bad at all. Just that no more subsidy, we have to pay for $550 and above for iPhones, Galaxies, Nexus and so on.
Sprint and T-mobile should merge and operate under T-mobile CEO, it is only logical.
No dice, mate. I tried to have the same discussion a few days earlier... Our US friends here either don't get it or don't want to admit that they're getting screwed for a commodity. I wonder if we should tell them that after 2017 even international roaming will (mostly) be a thing of the past in the EU...
At least this explains why US TelCo companies aren't active OUS - they're probably simply not lean and agile enough to compete in a cut-throat market.
However, what is still puzzling me is that the FTC continues to turn a blind eye to these prices (device access charge!!!). My best guess is that the US government is raking in tons of license fees from the TelCo companies. Or that they're so good at lobbying that they're basically insulated from any real competition (except for a bit of shadow boxing).
This is sort off topic but I think it is so ironic that people in Europe seem to think that they are not getting screwed for a commodity when they historically have been paying more than double what the US pays for gasoline. I live in the United States, San Antonio, TX and have been listening to a few UK internet radio stations on a daily basis for years. One of the UK dj's complains every once in a while how expensive gasoline is over there and I haven't ever wondered just how much it costs until today after reading comments like I quoted above. The bottom line is no matter where you live, you are getting screwed one way or another. The following link shows the average U.S. price of gasoline is now $3.06 but I just got gas yesterday for $2.22 per gallon. The average price in the U.K. in the article shows $6.75 per gallon as of May 2015. More than triple what I just paid yesterday.
http://www.eia.gov/beta/international/prices/gasolinewithtax.cfm
Yea, I did that too. The, then 15GB plan @ $130 is now 30GB. No way I am switching to their new plans. Since they did not show any plans above 20GB, my guess, like others, is those prices are staying the same. I guess we will know more tomorrow. So, like others, I hope they let me keep my Double Data Promo Plan, it will be very disappointing to lose 15GB, when I am using 24-28GB a month
Yeah, I think the double the data promo was one of their best in a while
Yeah I rarely go over 15GB if I remember to turn wifi on. Having 30GB with rollover is a nice cushion. Plus, the 80% and 90% warnings have a bigger range on 30GB (6GB and 3GB vs 2Gb and 1GB on 10GB plan). So I'm not panicking at the end of the month.
And if I only turn on cellular once in a while? Then what? That's not worth $15 a month.
That's like saying I want to rent this building, but I'm only going to be there 1 day per month. So i'm going to pay you 1/30th of the rent.
Sometimes you don't pay to use the service, but pay for the availability to use the service.
300MB is more than enough for some users. My wife and I are on the same Mobile Share Plan, and we've never gone over 200MB a month in combined usage. We're actually on a 1GB plan, since it's the same price, but we never come close to using our monthly allotment.
Seems like these plans aren't just "more data" they're more expense too. In some cases, at least, the additional cost is probably worth the amount of data at the low end.
Old-->New
300MB/$20-->300MB/$20
1GB/$25-->2GB/$30
3GB/$40 or 6GB/$70-->5GB/$50
Old-->New
300MB/$20-->300MB/$20
1GB/$25-->2GB/$30
3GB/$40 or 6GB/$70-->5GB/$50
Except you are paying for it when you use the data.
For phones, at least you're getting voice and texting (assuming you use it) for the per-device charge. For an iPad you're supposedly paying for pings?
Of course if you were paying $70 for 6GB before, now you're only paying $65 to be on the $50 5GB plan plus a $15 overage for the extra 1GB. There's no reason to stay on the old 6GB plan.
No, you have to actively sign up to change. I just did. I had the 10GB family share plan with 4 smartphones, one off-contract and 3 on the AT&T Next plan. Now for the exact same price, including my corporate discount, I get 15GB and unlimited text and talk from the US to Canada & Mexico, with no reduction in other services. The only caveat is that if you have roll-over data currently, that portion is lost when you change plans and roll-over restarts on the new plan.
I changed from 10GB to 15GB for the same price. That's so much more data than we need now, but the prices have been effectively pushing us into higher tiers even though I'm willing to pay overages to stay on a lower plan to save some money. Anyhow, part of me thinks the reason they offer these is to get a whole bunch of roll-over data off their books.
For someone like me! For someone who lives in a dead zone and uses WiFi for everything except while acting mobile, which in my case means leaving the phone shut off until I get to my destination to avoid batt stress during all that "Searching..." for a signal through the dips in the road between mountains. When I get where I'm going I might turn on the phone for some calls, and I might grab the weather and refresh Reuters or the AP, but that's about it.