AT&T Introduces New Smartphone Data Plans w/3GB and 5GB Options

[NoHo]

Exactly. This may sound crazy, but I'm actually considering dumping my unlimited data for the 3G plan. Why get throttled at 2GB when for the same price I can get 3GB?

Because eventually with how fast mobile technology is moving, you're going to be using a lot more than 3GB.

Just because you don't use that much now doesn't mean you won't in the future when everything is digital. Data consumption has increased almost exponentially in just the last year, imagine what it's going to look like in another year when there's a 4G iPhone, but you can't use it as much as you want because you will go over your data plan.

They WANT people to get rid of their unlimited plan for the 3GB plan for the same price because eventually they can charge even more when 3GB isn't very much. That's why they introduced a 5GB plan. Data usage is increasing and they want people to pay more for an allotted amount than pay less for an unlimited amount.

 

[Surreal]

The problem is that the plan isn't actually charging JUST for your data usage. It's ALSO charging the balance on some smartphone that people think costs $200. For example, if I buy an iPhone for $200, and ATT pays Apple my $200 plus another $400, then ATT has to find a way to get that money from me. Over two years, that's about $17 / month just to make up the difference interest-free.

This is a valid point. Unfortunately the prices do not change when you bring your own phone. This is actually the worst part of the deal. Lowering the price for people who did NOT get a subsidy would make the whole situation more transparent and palatable but that is not how it goes.

 

[bniu]

How about just simplify things and offer just a single rate of $10/GB

Individual user: $20 for 2GB. (Essentially min purchase of 2GB)
Family account: $30 for 3GB pooled. (Essentially min purchase of 3GB)

And how about just include tethering for free with these rates? You might just get people to actually pay for and be satisfied with service rather than pissing people off???

 

[gaggenau]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/9A405)

The consumers in US need to rasie against the expensive Data plans. Here in Sweden i get a 10GB at 10mbit and mobile hotspot dataplan for 22 dollars a month. If I'm using more Than the 10GB they Will lower my speed. I think Consumers need do to something soon.

 

[Nielsenius]

This is a complete BS way of raising the price of data. I'm a very happy AT&T customer, but this strategy is complete and total ********. AT&T knows that the additional 1 GB or 100 MB per user doesn't impact their network. This is simply a way of tacking on an extra $5 to an already expensive plan. I'm glad that the T-Mobile merger didn't go through. Otherwise, AT&T would be taking this **** to the next level.

 

[something3153]

You're AT&T's wet dream. They want more customers like you.

Why is complaining about AT&T's prices on here treated differently from complaining about Apple's prices?

 

[cvaldes]

All right everyone, here's how to lower your AT&T iPhone bill, assuming you don't use a TON of data every month. This will help some people (those who don't need a ton of minutes and data), and be irrelevant to others.

Use their Pay As You Go system. No contract and amazingly affordable plans.

For $25/month, you get 250 minutes and unlimited texts. (Unlimited minutes is $50/month.) Pay $25 up-front and you get 500MB of data, then $5/month for 10 megabytes will allow you to roll it over every month. (I use under 50MB every month so this lasts a lonnnngg time for me.)

So essentially you pay $25 up front (for the 5GB data package), then $30/month afterward for everything. If you buy an iPhone 4S unlocked and go with this plan, it's all more than paid for in under 10 months (and you're not tied into a contact).

When you're not already locked into a contract, this is a GREAT plan. Can't beat paying $30/month for everything you need.

I'm doing the same thing, although I am using Google Voice to handle calls and text (free).

I'm averaging about 100MB of cellular data per month, plus about 20 minutes of calls per month. With the stronger WiFi signal at home and work, I'm not using any cellular data in those places. I'm using Talkatone (free VoIP via Google Voice) for outgoing voice calls at home. My monthly cell phone expenses are working out to about $12.

The great thing is that every cent I am spending is going to something. I'm not spending money needlessly, accumulating rollover voice minutes that I'll never use. Cellular data is rolling over; that's the biggest thing with the Pay As You Go plan.

Texting via Google Voice does go over WiFi or cellular data, but cellular data is far cheaper than AT&T silly text plans (where the user is paying exorbitant fees for the tiniest bits of data).

just have email pushed to my phone eats 10-15MBs daily for me, which puts me right up against that 200MB ceiling at the end of a month. that leaves me with what, five to ten minutes of web browsing afterwards?

the 200MB plan is a joke.

As I mentioned, WiFi has a stronger signal at my work and home. Plus, over the years I've cut back on a bunch of my e-mail subscriptions so even if I'm on cellular data (which is mostly weekends when I'm out of the house), it's not a lot. Basically, I'm only using cellular data on weekends.

Again, that's my particular usage. Mobile operators have different offerings to service different folks.

I'm fine with paying $12 per month to AT&T because paying more would be a waste of money.

 

[fullmanfullninj]

AT&T needs to bring back the unlimited data plan, Sprint offers unlimited data for a very reasonable price only $30 and At&t whats to charge $50 5gb thats crazy

I don't think you can just compare to Sprint like that. First off, Sprint has data plans built into their plans. This is both good and bad. For a family plan, if only one or two people (out of say three or four) want a data plan, they have to pay for at least an Everything Data Family plan, which includes unlimited data on all lines. So whether mom and dad want data or not, if son and daughter want data, they're going to pay for 4 lines of data.

You are right and wrong about the $30 data plan. That is a "feature" you can select if you just want minutes. That data feature is not compatible with "Everything Message" plans; meaning if you want unlimited texting AND this 30$ feature, you aren't going to get it (upgrading to the Everything Data plan would be cheaper).


And you can't just stack ATT and Sprint side by side. ATT has around 107m subscribers compared to Sprint's 53m. Sprint, having half the subscribers of ATT can offer unlimited data because it has (arguably) enough resources to manage and avoid network congestion. ATT (arguably) cannot. This is why Verizon got rid of their unlimited plans too. Admittedly, their infrastructure was stronger than ATT's and could handle more connected users/usage which is why they just axed the unlimited plan (mid-2011 compared to 2010).

 

[nottooshabby]

Because eventually with how fast mobile technology is moving, you're going to be using a lot more than 3GB.

Just because you don't use that much now doesn't mean you won't in the future when everything is digital. Data consumption has increased almost exponentially in just the last year, imagine what it's going to look like in another year when there's a 4G iPhone, but you can't use it as much as you want because you will go over your data plan.

They WANT people to get rid of their unlimited plan for the 3GB plan for the same price because eventually they can charge even more when 3GB isn't very much. That's why they introduced a 5GB plan. Data usage is increasing and they want people to pay more for an allotted amount than pay less for an unlimited amount.

It will be interesting to see if they continue throttling unlimited plan users at 2GB with the new 3GB plan becoming available. Maybe they will increase the threshold to 3GB. At that point you are basically stuck at 3GB of data, but at least you won't be hit with an additioinal $10 charge

 

[pdxa4]

It will be interesting to see if they continue throttling unlimited plan users at 2GB with the new 3GB plan becoming available. Maybe they will increase the threshold to 3GB. At that point you are basically stuck at 3GB of data, but at least you won't be hit with an additioinal $10 charge

Agree, they may set their new throttle limit to 3GB...but with AT&T who knows ?

 

[Gemütlichkeit]

Omg it's a whole FIVE DOLLARS extra a month. Calm the eff down.

where/when does it end?

 

[AJH1993]

AT&T = Worst carrier ever. Verizon FTW

 

[mKizzo]

Ouch. It's starting to get ridiculous for the US. I'm currently paying US$30 a month for unlimited data, including hotspot in Taiwan.

 

[goobot]

That was pretty stupid to remove the 15$ plan honestly, They should have just bumped up the $15 plan from 200 mb to 250 mb like the iPad and just add that 5 gig plan while leaving the 2 gig alone.

 

[Macboy Pro]

AT&T = Worst carrier ever. Verizon FTW

Buy a several hundred dollar iPhone. Then save a few bucks and put it on an antiquated, turtle slow network, with limited features.... FTW.

LOL

 

[AriX]

Holy ****. I mean seriously. And we thought that having more options in the market would make for better competition... what a bunch of greedy bastards. Thank God I can still pay $30 for my unlimited data.

 

[Tiger8]

All right everyone, here's how to lower your AT&T iPhone bill, assuming you don't use a TON of data every month. This will help some people (those who don't need a ton of minutes and data), and be irrelevant to others.

Use their Pay As You Go system. No contract and amazingly affordable plans.

For $25/month, you get 250 minutes and unlimited texts. (Unlimited minutes is $50/month.) Pay $25 up-front and you get 500MB of data, then $5/month for 10 megabytes will allow you to roll it over every month. (I use under 50MB every month so this lasts a lonnnngg time for me.)

So essentially you pay $25 up front (for the 5GB data package), then $30/month afterward for everything. If you buy an iPhone 4S unlocked and go with this plan, it's all more than paid for in under 10 months (and you're not tied into a contact).

When you're not already locked into a contract, this is a GREAT plan. Can't beat paying $30/month for everything you need.

You should compare Apples to Apples. AT&T (on purpose?) don't have their Go Mobile plans related to their contract plans, and they do this on purpose: They don't want their contract customers to convert to pay-as-you-go easily after the contract is over. 250 minutes are not enough if the iPhone is your only phone, and the $50 is an overkill.

 

[malman89]

I guess another example of why I'm glad to be on Virgin Mobile. The 5GB data plan is more than my monthly phone bill ($40 + stuff = $42.40). I get 1200 minutes, unlimited data/text, no restrictions on tethering, and get to piggyback off a solid network (Sprint).

I've had it since this past March and haven't looked back. VM does occasionally throttle if you do some seriously monthly usage and their network is probably slower than AT&T's 3.1G speeds, but it's worth the no contract and no hassles.

 

[Versus]

I get what you're sayin' NoHo. My anal retentiveness would never allow me to get rid of my Unlimited data plan, anyway.

What I don't get, however, is why AT&T don't just tell all of us Unlimited guys to piss off? I signed a 2 year contract in which I got what I paid for. When the contract was up don't they have a right to change the terms? My rent went up after the lease was up. How is this any different? I guess it was an attempt to show "loyalty" to their existing customers and make sure they keep us onboard, but we know it's all a smokescreen, anyway. Why even BS about it?

 

[AJH1993]

Buy a several hundred dollar iPhone. Then save a few bucks and put it on an antiquated, turtle slow network, with limited features.... FTW.

LOL

Buy a several hundred dollar phone on a one-dollar, paper mache network. Then have fun with dropped calls, slow 3G speeds, and throttled unlimited data. Top it off with horrible coverage and horrible tech support... FTW.

LOL

 

[cfedu]

And I thought Canada was bad. We pretty much have two major providers, Bell and Rogers. Everyone else has contracts using the towers of those two companies. And what do they offer? It's called a "Flex Plan".

Telus has there own towers, videotron has there own towers, wind has there own towers, mobile city has there own towers, public mobile has there own towers, sasktell has there own towers etc.

Bell and telus do share some of there towers, and some pay as you go companies share the big 3's towers.

 

[MrNomNoms]

To the complainers on this story, sorry to say this 'brah' but 'I feels for a ya' given that the free unsustainable ride that the US mobile industry has been on has come to an end - mobile tower capacity is limited and packages that are tiered on a per megabyte/gigabyte is the most efficient way to divvy up that limited capacity. Before even commenting on my post claiming that they're just being greedy and there are no capacity constraints - scan me a copy of your engineering degree with a minimum of 10 years in the industry before criticising what I have to say.

Oh, and btw, these are the prices 'we' deal with from where I come from - and guess what, most other countries are like that:

 

[cfedu]

Here in Canada, the best plan we can get is 5 GB. I'd seriously like to know what percentage of customers will go with (and stay with) the 500 MB plan.

I recently took a trip within the country and didn't realize until the end of the second week of it how much I really depend upon my WiFi connection at home. My plan is 5 GB, and I ran out about half way through the trip (about two weeks before the end of the month). NOT looking forward to the bill on that one, because I know I went way...way...over. And this was under normal usage conditions too.

Many companies offer 6 gb for $30 or 6 gb in there text/ data plans

 

[h00ligan]

Wish I had the unlimited data before they took it away.

This plan is irrelevant now, if you pay the $30 for unlimited, as soon as you hit 2gb they throttle you anyway. They say it's based on top 5% usage but that's an outright lie. W have records that show every single time you get near 2 gb whether it's early in the month or late, you get throttled.

The unlimited plan is basically pointless for anyone with heavy data needs.

Personally, I want to know when we can get a 50 mb for $5 data plan. The main issue I have with this is the minimum amount is now higher for those who stick to wifi regularly. Which is a lot of people.

I you want to go tiered, fine, but don't double dip. Offer plans for 50 mb, 100 mb, 200 mb, and price accordingly.

 

[NoHo]

I get what you're sayin' NoHo. My anal retentiveness would never allow me to get rid of my Unlimited data plan, anyway.

What I don't get, however, is why AT&T don't just tell all of us Unlimited guys to piss off? I signed a 2 year contract in which I got what I paid for. When the contract was up don't they have a right to change the terms? My rent went up after the lease was up. How is this any different? I guess it was an attempt to show "loyalty" to their existing customers and make sure they keep us onboard, but we know it's all a smokescreen, anyway. Why even BS about it?

They would have if SPRINT wasn't around. When the 4S was introduced, most people (like myself) had skipped the iPhone 4 assuming the iPhone 5 would be introduced the following June. It wasn't. So a lot of people just stuck with their 3GS until the next gen of iPhone was released even though their current 2 year contract was up a long time ago. And when the new iPhone was introduced, SPRINT came into the game offering unlimited data.

There are a lot of people on grandfathered unlimited data plans and if AT&T wouldn't have let them keep it when they went to 4S, then they would have gone to SPRINT. I know I would have.

AT&T doesn't want anyone on unlimited because they want people to get used to paying for how much data they use instead of paying the same amount to use as much as they want. They saw the way people became used to unlimited home internet and how hard a time the home broadband companies are having in implementing tiered pricing there, so they wanted to introduce tiered pricing and get rid of unlimited data before their customers got used to it.