AT&T Launches New Aio Wireless Prepaid Brand, iPhone Plans Start at $55/Month

[Jasoco]

I'm on Virgin and pay $30 a month for unlimited texting, 300 minutes of talk time that I haven't even used 1% of over the past 7 months and "unlimited" data on Edge because every time it switches to 3G the internet stops working.

I would consider switching to this if I could be guaranteed 3G that actually works in my area. As well as phone upgrades that come out in timely manners. (Virgin still only offers the 4 and 4S. I got the 4S. No sign of ever getting a 5 anytime soon.) If they can give me data that doesn't suck I would probably switch and swallow the $25 extra per month. Don't even care about the phone price. I mean I paid $650 for the 4S I got on Virgin. I guess I should probably keep it for another year at least to get my money's worth before switching to a new phone. (Since I assume I wouldn't be able to bring my Virgin/Sprint iPhone over to Aio/AT&T.)

 

[617aircav]

I don't really see a discount here. The base iPhone plan from AT&T is $70 WITH subsidy (unlimited Talk, text, 2GB data) they are not even discounting the full subsidy (only getting $360 off instead of $450 off the iphone)

for plan parity it should be $22.50 off the base iPhone plan or $47.50 per month, not $55. They are actually charging a lot more AND getting full price for the phone.

Wrong. The base price on Att is $90 with 450 min, unlim text and 3gb data.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Thank you very much. Seriously.

No problem. If you don't do this kind of stuff much, it can seem a little scary to be taking cutters to sim cards. But if you do the searches and use the templates, it all goes pretty smoothly.

If you go NET10, one BIG tip. Searches are going to point you to a New Zealand site to set up some settings for MMS and similar. We tried those over and over again but couldn't get the iPhone 5 to work. Then, we read a little further into the information that came with the NET10 sims to learn that they had a solution at a link on their own site (and the link is printed right in the 3-pack). In short, we wasted a few hours trying to make the New Zealand site instructions work when that NET10 link got it done in about a minute.

Good luck. It works well for us. Try it for a while then set up autobill and they'll cut the cost to $45. If you add someone else, they'll give them the same plan for $40. $85 for unlimited* text, data, phone is hard to beat. We don't see anything to miss compared to old Verizon or AT&T plans at about 2 or more times that rate.

One more thing: Along with the $15 for the sim pack, you do need to buy one month of service on a card ($50). So you might as well buy both at the same time. Use the card to cover the first month, then set up autobill if you decide you want to stick with them.

 

[Ajones330]

Wonder if there are plans to allow this on the LTE network. Think carriers are going to rethink the word "contract" now. Time will tell but looks like competition is starting to make companies realize its time to change their ways of thinking...

 

[yeah]

With 3 iPhones:

AT&T (Unlimited Talk & Text, 2GB Data)
Line 1: $55
Line 2: $55
Line 3: $55
AT&T Aio Total = $165

T-Mobile (Unlimited Talk & Text, 2.5GB Data)
Line 1: $50 + $10 (2GB Data)
Line 2: $20 + $10 (2GB Data)
Line 3: $10 + $10 (2GB Data)
T-Mobile Total = $110

Save $55/month with T-Mobile


AT&T is out of their mind if they are trying to compete with T-Mobile on price.

Well you forgot the $20 a month financing on T-Mobile phones (like the iPhone 5) but in the end for three lines that would be $60 extra on the T-Mobile side, so it would be $170 a month... But you don't pay full price for the phone at once (and once 24 months goes by, your bill drops).

Also you get fast 3G, 4G and LTE.

 

[aristobrat]

Correct. I even wonder if TMobile's move might have led to Aio. It doesn't seem like much of an AT&T tactic to roll out apparent savings for consumers. Maybe TMobile's move made them a little nervous.

I'm wondering if the timing regarding Aio and T-Mobile is just luck on AT&T's side. I'd imagine that spinning up a new company probably takes more time than T-Mobile's been talking about their "no contract" plan. I mean, when is the last time anyone saw AT&T react quickly to something?

I'm guessing that with AT&T pushing as many of its customers over to the LTE data network as possible, their 3G/HSPA data network (that they've paid a lot of money for over the years) is starting to look more and more empty.

Aio is going to start putting more new people back on that network. That network will start generating them more revenue again.

Seems like a smart thing for them to do. I'm guessing that with them creating a new company to resell the 3G/HSPA, they'll earn more money than having folks like Smart Talk, etc resell it for them.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Could be. Then again, AT&T was trying to buy Tmobile a few years ago so they had advanced knowledge of everything Tmobile planned to do from getting such an insider look. Tmobile would have had contingency plans if AT&T didn't buy them and AT&T probably had access to those plans.

Besides, with only 4 big players, I doubt there are really many secrets between them. Even if Tmobile kept this secret during the AT&T merger deal, I bet they all share one big bed when the lights go down at night.

 

[a-e-r]

Take your phone in Taipei and travel 500 miles to the west. Can you still use it? And 500 miles north. Still $20 per month?

There's your answer.

I live in the Bay Area, I am with AT&T. Just moving 100 miles north towards Eureka, east towards Yosemite or south on highway one leaves without reliable service. Data connections are a joke. At my home (in the middle of a bay area town) I don't have reliable service without my micro cell. I moved twice within the last couple of years, always needed the micro cell.

So what was your point?

 

[Komentra]

I think I will just stick with prepaid Straight Talk. $45/unlimited and works fine with my iPhone and in my area uses AT&T towers.

 

[a-e-r]

How big is Taiwan? How big is the US? If you want to set up full coverage LTE across the country it's gonna cost a company.

I would not complain (and even pay more than now) if I would get full LTE coverage across the country. But I don't. Not even 3G. Not even EDGE. Not even GSM without data. Plus I get dropped calls and super slow data in the middle of the Bay Area. And that's why I do complain.

 

[aristobrat]

I would not complain (and even pay more than now) if I would get full LTE coverage across the country. But I don't. Not even 3G. Not even EDGE. Not even GSM without data. Plus I get dropped calls and super slow data in the middle of the Bay Area. And that's why I do complain.

So there's no US carrier that supplies adequate coverage/data speed in the Bay Area + 100 miles out?

 

[xkmxkmxlmx]

I think I will just stick with prepaid Straight Talk. $45/unlimited and works fine with my iPhone and in my area uses AT&T towers.

But you don't get visual voicemail with ST, right? It is a deal breaker for me.

 

[gotluck]

But you don't get visual voicemail with ST, right? It is a deal breaker for me.

Youmail (appstore) works very well and even has extra features. I'm a happy camper.
I believe it only works with ATT ST Sims tho, AFAIK TMO ST Sims dont have conditional call forwarding that is required for youmail.


But yes, no official/stock visual voicemail.

 

[name99]

Unless you have a situation where you really need LTE speeds, I see LTE as mostly marketing spin. It makes little sense to have the roar of LTE speed and hard data caps on how much data you can burn (except for AT&T, Verizon, etc who love it when people burn through their data faster than ever).

LTE is not primarily about speed, it is about more efficient use of a limited resource. Theoretically WCDMA (ie HSPA) is 84% as efficient as LTE; but in practice LTE is substantially more efficient and growing so all the time. This is because
(a) it is easier to create a low-end CDMA receiver than a low-end OFDM receiver (which is why CDMA came first) but it is easier to continually improve the OFDM receiver than it is to continually improve the CDMA receiver.
(b) the physics of OFDM means it is easier to shape individual signals to the circumstances of the individual receiver, so the overall pool of spectrum can be optimally sliced up so that everyone makes the best use of it.

The point is --- more efficient use of spectrum doesn't mean that you get to download at 100Mb/s, rather it means that you, sharing the spectrum with 100 other people, get to download at 1Mb/s rather than 100kb/s. It means that you get a connection in situations where, before, the spectrum was so congested that you got no useful connection.

 

[osofast240sx]

for those trying to compare the two plans, would help a lot if you add totals and factor in the taxes and fees for the T-mobile service (AIO does not charge extras). you will quickly see that it's about the same price for both. now for the service, att's network is far superior to t-mobile and there is no question about that and here is why:
T-mobile operates a 1900 MHZ network where as att operates an 850 MHZ
for those of you knowledgble enough about the subject, an 850 wireless signal travels much better than 1900 (indoor penetration) and assuming the same number of cell site for both companies (att has far more cell towers) att would have a better coverage.

there are a lot more factors to consider besides frequency. 2 cell antennas both AT&T and T-Mobile 100 feet away you will not be able to tell the difference in building penetration. There are pros and cons to each. T-Mobile using 1900, 1700/2100 MHz will have a greater capacity network and will not get congested like AT&T currently is.

 

[CEmajr]

FWIW, there are only two carriers in a region that can operate at 850 MHZ -- the rest use 1900 and the other various frequencies.

Down here in the Mid-Atlantic (VA/NC/SC), AT&T has little to none 850 MHZ coverage. They operate at 1900 just like T-Mobile, Sprint, etc.

Where I live (in VA), it used to be Verizon and Alltel that had the two 850 blocks. But then Verizon bought Alltel, so as far as I can tell, Verizon has both 850 blocks here.

If anyone is curious, here is a link where you can type in your ZIP CODE and it will tell you which frequencies are being used by which carriers in your area:

http://www.wirelessadvisor.com/zipcode-search/4t8a8cdNen

Thanks for posting this I was not aware that AT&T didn't have 850mhz here in NC (Charlotte). That explains why I have similar experiences when it comes to building penetration with both AT&T and T-Mobile even though I always see people online saying AT&T has better building penetration. Good info.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

LTE is not primarily about speed, it is about more efficient use of a limited resource. Theoretically WCDMA (ie HSPA) is 84% as efficient as LTE; but in practice LTE is substantially more efficient and growing so all the time. This is because
(a) it is easier to create a low-end CDMA receiver than a low-end OFDM receiver (which is why CDMA came first) but it is easier to continually improve the OFDM receiver than it is to continually improve the CDMA receiver.
(b) the physics of OFDM means it is easier to shape individual signals to the circumstances of the individual receiver, so the overall pool of spectrum can be optimally sliced up so that everyone makes the best use of it.

The point is --- more efficient use of spectrum doesn't mean that you get to download at 100Mb/s, rather it means that you, sharing the spectrum with 100 other people, get to download at 1Mb/s rather than 100kb/s. It means that you get a connection in situations where, before, the spectrum was so congested that you got no useful connection.

I appreciate the technical lesson. If true, it seems then that AT&T, etc can utilize more efficient use of spectrum to either up the caps and/or lower the prices. But that's not what we get. From us consumer's point-of-view, LTE is about moving data to us quicker (whether more efficient than 3G or not), the tollmasters bill by how much data flows to us. So it's great that 100 of us can download at 1Mb/s- especially for AT&T, Verizon, etc who sit there watching as we all hit our limits faster than ever and then ding our credit cards again and again to feed our data habit.

Having an improved connection is definitely a benefit- one that benefits both parties. For example, if there so much data congestion that we can't burn through data very quickly, we can't get to those caps so they can ding our credit cards again. I wonder if LTE is really about doing something good for us consumers or doing something good for AT&T, Verizon, etc. As soon as data caps are firmly in place, national cellular data speeds can take a big leap forward. That's like the late 90's when as soon as the crowd owned gas guzzling SUVs being fed with cheap gas, gas prices spiked up to several dollars per gallon and have stayed there since.

Don't get me wrong. Moving along on the technological trail is generally a win. It's these artificial pieces- like ever-tighening caps vs. ever-faster data burn- that lessons the win (unless you're AT&T, Verizon, etc).

 

[a-e-r]

So there's no US carrier that supplies adequate coverage/data speed in the Bay Area + 100 miles out?

Yes there is. I was referring to "full coverage LTE across the country", the comparison between the size of Taiwan and the US and to my own personal experience with AT&T compared to t-mobile and some european carriers.

I do know from friends that both Sprint and Verizon beat AT&T where I live. A friend of mine lives 100 miles east from here, and the only coverage at her house is by Sprint.

My points are:

a) Coverage
No american carrier provides full coverage. They do cover most populated areas and the mayor highways. Which makes sense to me. Why put up a cell phone tower in the middle of the desert before covering the major cities. (BTW: Carriers often state their coverage reaches "99% of the population", not "99% of the area".)
Even spots that, according to AT&T coverage maps, provide 3G coverage don't always provide any significant data. Also I experienced a lot of dropped calls in areas that were supposed to be covered. So: The map does not always tell the truth.

b) Comparing the US with other countries
I understand that comparing the US situation to the one in Taiwan, the UK or wherever else is not that easy.
It is not only about size of the country, it also concerns
- density of the population
- wages/salery of personal
- leasing/rent for property and cell phone towers
- taxes
- license fees
- government regulations (the EU put a lot of caps on e.g. roaming costs within Europe)
- but also how much a customer is willing to pay. Unregulated companies with no real competitions take whatever they can get away with.

c) Comparison between AT&T and t-mobile
My company gave me AT&T, I can not change to an other provider. But I got myself a portable WiFi that runs on t-Mobile because I can not get decent data connections by tethering with AT&T. I hear a lot about the ****** coverage that t_mobile provides compared to AT&T. My very own experience in this limited part of the US is opposite to that. last time I went to Eureka my iPhone was on AT&T, while my iPad was on t-Mobile, and t-Mobile had the better coverage. Like I said, just my own humble experience.

d) Subsidies
Since I travel a lot to Europe I need an unlocked phone. Still my company pays for the subsidy towards AT&T that we did not use for years. So I do complain about the fact that AT&T does not offer bring-your-own-device plans.

Hope I could de-confuse you

 

[Komentra]

But you don't get visual voicemail with ST, right? It is a deal breaker for me.

I don't even know what visual voicemail is so I don't mind, lol.

 

[xkmxkmxlmx]

Youmail (appstore) works very well and even has extra features. I'm a happy camper.
I believe it only works with ATT ST Sims tho, AFAIK TMO ST Sims dont have conditional call forwarding that is required for youmail.


But yes, no official/stock visual voicemail.

Awesome, good to know! Thanks

I don't even know what visual voicemail is so I don't mind, lol.

It is where you can see a list of your stored voicemails and play them individually by selecting which one you want instead of calling into your voicemail.

 

[name99]

I appreciate the technical lesson. If true, it seems then that AT&T, etc can utilize more efficient use of spectrum to either up the caps and/or lower the prices. But that's not what we get. From us consumer's point-of-view, LTE is about moving data to us quicker (whether more efficient than 3G or not), the tollmasters bill by how much data flows to us. So it's great that 100 of us can download at 1Mb/s- especially for AT&T, Verizon, etc who sit there watching as we all hit our limits faster than ever and then ding our credit cards again and again to feed our data habit.

Having an improved connection is definitely a benefit- one that benefits both parties. For example, if there so much data congestion that we can't burn through data very quickly, we can't get to those caps so they can ding our credit cards again. I wonder if LTE is really about doing something good for us consumers or doing something good for AT&T, Verizon, etc. As soon as data caps are firmly in place, national cellular data speeds can take a big leap forward. That's like the late 90's when as soon as the crowd owned gas guzzling SUVs being fed with cheap gas, gas prices spiked up to several dollars per gallon and have stayed there since.

Don't get me wrong. Moving along on the technological trail is generally a win. It's these artificial pieces- like ever-tighening caps vs. ever-faster data burn- that lessons the win (unless you're AT&T, Verizon, etc).

So what is your alternative? The physics is what it is.

IMHO the REAL problem here is that people have the crazy notion that it makes sense to use a very limited resource for frivolous purposes like watching YouTube or Pandora, and then are upset that this notion does not square with reality. (I'm not criticizing Pandora or YouTube per se --- people can do what they like; but to think that you have a "right" to use them anywhere and everywhere, rather than just using them where WiFi and ethernet are available, and listening to/watching stored content otherwise, is silly entitlement.)

This is no different from previous such delusions, eg mass fishing --- then being upset when the fisheries collapse; or gas guzzlers from the 60s, then being upset in the 70s when the price of oil rises.
You can usually find a human agent to blame for the problem --- the fishermen from some other country, the Arabs, ATT; but the human agent is just the deliverer of bad news --- you can't fight physical laws.

 

[Taz Mangus]

I don't even know what visual voicemail is so I don't mind, lol.

http://www.gci.com/kb/visual-voicemail-iphone

 

[theBB]

Keep in my ST doesn't offer AT&T SIMs anymore. The SIMs you order off their website are now T-mobile only. I really like my 4S on Straight Talk with an AT&T SIM, but I wouldn't even consider ST if it was on T-mobile.

I was not aware of that, thank you.

 

[OatmealRocks]

way too expensive

i split a $266 bill with my inlaws. 4 smartphones, 10GB shared data, unlimited minutes/text and phone subsidies.

----------

Of course it would be expensive if you are comparing a plan split 4 ways. Try apples to apples. Single plan with similar allowance.

----------

So I'm assuming this is going to use the current AT&T network correct? Straighttalk still seem like a better deal. Especially since you still can't access the LTE network.

Straighttalk is better but ATT sims are no longer sold and even with it, the DL speed is pathetic and barely usable.

 

[slu]

That article was from January. My cousin's girlfriend got her Straight Talk phone last week, activated it, watched 3-4 YouTube videos of a few minutes each and had her data terminated the following day without notice.

Here are a few recent (today!) Facebook complaints, below, about data usage:

That article can be printed on fine paper, then use it to wipe your behind with it. They are FULL OF SH-T!

https://www.facebook.com/StraightTalkWireless?ref=stream

Here is my anecdotal evidence. I have used ST for 4 months now. My wife has as well. We have not one single problem.

Frankly, I don't believe that YouTube story. And if you read the ST Facebook page, you must know the intelligence level over there is not high.