Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

AT&T Launching New 'Mobile Share Value Plans' with Monthly Discount, 18-Month 'AT&T Next' Option

Thanatoast said:
You know, as far as I'm aware t-mobile doesn't do shared data. It's a minimum charge of $70 per smartphone and like $40 for a tablet with a decent amount of data. With my wife and our four devices it's cheaper to run AT&T with shared data. Dunno about this Next plan though, I'll have to look into it.
Click to expand...


You would benefit from reading the T-Mobile plans, your initial understanding is incorrect.
 
Important to note that you really only save $5 per month if you are an existing customer since they jacked up the per phone price from $30 to $40.
 
sirozha said:
I live in one of the wealthiest suburbs of Atlanta....
Click to expand...

What has that got to do with anything?

The name of this company should be Ghetto Wireless, DBA T-Mobile. It's amazing a German company can run such a shoddy business.
Click to expand...

Oh, now I get it. So you're claiming that you're entitled to better service than someone who lives in another suburb because you clearly make more money than they do. And anyone who has T-Mobile must live in the ghetto, is that it? But when other carriers offer bad service, such as when AT&T flat out lied to me about building a tower near by for two years, or sold me a micro cell that didn't work, or dropped calls every other minute everywhere I went, or claimed they offered LTE service when in reality couldn't even deliver speeds up to 1kbps, or refused to unlock my phone after being a customer for 6 years unless I paid them $95 because I had a single day left on my contract, that's not ghetto. :rolleyes:
 
when did AT&T discontinue the "individual & family plans"?

now all they have on their website is the "shared plan"
 
Next press release:

AT&T is excited to announce a new plan that you're forced to use! With this new plan, everyone will only have to pay $15 more per month! But this option is the best ever because we call it the Sharefinity™ plan. With Sharefinity™, everyone can share as much data as they want, up to two whole gigabytes for only $15 more! To clarify, it's exactly the same, but it's called Sharefinity™! And for those who want to save $15/mo they can always shell out a minimum $650 for a new phone. That's the power of Sharefinity™!
Click to expand...
 
I'm really happy to see this, as contract plans was pushing me away from AT&T. I prefer using unlocked devices and think buying a device every 2 years is too frequent, especially with the last few generations of phones. And I hate leaving money on the table by not using upgrades (and I don't want the hassle of selling phones either).

My contract is ending this month, and I was planning a switch to T-Mobile -- I may reconsider this now. My wife is on T-Mobile and I am on AT&T, and we were debating whether she should switch to AT&T, or if I should switch to T-Mobile (to save money via family plans). I have always had better service on AT&T than she has on T-Mobile, but she always has had an older-generation iPhone that doesn't support T-Mobile 3G frequencies (currently the 3GS), so it's not a fair comparison.

I bought her an unlocked iPhone 5S for Christmas. So she can use it on T-Mobile and see if coverage improves. I have a 4S, and switching to T-Mobile would means I wouldn't have the T-Mobile 3G frequencies, but I live in a city where they are doing reframing, so maybe I'd get decent HSPA+ service. I'll probably hold off on the switch to T-Mobile and instead switch to AT&T's Mobile Share Value plan which will save me $25/month ($95 450min/200text/5GB w/ tethering -> $70 1GB Mobile Share Value -- I don't use a lot of data, but I require tethering). And then we can see how the coverage compares before either of us switches.
 
My current bill, with 4 iPhones, 3 on contract 1 off contract, 1 Nokia 920, on contract (So, all smartphones) (2 unlimited, 2 @ 2Gb and 1 @ 3Gb), & 3 phones with insurance, my bill is about 306 a month.

The kids use data like it's candy, so I would need at least the 10GB plan.

So, the original Family Share plan

10GB ($120) + 5 Smart Phones ($30 x 5 = $150) = 270 + 30 (insurance) = 299.97...and this is before taxes...now add in the fees and taxes, on my current bill it's @ $30 total, so 329.97 for my phones

New Family Share Plan

10GB ($100) + 5 Smartphones ($25+1 (off contract) + 40x4 (on contract) = $185) = $285 + insurance $30 = 315 + taxes $30 = 345.

Ok, still no savings or benefit to move to either one of these plans

Now, lets look at the phones on my plan. 2 are 64GB iPhones and those are $37 per month on the AT&T NEXT, so that $74 a month + $50 (25 per smartphone no contract or $124 for those phones....or do I just pay $80 on contract.

2 phones are 16GB, which would be $27 a month on the AT&T Next program...again, 54 + 50 = 104...More expensive this way still.....

Again, AT&T is not saving anyone money. They just want MORE of our money.

Nice try AT&T, but I will keep what I got.
 
Last edited:
Isn't that simple fact YOU need to go to a T-mobile store to get that easy access 200MB free data plan an indication that sometimes customers are also clueless??

I guess if you can't figure out that thingy on your iPad within 5 min, it is reasonable to expect you complain about everything, regardless how wealth an area you live in, which is another totally irrelevant issue to even mention :)

sirozha said:
I live in one of the wealthiest suburbs of Atlanta. I went to a T-Mobile store a couple weeks ago to check out their plans and to get their 250 MB free data offering for an iPad. I spent 1.5 hours talking to the manager, who could not figure out how to activate the free data plan on my new iPad Air. She called for support multiple times, was transferred many times, and finally told her that the customer needed to call Apple for support. In the meantime, I witnessed other customers trying to get their business done and having a similar experience. One guy tried to get his Verizon number ported, and the port got stuck somewhere in the middle, so he ended up without a working phone. The customer service reps working at the store were completely clueless. Not that it's better than a Verizon or AT&T store, but at least, when Verizon or AT&T clerks need to call their tech support, they get support. T-Mobile support was completely useless, and even the store manager admitted that. This was a corporate T-Mobile store - not a reseller, and it looked good - it just was a complete disaster. I watched other customers getting aggravated over the amount of time they spent at the store but not getting their issues addressed. One guy started shouting at the store clerk, who was a complete idiot. My desire to switch to T-Mobile disappeared while I was at the store.

It is absolutely not worth it for any professional to attempt switching to T-Mobile to save a couple bucks. The only reason to go with T-Mobile is either if one is a student and counts every penny, or if the area one lives in has poor AT&T or Verizon coverage. You get what you pay for. With T-Mobile, you will get a very sketchy service with no support. If you are lucky not to have to ever call support, and the service is good in your area, and you don't travel much, then you may be satisfied. Otherwise, the savings are not worth the aggravation. They pay minimum wages to their store clerks, so they get the school dropouts who can't get a job elsewhere.

The name of this company should be Ghetto Wireless, DBA T-Mobile. It's amazing a German company can run such a shoddy business.
Click to expand...
 
Moorepheus said:
Now, lets look at the phones on my plan.
2 are 64GB iPhones and those are $37 per month on the AT&T NEXT, so that $74 a month + $50 (25 per smartphone no contract or $124 for those phones....or do I just pay $80 on contract.

2 phones are 16GB, which would be $27 a month on the AT&T Next program...again, 54 + 50 = 104...More expensive this way still.....
Click to expand...

Don't forget the cost of the phones. The 64GB phone is $400 on a 2-year contract plus $36 upgrade fee ($436 over 20 months, that is $22/month). So your real total is also ($40 + $40 + $22 + $22) = $124/month for the 2-year contract phone.

The same goes for the 16GB iPhones.
 
I've never seen so many people complaining about having more options and being able to save money.

Must be evil AT&T at it again...:rolleyes:
 
zorinlynx said:
Knocking $15 a month off an obscenely overpriced plan only turns it into a merely ridiculously overpriced plan.

You can do so much better with T-Mobile; why do they even bother? They need to cut plan prices across the board.

I only have another nine months in my contract, then I'm off to T-Mobile. AT&T can suck a... you know.
Click to expand...

LOL, the suck a… is the network you will be on once you switch to T-Mobile. I get 30Mbit consistently in Florida on the AT&T network. Good luck with T-Mobile.
 
Under these new rates, my bill would actually go up by a few dollars per month. :mad: Hoping they don't switch me over automatically.
 
jdechko said:
Under these new rates, my bill would actually go up by a few dollars per month. :mad: Hoping they don't switch me over automatically.
Click to expand...

Seems that's the standard way to raise cel phone plan prices. Discontinue older, less expensive plans, but let people keep them if they already have them. Force new customers onto new, more expensive plans.

- Old customers don't complain because they can stay on their plans.
- New customers pay more.
 
wkadamsjr said:
I've never seen so many people complaining about having more options and being able to save money.

Must be evil AT&T at it again...:rolleyes:
Click to expand...


You must've missed the posts from people saying their bill would go up from current options.
 
AT&T Next Actually Cost Less than 2-year Contract

I ran the numbers on AT&T's Mobile Share Value Plans. I wanted to see if a 2-year contract or AT&T Next is cheaper. This assumes you keep the phone for 2 years.

2-year contract
Cost of iPhone 5s 16GB = $200
Activation Fee = $36
24 months x $40 phone fee = $960
Total Cost= $1,196

AT&T Next (keep phone for 2 years)
Cost of iPhone 5s 16GB = $0 down
Activation Fee = $0
20 months x $27 AT&T Next fee = $540
24 months x $25 phone fee = $600
Total Cost = $1,140

So you would save about $56 over 2 years with Next. ($20 if you get the activation fee waived).
I think having no contract with an option to upgrade after one year for about the same price is a good way to go.
 
I can double my data for $15/mo = Good news for me, mainly due to new 8gb tier.

On the 4gb $70 plan, and new 8gb is just $90 - with my work discount, it's just $15 to move from 4 to 8gbs.
 
I refuse to switch to these Mobile Shared Plans. The prices are just outright ridiculous. I'll stick w/ my $114 bill for 2 iPhones & wait for the iOS 7 jailbreak to tether my iPad mini :D
 
sailmac said:
I switched three unlocked iPhones to Aio Wireless. Fixed price, unlimited talk/text/data. Data throttles after a certain amount, but so far has been entirely usable.

It runs on the very same AT&T network we've been using for years.

For us, it's been a big money saver and has stripped away much of the BS inherent to the post-paid AT&T plan we were on previously.

If you are using AT&T, are off-contract, and have (or can do) unlocked device, it's worth checking out Aio. I'm not syaing it's a slam dunk for everyone, but for us it was and might be for you.
Click to expand...

You do realize Aio Wireless IS AT&T, right? A lot of people don't realize this. :p
 
Macboy Pro said:
LOL, the suck a… is the network you will be on once you switch to T-Mobile. I get 30Mbit consistently in Florida on the AT&T network. Good luck with T-Mobile.
Click to expand...

Yeah this is my big hesitancy to switch to T-mo (used to have them before LTE) or even away from AT&T. The speed tests done recently showed AT&T was roughly TWICE as fast in my city on average than next closest, Verizon.

Speed rules. I'll pay for it.
 
Thanatoast said:
You know, as far as I'm aware t-mobile doesn't do shared data. It's a minimum charge of $70 per smartphone and like $40 for a tablet with a decent amount of data. With my wife and our four devices it's cheaper to run AT&T with shared data. Dunno about this Next plan though, I'll have to look into it.
Click to expand...

You miss some important details. T-Mobile family plan is $100 a month for 4 lines with unlimited data.... you get roughly have a gig of 4g per phone and then drop to 3g speeds (most carriers drop you to 2g) at $25 per phone.... that's damned cheap. 5 lines is $110!

If you need more 4G data, you can add it on up to unlimited 4G.

Even adding the unlimited 4G, you can't beat the price....
 
zorinlynx said:
Knocking $15 a month off an obscenely overpriced plan only turns it into a merely ridiculously overpriced plan.

You can do so much better with T-Mobile; why do they even bother? They need to cut plan prices across the board.

I only have another nine months in my contract, then I'm off to T-Mobile. AT&T can suck a... you know.
Click to expand...

T-Mobile doesn't have the same coverage that is why ... At&T and verizon have way better coverage... The old saying that holds true to everything.. YOU PAY FOR WHAT YOU GET .... I work for AT&T and T-mobile is the most customer we have porting #s over cause of poor coverage... So in 9 months be ready to get what you pay for and then sum.....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back