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

[sailmac]

You do realize Aio Wireless IS AT&T, right? A lot of people don't realize this.

Yes indeed I do realize, that's why I titled my post "Aio Wireless - an AT&T subsidiary"

Thanks for pointing it out explicitly for others, though

So far it suits us fine. Same network, lower cost, less hassle.

 

[DaveWonders]

I'm smack in the middle of a 2 year contract with AT&T. I'm not eligible for NEXT until my contract is up. I know it makes sense because I got 2 new iPhones at subsidized prices a year ago but I wanted to jump on this.

 

[Statusnone88]

I currently have a Mobile Share plan and one of my phones is on AT&T Next. Can anyone find where I can change my plan to this "Value" plan? I can't see it on the website.

AT&T employee here. Can't give you too many details until Sunday, but it should be $15 per line. Each line will cost $40 and the data "chunk" will cost less than they do now, with the addition of the 8GB. So if you do Next, that cuts the line cost to $25 PER line. As of right now, you can only do 2 next per BAN (account).

Also tablet trade in is no longer in effect on Next. And "basic" phones will cost $20 on mobile share vs. the $30 on the regular mobile share.

These new plans are great. More expensive than T-mobile? Not by much. But you don't walk into the Audi dealer wondering why it's more a month for an S5 than the Kia Forte (great car still) at the other dealership. Well worth the extra money. Not because they cut me a check every 2 weeks, but because I've been a customer for 8 years.

 

[AppleScruff1]

It is still cheaper to do AT&T prepaid in some cases. It's $60 month for prepaid with 2GB data if you bring your own phone. And not taxes added to that either. So take 2 phones for example, $120 per month. With the new share plan, you are going to pay $150 per month to share 4GB, plus taxes and fees. In this example you are going to save about $50 a month.

 

[polzii]

The regular subsidy on a base model iphone 5S 16GB is $450, not $350 as some have stated. I'm not counting recent holiday prices.

Either way the $15 is not enough to compete with Tmo ( as long as u can get decent service from Tmo), especially in light of the fee bring raised to $40 from $30 per additional smartphone line.

For individual users, MVNOs still offer the best deal.

 

[CEmajr]

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.

- Which suburb you live in is irrelevant to the conversation. No one cares whether you live in a mansion or whether you live in the projects.
- Shoddy customer service can happen at any carrier store. I've witnessed it as a former customer with both Verizon and AT&T.
- All those people working in phone stores are working retail wages and don't make anything respectable. It's not a comfortable lifestyle sustaining type profession.

Unless T-Mobile coverage is bad where you use your service, I don't see any reason NOT to go with them. They have Verizon and AT&T beat all around when it comes to pricing, plan flexibility, and actually offer unlimited data so that customers can actually use those blazing fast LTE networks that all the carriers love bragging about.

I applaud them for putting the pressure on AT&T. They've definitely felt the heat this year as all their subscriber losses have shown, which is why they came out with NEXT and now this new offering. I guess AT&T's coverage isn't good enough to stop the defections to T-Mobile as people are fed up with their policies.

 

[donniedarko]

$500 for 50GB?
Here in Italy, even if it's not an equal comparison, the equivalent of $42 circa for 30GB of 4G LTE able to tether.

We are so dumb... we blindly pay so much, we are 5-7 years behind europe, 10-15 behind south korea etc in plans and tech. That said me speaking from a keyboard but living in europe I was floored with the openness and cost relatively speaking.

 

[tjl3]

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.

My personal phone is on their 4GB plan, I am already paying $40. So I suppose this will really benefit me, I reap the full $15 "discount" without seeing a price increase for data or smartphone. I'm also tethering my tablet to the plan, which makes this even more attractive and competitive to T-Mobile.

Well it is a start. Hopefully Verizon will get onboard too

Still I think the data plans should come down more when you are on a non contract phone.

Problem is that AT&T and Verizon are still thriving even with all the press T-Mo is getting w/ their off contract plans. Would they really benefit that much from lower margins when they are still the expensive choice?

I see this as AT&T's move against Verizon, more than it is against T-Mo. Trying to snag customers w/ this "discount" before Verizon.

Yet many AT&T and Verizon customers continue to dismiss T-Mobile out of hand. So annoying.

We recently switched all of our employees from T-Mobile to AT&T. While T-Mobile was saving us quite a bit, we constantly found ourselves w/ EDGE in our offices and walking between our buildings, which became unacceptable.

 

[darknyt]

AT&T employee here. Can't give you too many details until Sunday, but it should be $15 per line. Each line will cost $40 and the data "chunk" will cost less than they do now, with the addition of the 8GB. So if you do Next, that cuts the line cost to $25 PER line. As of right now, you can only do 2 next per BAN (account).

Also tablet trade in is no longer in effect on Next. And "basic" phones will cost $20 on mobile share vs. the $30 on the regular mobile share.

These new plans are great. More expensive than T-mobile? Not by much. But you don't walk into the Audi dealer wondering why it's more a month for an S5 than the Kia Forte (great car still) at the other dealership. Well worth the extra money. Not because they cut me a check every 2 weeks, but because I've been a customer for 8 years.

Can you clarify that regarding tablet trade-in? I just got an Air on Next and you're saying that if I were to switch to any of these new plans, I would NOT be able to trade-in at 12 months? Where is this spelled out in the fine print that we can read up on?

I assume if I DON'T switch plans I can trade-in my tablet at 12 months still?

Edit: appears at some point they removed tablet upgrades from Next, but not sure when? The fine print on the Next website already notes it now excludes tablets.

 

[Statusnone88]

Can you clarify that regarding tablet trade-in? I just got an Air on Next and you're saying that if I were to switch to any of these new plans, I would NOT be able to trade-in at 12 months? Where is this spelled out in the fine print that we can read up on?

I assume if I DON'T switch plans I can trade-in my tablet at 12 months still?

Edit: appears at some point they removed tablet upgrades from Next, but not sure when? The fine print on the Next website already notes it now excludes tablets.

I'm sorry you were misinformed, but the trade in thing ended a few weeks ago. If you bought it in a corporate store, and have the Customer Service Summary, read the page where it says "Optional: AT&T Next". If it doesn't state anything about the tablet, unfortunately it's going to be a 20-month payment deal. You can still pay it off in full and we'll buy it back through our trade in program for store credit, then apply that to your next tablet. Sorry for the miscommunication on your stores part.

 

[parseckadet]

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.

I get those speeds all the time on T-Mobile here in Houston. They even announced that they're going to bring 20x20 LTE to some markets by the end of the year. Some people have reported seeing speeds of 73mbps and more in the Dallas area.

 

[jtara]

Glad to see that the "I don't need unlimited talk and text" bugaboo only came up once on this thread. It's a non-issue. Unlimited talk and text costs AT&T apx. $0/month. Data is the tail wagging the dog today as far as costs and infrastructure investment.

Talk and text is a drop in the bucket, and thus the fact that you don't need it is irrelevant. The company is not offering a discount to you because your non-use of talk and text is not saving them anything.

It's like going to the car wash and complaining about the cost of the cheesy air freshener that you are just going to throw away.

"OK, here's your penny back, ma'am!"

----
An observation I have not seen: the new plan seems great for developers! We all have a bunch of old phones laying around. It would be nice sometimes to have them activated, because you might want to demo away from WiFi. And older iPhones can still be perfectly servicable to hand-down to family members. We usually don't bash our phones. (All but 1 just sit on on my desk.)

As well, we always need to have the latest phone, and that's less painful with Next. New phones come out more often than 2 years, so otherwise we get stuck having to pay full price or else waiting 6 months to a year and going without the latest.

 

[starkmj]

So...you seem like you know what's going on...

I'm sorry you were misinformed, but the trade in thing ended a few weeks ago. If you bought it in a corporate store, and have the Customer Service Summary, read the page where it says "Optional: AT&T Next". If it doesn't state anything about the tablet, unfortunately it's going to be a 20-month payment deal. You can still pay it off in full and we'll buy it back through our trade in program for store credit, then apply that to your next tablet. Sorry for the miscommunication on your stores part.

...so how does this new mobile share program work exactly? If you sign up for this plan, will ATT automatically drop you down from $40 a month to $25 a month when you've reached the 2 year mark on your subsidized iPhone?

Currently, I pay $152 a month on my family talk plan for 1 iPhone 5 (2gb a month data limit) which is still on contract, 1 iPhone 4 (300mb a month) which is off contract, and a dumbphone.

If I sign up for the 4gb mobile share plan, my plan will go up to $155 a month, but I'll now have 4GB of data to share.

Once my iphone gets to the end of it's contract in September, will my rate drop $15 a month?

 

[ThomasJL]

I am in the same boat. I really want to switch to T-Mobile to save money, but when I tested out their coverage with my unlocked iPhone, I couldn't get any bars in the places I used my phone the most.

I'm sure their coverage is getting better and as soon as they get coverage everywhere I need it, I will switch. Until then, I am stuck with AT&T.

I have a factory unlocked iPhone, and I am in the exact same situation as you. I really want to dump AT&T because I am sick of their intentionally deceptive pricing and practices (such as charging the same monthly rate for subsidized phones and phones that are no longer on contract or were never on contract to begin with due to being bought elsewhere factory unlocked). I will be very glad to switch to T-Mobile if their coverage is on par with AT&T's in the Silicon Valley area.

 

[Statusnone88]

...so how does this new mobile share program work exactly? If you sign up for this plan, will ATT automatically drop you down from $40 a month to $25 a month when you've reached the 2 year mark on your subsidized iPhone?

Currently, I pay $152 a month on my family talk plan for 1 iPhone 5 (2gb a month data limit) which is still on contract, 1 iPhone 4 (300mb a month) which is off contract, and a dumbphone.

If I sign up for the 4gb mobile share plan, my plan will go up to $155 a month, but I'll now have 4GB of data to share.

Once my iphone gets to the end of it's contract in September, will my rate drop $15 a month?

We don't have the details yet but I'm guessing it'll have to be switched in store. I doubt it would be automatic because things in our system have to be coded. Even if you bump up from an iPhone 4S to a 5s, we have to code the data differently even though we're not changing anything. For your setup? Seems like the VALUE Mobile Share would be optimal, then you can get an additional $15 off a month if you go no contact. (same phone, eBay phone, or even with Next)

These plans are great vs. the old Mobile Share. I'm really not just saying this because they cut me a check. It's a big step in the right direction. I think the only people who wouldn't benefit are customers who go to Value Mobile Share, but stick with 2 year contracts... Which if these past few months have taught us, carriers would LOVE to be done with subsidized pricing. Just my opinion though, not AT&T's.

 

[bniu]

We don't have the details yet but I'm guessing it'll have to be switched in store. I doubt it would be automatic because things in our system have to be coded. Even if you bump up from an iPhone 4S to a 5s, we have to code the data differently even though we're not changing anything. For your setup? Seems like the VALUE Mobile Share would be optimal, then you can get an additional $15 off a month if you go no contact. (same phone, eBay phone, or even with Next)

These plans are great vs. the old Mobile Share. I'm really not just saying this because they cut me a check. It's a big step in the right direction. I think the only people who wouldn't benefit are customers who go to Value Mobile Share, but stick with 2 year contracts... Which if these past few months have taught us, carriers would LOVE to be done with subsidized pricing. Just my opinion though, not AT&T's.

Mobile share value just helped me shave $35 off my monthly plan and the savings will grow to $50 a month once my last line is off contract in 9 months. I'm tired of phone contracts and much prefer this new plan. Plus with next, the total payments come out to about $100 less than the unlocked price, so I can upgrade when I want, pay it off when I want to get it unlocked, and after 18 months, the trade in offer at least gives me a "floor" price that I can use if I want to re-sell the phone. I think after 18 months, the AT&T next trade in would effectively be like $400 for a 64GB iPhone, at least I can tell my cheap-@$$ friends that they'd better pony up north of $400 if they want to buy my phone!

 

[Rockadile]

We don't have the details yet but I'm guessing it'll have to be switched in store. I doubt it would be automatic because things in our system have to be coded. Even if you bump up from an iPhone 4S to a 5s, we have to code the data differently even though we're not changing anything. For your setup? Seems like the VALUE Mobile Share would be optimal, then you can get an additional $15 off a month if you go no contact. (same phone, eBay phone, or even with Next)

These plans are great vs. the old Mobile Share. I'm really not just saying this because they cut me a check. It's a big step in the right direction. I think the only people who wouldn't benefit are customers who go to Value Mobile Share, but stick with 2 year contracts... Which if these past few months have taught us, carriers would LOVE to be done with subsidized pricing. Just my opinion though, not AT&T's.

Hi, our family contract plan is about to end this month so I'm back to getting caught up with all the new plans and pricing.

Right now, we have 2 smartphones (iPhone 4 & Galaxy S3) with 200MB each a month and a basic phone.
When the contract ends I want to upgrade to a 16GB iPhone 5S, keep using the Galaxy S3, add a iPhone 4S (BYOD), and a basic phone.

What would be the cheapest way to go about this for 1GB shared data?

 

[Statusnone88]

Hi, our family contract plan is about to end this month so I'm back to getting caught up with all the new plans and pricing.

Right now, we have 2 smartphones (iPhone 4 & Galaxy S3) with 200MB each a month and a basic phone.
When the contract ends I want to upgrade to a 16GB iPhone 5S, keep using the Galaxy S3, add a iPhone 4S (BYOD), and a basic phone.

What would be the cheapest way to go about this for 1GB shared data?

AT&T Next for the iPhone 5s. Make sure to trade it in at the 12mo mark, or if you do keep it the full 20mo you can resell it for street value as long as you take care of your phones.

 

[olegandbuster25]

at first i was against this Next thing, then i kind of got it... now I'm confused.

why are we paying "double"

phone is 650 full price (16GB cheapest one)
in one year I pay 324
give it back
get new phone with no downpayment
so... seems to me like I'm paying HALF the price of the phone, to be able to use it for a year, and get a brand new one @ no additional cost when the new one comes out...

What am i missing here?

 

[Statusnone88]

at first i was against this Next thing, then i kind of got it... now I'm confused.

why are we paying "double"

phone is 650 full price (16GB cheapest one)
in one year I pay 324
give it back
get new phone with no downpayment
so... seems to me like I'm paying HALF the price of the phone, to be able to use it for a year, and get a brand new one @ no additional cost when the new one comes out...

What am i missing here?

You're not. The math has changed a bit, since the phones are now $32.50 a month and a $15 credit to your bill if you're on the Value Mobile Share with Next.

Only people who wouldn't benefit much are multiple lines with high data on 2-year contracts.

 

[Rockadile]

AT&T Next for the iPhone 5s. Make sure to trade it in at the 12mo mark, or if you do keep it the full 20mo you can resell it for street value as long as you take care of your phones.

What if I don't want to upgrade every year? I don't have a problem keeping it nearly 2 years.
Does the value plan work on the other phones?

Thank you for helping me

 

[paperboyCCC]

I tried to switch to the new plan:

$45/mo 1gb
$40/mo 1st phone
$40/mo 2nd phone
---------------------
$125 total

from:

$40/mo 1gb
$45/mo 1st phone
$45/mo 2nd/phone
--------------------
$130 total

AT&T Cust Service said that this plan was only for new customers or customers that qualified for the $25/mo plan and they could not switch me.

 

[Statusnone88]

What if I don't want to upgrade every year? I don't have a problem keeping it nearly 2 years.
Does the value plan work on the other phones?

Thank you for helping me

Probably not worth it then. It really only holds value if you plan on trading it in.

 

[TXCherokee]

My bad....

Be careful, since this is a Apple based forum, you should be aware that the iPhone does not support this at this time.

Thanks for the heads up as I did not know this. I'm currently on Verizon and only knew this was a (potential) feature from T-Mobile's website. My apologies.

 

[Moorepheus]

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.

Not when you consider, if you trade in last years model and get 400+ for it (64GB). I have had the 3GS, 4, and 5, each time I never paid anything out of pocket for my new phones (except for the 5, I went from 16GB to 5 64GB, but I still got 225 for my 4, yes a 4 not the 4s, at an AT&T store). So, it's a wash for me, that is why I don't include those prices. So, yes, I pay for the first phone I subsidize, but after that, the trade in value is usually equal or greater than the subsidized price for new phone. I was ready to buy the 5s, but I don't see really any benefits, for me, anyway, to upgrade, but I was already offered 425 at an AT&T store for my 5 64GB. So, again, a WASH, no money out of pocket for the new iPhone.