AT&T Raising Price of Grandfathered Unlimited Data Plans to $45 Per Month

[Exile714]

This is a class-action lawsuit. How can you modify a "grandfathered" plan?

OK, I'll bite since you've assumed everybody is familiar with US phone rental jargon. What's a "grandfathered" account?

Sorry, I don’t know if any of the answers you’re getting are really clear, so hopefully this helps both of you:

When a person signs up for a cellular service contract, the term of the contract used to be two years and if you ended early you had to pay a penalty fee. You could buy a phone for much less than the full price because the cost of the phone was included in the price for cellular service, with the penalty meant to cover the remaining cost of the phone you would have paid over the full two years. At the end of those two years, the penalty would drop off, but oddly enough your bill would remain the same, so you’d basically be paying monthly for a phone you never received. This was a major profit grab for cellular service companies, so they wrote their contracts to extend month-to-month indefinitely in order to keep these people paying more than others for a contract with no new phone.

Well, it turns out those original contracts with unlimited data weren’t such a good idea for cellular service companies even at the higher rate! So they created limited plans and told people they couldn’t keep their unlimited plan AND get a cheap phone when their contract renewed. Some people just started buying their own phones because they knew the unlimited data was more valuable than the discount on a new phone. But because the contracts had those permanent extension clauses, the cellular service providers were out of luck.

Of course, there are clauses which allow the companies to set new rates from time to time, but there are regulations and common law rules restricting those rate increases which is why they didn’t just jack up the price to $1000/month (which would be seen by the courts as unreasonable and effectively canceling a contract, which is not allowed).

Also, that $45 figure is misleading. Most companies used to charge X for phone, Y for text, and Z for data. Now they just charge one price for all of that together. The price you actually pay for a grandfathered unlimited plan is much higher than just the $45 data component.

 

[sundog925]

Part of my reason for keeping mine is because ATT seems to want me off it. I don’t trust them. Is there any difference between the old grandfather’d unlimited plan and the newer ones?

LOL same with Verizon. I just like to stick them every time I call or go in the store

 

[zedsdead]

There's no point to keep these anymore since they don't grant subsidies for the phones and throttle at the same rate as the other unlimited plans. I switched to the newer ones once those came out.

Strongly considering T-Mobile.

 

[iapplelove]

I still am on the original unlimited data plan. I use about 12gb of data a month so I’m happy with this unlimited version.

I never get throttled and even with it going up 5 dollars twice in two years, after an employee discount my bill is never over 90 a month.

Fine by me.

 

[SoN1NjA]

This just in: AT&T raises prices just like any business does and customers who feel like AT&T owes them something are upset

 

[psingh01]

Switched to T-Mobile years ago. Overall cheaper $75/mo. If they’ve throttled me from time to time I’ve never noticed and I use a ton of data.

 

[cmChimera]

I'm so confused. ATT went back to offering unlimited plans (thanks T-Mobile!) with throttling starting at 22GB. From what I've seen, ATT also throttled the "grandfathered" unlimited plans. Soooo, what's the point of staying on a grandfathered plan at a higher price?

It’s not cheaper for everyone. It’s more expensive for me to switch the new one, because Att will cancel my discount.

 

[MikhailT]

I have a lot of trouble understanding this line of thought. Businesses raise prices on products and services all the time. There is thing called inflation, and it costs them more money to operate year over year. Do you want to sue the grocery store because chicken costs more this year than it did last year? Ha, there is some old person somewhere angry because a gallon of milk used to cost .20 cents.
We are getting a very entitled attitude here in America now.

Your line of thinking is what companies love, it is what allowed these companies to generate increasing profits every year. Are you actually advocating that businesses are allowed to raise prices all the time regardless of reasons? That's how health care insurance got to where it is now with hospitals charging 10K for a simple IV injection where they actually cost less than a dollar. I suggest you check their sheets, if the inflation was a problem, their expenses would've jump higher to match, they don't and sometime, they're lower. Also, not all expenses increase in cost ever year; such as bandwidth costs (wired transfer between each endpoint) is constantly dropping for the past few decades. Radiowave spectrum is not unlimited, so the expense is in adding more towers but the long run is cheaper with more customers. So, it is not as simple as you make it sound and no, businesses do not increase prices all the time for inflation, they often do it for different reasons, especially if they're for-profit with shareholders.

Inflation has zero to do with this, they're not losing money, they have a different unlimited plan that has the same "unlimited" perk with slightly more limits (with more hidden fees) that the grandfathered plans don't have. If ATT can't afford the "inflation" and the expenses, they should not have an unlimited plan in the first place and they shouldn't have a cheaper one that is more customer-hostile than the said grandfathered plans.

Oh by the way, ATT is already been fined by the government about different actions they took against the grandfathered plans and FCC confirmed the methods they took before had nothing to do with network management but merely to enhance the revenue, just like what they're doing here. The only difference is, this is sadly legal.

They're not losing money on this, they're intentionally raising the price to get rid of the grandfathered members to switch to the other plans. That's just a business trick, it's a well known established process that works. Raise the price of a service plan to move everyone over to the cheaper but more limited plans. It has ZERO to do with inflation but a business decision made that's meant to generate more profits.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

This is a class-action lawsuit. How can you modify a "grandfathered" plan?

Obviously you didn't bother to read what you signed in the user agreement.

$15 increase in 11 years isn't horrid. You always have the option to switch to a different unlimited plan.

 

[AmazingRobie]

Hate AT&T. They're a bunch of D bags, I guess that's why they found the perfect partner in Apple. Birds of a feather...

 

[/"\/oo\/"\]

Part of my reason for keeping mine is because ATT seems to want me off it. I don’t trust them. Is there any difference between the old grandfather’d unlimited plan and the newer ones?

I went through this process a couple months ago, and for the life of me couldn't find any meaningful differences beyond the cost and the newer plans including tethering. So far, so good and about $25/month cheaper.

Like you, it seems clear to me that they want people off of these plans, and maybe it's for some benign accounting/bookkeeping reason, but it'd be nice if they clearly communicated why...which is never going to happen.

 

[Xavier]

I don't have any grandfathers left, but thanks anyway AT&T.

 

[WannaGoMac]

I am surprised there are still people who care about these plans? They are really limited in features, the new plans provide enough data or unlimited, and you get far more features (like unlimited texts, voice, and tethering) on the new plans.

Additionally, ATT just stinks compared to the other carriers in populated areas.

 

[joemama]

As a long time ATT customer, this might be my breaking point. Does it make sense for my "unlimited" monthly bill to be $180 for two lines (even after a 17% corporate discount). We pay for unlimited data, limited voice minutes, and $30 texting plan. Is this normal for those on unlimited plans?

Lately, I've noticed ATTs service is VERY slow, and I didn't know they cap speeds after 22GB, which means this isn't really an unlimited plan at all. Can someone tell me if my monthly cost of $180 seems right, and more importantly, why should I stay with ATT? Aren't most, if not all carrier's plans now unlimited up to a certain amount of GB? What's special about ATTs "unlimited" plan anymore?

I don't mind switching, but I want to make sure I get a better deal and don't regret leaving my unlimited plan. Thanks!

 

[npmacuser5]

I have a lot of trouble understanding this line of thought. Businesses raise prices on products and services all the time. There is thing called inflation, and it costs them more money to operate year over year. Do you want to sue the grocery store because chicken costs more this year than it did last year? Ha, there is some old person somewhere angry because a gallon of milk used to cost .20 cents.
We are getting a very entitled attitude here in America now.

Businesses are the entitled ones today. They just received a huge tax windfall, another windfall in tariffs, and individual tax cuts. All have given businesses the green light to raise prices. Essentially businesses got a triple tax windfall, ours being taken back rapidly to net zero. And this is how they say thank you. The entitled ones just plain greedy today.

 

[Baymowe335]

You still get throttled with the grandfathered plan.

Read what I said again. I meant you get throttled with grandfathered plans, making the unlimited data worthless.

 

[gugy]

This is why I left AT&T after 13 years for T-Mobile over 3 years ago.

I am considering this move. Not because the plan costs on AT&T but because TM seems to give way more bang for your buck. I use my phone mostly in SoCal and I would think coverage on TM would be just fine.
Also the international data usage free on TM is a huge plus.
I’ll probably switch at year end so I can see what the new iPhones will be and maybe some promotions then.

 

[macsrcool1234]

I have no problem with this.

People who are too cheap to buy a home internet connection are abusing the hell out of this and using it as their primary internet for an entire household.

Time to pay up.

 

[macduke]

Ehh, just switch to T-Mobile if service is decent in your area. The coverage is good enough nowadays in most places. Especially if you have a newer devices made in the past couple years that takes advantage of newer spectrum.

I pay $72/mo for three unlimited* iPhone lines and one iPad line with 2GB of data. The * unlimited caveat is if I go over 2GB of data per month, I get charged a single fee of $10 per line that goes over. Realistically this isn't actually a fee but I basically get a $10/line discount for staying low. I go over most months, so realistically my bill is $82/mo. My wife and grandparents never go over on their lines. But if everyone goes over in one month, the bill is only $102 and each line can use up to 50GB of data before being throttled. $102/mo for 150GB of data split equally among three smartphone lines plus 2GB of tablet data is extremely low.

My bill is so low that I'm actually considering paying for a data plan on my Apple Watch Series 4 when that debuts this autumn. The trick when signing up with T-Mobile is looking at different discounts at different times of the year and seeing which ones you can combine. Some people say I was lucky but I was vigilant when watching their deals over the past few years and struck when the iron was hot in Spring of 2017.

 

[themick4u]

...And now I am DEFINITELY leaving AT&T! They should be LOWERING their ridiculous prices, NOT raising them! Their competition is going to win my business.

 

[BearBert]

Shouldn't this plan be called the 22GB plan not unlimited? What's unlimited about being speed throttled at 22GB?

Because you aren't throttled, you're deprioritized after 22gb, big difference.

 

[vartanarsen]

Why are people not using Cricket? Identical Data Pans on identical AT&T Panel antennas for half the price

​

 

[tooloud10]

Hate AT&T. They're a bunch of D bags, I guess that's why they found the perfect partner in Apple. Birds of a feather...

There are other providers of phones and data plans than ATT and Apple. Which combination do you think you could switch to that it is going to be markedly better? Google/Sprint? Samsung/Verizon?

Just like the cable companies--people bitch about a specific provider like the whole industry doesn't pretty much work the same way.

 

[bjangles]

Wow, my grandfathered plan seems to go up more often than my salary

 

[Braderunner]

As a long time ATT customer, this might be my breaking point. Does it make sense for my "unlimited" monthly bill to be $180 for two lines (even after a 17% corporate discount). We pay for unlimited data, limited voice minutes, and $30 texting plan. Is this normal for those on unlimited plans?

Lately, I've noticed ATTs service is VERY slow, and I didn't know they cap speeds after 22GB, which means this isn't really an unlimited plan at all. Can someone tell me if my monthly cost of $180 seems right, and more importantly, why should I stay with ATT? Aren't most, if not all carrier's plans now unlimited up to a certain amount of GB? What's special about ATTs "unlimited" plan anymore?

I don't mind switching, but I want to make sure I get a better deal and don't regret leaving my unlimited plan. Thanks!

Just do it. You won’t regret it.