Still rockin' that original iPhone unlimited plan from 2007. Might be time to upgrade. Been considering Verizon. Bit more but includes Apple Music and some other services. Curious what others think?
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AT&T Raising Prices on Legacy Plans to Encourage Customers to Upgrade to New Plans
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According to your contract with them, they only have to give advanced notice of any update. But you then have 90 days in which you can break the contract due to them changing such (if you're under contract anymore).
You have the right to get out of it at that point. Most choose not to and just accept the increase, but you certainly have the ability to do so.
You get Apple Music / Apple Arcade for free, which tells you what a loss-leader those must actually be for Apple. I'm in that level because I got grandfathered into them (have been on VZW since 2010), and can't be bothered with the mess that is Apple Music.
I pay for Spotify, which also sucks now that they've shoved all the podcast cr*p into the interface, but its much more usable than Apple Music will ever be. Why you'd *ever* use Spotify as a podcast catcher, I have no idea.
Free Disney+ hasn't worked since the day they added it to my plan... VZW and Disney just keep pointing fingers at each other and I couldn't care less anyway, it's just Disney.
I'll second that most companies have been good about grandfathering plans to leave things as-is. Sometimes the new plans are cheaper/better depending on how many lines and what features, but sometimes the old ones are better (so each individual needs to weigh the pros/cons to switch). There have only been a few instances where people had price hikes to "encourage" them to move off of legacy plans. I think Verizon did it with the legendary gUDP (grandfathered Unlimited Data Plan) and AT&T did it for folks on the original iPhone unlimited plan when they were in the capped-data-plan era. As Sprint customers get transitioned to the T-Mobile billing system, there have been a few price adjustments, often replacing a plan+tax/fees for a slightly higher-priced plan that has taxes/fees included (in most locales, the end result is a wash).
In the old days with contracts, any change to your plan could give you an out, so they'd leave things as-is and then get you to sign a new contract when it was time. Now, with device payment plans being the only thing binding you to a service, most carriers could make plan changes on a whim, but it's a mix of history and that some select customers are still on contracts (retention, business, etc.)
Other than that, things have mostly been left alone (even prepaid where they could screw with stuff has mostly stayed stable). All three have kept various legacy plans in place and in some cases can put you on one if you ask nicely (T-Mobile has discontinued the $3/month PayGo plan and I got them to switch my spare line to it last week). AT&T killed off their pay-as-you-go plans that go back to the GoPhone era, but left anyone who had it alone.
While I can nitpick and complain about things with T-Mobile, they at least have stated that they'd leave legacy plans alone: https://www.theverge.com/2015/3/18/8249169/t-mobile-uncontract-announced and modified the language a bit last week: https://tmo.report/2022/04/t-mobiles-new-price-lock-guarantee-affects-existing-customers-too/ (basically still keeping prices the same, but add-a-line goes at current rates, which isn't totally unfair). There's even people still using plans with the $5-$10 T-Zones bolt-on from 15+ years ago for data that have been left alone (only works iPhones and some BYOD Android.)
For the people on the prepaid $15/$25 Connect plans, I'm not sure if those will go away after the 3 years post-merger, as they're priced in a spot competitive with MVNOs and definitely get your foot in the door with a little bit of data. (AT&T and Verizon also have in-house prepaid plans that are $25-$35.) Plus, they expanded the offerings last month, adding a $10 and $35 option, which leads me to believe they see it as a worthwhile offering. Then again, they could do what AT&T/Cricket did with their $15 "pandemic plan" and increased it almost immediately.
Well it's only 16 if you are also a customer of their wireless service, 24 otherwise, but yes a good price.
Yeah, sort of reminds me of the bundling that the cable companies are doing here (if you have home internet + wireless, there are some inexpensive plans) or the new Verizon 5G services (select phone plan at normal price + 5G Home Internet for $25).
Thanks for sharing some facts. I appreciate it. The one missing fact is what the US Govt spent the $112 billion on. It's not like they do anything for it except run an auction. I realize it would only pay for 224 B1 bombers, but it seems like a lot.
You think you get screwed down there! You should try finding anything of value in Canada!!
I have an old Unlimited plan because I live in the sticks so I have a truly unlimited LTE hotspot for like $25 a month. I can't even get an unlimited hotspot plan at any price on AT&T AFAIK.
Good question! I'm pretty sure that all auction proceeds go into the general federal pot o' money. From there, it's anyone's guess.
all the major carriers suck, I've been with all 3 over the past 5 years... currently Verizon. I had a total cellular outage for several hours spread throughout the day on and off last week in SoCal. Couldn't make a phone call or send an sms text. If I didn't have WiFi available I wouldn't have been able to contact anyone. Of course nowhere in my bill this month will that be compensated.
I know someone still on the original UDP AT&T offered like ten years ago. They're missing out on feature and the current plans are cheaper.
So you're paying at most $66 per line. You can get ATT unlimited Elite plan for a total of $70 a month, $10 discount from FAN, $10 discount from autopay, unlimited everything, mobile hotspot, free hbo, etc. Sure you'll save more when you use less data on Spectrum, but is it really worth it?
You would most likely save money with the current plans and gain more features. You should actually look into it, instead of holding on just for the sake of holding on.
To be honest, switch to the new plans, if you have ipad’s, iphones, tables, hell even if you have an iphone thinking you save money on your plan just because of the older plan you would be surprised how it completely changes for the better, promotions and data included all things considered.
This happened to me, for the longest Time I held on to the plan just because of this but because i had an ipad and iphone i was actually paying more money for the same data plan i could use on just the iphone itself that bleeds on to the ipad, now I actually pay less and get more in the long run to be honest.
This happened to me, for the longest Time I held on to the plan just because of this but because i had an ipad and iphone i was actually paying more money for the same data plan i could use on just the iphone itself that bleeds on to the ipad, now I actually pay less and get more in the long run to be honest.
I remember when the Mobile Share plans saw a $5-10 increase some years ago, but were given extra data. It's a shame they didn't at the very least add 5G data speeds to Mobile Share plans with this upcoming price increase.
AT&T is planning to raise the price of older Unlimited plans in order to encourage customers to upgrade to newer plans, reports Bloomberg. Single line users can expect to pay up to $6 per month more, while family plans are increasing by as much as $12.
The pricing increases apply only to customers who are grandfathered in to older AT&T plans, and will not affect customers who have an up to date plan. AT&T offers three unlimited plans, including the Unlimited Starter Plan, Unlimited Extra Plan, and Unlimited Elite Plan.
Current plans are priced starting at $65 for a single line or $35 for four lines as part of a family plan. AT&T employees have been instructed to offer new plans to customers who call in about the increased charges for older plans, which will start in June.
AT&T says that it is encouraging customers to switch over to a newer plan because the newer plans offer "many additional features, more flexibility for each line on their account and, in many cases, a lower monthly cost."
Customers who will see price increases are going to be receiving an email from AT&T about the change, but AT&T has not provided specific details on which older plans will see the price hikes.
Article Link: AT&T Raising Prices on Legacy Plans to Encourage Customers to Upgrade to New Plans
Well, if they were serious about wanting me to change plans, they'd let me do it on their web site.
What a freakin concept!
Instead, trying to make any changes to my plan, sends me to a page telling me to call customer service.
I've tried this, off and on, a couple of times a year for the past three years.
Each time, I wait on hold for at least 45 minutes, until I'm eventually disconnected.
SMFH
At this point, I'll probably switch to T-mo rather than deal with ATT's useless customer service line even one more time. There's a limit to even my stubbornness?
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Awww, too bad that I can't be punished for not upgrading yet. I dropped AT&T for that 'V' company, and got way more features, and way better coverage for LESS MONEY!
Abusing your customers rarely turns out well. (What cinched the move was being berated on the phone for asking about international cell service coverage which had been so simple to get prior to past trips) All of a sudden I was a liability, something to be browbeaten, shamed and lectured for not wanting to drop my existing legacy plan. BYE BYE AT&T...
Abusing your customers rarely turns out well. (What cinched the move was being berated on the phone for asking about international cell service coverage which had been so simple to get prior to past trips) All of a sudden I was a liability, something to be browbeaten, shamed and lectured for not wanting to drop my existing legacy plan. BYE BYE AT&T...
Given that ONLY unlimited plans support 5G, I wonder if they just didn't implement their data cap system on their 5G network yet, so they can't offer anything but unlimited for 5G right now.
Funny, I finally got off of my unlimited plan from 07 or whenever because of this. Watch TV and Spotify Premium. Figured those were good deals and made up for the difference in cost. First Watch TV got cancelled. Then Spotify got nixxed. Now I get HBO Max, which I was previously paying for, but to your point, how long until that's gone?
Last time I updated my account was so I could get the package with at&t watch tv included, which was dicontinued over a year ago after the they sold off DirectTV. Currently I get HBO Max bundled with my cell and fiber internet. How long before HBO Max is no longer included in any plans with the split off of WBD?
Do any of the providers do a better job at delivering voicemails/VM notifications if you miss a call when you have little/no signal? Just had a VM arrive from three days ago. Had been left when I was was outside of any coverage area or wifi... sigh.
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They may not exactly 'force' you, but they can sure use a big stick, and try to 'coerce' you to go their way. To me, raising fees is a d*ck move. Aren't they already extorting more money out of the legacy plans?
I'm getting 'unthrottled' bandwidth AND 5g and 5gUW as well, and 'free' hotspot too. And paying less than AT&T.
Don't change plans, change providers. I did. Glad for it too...