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AT&T to End Traditional Voice/Data Plans, Adopt Mobile Share for New Customers on October 25
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That's just it: they KNOW people don't require unlimited data/texts. This is little more than a guaranteed revenue stream. Want data on your smartphone? Gotta pay for voice/SMS as well.
If i could find a program that can SMS to non iPhones for a decent price and can port my telephone number over to something like Google Voice or Skype I would happily just use my iPad Mini phablet style and be done with it.
And yes I've started looking at such options
Because the market keeps expanding. When the costs of acquiring new customers becomes larger than the cost of retaining existing customers, then we'll see the magic of competition taking its effect on prices.
Problem there is that for many folks, like myself, T-Mobile's network absolutely stinks. There are a lot of dead spots here in the town I live with T-Mobile and once you leave the city limits you're done.
They absolutely have AT&T beat in terms of price, but what's the point if the network stinks?
It would be great if T-Mobile or Sprint were a competent national alternative to AT&T and Verizon, but, for now, they aren't.
Or I could pick up three more phones from my provider (Virgin Mobile), put each of them on the lowest plan (300/unlim/unlim), and pay... $120 a month for the four of them. Even if I splashed out for three more iPhones, I'd still be $500 ahead per phone at the end of two years over a "traditional" $70 / month subsidized plan. If I grabbed their $50 low-end Androids, I'd be even further ahead.
Sorry, ATT, but you will NEVER get me as a customer.
Tmobile doesn't provide coverage when you leave the interstate so I fail to see how they will ever be a player
What free roaming speeds does AT&T give you? And how many free international texts does AT&T give you? And how many minutes can you call from Singapore to the US for $0.20?
Answer is AT&T = none\nothing.
If you don't see this as a completely revolutionary step in wireless, you're clueless. At 128kbps, you can do email, iMessage, web surfing, navigation, etc. And if you use it a lot, you can rack up 300 megabytes in a week quickly.
So say you travel internationally 2 weeks a month like me. I currently pay about 120 a month for 800mb of data... and I have to watch my usage like a hawk to make sure I don't go over. So at MINIMUM I save $1440 a year with the new plan, not to mention the discounted calling, free texts (currently 50 cents EACH with ATT).
It's a no brainer, this changes everything.
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I guess if you live in areas of the country where "the interstate" is a term people use for getting around, then T-Mobile might not be the plan for you... I suppose if I lived somewhere in the middle of Iowa, maybe it'd make sense to me, but living in a major city in California, and getting on an airplane to get from one city to another, having coverage "off the interstate" doesn't mean much to me. I had T-Mo 10 years ago and their coverage was fine... actually was better than VZ and on-par with ATT. But then again, I didn't leave major cities and I didn't feel the need to venture "off the interstate" ...
For me, this would actually be a savings.. why?
My wife has an iPhone, and we have 2 tablets with data plans. This would be cheaper, especially if we add another tablet.
The new plans are not great if you have a lot of phones, there are good if you have a lot of tablets.
My wife has an iPhone, and we have 2 tablets with data plans. This would be cheaper, especially if we add another tablet.
The new plans are not great if you have a lot of phones, there are good if you have a lot of tablets.
Thumbs upp to carriers a$$es!!!
Good trend that T-mo started. People are going to move to prepaid anyway.
I am sure there will be "data" revolution too. Already T-mo $30 plan is awesome but there will be more competetion.
Good trend that T-mo started. People are going to move to prepaid anyway.
I am sure there will be "data" revolution too. Already T-mo $30 plan is awesome but there will be more competetion.
Likely the same reason you would buy a Kia over a Lexus, or buy a roll of tin foil at the dollar store instead of the grocery store. People are willing to make certain trade-offs in order to save money, and certain trade-offs are worth it to some, others are not.
There are many of us who live in major metropolitan cities where the coverage is about the same among all of the carriers. Sure I could name a dead spot on T-Mobile or Verizon, but at the end of the day in most large (defined by top 100 for the sake of argument here) cities, the coverage is fairly reasonable among the 4 carriers.
I really don't care if I can't make a call up in the hills above Bozeman, Montana, and I really don't care if LTE isn't available yet in Grand Forks, Iowa (or is Grand Forks in Michigan????). I care that when I land somewhere (in a plane) that the phone works at the airport, to the hotel, in the hotel, in the downtown area, etc.
Because people want shiny new handsets at "discounted" (translation: subsidized) prices, not realizing they'd still be paying it off ten-fold in hidden fees. :/ Charging $500 for 50GB data is like charging $50 for a loaf of bread. Disgusting pricks, these carriers.
It's the American way... ENTITLEMENT. We feel entitled to things we cannot afford, therefor we sign into contracts that strap us to the wall then blame everyone else but ourselves for our actions. It's a sad state we've become as a country. When I buy a car, I save up and pay cash. Most people finance and spend twice the car's value on interest. When I buy a new phone I pay cash so I can say bye bye to a carrier if something better comes out. I pay the same net cost as anyone else on a two year average, but I am in control, not the carrier. And when I buy a car, I'm in control because they can't play games with interest rates and hidden finance charges.
Funny you mention that, there's a whole lot of tin foil, entitlement, and other silly fringes in this thread.. guess those are the folks with time to post endlessly..
This is going to be a tough decision for me since AT&T has served me well in Philly, especially when I commute on the subways.
However, as much as it's amazing to call/text or surf the web underground, AT&T's decision to end traditional voice/data is making me leave regardless.
Can anyone tell me if I'm able to upgrade 2 existing dumb lines to iPhones (for total of 4) after the 25th without getting Mobile Share?
However, as much as it's amazing to call/text or surf the web underground, AT&T's decision to end traditional voice/data is making me leave regardless.
Can anyone tell me if I'm able to upgrade 2 existing dumb lines to iPhones (for total of 4) after the 25th without getting Mobile Share?
Nope, but there are a whole lot here who expect to have unlimited everything on as many devices as they want for $10 a month.
Basically the same cost as my current plan, perhaps even $5 cheaper. So no big deal. The real issue will be how will the annual price increases go - similar or larger increments?
Huh? No, I don't think it's that. I think people are just starting to realize that we pay one of the highest cost per use for cell phones in the world, and we have carriers that deliver sub-par service for that expense..... and finally there are carriers that start offering lower prices for more features which then corrects expectations. If everyone sold the same car at $25,000 and a dealership opened and was selling the car for $20,000, the others would have to adjust or do something to keep their customers. Cell carrier are more or less the same these days for those of us residing in medium to large cities. And those residing in medium\large cities do make up the majority of cell customers.
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Annual price increases?
My needs haven't changed much since 2001....
In 2001 I paid an average of $150 per line for voice\data to meet my needs.
In 2005 I paid an average of $100 per line for voice\data to meet my needs.
In 2010 I paid an average of $75 per line for voice\data to meet my needs.
In 2013 I paid an average of $48 per line for voice\data to meet my needs.
In 2001 I got 180 minutes\300 sms\and just mobile web
In 2005 I got 400 minutes\1000 sms\and just mobile web
In 2010 I got 1200 minutes\unlimited sms\and unlimited gb of data
In 2013 I get unlimited voice\unlimited sms\2 gb of data
So I'd say the pricing has never gone up.... at least not for me or anyone I know. It's not gone down proportionate to the rest of the technology world, but as a country we've kinda done it to ourselves.
And that's the higher price for the first line, as you add additional lines, the price goes down per line.
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And remember that T-Mobile's plan is actually unlimited data, it's just that they will throttle it after the amount you pay for, in this case 2Gigs.
I was able to switch to a single phone plan by calling Verizon and crying about how the shared data plans are of no benefit to me whatsoever and I'm forced to pay for things I don't need e.g. unlimited texting. They switched me to a single user plan on the spot.
Incorrect, for $70, you get truly unlimited high-speed LTE data, you're thinking of the $60 plan that throttles after 2.5GB
Actually, here is what I expect us to see in the long term:
Unlimited Text/Data (and I mean unlimited, including tethering) and In Country Calling
First Line: $30/month
Each additional Line: $10/Month
Optional Addons:
Unlimited International Roaming - $10/month/line
Unlimited International Calling - $10/month/line
If Amazon ever gets into the mobile phone service business, I would expect those prices to be cut in half.