Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
AT&T to End Traditional Voice/Data Plans, Adopt Mobile Share for New Customers on October 25
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
oh my lolz. $200 for 20GB & $500 for 50GB? what ever it is they are smoking, they should stop. like, right now 
what a rip off, im glad i live in the UK, i get 5000 network to network minutes, 5000 cross network minutes, 5000 texts, and unlimited data with tethering for £40 a month, and i got my phone free with that contract
I've been trying to think why ATT believes that 95% of their customers will see this as a positive thing. I know there are families with crazy text message needs and 1-3 teanagers as well. Also there are the geeks/work families with multiple 4g devices. Still, that's not 95% according to my "gut". So, here is my theory as far as making up the difference to the 95%:
What ATT is trying to address and also thinks are the 95%, are the customers that have added lines in order to be able to get new phones or "pretend" they are a "family" to share the cost.
With this new data share, the game of adding a line in order to get a new subsidized smart phone will end since each smartphone wont be just $10 per month + Data. The same goes for people pretending to be part of the same household to save on a bill, at least not if you want a smartphone.
50,000 foot view:
Whether you feel we did this to ourselves (as customers gaming their system) or if they are just copying Verizon to gain more revenue, you can choose to acknowledge that Verizon and ATT's goal is to continue to keep wireless a "premium" (just short of luxury) service. They can't go the way of Cable, DSL, Fiber or they may find themselves having to race to the bottom.
TMobile is also playing the "premium" game but focusing more on service and value to achieve it. But that's what you have to do when you're the underdog. Sprint is playing a similar underdog game but is hamstrung by their technology and cashflow issues.
What ATT is trying to address and also thinks are the 95%, are the customers that have added lines in order to be able to get new phones or "pretend" they are a "family" to share the cost.
With this new data share, the game of adding a line in order to get a new subsidized smart phone will end since each smartphone wont be just $10 per month + Data. The same goes for people pretending to be part of the same household to save on a bill, at least not if you want a smartphone.
50,000 foot view:
Whether you feel we did this to ourselves (as customers gaming their system) or if they are just copying Verizon to gain more revenue, you can choose to acknowledge that Verizon and ATT's goal is to continue to keep wireless a "premium" (just short of luxury) service. They can't go the way of Cable, DSL, Fiber or they may find themselves having to race to the bottom.
TMobile is also playing the "premium" game but focusing more on service and value to achieve it. But that's what you have to do when you're the underdog. Sprint is playing a similar underdog game but is hamstrung by their technology and cashflow issues.
family plans are less churn which is people leaving to another carrier. since everyone has different contract end dates its almost impossible to close an account
churn is expensive since it costs a lot of money to attract new customers
churn is expensive since it costs a lot of money to attract new customers
Better value is not the same thing as lower cost. It is better value if I get unlimited talk and text along with my data allotment for a cheaper price than I could get it now. But if they are forcing me to only be able to pick an unlimited phone plan where I may only need the minimum now, it cannot compete with price on that setup. So yes better value for the money but value means nothing if what they are giving me and I am paying for is something that I don't need.
Ultimately, this is a much more fair plan, because customers are actually paying for what costs the company - bandwidth. 500GB/month costs so much because - well, because 500GB month costs them plenty to provide. In a modern LTE network with an LTE phone, voice and text cost them next to nothing, and so now they will give it away.
Those old dumb phones actually cost them money. Voice technologies prior to LTE reserve bandwidth for voice. Not only is it reserved vs. relying on average statistical need, but voice and data are actually allocated in separate frequency bands. Thus, if there is excess capacity in the voice spectrum, that isn't used to provide more data bandwidth - it is simply unused. This is quite inefficient, as the full reserved bandwidth is not often needed.
They need to boot the old dumb phones off of their network, and this is one way to encourage that.
Those old dumb phones actually cost them money. Voice technologies prior to LTE reserve bandwidth for voice. Not only is it reserved vs. relying on average statistical need, but voice and data are actually allocated in separate frequency bands. Thus, if there is excess capacity in the voice spectrum, that isn't used to provide more data bandwidth - it is simply unused. This is quite inefficient, as the full reserved bandwidth is not often needed.
They need to boot the old dumb phones off of their network, and this is one way to encourage that.
Would it make you feel better if they charge people who use more voice minutes more?
If so, would you like them to charge according to their cost plus a reasonable profit, or would you prefer that they charge an arbitrary amount that makes you feel better?
I'd imagine the rates if related to costs would be something like this. (Added to whatever you pay for data.)
400 minutes $1
1000 minutes $2
5000 minutes $3
Will that make you feel better? I suppose not. To make you feel better, they'd have to charge something similar to the current rates, which no longer reflect their actual costs.
Put another way, they can probably afford to give you a discount of a dollar or two if your voice use is minimal.
The fact is, excessive voice and text rates have been subsidizing data rates. First, text cost became trivial (while, at the same time, rates were increased), and now voice.
The bandwidth required to send a 160-character text, or the bandwidth required to encode a voice call is invarient. (Actually, due to improved algorithms and the fact that LTE now carries voice over data and is not so constrained over bandwidth reservation, the bandwidth needed to encode voice calls is now significantly less than it has been historically.)
Data volume, on the other hand, has shot up dramatically.
Last edited:
I'm on a 10GB Mobile Share plan with two smartphones and a mobile hotspot. It's around $165 a month, and that's with the 17% discount I get from school.
(Actual bill is closer to $190, it's $165 before AT&T insurance, ringback tones, etc.)
As far as value on mobile share goes, that gets a "meh" from me.
$170 a month for three devices sharing 10GB of data, and unlimited calling/SMS is hard to call a "value." Still better then the $230 I had with Verizon.
But man, American carriers are terrible in comparison to what my colleagues in Europe have.
(Actual bill is closer to $190, it's $165 before AT&T insurance, ringback tones, etc.)
As far as value on mobile share goes, that gets a "meh" from me.
$170 a month for three devices sharing 10GB of data, and unlimited calling/SMS is hard to call a "value." Still better then the $230 I had with Verizon.
But man, American carriers are terrible in comparison to what my colleagues in Europe have.
I am from Germany, the origin of T-Mobile. In Germany T-Mobile is the carrier with the best data-speeds, the best coverage and *badumm-tss* the highest prices
I don't know the market-direction of the carriers in the US, but in Germany, they are going to the monthly based options which sounds a lot better than what u are talking about in the US.
that means you have NO COST in the first place (but u are paying 9 Cent for anything else then) 9 Cent for 1 minute calling, 9 Cent for 1 textmessage, 9 Cent for 1MB data.
BUT: you can make MONTHLY subscriptions like 10€ for 500MB data. 10€ for unlimited calls. 10€ for unlimited texts.
If u get over 500MB u'll get a text and if u answer to it with "more" u get another 500MB for 3€ or 10GB for 20€.
in that case for me I am paying 10€ for the data each month, needing no texts cause anyone here is on iMessage or whatsapp and i am not the calling person, so the 10 minutes or so per month will cost me like 90 Cents.
All this with the monthly option. Get vacation 1 month? unsubscribe the data and subscribe the international package. Bamm, no extra cost. U are the hardcore-caller, but use no data? Same thing: 10€ per month. U are a 80 year old grandma and just want a phone for emergencies? 0€ per month and that "hey I just fell out the bed, come pls help me up!"-call costs 0,09€.
ah, I forgot 2 things: calling to landline is always free, calling your buddy on the SAME carrier, too.
Can it be better?
edit: want a phone? 10€ to 20€ per month till it's paid off.
I don't know the market-direction of the carriers in the US, but in Germany, they are going to the monthly based options which sounds a lot better than what u are talking about in the US.
that means you have NO COST in the first place (but u are paying 9 Cent for anything else then) 9 Cent for 1 minute calling, 9 Cent for 1 textmessage, 9 Cent for 1MB data.
BUT: you can make MONTHLY subscriptions like 10€ for 500MB data. 10€ for unlimited calls. 10€ for unlimited texts.
If u get over 500MB u'll get a text and if u answer to it with "more" u get another 500MB for 3€ or 10GB for 20€.
in that case for me I am paying 10€ for the data each month, needing no texts cause anyone here is on iMessage or whatsapp and i am not the calling person, so the 10 minutes or so per month will cost me like 90 Cents.
All this with the monthly option. Get vacation 1 month? unsubscribe the data and subscribe the international package. Bamm, no extra cost. U are the hardcore-caller, but use no data? Same thing: 10€ per month. U are a 80 year old grandma and just want a phone for emergencies? 0€ per month and that "hey I just fell out the bed, come pls help me up!"-call costs 0,09€.
ah, I forgot 2 things: calling to landline is always free, calling your buddy on the SAME carrier, too.
Can it be better?
edit: want a phone? 10€ to 20€ per month till it's paid off.
Last edited:
This should not be news to anyone... When iOS 6 was announced with FaceTime over cellular, AT&T first limited it to mobile share customers exclusively
Now that iOS 7 has FaceTime audio calls that sound even more clearer than cellular calls... They get the idea that most people will try to subscribe (or lower) to the lowest minute rate plan available...
That being said, they just figured the only viable solution is to make everyone subscribe to unlimited minutes via mobile share
Now that iOS 7 has FaceTime audio calls that sound even more clearer than cellular calls... They get the idea that most people will try to subscribe (or lower) to the lowest minute rate plan available...
That being said, they just figured the only viable solution is to make everyone subscribe to unlimited minutes via mobile share
You're missing the point: their actual cost for providing voice connections is approaching zero.
What percentage of zero would you like them to discount for your minimal voice use?
I love how they make us feel as though we're somehow capable of outsmarting them on some small level as though we have the ability to "clutch" onto our unlimited data plans so strongly that they can't rip them out of our hands.
We don't have our unlimited data because we're clutching; we have it because they haven't decided to lean over and effortlessly pluck it out of our hands yet.
actually
actually, that is not entirely accurate. While voice usage has dropped per revenue user dramatically, the cost to provide voice call termination to a POTS line has not and the mobile operators still have to pay it out. When they interconnect to other mobile users on the same network, or terminate to their own network it's either nearly no cost or goes from the left pocket to the right pocket, all good. But end-pointing to a regular number, even a home phone does continue to carry costs, often in the cpm range or even 10's of cents depending on where domestically it terminates.
once they get to voLTE, some of these costs will go lower, indeed, but even then the termination to a POTS line somewhere in the USA could carry a certain cost.
actually, that is not entirely accurate. While voice usage has dropped per revenue user dramatically, the cost to provide voice call termination to a POTS line has not and the mobile operators still have to pay it out. When they interconnect to other mobile users on the same network, or terminate to their own network it's either nearly no cost or goes from the left pocket to the right pocket, all good. But end-pointing to a regular number, even a home phone does continue to carry costs, often in the cpm range or even 10's of cents depending on where domestically it terminates.
once they get to voLTE, some of these costs will go lower, indeed, but even then the termination to a POTS line somewhere in the USA could carry a certain cost.
But how many calls terminate in a POTS line any more?
Aren't LTE iPhones using voLTE? I just got my first iPhone 5 (a 5S), and the difference in voice quality is remarkable vs. my 4S. I assume they are using voLTE.
As I mentioned earlier, I'm sure it's a priorioty with all of the carriers to get the legacy phones off of their network so that they can free-up LTE bandwidth.
more than you would expect
more than you would expect. That is a primary revenue generator for things like skype, textfree calling, fringe, and all the other "free" for consumer calling solutions, termination fees to POTS lines still can generate a significant amount of revenue or can carry a significant cost
more than you would expect. That is a primary revenue generator for things like skype, textfree calling, fringe, and all the other "free" for consumer calling solutions, termination fees to POTS lines still can generate a significant amount of revenue or can carry a significant cost