AT&T to Raise Price of Grandfathered Unlimited Plans From $30 to $35

[GQB]

We had wife and myself on unlimited since the beginning but had to add daughter on limited plan when she got her phone. All was ok until about a year ago, when daughter started incurring large overuse penalties ($10/mo and sometimes 4-5 gig overage), with no difference in her usage patterns.

After months of finger pointing between ATT & Apple, I capitulated to a 15 Gig family plan, and (miracle of miracles) daughter's usage has never gone anywhere near her former 2 Gig limit since.

Suspicious much?

In any event, we get 5 Gig rollover every month for an effective 20 Gig family plan for a bit less, so I guess I'm reluctantly ok with it.

 

[tbone7467]

While Id rather not pay more I expected something like this sooner or later. I wish with this increase they would unlock my data to use tethering. seems only fair. I should be able to use the data I pay for the way I want.

 

[sw1tcher]

. . . . for me 7 to 9 GB per month

As far as who cares ? Allot of people care when you let corporate GREED run your life.

Seems like people are letting their phone run their life.

People should just get off the internets, shut off their phones, and live and enjoy life. Then people wouldn't need to pay or complain about paying AT&T an extra $5 per month.

Do people really need to constantly be on YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SMSing, streaming from AppleMusic/Pandora/Spotify, etc.? Everywhere you look, there's someone with their head down, stuck staring at their phone. Even when they're surrounded by friends/family.

 

[AlphaGuitarist]

Oh you know ATT is ( apparently)
The biggest evil in Telecom-Verse for increasing by the smallest margins the least often and being the last holdout.

T-Mobile is God
ATT is the spawn of Satan blah blah blah
Monopoly this monopoly that

Agreed on all counts. I love the T-Mobile/John Legere fluffers who have had a bit too much magenta Kool-Aid. They all seem to think that T-Mobile is some benevolent entity that exists solely for the benefit of their customers. The only reason why T-Mobile offers all the gimmicks is because their leadership is well aware that they can't compete on coverage.

 

[Four oF NINE]

Capped data plans started because of people who abused the unlimited service in the past.

Hike it up more so they suffer like the rest of us.

So in your world using the unlimited data = "abuse" really?

 

[imlynxy]

...
T-Mobile is God
ATT is the spawn of Satan blah blah blah
Monopoly this monopoly that....l

I agree with you and I think that T-mo is even worse. At least Att shows its face, but T-mo covers it by the mask that they care on us. T-mo increased UDP price without a word during last presentation, not even some short explanations. I like once J.L. was asked on Telescope about Chicago coverage with LTE12, JL started to read the message had nothing to answer(no license there), dropped the question and switched to another one right away.

I almost 100 percent sure if I send a billing dispute to Att my case will be resolved and I get what I want. With T-mo they overcharged me, I still don't have my money back. Right now CS wait time is 19-21 minutes there.

 

[imlynxy]

Agreed on all counts. I love the T-Mobile/John Legere fluffers who have had a bit too much magenta Kool-Aid. They all seem to think that T-Mobile is some benevolent entity that exists solely for the benefit of their customers. The only reason why T-Mobile offers all the gimmicks is because their leadership is well aware that they can't compete on coverage.

I also agree with you, I have both att and t-mo. If you don't travel a lot Att is the better choice, esp. with UDP.

 

[imlynxy]

T-mobile CS waiting time is 16-22 minutes, people are calling for a gift unlimited data.

 

[pooleman]

I'm still wondering how people use that much data. Streaming movies all day?

Yes. Streaming video for hours at a time. Or tethering illegally to other devices that use a lot of data.

 

[Sketchr]

I also agree with you, I have both att and t-mo. If you don't travel a lot Att is the better choice, esp. with UDP.

I think you meant to say if you don't travel a lot TMO may be a better choice. You can get a wider range of coverage everywhere with Att, but out of the large cities TMO is not as vast.

 

[igorsky]

So in your world using the unlimited data = "abuse" really?

In his world he doesn't realize that unlimited data plans were once the most expensive plans that AT&T offerred, and that unlimited users were paying more than anyone for that privilege for many years. This was probably before he knew what a smartphone even was.

 

[AlphaGuitarist]

I also agree with you, I have both att and t-mo. If you don't travel a lot Att is the better choice, esp. with UDP.

AT&T is actually the better choice if you travel, as their coverage is far superior to T-Mobile.

I think you meant to say if you don't travel a lot TMO may be a better choice. You can get a wider range of coverage everywhere with Att, but out of the large cities TMO is not as vast.

Exactly.

 

[Gizmotoy]

I was going to leave AT&T this month, but had been delaying due to contracts on our pair of iPhone 6. It they'll waive the ETF, it'll be a nice smooth transition to T-Mobile in January/February. I'm not holding my breath, but I'll see what the letter says.

AT&T is actually the better choice if you travel, as their coverage is far superior to T-Mobile.

He was probably referring to T-Mobile's awesome roaming policies. If you travel to remote areas of the US, yes, perhaps AT&T is better. If you travel internationally, T-Mobile is vastly superior (unlimited roaming data/texting, $0.20/min for calling, Canada and Mexico are free for all data/texting/calling): http://www.t-mobile.com/optional-services/roaming.html#

 

[imlynxy]

AT&T is actually the better choice if you travel, as their coverage is far superior to T-Mobile.



Exactly.

Sorry , I meant travel abroad. I had to specify.

 

[ocabj]

There's no such things as abusing unlimited data.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/23445

 

[macintologist]

They should just get rid of the grandfathered plan, if they don't want people using it.

 

[rockstarjoe]

Wow, really tempted to take the opportunity to cancel my 2 year contract with no ETF. I just purchased a 128GB 6s for $400 when I renewed, and my monthly bill is around $80/month. Think it is a good deal to move to T-mobile? Seems like I could take my new phone to them and not have to pay a finance charge for the next 2 years. Is that right?

 

[cburton]

Will be taking advantage of the ETF waiver so I can go to TMo. If you read the fine print you cannot do Carrier Freedom and JoD at the same time (at least it says that ... Anyone with experience?) so this is a good way around that.

 

[bstpierre]

Capped data plans started because of people who abused the unlimited service in the past.

Hike it up more so they suffer like the rest of us.

Not everyone on a grandfathered unlimited plan is abusing it. I use about 2GB a month.

 

[Gizmotoy]

Wow, really tempted to take the opportunity to cancel my 2 year contract with no ETF. I just purchased a 128GB 6s for $400 when I renewed, and my monthly bill is around $80/month. Think it is a good deal to move to T-mobile? Seems like I could take my new phone to them and not have to pay a finance charge for the next 2 years. Is that right?

Technically, yes, but there's an issue. AT&T doesn't unlock your phone right away when you pay your ETF (or not, in this case) and leave for another carrier. It takes a few days to a week. While it might be possible to push it through faster, that's not usually the case. Supposedly you can request the process get started on the phone when you terminate your service and verify all outstanding debts are paid, but there's an online request form as well. If you have an unlocked phone you could use for a week or so until the unlock goes through that would be ideal.

 

[aristobrat]

They were not abused... It was a stupid move on ATT and other carriers part. The word unlimited means and was laid out by them to mean "all you can eat." They didn't realize the what they had done only until after they saw what unlimited data would do to their networks.

Agreed.

When AT&T created the unlimited plan for the launch of the original iPhone (2007), they definitely failed to predict how much things that didn't exist at that time (iPhone App Store <launched a year later>, major video streaming services <Netflix for iPhone launched three years later>) would come to haunt them.

 

[unplugme71]

Horrible - so glad I'm on the 'double your data' promo. I saved $60/mo from my family unlimited plan, I can tether, and don't have to deal with price hikes or throttling.

 

[khkman22]

My contract will be up next November. I'm likely going to take this opportunity to get out early without the ETF. Not because the $5 is too much, but because I am trying to lower my bill in total. I will probably go to Cricket and have a $70-80 bill as opposed to $125-130. I will miss download speeds faster than 8MB/s, but other than that, it won't really affect me. I'll keep my phones longer and probably buy when they are running promotions in the future, or maybe buy a generation behind. If I add a third line next year, I can get 2.5GB for two lines and 10GB for mine if I really want that much (but I'll probably just go with the 5GB) and it would only be $110, taxes and fees included. If I went with Next, it would be $130+taxes and fees.

 

[optophobia]

I pay the equivilent of $29 for unlimited data, 300 minutes and 5000 texts. I still don't get why wireless service in the US is so expensive.

1.What upload / download speeds do you get for that monthly price?
2. Some plans in the US are subsidizing the cost of the handset (iPhone 6s 16gb $199) How much would the same model cost for you?

 

[Sketchr]

I pay the equivilent of $29 for unlimited data, 300 minutes and 5000 texts. I still don't get why wireless service in the US is so expensive.

I agree, it's high.

But what's even more horrendous are the taxes in the UK