AT&T to Stop Offering Two-Year Phone Contracts Starting January 8

[lordofthereef]

By looking at how much it costs. Next plans last I checked were far more expensive.

For my two year contract I paid $105 a month and that included the phone. Next was $140 for the same exact thing. How people think this is a deal is beyond me.

For multiple lines it gets much cheaper. It is what essentially had our family, with four lines, siwtch to next. Two of our lines were unlimited and we were looking to add two lines (which would not have been unlimited). I no longer remember the savings, but I sat down and did the math (even posted here) and it would have been more espensive to keep our unlimited lines. It didnt hurt that I was able to sell those lines on howard forums either.

 

[jca24]

Hello everyone, news flash, AT&T will do away with the old grandaddied unlimited plans very soon, probably by the end of March 2016. Put this in you palm pilot, whoops, iPhone, fact!

 

[lordofthereef]

The price of the phone has NEVER been $200. That's always been the subsidized of the smaller storage capacity model.

And when he quotes the price of the "unlocked" version, THAT is the actual price of the phone.

I think the reference was just to the keynotes. They have always proudly said "200" and then muttered under their breath "on contract". (ok not quite muttered but it's a fun thought).

We are unlikely to see that subsidy price in keynotes going forward I would think,.

 

[AZhappyjack]

I think the reference was just to the keynotes. They have always proudly said "200" and then muttered under their breath "on contract". (ok not quite muttered but it's a fun thought).

We are unlikely to see that subsidy price in keynotes going forward I would think,.

Yeah, there is that. Good catch.

 

[lordofthereef]

Hello everyone, news flash, AT&T will do away with the old grandaddied unlimited plans very soon, probably by the end of March 2016. Put this in you palm pilot, whoops, iPhone, fact!

I don't think you are wrong, but I don't see the unlimited plan being completely dropped quite that soon. Seems aggressive after letting it linger for so long. Then of course there is the $5 fee increase. Seems pointless to enact a fee for what, four months before dumping said plan altogether? I could be wrong though. I am surprised it took this long to be honest.

 

[rictus007]

Ah dude, you umlimited plan will be gone very, very soon.

But after the 2 year contract is completed, I guess I could keep paying the same as always and buy the phone at apple? The only benefit of the contract was to get the phone upgrade, this is something that we will lose. But AT&T never canceled the service if the contract term was completed and I had not sing a new contract yet....at least during the last 6 years

 

[knownikko]

AT&T, in a rare nod to legitimate pricing simplification and transparency, standardizes on a plan that lets you know up front exactly what you're paying for your device and plan. Just like essentially every other developed country in the world.

Internet loses its collective mind.

Film at 11.

 

[USF813]

The Mobile Share Value plan has a reduced access fee for basic phones to compensate for the fact that they can't use all features that a smartphone can use.
Like what?

Like texting and upgrading technology every two years or sooner. My family doesn't text nor desires smartphones. I don't even see option for flip-phones on the AT&T website.

If I understood your first post right, you are paying a share of a family plan. It may be worthwhile to look at the potential cost of an equivalent mobile share plan for the entire family, and then see how to share the cost to everyone's advantage. You didn't mention what the current plan costs in total, but a mobile share plan with 2GB and 1 smartphone for you, and 3 basic phones for your other family members would be:

$30 + $25 + 3x20 = $115

I pay $30 for 3GB now. Why would I want to give up 1GB and pay the same price? Like I said, AT&T doesn't seem to be a viable option any longer.

For that you get unlimited talk and text for all phones, and rollover of unused data and mobile hotspot for your smartphone. If you want to buy a new phone on Next, add the monthly fee for that as well. I do not have any need for using my phone as a mobile hotspot.

 

[kagharaht]

Good question and I've been thinking about it too. I think the sequence will be:

• get February bill
• call AT&T and inform them that you want out of your contract, referencing no-ETF offer
• ask AT&T to unlock your device (maybe it can be done all in the same phone call)
• set up service with TMobile and ask the them to port the number

I don't think AT&T prorates your charges for the final month, so you might end up eating that (maybe you can be savvy and time it right to get the most out of your last month before they generate your next bill).

If you have Tmobile ship you a sim card, obviously there is some time lost there... don't know how that works if your service with AT&T has ended. I'm hoping I can stop by a Tmobile store and get a sim card from them immediately. Can you tell I haven't switched phone companies for an unhealthy period of time?

ETA: I still have my old iPhone 5s, which is unlocked. What I *might* do is set up service with Tmobile right as I'm cancelling with AT&T. If there's a bit of a delay (like getting things sorted with AT&T before they'll agree to unlock my 6s), I can just have the Tmobile service going with my old 5s. Then when everyone's done with AT&T and the 6s is properly unlocked, I'll pop the Tmobile sim in there. But I guess if I did it this way, I'd lose my phone number, so maybe not. If I had to be without cell service for a couple days, I could manage.

Great tips. Lucky for me a Stand Alone T-Mobile store is right across Stand Alone AT&T store. I can just hop over to AT&T, walk out drive across the street and pop in to T-Mobile. It sounds funny, but wow convenient for me. lol

 

[tbill1]

I am paying $116 (soon to be $126) for grandfathered unlimited data. After hearing the news today, I called AT&T. I wanted to know how much my $116 would be reduced, since I no longer will be subsidizing a new phone. The answer was nothing. All this means is that the future Iphone 7+ that would have probably would cost me $300 will now cost me $749. Not happy!

 

[imlynxy]

I have 100x2 tmobile unlimited plan, February when att raise my UDPs I tell them Good Bye and switch without ETF.
May be tmo is not as good as Att, but 1. I travel a lot, 2. by that time tmo improve even more. 3. My att plan per line will be 120+450/12=23.75 per month per line more expensive. For this amount of money I can fly Caribbean and enjoy free t-mo roaming.

Edit 570 dollars + tax

 

[groovyd]

hahahaha... just because they are now making you pay full purchase price upfront for the phone doesn't mean your service bill will go down at all because they are no longer 'subsidizing' your phone... that is just wishful thinking. they will just keep charging you the same and pocket the subsidy.

 

[dugbug]

I have an unlimited data plan but I've just bought my phone outright for the last two years. So unlimited data customers will still be able to keep their data plans even with two-year contracts ending.

can you get a comment from AT&T to that effect?

 

[Older bird]

I am paying $116 (soon to be $126) for grandfathered unlimited data. After hearing the news today, I called AT&T. I wanted to know how much my $116 would be reduced, since I no longer will be subsidizing a new phone. The answer was nothing. All this means is that the future Iphone 7+ that would have probably would cost me $300 will now cost me $749. Not happy!

If you haven't noticed this is ATT's quiet way of sticking it to all the people hanging on to unlimited data plans. They are betting on you giving in at iPhone 7 upgrade time. I see unlimited data in the graveyard shortly after iPhone 7 release if not sooner.

hahahaha... just because they are now making you pay full purchase price upfront for the phone doesn't mean your service bill will go down at all because they are no longer 'subsidizing' your phone... that is just wishful thinking. they will just keep charging you the same and pocket the subsidy.

Unless of course you take the Next plan (which is what they are betting on) then you will see a significant reduction in your bill and data lol

 

[lordofthereef]

But after the 2 year contract is completed, I guess I could keep paying the same as always and buy the phone at apple? The only benefit of the contract was to get the phone upgrade, this is something that we will lose. But AT&T never canceled the service if the contract term was completed and I had not sing a new contract yet....at least during the last 6 years

Possibly. Or they'll just drop that plan option all together, which seems much more likely. Won't know until it happens of course.

 

[groovyd]

Unless of course you take the Next plan (which is what they are betting on) then you will see a significant reduction in your bill and data lol

at the end of the day ATT is doing the most LOL in this room

 

[dennysanders]

can you get a comment from AT&T to that effect?

is there a comment from them that says otherwise?

 

[Vicrooloo]

Its happening! Government interference ruining things again and taking more of my money!

Go Trump!

 

[rgarjr]

All this means is that the future Iphone 7+ that would have probably would cost me $300 will now cost me $749. Not happy!

Going to be kind of hard to cough up that big pile of money especially on the high storage models.

 

[DthomasX]

Per the terms of AT&T's contract, you keep paying the same price of your last contract until you modify the terms of your contract (i.e. Add or remove calling minutes). The second you do that, you lose the UDP and have to pick one of the current plans. Been with AT&T for over 10 years and it's been those terms forever. Doesn't mean they may not pitch those terms at any moment like Verizon did when they jettisoned their unlimited plans.
At this point, I have roughly 10 months to go on the current contract with my UDP and I plan to keep riding it out after it ends until AT&T finally puts a bullet in its head. My only other major carrier choice is Verizon (Sprint has bad coverage and there is NO TMo coverage), and I will pay more no matter what I do when factoring in my data usage. If I want a new phone, I'll buy it outright, have the number transferred from my 6, and still come up dollars ahead paying the subsidy built into my UDP.

 

[Ron21]

So according to the last bullet point, if you have a FAN account (IRU, CRU), you can still keep upgrading with a two year contract? Am I understand that correctly?

 

[GeeDuhb]

To everyone saying it is "the same cost either way" or "the cost is hidden in the contract," yes, this may be true for the past few years, but it wasn't before.

We have a family of 4 on an old 700 minute plan (we don't use many minutes with free mobile to mobile.) This of course was before they introduced these joke new plans. We pay $59.99 for the base plan, $9.99 x3 for the 3 additional phones and 3x $30 for unlimited data. So we pay a little over $200 a month. Even with their Next Family plan scam, we might be able to break even on the monthly plan (albeit without unlimited data) but there goes the $450 savings every 2 years off new phones. So yeah, it makes sense for newer customers. These changes are targeting older customers.

Bottom line is, they save money by not having to subsidize the phone for $450 up front. Period. This helps them MUCH more than it could ever help the customer. Even if you do save on service in the end, it is service that is run on pre built infrastructure which costs these cell phone providers next to nothing. Yet another example of a company screwing the customer while trying to spin it as better.

 

[bushman4]

ATT really doesn't care about its customer. But while there will be no 2 year contracts , if you buy the phone you can stay on the contract that you're on. So it's the same thing contract wise

 

[kelauben]

AT&T has finally eliminated the last value they had to offer and now has nothing left. After putting up with horrible customer service and until recently spotty coverage they no longer have any reason for ANYONE to use them. At least Verizon has their customer service.

AT&T has shown their true colors and focused only on their greed. Having worked in this industry I can tell you that both AT&T and Verizon enjoy profits in excess of 60% AFTER TAXES! They're now taking the last step necessary to totally screw everyone.

I call for a total boycott of AT&T. Either by means of changing providers or through a class action suit. They are breaking a contract and potentially the law by eliminating the 2 year contract except for "some corporate" customers.

This is just another example of corporate greed run amuck. AT&T, you can KMA!!!!

 

[ignaciolt]

There is no point in staying with AT&T. T-Mobile offers unlimited data (well ~20GB) for 95 a month. I don't think AT&T will be cheaper with their new price hikes and lack of subsidy.

I don't think that would work for me. I pay ~$210 a month for 3 iPhones with unlimited data and 1 dumb phone. That includes unlimited texts for all phones and we share 850 minutes. I guess soon I would add an extra $5 per iPhone for unlimited data so that would bring me to $225.