I am calculating the $40 for the 3rd and 4th line of a Family Plan as $10 line charge plus $30 data charge.
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AT&T to Stop Offering Two-Year Phone Contracts Starting January 8
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I am calculating the $40 for the 3rd and 4th line of a Family Plan as $10 line charge plus $30 data charge.
But combined with $70 line charge for 1st and 2nd lines so averaged out, it's a bit more than $40 per line (for line + data).
For me it doesn't. I pay less with mobile share than I paid with a contract before, even if I include payments for a hypothetical Next installment plan (I bought my current phone outright though).
But they see the installments as a separate item on their bill.
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I was referring to average price paid per phone. Most consumers there seem to buy budget phones (and Apple is offering some older models as budget phones). But I can't find the numbers right now.
You seem to be confusing MSV with contracts/next. The fair comparison for MSV is with FamilyTalk. FamilyTalk + UDP + contract is almost universally cheaper than MSV with either contract or NEXT.
I'm not confusing anything. I'm referring to the legacy contract I had before (don't remember what it was called), not mobile share with a 2-year committment. Mobile share is less expensive for me, which is partly because I used to pay extra for features such as mobile hotspot and unlimited texting which are included in the mobile share plans.
Well, then I guess I'm part of the "almost".
legacy contract? you mean plan?
Anyways I can almost guarantee you that you just look at the sticker price and conclude that is what you pay. In other words I bet you didn't calculate the savings the subsidy gave you each month ($18.75 per line) and/or the resale value of the iPhone (about $200 after 2 years).
You can almost guarantee what I looked at? Really?
You aren't making any sense. I compared the monthly fee for my old legacy plan (which obviously included the hidden subsidy) with the monthly fee I pay now for the mobile share plan plus what I would pay for Next if I hadn't bought the phone outright. The resale value of the phone after 2 years is irrelevant for this comparison, since it's the same whether you get it subsidized, via Next, or purchase it outright.
No matter what you believe, for some people the mobile share plans are a better deal than the old plans. And comparisons with grandfathered unlimited data plans are completely irrelevant for me, since they haven't been available for years, lack features that I want, and are too expensive for what I need anyway.
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Att pulled 2 year contracts for various regions in the country months ago as a pilot to see the response from customers when Next was only purchase option. Only thing I can conclude is that you love in one of those regions.
The benefit to the carrier is that they sell the same customer more units. If you do next 12 you'll buy two phones vs 1 in the same 24 period. Second is you'll be trading in phones they can then turn around and sell through their subsidiaries. At the end of next you pay exactly full price for any device. Do the calculation.
Well this was great, I finally somehow got lucky and got a rep from the retentions to have my early upgrade moved from late 2016 to today and got myself a new iPhone with a full subsidy. Determination paid off lol.
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No one is choosing next over a 2 year. People are manipulated into taking the next plan by AT&T sales people. It's sold to them as if there is no 2 year option & next is thier only choice. Since we live in a society of ignorance & stupidity sprinked with gullibleness & mental laziness people sign up for Next lose their better 2 yr option & unlimited internet. AT&T are liars. This is a scam to get out of their unlimited plans they offered us.
1st point). The subsidy value is hidden into the old FamilyPlan so it has to be recalculated to see the true cost of service. For instance in my case I paid 250 a month for 5 lines on FamilyTalk. 450*5/24 = 93.75 per month savings. So my true cost was 250 - 93.75 = 156.25 net cost month. HUGE DIFFERENCE factoring in the subsidy into the plan. 2) the resale value is important because on NEXT you can just trade in the phone, whereas on contracts you can keep the phone and sell it to pay the downpayment on a new contract. In other words selling old phone for 200 cancels out the 200 price of the new phone.You can almost guarantee what I looked at? Really?
You aren't making any sense. I compared the monthly fee for my old legacy plan (which obviously included the hidden subsidy) with the monthly fee I pay now for the mobile share plan plus what I would pay for Next if I hadn't bought the phone outright. The resale value of the phone after 2 years is irrelevant for this comparison, since it's the same whether you get it subsidized, via Next, or purchase it outright.
No matter what you believe, for some people the mobile share plans are a better deal than the old plans. And comparisons with grandfathered unlimited data plans are completely irrelevant for me, since they haven't been available for years, lack features that I want, and are too expensive for what I need anyway.
What happens to grandfathered unlimited users that upgrade? They just announced recently that unlimited is going up $5/month. If you upgrade with an installment plan, your paying for the phone again on top of the built-in subsidy AND your plan goes up $5? Do they really think those [long time] customers will stay with AT&T after a ~$40/month increase?
I can handle the 5.00 increase, but losing the subsidy is what bothers me. We will pay the same amount for the service and not receive anything in return. Not having the subsidy and no hotspot is going to force me into NEXT. You win ATT. I give up.
That's the point. They're trying to get rid of them and aren't worried about their bottom line because the vast majority of their current customers have already moved off unlimited and/or 2-year contracts.
Or vote with your wallet. Do your own research and there might be a different carrier with the right coverage/pricing for you. Consumers just need to be wise on their decisions, it's already competitive thanks to Tmobile's actions.
I would love to vote with my wallet, but living in Alaska leaves me with the choice of Verizon or ATT. We do not have Sprint or T-Mobile service available.
Ah, well that's a bummer. Maybe Cricket wireless might work there? They're a MVNO still using At&t coverage.
That's the whole problem with all of these plans and bull crap. The cell phone companies create a whole new structured plan for people to change over to and sign up with every 6 months to a year, if it's a plan, you're supposed to get on the plan and stay on it, but they don't want you to or care it's a gimmick. They have us right where they want us. The only option is to make more money yourself and get in that race instead of messing around fiddling with this crap, and just pay thru the cruft, I mean by all means get the best deal you can but, businesses and business as usual is to just cut corners maximize profits or else, and make products with less quality on and on, it's getting so sick, I could care less any more. I mean I have old Apple Products and I look and some of these companies new products and I am like I am just going to live in my Apple world while all you cut corner companies die...and you should too...Have you had frozen lasagna lately? ***** dog food!
Well that's hot garbage. Now if I wanted to pick up the "free" level phone on a 2-year contract is going to cost $15 over a 30-month period ($450 total) instead of being, well, free.
Nope, just a 6s 64gb, so should have been $299. I went into one AT&T store on the 1st and the guy tried telling me that the 2 year contracts ended that day. Ended up having to go to a corporate store and there were no issues getting the phone.
But I'll bet those *******s are still going to lock those phones to their network.
I know someone who just bought a 6s+ and paid the 'whole price', and was told that it 'was unlocked out of the box', and that 'AT&T doesn't lock phones anymore' only to find out that it IS locked to the AT&T network, and CAN'T BE UNLOCKED until some arbitrary time in the future which no one seems to know at the moment... They even called the AT&T 'help' line, and they couldn't give her an answer either.
AT&T deserves to die, but they are, sadly, 'too big to die'...
I'd count on that at this point.
Just when it looked like they might be sued out of existence for lying to their customers too...
I know someone who just bought a 6s+ and paid the 'whole price', and was told that it 'was unlocked out of the box', and that 'AT&T doesn't lock phones anymore' only to find out that it IS locked to the AT&T network, and CAN'T BE UNLOCKED until some arbitrary time in the future which no one seems to know at the moment... They even called the AT&T 'help' line, and they couldn't give her an answer either.
AT&T deserves to die, but they are, sadly, 'too big to die'...
I'd count on that at this point.
Just when it looked like they might be sued out of existence for lying to their customers too...
I don't mind AT&T existing. I switched from AT&T to Straight Talk (monthly plan) a year ago, ST flies on the ATT network, and the money I'm saving helps to "subsidize" the outright purchase of an unlocked iPhone 6 I made at the time. Not to mention if something better comes along I can change at any time.