AT&T Won't Charge for FaceTime Over Cellular, Will Require New Mobile Share Plan

[BC2009]

No complaints from me. I'm actually moving to the shared data plans when it hits next week.

The old unlimited plans don't really make much sense anymore anyway since they throttle you at 3GB (I guess 5GB throttling if on LTE).

 

[Amazing Iceman]

As usual, AT&T as the opportunistic bastards.
They are the ones who would most likely go to a disaster area and sell a 12 oz. bottle of water for $20.00 each, to take advantage of the situation.

It's ironic how they claim that FaceTime is a 'feature' of their service.

Well, the flames in this thread talk by themselves.

 

[kcwookie]

For all you saying you will jump to Sprint make sure you check with others what kind of bandwidth they are getting. In Milwaukee, most places I can barely stream AM quality radio so unlimited or not, facetime will not work until they get their act together and upgrade the network here. There are tons of threads out there in many cities of people experiencing the same thing. Their network is woefully under-developed.

Sprint just updated their 3G network where I live. It's now twice as fast as it was and more responsive than T-mobile's 4g.

 

[TonyC28]

Whether we use Facetime or not is irrelevant. It's about AT&T picking and choosing what you can do with your data. First Facetime then what next?

And here, ladies and gentlemen, is the core of the issue. Has AT&T been sued for this yet?

I guess they can do whatever they want. But selling us data and then telling us how we can use it is shady.

 

[MattMJB0188]

Wow, I'm sitting here laughing at all you cry babies!!! If you don't like it then go to another carrier, simple as that!!! Facetime in general is stupid anyway so why is everyone complaining?

You all can go to Sprint and enjoy their dial up speeds, where facetime on 3G won't even work.

 

[wheezy]

Cya AT&T! Been planning it anyway with the upcoming 4G iPhone, but this just sealed your death. Absolutely PATHETIC.

 

[avanpelt]

Those of you who say you are saving money with these new plans (especially those of you who are saying that you'll be saving a *LOT* with these new plans), please post here with the specific plans/options you have now, how much data and voice minutes you currently use, and what the new plan specifics are that you're planning on selecting.

I know this thread is mainly about AT&T, but I wanted to chime in about my experience with Share Everything on Verizon.

My wife and I both have iPhones and we switched to the VZW Share Everything plan when it was launched at the end of June. We just got our first non-prorated bill for a full month under Share Everything. Previously, we had 1,400 minutes to share, unlimited texting, and unlimited data on a family plan. We were paying $165 and change/month after taxes and fees (and that's with an 18% employer discount.)

Under Share Everything, we have unlimited minutes, unlimited texting, and 2 GB of data to share between our two iPhones. In our first full month under the new plan, we used approximately half of our 2 GB of data. The first non-prorated bill under Share Everything came to $139 and change after taxes and fees with the 18% discount being applied to the data portion of the bill only.

Now, my wife and I might be in the minority here because this is why Share Everything works for us: I work from home and am on Wi-Fi 90+% of the time during an average month. We don't have a landline, so I use my iPhone for personal and business calls all day long. Since I'm on Wi-Fi most of the time and use my phone for all my calls, I know I'm probably in the minority but I place a higher value on unlimited minutes as opposed to unlimited data.

The fact that I can now talk as much as I want and save $25 per month on top of that makes VZW's Share Everything a no-brainer for us in our situation. Having unlimited data just wasn't worth it for us since I'm on Wi-Fi most of the time anyway.

 

[wheezy]

Facetime in general is stupid anyway so why is everyone complaining?.

Facetime HAS been stupid cause you're stuck on wifi - all the good uses for Facetime (shopping, at an event, showing friends when you spot something cool out and about, etc) haven't been possible until 3G Facetime (sans Jailbreak).

IF the ATT Shared plans were any better of a deal than my unlimited I get now then I'd save the few bucks and head to a capped plan, but they're not. They don't offer any savings whatsoever.

 

[jontech]

Those of you who say you are saving money with these new plans (especially those of you who are saying that you'll be saving a *LOT* with these new plans), please post here with the specific plans/options you have now, how much data and voice minutes you currently use, and what the new plan specifics are that you're planning on selecting.

Let me say that I respect a company's decision to set prices as they see fit. I don't want government stepping in and forcing companies to do anything (see: net neutrality). The problem we have today is that there's already too *much* government intervention. That's the reason why we have such few options. If we had a true free market, there would be several other companies setting up cell towers, launching satellites, or coming up with other new ideas, to create new options for people. Instead, we've got the big two (AT&T and Verizon) benefitting from their government-approved monopolies. Getting off my sandbox...

As others have said, these new plans seem to be all about AT&T and Verizon, once again, giving a nudge to people on unlimited plans. One thing I've posted about previously, which I think would be a far better idea, since it could alleviate both the carrier's and the consumer's concerns, but I don't know if it's technically possible, is for the carrier's to abandon the GB-based tiered plans, and instead of unlimited plans where the tiers are speed-based. So they'd have maybe three tiers: Slow, Medium, and Fast (maybe even a 4th super-fast tier). One of the problems with the GB-based tiers is that I don't *know* how much data I'm going to need next month, and I'm worried about overage charges. And, AFAIK, I can't control my daughter's phone so as to allot her only XX GB. Plus, I wouldn't *want* to limit her phone in that manner, anyway. I wouldn't want her to use YouTube constantly during the month, then on day 15 she hits her limit and is "cut off" from data, when I'd still want her to be capable of texting or sending emails, so as to let me know that a crazed gunman has entered her government school on day 20. It makes far more sense to just say, hey...everyone's got unlimited data. But I can pay more for maybe a family high-speed plan, or maybe even selectively decide that *my* phone will get the highest-speed option, but my wife's will get a much slower speed option.

Getting back to my original comments...if you think these new plans save you money, please reply with *specifics*. From what I can gather, the people who think these plans will save them money are people who currently buy unlimited texting and lots of minutes, *think* they don't use/need much GB, and who are interested in tethering. The funny thing is that those last two points are in direct opposition to one another. Even if you're using very little data *now*, if you think you're going to start tethering your laptop to your phone on a regular basis, and 1GB of data a month is going to cut it, I suspect you're in for a rude awakening when you get that first bill with an overage charge.

Here is my scenario

I have 5 Devices. 3 iPhones, 1 iPad and Home Connect

Before
3x30 for iPhone Data (two were unlimited and one 2GB)
1x20 for Tethering to my iPhone
1x25 for iPad plan w/Free Tethering (but on separate plan)

So for data alone I spent 135 and our shared plan was not unlimited minutes.

Now I share the data across all the devices and keep it around 4-6GB depending on my needs or traveling. This allows me to take the bare minimum charge unless I need otherwise, as I am mostly on Wifi wherever I go.

My overall bill went from 260 to 230 and our shared usage on any given month is around 3-4GB, unless I am traveling then it may spike to 5

 

[MaxxTraxx]

Whether we use Facetime or not is irrelevant. It's about AT&T picking and choosing what you can do with your data. First Facetime then what next?

This is true, AT&T has been killing us on just about every feature. [See - tethering]

I just didn't really take a hard look at it since I do not use FT.

 

[Greg McBride]

Those of you who say you are saving money with these new plans (especially those of you who are saying that you'll be saving a *LOT* with these new plans), please post here with the specific plans/options you have now, how much data and voice minutes you currently use, and what the new plan specifics are that you're planning on selecting.

I currently have four phones on my plan.

Phone #1
$80 – FamilyTalk Nation 1400 with Rollover
$30 – Family Messaging Unlimited with Mobile to Any Mobile Calling
$45 – DataPro 4GB for iPhone

Phone #2
$9.99 – FamilyTalk Nation 1400 with Rollover
$25 – DataPro 2GB for iPhone

Phone #3
$9.99 – FamilyTalk Nation 1400 with Rollover
$45 – DataPro 4GB for iPhone 4S

Phone #4
$9.99 – FamilyTalk Nation 1400 with Rollover
$25 – DataPro 2GB for iPhone 4S

Before taxes and fees, that brings our cost to $279.97 before taxes, etc. Phone number one is the only one that uses a lot of data and I incur a $10 data charge for an additional GB about three times a year. The other three phones use less than 500MB of data per month. The only reason phone #3 is on the 4GB plan is because of the tethering. So, all together, we use between 4 and 5GB of data per month.

Under the new plan, we'll pay $90 for the 6GB shared plan + $35 each for four phones. All of us will now have tethering as well as unlimited talk. So, our new bill will come to $230 before taxes, etc. That's almost $600 per year in savings. Kind of a no brainer for me.

 

[tech4all]

**** you, AT&T.




Please leave this site. If you remember anything about iOS' history, you would know that you're undeniably wrong. iOS removed PdaNet from the App Store at the request of telecoms. iOS imposes download limits for apps due to telecoms. Steve Jobs has nothing to do with this and you sound like an idiot for bringing him up. Your logic is bad and you should feel bad.

Get over it.

 

[NY Guitarist]

Wow, I'm sitting here laughing at all you cry babies!!! If you don't like it then go to another carrier, simple as that!!! Facetime in general is stupid anyway so why is everyone complaining?

Laugh all you want. It doesn't mean you're right.

 

[rgravell]

They could be like Verizon and just put their foot down instead and say no more, pick a new plan.

verizon never said no to unlimited plans, they said you can keep it, but have to buy your phone out right. if you want a subsidized phone, you have to get a new plan.

 

[koban4max]

Steve Jobs would not have allowed Apple to be bullied by the carriers.

Please leave the site. What logic do you have to make this statement.

 

[wx4olf]

Idk about this. I upgraded my grandfathered unlimited line to the Galaxy S3 to try it out and I was getting 4GLTE displayed on my phone. I returned the phone before the 30 days to wait on the new iPhone. For those 27 days I had used ~4GB of 4GLTE data. I checked my bill for that usage and it still stated unlimited.

Currently when you move over to a LTE device you can keep your unlimited data - its just throttled at 5GB instead of 3GB. I've been on unlimited with LTE since Feb when I picked up an LTE Note - for the current period AT&T says I have used 1.45 GB of unlimited (not a huge data user). Additionally, I swap my SIM quite a bit between the LTE Note, a SII, and a 3GS without any impacts to my unlimited data.

 

[nia820]

And this why i will be buying an unlocked iphone 5. so i can choose my carrier.

 

[CausticPuppy]

Please leave the site. What logic do you have to make this statement.

It's just the obligatory "Steve Jobs would have never blah blah" post that appears in every single news thread.

 

[iBreatheApple]

Thanks AT&T for making my move to Sprint even easier.

SPRINT though?

 

[faroZ06]

The problem isn't AT&T. The problem is all of the cell companies. First things first: kill SMS.

 

[pavelbure]

About the only bright spot to come out of this steaming pile of crap is that it looks like those of us still on unlimited plans will be able to keep them when the new phone comes out.

 

[faroZ06]

Wow, I'm sitting here laughing at all you cry babies!!! If you don't like it then go to another carrier, simple as that!!! Facetime in general is stupid anyway so why is everyone complaining?

You all can go to Sprint and enjoy their dial up speeds, where facetime on 3G won't even work.

I also don't find any possible use for FaceTime over 4G. What I really want is high-quality audio calls, not the cheap junk they give us that's hardly understandable and ear-piercingly high-pitched.

If you really care about FaceTime for whatever reason, just switch carriers or buy the AT&T shared plan. I doubt the other carriers will really be any better, and Verizon has already ticked me off to the point where I don't think they deserve the income.

 

[rsnc]

i hadnt really seriously contemplated switching to sprint until reading this...
i have stuck with att long enough..i hate having to jailbreak to use my phone.
i gotta go to the sprint store and see how the speed is on their network around here..hope its tolerable

 

[Chrisispaper]

Not even close. I finally gave up our unlimited plans when I looked at our usage history and saw I was leaving money on the table just to have unlimited data. Even if we popped up over the limit now and again it was STILL cheaper to go with a different plan over a year's usage. Then again, we have wifi and other connection options. If all we had was cellular, then yeah, I think our usuage would look like yours.

Wait, you implying that I don't use wifi?

 

[faroZ06]

I'll bet they charge your data twice if you FaceTime between both phones on your plan too.

Yes, why wouldn't they? I find that perfectly reasonable. What I don't find reasonable at all is the fact that data that goes through the in-house cell tower (the MyCell or whatever it's called) counts towards my data plan! Not that I really care since I use wifi all the time.

Seriously, I used to use an iPhone with no SIM all the time. I got wifi everywhere. There's always at least one network with no password or a default password that I can just guess. Or there is free wifi in some store or restaurant I am in. There, unlimited data.