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AT&T's 'Mobile Share' Service Plans Launching August 23
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I will never happen - but what a BOLD carrier would do would be to have the tiers of data like they have no - but dynamically switch you month to month and not lock in one rate/tier for the contract.
You can do this now manually - but it's a pain and never seems to work out well with pro-rating. But would be a helluva lot more appropriate.
IE
January - 1.5 gig = charged for the 3 gig plan
February - .8 gig = charges for 1 gig plan
March - 4 gigs = charged for 5 gig
That way the customer doesn't have to figure out what plan is best.
I understand that many customers like to know their "fixed cost" and this would not be good for those that do. But If you're going to have tiers - it makes more sense to change it dynamically then to just have tiers alone.
My .02
You can do this now manually - but it's a pain and never seems to work out well with pro-rating. But would be a helluva lot more appropriate.
IE
January - 1.5 gig = charged for the 3 gig plan
February - .8 gig = charges for 1 gig plan
March - 4 gigs = charged for 5 gig
That way the customer doesn't have to figure out what plan is best.
I understand that many customers like to know their "fixed cost" and this would not be good for those that do. But If you're going to have tiers - it makes more sense to change it dynamically then to just have tiers alone.
My .02
Well that sucks for us. My discount would get cut in have because of this. Right now I get a discount on the voice part and on the data for each of the iPhones on the plan (4 of them). Suddenly I'm not sure the new plans are going to be worth it.
I have two iPhones and a basic phone. All I want to do is to share my bucket of 5GB across the 2 iPhones and tether one of them. I use 2GB/month and my wife uses < 1GB and we talk less than 450 minutes across all 3 phones. Sadly, there is no plan that will save money for me, but I guess that's what it's all about with the carriers.
I'll keep my i4 and go prepaid when my contract is up. $50/month or less for *unlimited* voice, text (though I use iMessage) and data. *we all know what unlimited really means. 
What awful, awful prices. I don't even know if they're worse than before, but if I was a new customer and saw this, I'd walk out of the store. Who the ****** can afford this?
I have the unlimited iPhone plan going back to the original iPhone and I have been reluctant to give it up, but on a heavy use month I only rack up about 750MB, so I'm really paying for bandwidth I'm not using. With an iPad and the $30 plan and a basic phone on my account I'm really close to the amount the shared plan will be but with a 3GB cap on my iPad and no tethering. This really looks like the cheap way to get tethering for my Mac via the LTE on my iPad.
The psychological factor of giving up the unlimited plan is getting to be less of a deal now that I'm looking at this. I think I will go for it in September after the initial rush and the bugs are worked out.
The psychological factor of giving up the unlimited plan is getting to be less of a deal now that I'm looking at this. I think I will go for it in September after the initial rush and the bugs are worked out.
Agreed, my contract is up on the 9th. I'll go month to month for a few until I see what the next iPhone is all about. However I might just get the phone unlocked and sign up for a year of Straight Talk. It comes to like $33 a month
These new plans will work great for me. Im going to be saving $5 and and getting Unlimited SMS and the ability for my iPad to use my data plan that I already pay for.
What I am paying now:
$70 Unlimited talk
$10 1000 SMS
$45 4GB with Tethering
$125 TOTAL
New Shared Data Plan:
$70 Unlimited Talk, SMS, 4GB, plus Tethering
$40 for 1 iPhone
$10 iPad usage
$120 TOTAL
What I am paying now:
$70 Unlimited talk
$10 1000 SMS
$45 4GB with Tethering
$125 TOTAL
New Shared Data Plan:
$70 Unlimited Talk, SMS, 4GB, plus Tethering
$40 for 1 iPhone
$10 iPad usage
$120 TOTAL
Yep, your math is right. The increased cost is presumably to account for the unlimited voice and SMS, which is a shame since most people don't need unlimited voice and SMS.
Save another $10 a month by not adding your iPad and just tethering. If you're concerned for battery life - use the first few months of savings to buy an external battery (new trent makes great ones).
ATT has clearly stated they are not killing the old plans and some people have already posted they will SAVE money with the new plans. So, what's your point?
I love how some people are so self centered that they declare that if the plan doesn't benefit them, or if it doesn't match the 'perfect' non-US plans, it's a sham.
I switched to Straight Talk from AT&T about 6 weeks ago and haven't looked back. (Still waiting to get my ETF bill in the mail, though.
Maybe they'll forget...? )Also: you don't have to get the phone unlocked to switch to Straight Talk. Since Straight Talk is an AT&T MVNO (reseller), their SIM cards work just fine in AT&T-locked phones. But since your contract is almost up, you might as well, since it will probably increase the resale value down the road.
This is really going to make or break the new options for me. I have an 18% corporate discount with my company and it really depends on how they will apply this. Currently the discount only comes off of certain things and not the entire bill. To make switching over to these plans worth it for my wife and I they would have to apply the discount to our entire bill under the new plan. I'm doubting they will do that. More likely they will say it applies to the first line or only applies to the charge for service plus phones and not for the actual data charge... it seems like there's always some kind of catch.
such a rip off. what does it matter if u connect it to another phone, tablet or laptop. its all using the same data. pathetic
hope our providers dont think they can pull the same crap here (which they cant, we have way too much competition with 3rd party pay as u go sims at any supermarket)
hope our providers dont think they can pull the same crap here (which they cant, we have way too much competition with 3rd party pay as u go sims at any supermarket)
Will definitely pay more on they new plan structure. Not gonna switch unless the prices go down.
These plans are garbage, and I have yet to hear a convincing argument in favor of charging for data consumption. Fine, charge me for network access and speed type, but not data. Charging for data is all about trying to curb usage so AT&T's outdated infrastructure doesn't get overloaded. Pathetic leeches.
It is telling how little they are willing to invest year-over-year in new infrastructure, even with taxpayer subsidies, but are lightning fast in maneuvering to have state govt's make public ISP projects illegal because that would be "anti-competitive." They're also working very hard to keep Virgin Mobile out of the US market or at least restrict it. Hmmmm...
It is telling how little they are willing to invest year-over-year in new infrastructure, even with taxpayer subsidies, but are lightning fast in maneuvering to have state govt's make public ISP projects illegal because that would be "anti-competitive." They're also working very hard to keep Virgin Mobile out of the US market or at least restrict it. Hmmmm...
There are two smartphones on my family plan. One with a 2GB/month plan at $25/month and the other on a 200MB plan at $15/month.
It looks like the lowest price for one of these "share" plans is $40/month which is equal to what I'm paying now, except you only get 1GB?!
That doesn't make it worth it for me unless I'm missing something.
It looks like the lowest price for one of these "share" plans is $40/month which is equal to what I'm paying now, except you only get 1GB?!
That doesn't make it worth it for me unless I'm missing something.
This sounds good, until I consider how much data my teenaged son uses on his (currently) "unlimited data" plan.
Without the ability for the account holder to set quotas for individual devices, this is useless.
Just a guess: No teenagers in your household?
Without the ability for the account holder to set quotas for individual devices, this is useless.
Just a guess: No teenagers in your household?
I currently have 5 lines with att, 4 iPhones and 1 basic phone and a pay $258 including taxes
My current plan is:
700 minutes with unlimited text messages
Rollover
The basic phone does not have data
1 iphone have 200MB plan
3 iphones have unlimited (being throttled after 3GB)
My best option would be going for the 15 gb plan and that would be:
160 + 5(30) = 310 plus taxes
Thats more than 60 dollars over my current plan, are you kidding me AT&T
Considering I still have unlimited data and the possibility of the next iphone having 4g lte, I wild be throttled after 5GB instead of 3GB so that make the new plans look even worse.
My current plan is:
700 minutes with unlimited text messages
Rollover
The basic phone does not have data
1 iphone have 200MB plan
3 iphones have unlimited (being throttled after 3GB)
My best option would be going for the 15 gb plan and that would be:
160 + 5(30) = 310 plus taxes
Thats more than 60 dollars over my current plan, are you kidding me AT&T
Considering I still have unlimited data and the possibility of the next iphone having 4g lte, I wild be throttled after 5GB instead of 3GB so that make the new plans look even worse.