This would actually save me about 100 bucks a month on my phone bill if I don't have to pay all those extraneous taxes and fees... I am totally thinking about switching to a 10GB plan or a 15GB plan.
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AT&T's 'Mobile Share' Service Plans Launching August 23
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This would actually save me about 100 bucks a month on my phone bill if I don't have to pay all those extraneous taxes and fees... I am totally thinking about switching to a 10GB plan or a 15GB plan.
Best of luck! Not that you'll need it. Porting your number and activating it over the ST web site only took about a half hour for me on a Monday evening. Haven't looked back since.
LOL!
I have 2 phones with "unlimited" 4G data and 1500 shared minutes (unlimited text) on T-Mobile for $120 ($140, including taxes and fees).
Of course, you can't get 3G or 4G on T-Mobile with the current iPhones, but I have a Galaxy Nexus (4G) and a Nexus S (3G only).
If the new, larger iPhone is compatible with T-Mobile, I'll replace the Nexus S with it.
But, AT&T is a rip-off, and Verizon is the worst. Both are only for people with "SUCKER" tattooed on the their foreheads....
I have 2 phones with "unlimited" 4G data and 1500 shared minutes (unlimited text) on T-Mobile for $120 ($140, including taxes and fees).
Of course, you can't get 3G or 4G on T-Mobile with the current iPhones, but I have a Galaxy Nexus (4G) and a Nexus S (3G only).
If the new, larger iPhone is compatible with T-Mobile, I'll replace the Nexus S with it.
But, AT&T is a rip-off, and Verizon is the worst. Both are only for people with "SUCKER" tattooed on the their foreheads....
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Prepaid is my response to this nonsense
Prepaid providers like Straight Talk and T-Mobile Monthly 4G are the way that we can say no being ripped off. AT&T is banking on the fact that people don't want to bother comparing the grand total they will pay over the span of two years. Paying for (or financing interest-free) a brand new $650 + tax iPhone and then using Straight Talk is dramatically less expensive, especially on an individual plan. Run the numbers yourself!
I also believe the prepaid market holds the key to increasing healthy competition in the market. Without contracts we are free to switch (and still keep our number!) to another provider at any time. We can change rate plans easily and whenever. It also encourages consumers to shop around for plans as well as devices, and it seems like that could help drive prices down.
I recently made the switch to Straight Talk and I could not be more pleased. I'm getting MORE out of my plan and I'm paying nearly half the price.
Prepaid providers like Straight Talk and T-Mobile Monthly 4G are the way that we can say no being ripped off. AT&T is banking on the fact that people don't want to bother comparing the grand total they will pay over the span of two years. Paying for (or financing interest-free) a brand new $650 + tax iPhone and then using Straight Talk is dramatically less expensive, especially on an individual plan. Run the numbers yourself!
I also believe the prepaid market holds the key to increasing healthy competition in the market. Without contracts we are free to switch (and still keep our number!) to another provider at any time. We can change rate plans easily and whenever. It also encourages consumers to shop around for plans as well as devices, and it seems like that could help drive prices down.
I recently made the switch to Straight Talk and I could not be more pleased. I'm getting MORE out of my plan and I'm paying nearly half the price.
What kind of phone are you using on straight talk? I hear some good things about them but I came across a site with reviews and most of the ppl are complaining about the service. Thx
Ummm... based on the simply math I am pretty sure I got right, my existing plan with At&t just got more expensive? WTF?!
Prepaid providers like Straight Talk and T-Mobile Monthly 4G are the way that we can say no being ripped off. AT&T is banking on the fact that people don't want to bother comparing the grand total they will pay over the span of two years. Paying for (or financing interest-free) a brand new $650 + tax iPhone and then using Straight Talk is dramatically less expensive, especially on an individual plan. Run the numbers yourself!
I also believe the prepaid market holds the key to increasing healthy competition in the market. Without contracts we are free to switch (and still keep our number!) to another provider at any time. We can change rate plans easily and whenever. It also encourages consumers to shop around for plans as well as devices, and it seems like that could help drive prices down.
I recently made the switch to Straight Talk and I could not be more pleased. I'm getting MORE out of my plan and I'm paying nearly half the price.
Straight Talk isn't for everyone though. No visual voicemail. No Micro-cell capability. No brick and mortar store for consumers that need their hands held. The idea of no physical location to pay bills and ask question and get service scares a lot of people.
As for this plan, I'm waiting to see how FAN discounts apply. Could end up being cheaper for us.
I'm using an iPhone 4S. I have the same, if not BETTER reception on Straight Talk in most places. I havent found anywhere where i have WORSE reception.
I can say this, the data is faster on Straight Talk than regular AT&T. I dont know why or how. You can call BS, but I did 10 speed tests on each network and averaged almost 1mb/s faster download speeds on ST. Upload was roughly the same.
EVERYONE WHO IS NOW ON STRAIGHT TALK: Download Onavo Extend. It almost doubles the amount of activity you can do on the web. If you run into an issue with having two APN profiles installed, just contact onavo support through the app and they will make a custom APN for you that uses ATT MVNO APN + Onavo Extend Proxy server. Works fantastic.
And then I bet they will charge us extra for data to be able to use FaceTime or FaceTime, like how they charge extra to tether.
On second thought... This plan still doesn't make sense for me...if it costs me extra to do tethering. It costs AT&T nothing to do tethering. They are charging fees for nothing. it shouldn't matter what I am allowing access to my shared data plan. I don't mind paying for what I use. However, AT&T is charging people fee for stuff the phone can do regardless of the carrier involved. I still can't even do tethering with my LTE Ipad on AT&T's network. They are opening themselves up for competition.
EDIT: I went to the website and yes it does include smartphone tethering. So it would save me between 75 and 100 bucks a month if there are not additional taxes and fees. Where do I sign?
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My current AT&T Plan for two iPhones is as follows:
FamilyTalk Nation 700 w/ Rollover: 70 (60 + 10)
Family Messaging Unlimited w/ Mobile to Any Mobile Calling: 30
DataPro 2GB for iPhone: 50 (25 + 25)
Total: 150
New Plan with 4GB of data:
Mobile Share with Unlimited Talk & Text: 70
Each Smartphone: 80 (40+40)
Total: 150
I'll be switching. Benefits:
Tethering (awesome). No more worrying about minutes. Flexibility, because the 4GB is shared between two devices. IE: On one device I currently use an average of 1.6GB of data. Have exceeded 2.0GB once. The other is only using about 0.5GB of data.
Sounds like a good deal for me, especially since I was about to add tethering for $25 per month (to connect a non-3G iPad). If I need more data, 6GB would only cost $10 more per month.
FamilyTalk Nation 700 w/ Rollover: 70 (60 + 10)
Family Messaging Unlimited w/ Mobile to Any Mobile Calling: 30
DataPro 2GB for iPhone: 50 (25 + 25)
Total: 150
New Plan with 4GB of data:
Mobile Share with Unlimited Talk & Text: 70
Each Smartphone: 80 (40+40)
Total: 150
I'll be switching. Benefits:
Tethering (awesome). No more worrying about minutes. Flexibility, because the 4GB is shared between two devices. IE: On one device I currently use an average of 1.6GB of data. Have exceeded 2.0GB once. The other is only using about 0.5GB of data.
Sounds like a good deal for me, especially since I was about to add tethering for $25 per month (to connect a non-3G iPad). If I need more data, 6GB would only cost $10 more per month.
No, the upgrade to $30 was because AT&T's data plans for subsidized smartphones consisted of a single option at the time: $30 for unlimited data. Because the original iPhone was not subsidized, AT&T offered the iPhone with a less-expensive option since there was no subsidy cost to recoup.
thanks for the info
I'll actually be porting my number to google voice. I too don't feel comfortable porting to ST. At least with google I have control for now and any future carrier I use.
Not going to port, see above. cool that activating is fast though. Maybe even faster since not porting.
Here's a little math for my 2 iPhones:
Straight Talk:
$495 Unlimited * 2 = $990 / 12 = $82.50/mo.
$200 iPhone 5 * 2 = $400
$325 AT&T Termination * 2 = $650
Assuming 2 years of usage (2 year contract):
$3030 total cost of ownership / 24 = $126.25/mo.
ATT:
Yearly service (see earlier post) = $1800 / 12 = $150/mo.
$200 iPhone 5 * 2 = $400
Assuming 2 years of usage (2 year contract):
$4000 total cost of ownership / 24 = $166.67/mo.
Savings:
$40.42/mo. * 24 = $970.08
Negatives:
No visual voice mail, no tethering, no MMS. Can be resolved with Jailbreak.
Summary:
Something to seriously consider. There are a lot of upfront costs to achieve those rates, though you could stick with the $45/mo. option instead of the $495/yr. ($41.25/yr.) option.
Straight Talk:
$495 Unlimited * 2 = $990 / 12 = $82.50/mo.
$200 iPhone 5 * 2 = $400
$325 AT&T Termination * 2 = $650
Assuming 2 years of usage (2 year contract):
$3030 total cost of ownership / 24 = $126.25/mo.
ATT:
Yearly service (see earlier post) = $1800 / 12 = $150/mo.
$200 iPhone 5 * 2 = $400
Assuming 2 years of usage (2 year contract):
$4000 total cost of ownership / 24 = $166.67/mo.
Savings:
$40.42/mo. * 24 = $970.08
Negatives:
No visual voice mail, no tethering, no MMS. Can be resolved with Jailbreak.
Summary:
Something to seriously consider. There are a lot of upfront costs to achieve those rates, though you could stick with the $45/mo. option instead of the $495/yr. ($41.25/yr.) option.
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That is pretty sad, you could actually get a pretty good (used) car for the price you pay for 2 years worth of cell phone + data plans. Something is seriously wrong with this picture. Through in a typical 5 year loan and you'd have over $8,000 that could go towards a car rather than a show for nothing cell phone.
I think the most ridiculous aspect is the fact you still end up paying close to retail on the nicer phones when you sign another two year contract. I've been using the 3rd party market for cell phones just on the simple fact these companies are such a rip-off (all of them).
Try reading posts in this thread where people have analyzed their current situation against the new plans and have indicated they will save money. Several had nothing to do with tethering.
We have 4 phones and 3 iPads. For us it's not so much a matter of how much money we save but the fact that none of us use much data on our phones but always seem to keep running into issues on our iPads.
I explained it to my grandson last week. He is mildly austic and is a major user of my iPad data when I'm carting him to camp, therapy, etc. He runs through my 3 gigs pretty quickly. But I have unlimited on my phone and use 200 mb or so each month. My husband works out of the country but of course has a phone he only turns on when he's in the US. He uses none of his data unless he's home.
My analogy to my grandson is that now we have many cups of data and many straws. Some of those cups are empty early in the month and some are almost full. After this we will have one big cup and many straws. We did the math, 15 gigs comes out about the same, maybe a bit less, maybe a bit more because we don't yet know my son's discount (AT&T bought out the company he works for so he gets the employee discount). Doesn't matter, being able to actually use the data we're paying for is worth it.
I explained it to my grandson last week. He is mildly austic and is a major user of my iPad data when I'm carting him to camp, therapy, etc. He runs through my 3 gigs pretty quickly. But I have unlimited on my phone and use 200 mb or so each month. My husband works out of the country but of course has a phone he only turns on when he's in the US. He uses none of his data unless he's home.
My analogy to my grandson is that now we have many cups of data and many straws. Some of those cups are empty early in the month and some are almost full. After this we will have one big cup and many straws. We did the math, 15 gigs comes out about the same, maybe a bit less, maybe a bit more because we don't yet know my son's discount (AT&T bought out the company he works for so he gets the employee discount). Doesn't matter, being able to actually use the data we're paying for is worth it.
Okay, maybe I am stupid.
I have 4 iphones.
Two at $30 unlimited data
Two at $25 for 2gb
We never go over our allotment. The unlimited would be fine at 1gb and save money. I just hate to give up that "grandfathered" unlimited. Probably stupid as well.
This new plan would cost me way more, right?
Am I missing something here?
I have 4 iphones.
Two at $30 unlimited data
Two at $25 for 2gb
We never go over our allotment. The unlimited would be fine at 1gb and save money. I just hate to give up that "grandfathered" unlimited. Probably stupid as well.
This new plan would cost me way more, right?
Am I missing something here?
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It's not like we get unlimited data to begin with. I've already gotten my warning message that if I exceed 3GB or something again, I get throttled. This cell oligopoly is just insane. With the unlimited texting that gives you free mobile-to-any-mobile, I pretty much already have unlimited calling. I haven't used more than 150 minutes toward my limit since it started. So, they want me to give up my 'unlimited data' for essentially the same plan I have now with a solid data cap for the same price? Sure.
