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Its actually funny how much ATT and VZ think they can charge people now. Unfortunately, theyre right. So many VZ and ATT customers love their stupid service that they refuse to look anywhere else no matter how much these companies stick it to them. For $40-45 a month, you can get a prepaid GSM phone and get a solid 2 gbs of data (plus throttled after that), unlimited talk and text using the same towers. For the same price, you get one GB of data on ATT- not even including the right to use it, thats another $40. Why are people still going for this crap?

because for most people who use around 1GB per month on average a family plan on AT&T compared to paying full price and going straight talk is about the same amount of money
 
Exactly. The iPhone popularity killed the unlimited plans.

Not to mention that before Apple proved that people would put up with a mandatory data plan, they were not required. Lots of folks used to buy a smartphone and use the data part just on WiFi.

As for the myth that Apple "took power from the carriers"... Apple bent over backwards for years to all of AT&T's "suggestions" about keeping data hungry apps locked to WiFi.

The primary change that Apple made was to create their own walled garden and keep it tighter than any the carriers had made (prior to the iPhone, smartphones could download software from anywhere).
Of course, without the iPhone everyone would be rocking dumb (I mean feature) phones and blackberries.
 
Of course, without the iPhone everyone would be rocking dumb (I mean feature) phones and blackberries.

Millions of us were using smartphones before the iPhone, so we'd be rocking WVGA screens, 4G, etc no matter what.

However, yep, no doubt a lot of people would still be on lesser phones. Of course, that might not be a bad thing :)

First, they'd be saving tons of money on not having a data plan.

Second, those of us on smartphones would still have little congestion (heh heh).

Perhaps most of all, a major effect of the mass move to smartphones was a transition to a new low in personal face-to-face interaction. Everyone's staring at their screen now, in restaurants, while driving, even in churches. Without smartphones, there was still too much texting, but I think social life would have less constant internet device use.
 
So if they still allow us to keep our grandfathered unlimited plans, will we still get 5GB of lte data before they throttle?

As a grandfathered unlimited data user on an iPad 3 running LTE with 20mbs down, I am keen on ditching Time Warner cable for home wifi and lighting up my house with this. Question: can anyone point to a link citing the claim that AT&T will permit legacy unlimited data users the ability to use this new service? People on this forum claim they will, but I'd like to see a citation from AT&T saying so. Thanks.
 
As a grandfathered unlimited data user on an iPad 3 running LTE with 20mbs down, I am keen on ditching Time Warner cable for home wifi and lighting up my house with this. Question: can anyone point to a link citing the claim that AT&T will permit legacy unlimited data users the ability to use this new service? People on this forum claim they will, but I'd like to see a citation from AT&T saying so. Thanks.

They will never let an unlimited plan tether. The grandfathered plans are just there to let you continue with that plan with your iPhone alone. Unless of course you want to go through the hoops to bypass that.

Moving to these Family Share plans will void your grandfathered plan. I am probably going to do that myself. As the data shared is more than I need.
 
US Telcoms have their way

These shared plans are just ATT engaging in Wallstreet smoke and mirrors. They are misleading and prey on the uninformed. Regarding pricing, anyone that has traveled overseas and used a mifi or local sim has seen it first hand how US telcoms are overpriced.
 
Whats kind of funny is people who won't switch because of their "unlimited" plans. What people forget is that AT&T doesn't offer unlimited plans anymore. They don't offer them for new customers and they don't offer them for grandfathered "unlimited" plan users either.

So I have the following AT&T plan because work reimburses me for it

Unlimited Voice $70
3 Gigabyte of data "Unlimited" $30
Unlimited Texting $20

Wife has

TMobile Monthly 4G (250 MB data) $50

Total $170 a month

With the new plans

40 + 40 (two iPhones) $80
$70 4 GB of Data
and I can add my iPad $10

$160 a month

So if I get rid of my unlimited plan I get 750 MB more data per month, add my iPad, get tethering which I don't have to worry about AT&T finding out, AND save $10 a month.

And the wife is happier as AT&T's service is better than TMobile's where I live.

Some people say that the purpose of this plan is to get people off of "unlimited" plans, AT&T did that a year ago when they limited the "unlimited plan" to 3 GB.
 
AT&T and verizon are evil

my mom and inlaws have been talking about the iphone but didn't want to pay data.

i checked into expanding my 4 line family plan to 7 lines by adding my mom, brother and someone else and its A LOT cheaper as you add more and more people. and if people have different contract end dates for phones it will be almost impossible to transfer the entire account to another carrier
 
Millions of us were using smartphones before the iPhone, so we'd be rocking WVGA screens, 4G, etc no matter what.

However, yep, no doubt a lot of people would still be on lesser phones. Of course, that might not be a bad thing :)

First, they'd be saving tons of money on not having a data plan.

Second, those of us on smartphones would still have little congestion (heh heh).

Perhaps most of all, a major effect of the mass move to smartphones was a transition to a new low in personal face-to-face interaction. Everyone's staring at their screen now, in restaurants, while driving, even in churches. Without smartphones, there was still too much texting, but I think social life would have less constant internet device use.

There were times that I looked at my old T650 and wondered how come it took Apple so long to get certain features in their devices.
The rest of your post is spot on.
 
Whats kind of funny is people who won't switch because of their "unlimited" plans. What people forget is that AT&T doesn't offer unlimited plans anymore. They don't offer them for new customers and they don't offer them for grandfathered "unlimited" plan users either..

The lucky few who got the first run of the ATT 1st gen iPads got unlimited and it truly is still unlimited for them until ATT runs out of patience or more start doing what the poster above says by using a JB iPad LTE and tethering it for household use. You get enough of that going on and ATT will start to throttle the iPad 'unlimited' plans too like they do with iPhone.
 
I wonder how this will effect any of us grandfathered into the 'unlimited data' plan for $30 a month via AT&T. My guess is that the change in the plan may remove unlimited data for users that still have it... It would be nice if it didn't. But my guess is this may be a chance for AT&T to try and purge some of its unlimited data customers.

What unlimited? We pretty much get throttled to hell after 3gb :rolleyes::mad:
 
For those that do not have unlimited data plans, who has ever used up their entire month's allotment without going over? For this new shared plan and current capped plans, it's ridiculous to think that you will get to use all of that 2GB, 4GB, 6GB, etc. if you are unwilling to pay the overage amount. When I use 1950 MB of my 2048 MB, I am pretty much scared ******** to use anymore data. I turn off my cellular data and go without Internet if I can't jump on WiFi, which is the case at work. So again, unless you are willing to pay the extra $10/$15, you can't even fairly look at your plan as having as much data as it says it allows. I wish you could enable a cap that would prevent all data once you hit your limit.
 
Hhhhmmmm.

This is something for me to consider.

Here is my current bill:
$60.00 (850 minutes - First Phone)
$30.00 (Unlimited Data for wife's 4S)
$30.00 (Unlimited Texting - Family Plan)
$10.00 (Second Phone)
$15.00 (200 MB's Data)
$10.00 (Thid Phone)
$15.00 (200 MB's Data)
$10.00 (Fourth Phone)
$25.00 (2 GB's Data)
$30.00 (Unlimited Data for 1st gen iPad)
$235.00 (TOTAL)

Bill under Mobile Share:
$120 (10GB's Data)
$120 (Four Smart Phones @ $30/phone)
$240.00 (TOTAL)

Granted, it is $5 more/month. However, my wife's iPhone is the one with unlimited data on it and she never uses 200 MB's/month (since she deleted a phantom app that was using up massive amounts of data). We have 3 iPads in the family. Only the one has 3G. So, we could use all three tethered to iPhones. Also, I don't use much data on the iPad that has unlimited data. I've been resistant to give up the unlimited data on the iPad, despite the fact that I don't need it. It would cost me (IIRC) $50 to add 5 GB's of tethering to my iPhone.

So for $5/month, I can spread 10GB's of data across 4 iPhones, 3 iPads and our MB's. Unless my math is off, it seems like a viable option.
 
Whats kind of funny is people who won't switch because of their "unlimited" plans. What people forget is that AT&T doesn't offer unlimited plans anymore. They don't offer them for new customers and they don't offer them for grandfathered "unlimited" plan users either.

Um, I fully know what I get. It's still unlimited, it just gets slowed down at a certain point.

And I would personally rather get slowed down than charged extra if I go over. Maybe you don't care about being charged extra and care more about speed, so fine, the other plan is better for you. Me? I'd rather get slower speed if/when I go over (I don't tend to go over 2 GB even honesty) than worry about being charged extra if I go over. If I wanted to worry about being charged more if I went over, I'd be better off with a pay for minutes (specially this since I barely use the phone)/data plan (many times those are cheaper unless you really use a lot).

The reason I pay for a contract plan is just so that I don't have to worry about it (and I use enough data I'd worry I'd not notice if I went over so I like the unlimited). If I wanted to worry about it, it's cheaper to pay ahead for a set amount of minutes and add on minutes or data if you need it (true pay per use. Not even paying for 2 GB a month but paying for 2GB and having to pay for more when you need it).
 
Sorry, I'm slow. How do I get to this screen? Only thing I see after selecting a phone like the GSIII is shared data plans.

Thanks.

Shop->Smartphones->SGSIII 16GB->Add to cart->New Customer->Zip Code->*With Wireless Service*->Individual->SGSIII [no idea why you need to do that twice, but from the checkout seems they only charge you for one]->Yes->Next->No->Individual->choose a plan->2GB for $30
 
Shop->Smartphones->SGSIII 16GB->Add to cart->New Customer->Zip Code->*With Wireless Service*->Individual->SGSIII [no idea why you need to do that twice, but from the checkout seems they only charge you for one]->Yes->Next->No->Individual->choose a plan->2GB for $30

Again...this only appears to work for Android phones. Selecting an iPhone gives you a completely different screen at step 4.
 
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