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Carrier AT&T’s Unlimited 5G Plans: Should I Be OK Giving up Stuff to get 5G?

ScottC7 said:
My iPhone 12 Pro is on its way, so as an AT&T customer on a Mobile Share plan, I started looking into their 5G plans (the “Unlimited” series). It seems to me there are alot of compromises AT&T is making customers accept to get 5G.

For example, in my home, we have 5 lines: three iPhones, an iPad, and an Apple Watch. If I’m reading the language correctly, there is no Unlimited plan that allows me to stream HD onto my iPad...all the plans specify 480p streaming. Is that really correct, and if so, why would I be OK with that on a 12.9” iPad Pro with this amazing screen and video processing?

Am I misunderstanding? I hope so.
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yikes. I have the original iPad unlimited data plan that I got when the iPad launched in 2010, and I have unlimited texting, data, and I stream in HD. I’m glad I didn’t let it go.
 
donawalt said:
thanks @kre62, butI don't think that's right. See this picture....it needs wifi to work. So if I am out somewhere with my iPad alone, not on wifi, it can't use text forwarding to send/receive messages...right?
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Not the right section. Go to text message forwarding on the iPhone messages settings. Once thats enabled, shouldn’t matter the data typeof the receiving iPad
 
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kre62 said:
Not the right section. Go to text message forwarding on the iPhone messages settings. Once thats enabled, shouldn’t matter the data typeof the receiving iPad
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I get it now, thanks @kre62. I did a test, testing works fine with WiFi off AND cellular on, as long as Data is on. It accomplishes what you say through the data plan. If I turn data off, the text messages don't go out!
 
donawalt said:
Screen Shot 2020-10-17 at 4.07.42 AM.png

@iphone1105 on your unlimited plan are you able to send text messages form your iPad on cellular, or is that capability lost?
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I saw this added this AM, maybe text isincludied for the "tablet" plan
 
I’m on a mobile share 9GB plan. Just a single line plan and it looks like my only options are to buy outright as I have to have ‘unlimited’ to take part in any deals. Guess I’m going to have to switch eventually. My FAN hasn’t been activated on my account yet but guess I’ll just switch to that even though I don’t need unlmited.
 
iphone1105 said:
I saw this added this AM, maybe text isincludied for the "tablet" plan
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Yes, I think text works the same on tablets in the tablet plan as it does currently. I just tested on my iPad, to see if I could send and receive text messages (with Settings/Messages/Text Message forwarding turned on, on my iPhone [I think this is necessary]):

WiFi turned ON: Yes (of course)
Cellular turned OFF AND iPad Settings/Cellular Data/Cellular Data toggled ON: Yes
Cellular turned OFF AND iPad Settings/Cellular Data/Cellular Data toggled OFF: NO!

So it requires Data turned on (your Unlimited Data plan on the new plans) , iPhone Text Message Forwarding enabled for your iPad, and I believe the iPad must be signed into the same iCloud account as your phone - then it works identically to text messaging from the phone, using the same data plan. I think these questions have just been omissions to the chart, or else AT&T is being more accurate in th chart, in that the iPad ITSELF cannot independently send/receive text messages.
 
iFan said:
I believe the reason you don't see Extra is because your discount is giving you Elite for the price of Extra. Since they would be the same cost, it isn't allowing you to choose the inferior option. This is a rare case of the AT&T system actually benefiting you.

For the HD vs SD streaming on iPad I completely agree with you. Either that or they should offer different tiers of pricing for iPad. $10 for SD streaming, $20 for HD.
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iFan said:
When I worked for AT&T I got to be involved in some of the backdoor shenanigans that go on between regulators, local municipalities and AT&T execs, and I was actually surprised at some of the things that happen.

For example, local towns wouldn't let us bring internet or tv into their town unless they received a "bribe" like paying for a park or resurfacing streets. One town had us be the platinum sponsor for a bike race. You'd think the town would want more competition for their residents, but no. So it wasn't always AT&T that was the evil entity. The whole system is rigged against consumers, but I don't trust any sort of federal law would fix it. It would probably make things worse. My regional bosses didn't even care about net neutrality regulation, they were more concerned about local regulations.

I'm no fan of AT&T and criticize them frequently, but I found the truth to be far different when viewing from the inside.
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Thank you @iFan; these two posts were very informative. I suspect you are correct about the reasons I’m not seeing Extra. Much appreciated!
 
Paco II said:
apologies if you already mentioned it, but FYI corporate discount (FAN, signature, etc) are only compatible with the highest price Elite plan.
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Yeah, but when they had the Mobile Share 9GB plan that was eligible too. That and the Elite were the only ones, and now their 4GB plan is eligible.
 
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BrettDS said:
It’s not quite like that. All the current plans support 5G, but the problem is that ATT changes plans and options fairly frequently. At least every year or two, but when they change their plans they don’t require people to move to the new plan. As long as you keep paying your bill you can stay on your plan indefinitely. This is often beneficial to the customers because often the older plans are cheaper. But the problem for ATT is that now they have people on plans that haven’t been offered for years or even more than a decade.

They are now refusing to allow these old plans to have access to 5G in the hopes that it will encourage people on the old plans to switch to a current plan.

Interestingly, when 4G became available they took the opposite approach and all ATT plans, regardless of age were eligible for 4G service while Verizon required people to be on a current plan to get 4G service.
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The crazy thing is that sub-6Ghz 5G (what is the most coverage by far for telecoms currently) is only slightly faster than LTE but it has higher bandwidth for more connections. So it would help at&t by moving everyone to 5G. It makes no business sense to keep people on LTE.
 
heyyitssusan said:
Yeah, but when they had the Mobile Share 9GB plan that was eligible too. That and the Elite were the only ones, and now their 4GB plan is eligible.
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I can confirm that I am currently on the shared 6GB plan and it allows my corporate discount.
 
Paco II said:
Let me clarify my comment: with the new Unlimited plan choices, only Elite can be used with a corporate discount.
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Yep, and I’m trying to decide if it’s worth it for just my one line. I‘m not a heavy data user but I guess it’s a better deal compared to the other unlmited plans with the discount.. and that if I wanted to switch back to my 9GB Mobile Share I can’t, as it’s not available anymore.
 
heyyitssusan said:
Yep, and I’m trying to decide if it’s worth it for just my one line. I‘m not a heavy data user but I guess it’s a better deal compared to the other unlmited plans with the discount.. and that if I wanted to switch back to my 9GB Mobile Share I can’t, as it’s not available anymore.
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With autopay it'll be $75+taxes, minus $10 discount for the one line. Depending upon your taxes it'll be around $80/month.
 
Paco II said:
Agreed. I was very sad to give up my mobile share plan. But where I am located there is theoretically decent 5G and I want to have it
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Yeah, I looked at the coverage map and 5G is pretty decent in my area too. Guess I will have to make the switch eventually as all the “promos” require an unlmited plan anyway. Did your bill go up at all, and if so how much?
 
heyyitssusan said:
Yeah, I looked at the coverage map and 5G is pretty decent in my area too. Guess I will have to make the switch eventually as all the “promos” require an unlmited plan anyway. Did your bill go up at all, and if so how much?
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I got two lines. With FAN. Bill is going up about $20/month. I didn't really need HBO Max but it softens the blow of the increase.
 
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