Interesting. I have a Loyalty Discount on my AT&T 4 Line Unlimited and More. They would not budge when I inquired on keeping it on the new entry level Unlimited Plan with 5G. Just furthers the state of confusion currently at AT&T.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Carrier AT&T’s Unlimited 5G Plans: Should I Be OK Giving up Stuff to get 5G?
- Thread starter ScottC7
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Interesting. I have a Loyalty Discount on my AT&T 4 Line Unlimited and More. They would not budge when I inquired on keeping it on the new entry level Unlimited Plan with 5G. Just furthers the state of confusion currently at AT&T.
For the current batch of Unlimited plans, FAN discount can only be applied to the Elite plan.
I pulled the trigger and signed up for Unlimited Elite. Waiting to see the new summary with my FAN discount applied. Also, I got a message about toggling on and off "streamsaver" but I can't figure out how to do it either on the iPhone app or on the computer. I need patience.
I forget where it is exactly, but look for a link or button called Manage my data. There will be toggles to control stream saver. In my case at least, settings carried over from my previous plan for both lines, so I didn't need to change anything.
Weird. It tells me how to turn streamsaver on and off, but there is no pie chart or toggle underneath. Probably because the plan is only 45 minutes old? Again, I lack patience.
Pro-tip. On ANY carrier that throttles video speeds, you can use a VPN. Once you are using a VPN, you are unthrottled as they can't easily apply their traffic shaping techniques because they can't easily see what you are doing.
The toggle to turn off streamsaver magically appeared. I can guzzle data like a hog now at blistering LTE speeds. Maybe I'll get crazy and turn off my 450 wifi just to stick it to the man! /sarcasm
Sadly the Mobile Share plans were not Unlimited, and I imagine there are many on those plans. I'd be shocked if AT&T added 5G to those. So upgrade or no 5G.
Just remember it is only kind-of unlimited. That 'after 100GB we can throttle you if the network is busy' (on Elite, less on others) thing gives them a lot of leeway to throttle.
I also have a 7 and also am on an old family share plan. $174 (before taxes and fees) for 4 phones, one watch, and one tablet, 35 GB shared data. Going to unlimited, my bill would go up but by a lot less than double.
To me, the $350 trade in is not that appealing. It’s basically a 30 month contract for $250 more than I could get with a trade in straight to Apple. Now if I had an 8 and could get the $800, that would be a little different, but they made the difference between a 7 and an 8 $450... /shrug.
I‘ve gone back and forth, but I think I will just buy the phone (12 mini) outright and stick with the family share for now. Yes I will lose 5G, but I am mostly at home (with fast wifi) during the pandemic, and when I’m out and about, the LTE is very good around here. When things change and we are not all at home so much, maybe I’ll switch to an unlimited plan for the 5G.
I've never even come close to my previous 15GB limit so I doubt I'll ever be much of a burden to the system. BTW, I did turn off wifi just for kicks. I'm getting 98/35 at this moment here in the northeast USA. Cued up a 5 minute youtube at 1080p and it is streaming perfectly.
You have to call the retention/loyalty department, they're the only ones that can do it. Regular sales can't add it on. Follow the automated phone prompts as if you were going to cancel your service to get to the right department.
[automerge]1603235372[/automerge]
FAN discount is different than the loyalty discount. You can have both with the right plan.
ATT wouldn't allow grandfathered plans hotspot data, wifi calling, or HBO access; don't get your hopes up.
Funny, I just tried to turn streamsaver off for my second line, and it just errors saying "Something's not working. We can't save your new Stream Saver setting for this device right now. Give it some time, and try again.". Clearly there are issues with these new plans.
Yep; this is what I found out this morning. Getting to the retention/loyalty department seems to be the key.
Yep, that’s the plan I’m on too. I’m just not sure its worth upgrading to an Unlimited plan for 5G when I spend most of my time on WiFi and I find the LTE speeds (when not on WiFi) to be good. The WSJ review of 5G today left a lot to be desired there.
Thanks,
I remember now. It was sooooo long ago when we first went from a Family Share to an Unlimited Plan. I knew that I was loosing my US Govt. FAN (they were still giving me the FAN 10 years after I had left Govt. Service) when I went with the Unlimited and More. After I complained intensely as I had been an AT&T customer since the Days of AT&T Wireless being "Cellular Communication" in 1987 they transferred me to "The Loyalty Dept."
I'll remember that if I upgrade my phone.
Thanks,
I remember now. It was sooooo long ago when we first went from a Family Share to an Unlimited Plan. I knew that I was loosing my US Govt. FAN (they were still giving me the FAN 10 years after I had left Govt. Service) when I went with the Unlimited and More. After I complained intensely as I had been an AT&T customer since the Days of AT&T Wireless being "Cellular Communication" in 1987 they transferred me to "The Loyalty Dept."
I'll remember that if I upgrade my phone.
Sure that wasn't Cingular, I'm that old.
I definitely agree that there is no need to upgrade for just 5G. For me there was an additional motivation in that I was tired of worrying about eating through my data bucket. I've been doing a lot more tethering the last few months to enable working from not-exactly-home 
The tethering limit on these new plans is the size of the entire bucket of data I had with my old plan.
The tethering limit on these new plans is the size of the entire bucket of data I had with my old plan.