Discounted Limited Data Plan for iPhone Coming From AT&T?

[butterfly0fdoom]

I'd rather a lower voice plan, too. I remember 6 years ago when our FamilyTalk plan gave us 450 minutes for $50 a month. And now the cheapest FamilyTalk voice plan we can get is 550 minutes for $60. Between my dad, my brother, and I, we don't even go anywhere near those 550 minutes (we probably have effectively unlimited minutes due to all the rollover).

There's a lot of ways the costs can go down. But that's not about to happen in the US. Not with the oligopoly the way it is now.

 

[Michael73]

I smell a new iPhone App that you could choose to run as a background process that monitors data usage and alerts you when you've reached predetermined levels.

 

[ckurt25]

PLEASE.

I would love to see:
$20 = 1 GB cap
$30 = 5 GB cap
$45 = 25 GB cap w/ tethering allowed

(If those seem unreasonable to you, please get some wifi at home. You'll be fine.)

I'm sick of every company having "unlimited" things with invisible barriers that you never know about until you bump into them.

Just tell us what we can have, charge us what it's worth, and let us decide what to buy and how to use it.

This shouldn't be so hard.

I'm all for paying less but I doubt those prices are gonna happen.

I'd guess you'll see

500 MB for $20
*Unlimited for $30
*5GB & Tethering for $60

*Both WINMO and BB data plans are priced this way. I find it funny that unlimited for $30 is unlimited but data with tethering is limited to 5 GB. I'd consider paying for it at that price but not quite a no-brainer. Maybe at $45 or $50. I'd love to see 5GB of data with tethering and 1500 (or unlimited) text messages for $60 but that may just be a dream.

 

[Soreo]

Firstly, I'd like to point out that you can check how much data you use, can't you? Just go to settings and go General > Usage.

I like the "$20 for Unlimited, $30 for Unlimited + Tethering" theory, but it wouldn't be tangible. They would most likely put a 200 MB cap, or if they were being nice, a 500 MB cap.

To be honest, I'm seldom-concerned about the data plan being $10 lower anyway; it doesn't really make a difference to me unless they brought it down $15-$20 lower (which wouldn't happen either). I hold more excitement for iPhone 3.0 and the 3G network going to 7 Mbps.

And I CANNOT believe that Rogers is charging their customers that much for data plans... That's dirty. It makes me grateful that I live in the U.S, lol.

 

[GQB]

If I could figure out how ATT tracks their data usage then I might be more interested in going to a cap to save some money.
Knowng that I downloaded 4 or 5 movies via 3G which totaled well over a gig but my bill is only showing 167,953 Kb

Guess I'll never get why one would download movies directly to to phone (and incur the charges along with slower data rate) when you can just download over a much faster LAN to iTunes and sync?
I suppose everyone has their own reasons for use patterns.

 

[Deelron]

AT&T already has a $20 data plan: EDGE. It's what I use on my iPhone 1G, and I'm perfectly happy with it (or I would be if AT&T coverage were a little better). If Apple wants to lower the barrier to entry, just give customers the option to go EDGE-only. (Get AT&T to offer some voice plans with fewer minutes as well, and you'll see lots of less-chatty users flocking to the iPhone.)

This would be exactly what I'd want. I can't quite justify the data plan + texts costs given the tons of free wifi in my area, and would be more then happy to have a new iPhone with 2G speeds. It'd fit my needs perfectly.

 

[Surely]

Some people here in Canada pay $30 (Cad) for 500MB.
I hope this will push Rogers to lower their price.

Come on Rogers give us Canadians better data plans! Maybe offer that 6GB/$30 plan again for a time period.

Please Rogers? Please?

Rogers doesn't care about either of you. Now go pay your bill.


There are other ways to reduce your bill. I had some "issues" with AT&T over the past two weeks (reception issues, bad customer service and a lot of time wasted on the phone with them). On 2 separate occasions during the past 2 weeks, I was given $20 credits towards by account (so I have a $40 credit) and they also gave me an extra 1000 roll-over minutes.

After that, the tech rep transferred me to the magical Customer Relations department because I was so angry and frustrated, and the rep in that department offered me a voice plan that isn't available in stores/online. She looked at my account and noticed that we go over 700 minutes but don't ever go over 1000 minutes per month. We had the 1400 minute family plan with 2 phones. The first two plan options available are 700 minutes or 1400 minutes, with nothing in between.

She offered me a 1000 minutes plan plus an additional 200 bonus minutes monthly plan for $79.99/month. Not a spectacular offer, but I'll take it.

So in the end, I'm getting almost as many minutes as I used to get (200 less) for $10 less/month than I was paying before. I'd rather save the $10 than have those missing 200 minutes that I won't miss since I wouldn't use them.

I am all for a limited, cheaper data plan. I just looked, and my data usage on my iPhone is well below 100MB. So, if I decide to upgrade from my 1st generation to the alleged new version that is due out this summer, I will probably go for the limited plan and save another $10.

It may not seem like a lot, but every little bit counts. I've saved $120/year already with the voice-plan reduction, and if I can save another $10/month, that'll be a total of $240/year. Not bad at all.

 

[olternaut]

I just don't understand why this has been so slow to come up. This should have been an option from the beginning.

Apple didn't have the leverage back then to make stuff like this happen.
Now they do.

 

[skeep5]

Hey AT&T, how about getting rid of the ridiculous charges for text messages too? With my current plan (original iPhone), I get 200 messages included with my $20/month data plan. Once I go 3G, I'll pay $30 a month and get 0 text messages. I'll have to pay an extra $5 to get my 200 messages again, taking my monthly increase to $15. Lame. Very lame.

the nickel and dime-ing for text messaging needs to stop. 5 bucks a month should get unlimited text messages, pleez!

 

[gkarris]

Wake me up when they match T-Mobile pricing:

$20/month unlimited data
$5/month 400 messages (I use about 300/month)

(at AT&T it's 200 messages, if you want more, then it's $15/month for 1500, no in-between - thanks, AT&T... )

 

[Eminemdrdre00]

Unlimited texts need to be included with the $30/month "unlimited data" I'm paying for.

 

[drober30]

$10 cheaper just doesn't make enough difference. iPhone plan + text messaging + data needs to be $20-$30 cheaper per month.

Exactly! There needs to be a noticeable difference in my monthly bill. $140.00 for two phones on a family plan is just ridiculous.

I have been using "smart phones" since they first arrived in the U.S (Motorola MPX 200) so I've had them all (except a BB) and I really like the iPhone but it is to darn expensive for the monthly bill.

 

[Macnator]

Rogers doesn't care about either of you. Now go pay your bill.

Rude!

But you're right. Rogers doesn't care about its customers. Too bad too, because if they offered cheaper data plans or possibly an "unlimited plan" they would make more money by having more people sign up for a lower-cost plan than less people signing up for more expensive plans.

I'm still hoping for better data plans though!

 

[GQB]

HAHA as a cell phone store manager I think one of the funniest things is how so many people pay for "unlimited" or the highest plan possible and only use a fraction of that. We see tons of people buy 2000 min plans that only use 500 min, or people that want unlimited data that only use 400MB a month, or people that want unlimited texting and only do 1000 texts a month, or blackberry owners that want a 3gig data plan and barely pass the 10MB mark on their plans.

Maybe if consumers actually knew what they used they wouldn't always want unlimited. Unlimited isn't something you actually use, it's just a word that makes you feel good about your plan.

Unfortunately, you don't know what your actual data usage is until you've lived with it for a few months, at which point you're already locked into a contract. Nice scam.

 

[greenpaz]

Question about having a cap on a data plan means

If you have a cap of 1 GB, is surfing the Internet part of this cap? Or does a cap on data just have to do with actually downloading content like movie and picture files and sending and receiving text messages?

 

[Surely]

If you have a cap of 1 GB, is surfing the Internet part of this cap? Or does a cap on data just have to do with actually downloading content like movie and picture files and sending and receiving text messages?

Is this a real question?

Data is internet usage, which includes downloading content like movie and picture files. How do you think the movies and pictures are downloaded? Where do you think they come from?

Text messaging is completely separate.

 

[jnguyen4]

Unlimited texts need to be included with the $30/month "unlimited data" I'm paying for.

totally agree with you. because they are not, i'm boycotting AT&T's texts

 

[puffnstuff]

if they had a data only plan I may get one.

 

[greenpaz]

Is this a real question?

Data is internet usage, which includes downloading content like movie and picture files. How do you think the movies and pictures are downloaded? Where do you think they come from?

Text messaging is completely separate.

Yep, real question from an actual human being who has never dealt with data plans in any way shape or form and therefore has no idea what the word "data" actually means when people talk about 1GB caps and the like. Considering the fact that text messages are also "data" and are apparently not included in data plans, is it really that hard to believe that somebody somewhere might require clarification?

 

[ntrigue]

claims that the additional data plan option is being driven by Apple

Are you kidding me? Obviously AT&T would be on-board as they can gouge and exhort for overage data. I'd stay FAR away from a limited plan myself.

 

[MacFly123]

Unlimited texts need to be included with the $30/month "unlimited data" I'm paying for.

Hey AT&T, how about getting rid of the ridiculous charges for text messages too? With my current plan (original iPhone), I get 200 messages included with my $20/month data plan. Once I go 3G, I'll pay $30 a month and get 0 text messages. I'll have to pay an extra $5 to get my 200 messages again, taking my monthly increase to $15. Lame. Very lame.

AMEN AMEN AMEN!!!!! That really pisses me off that they do that!

 

[hugo7]

Yep, real question from an actual human being who has never dealt with data plans in any way shape or form and therefore has no idea what the word "data" actually means when people talk about 1GB caps and the like. Considering the fact that text messages are also "data" and are apparently not included in data plans, is it really that hard to believe that somebody somewhere might require clarification?

Extremely well said.

 

[skellener]

Am I the only one that finds it interesting that AT&T is soooo worried about not keeping the iPhone exclusive? I mean, if they have such a great service and network, why should they worry, why would anyone want to leave? I'm being sarcastic of course. If they really did offer the best service, and best network - they really wouldn't have anything to worry about, would they? AT&T should really put all that effort into making a great product. Apple did. That's why people want the iPhone, not because it's on AT&T's network. If AT&T did that, I don't think they would have to worry so much if the iPhone was no longer exclusive. There are plenty of phones that are not exclusive. They need a great network with great plans. That will keep people at AT&T.

 

[gkarris]

Unlimited texts need to be included with the $30/month "unlimited data" I'm paying for.

HIGHLY UNLIKELY...

Text Messaging is a BIG money maker for providers, as Text rides on the Cellular Data Channel so it's free from the provider's standpoint.

It's also being use more and more over voice - so there's no way the providers will lower the price of Text Messaging.

If anything, if they lower the price of iPhone data - they could raise the price of Text Messaging to make up for it...

 

[Surely]

Yep, real question from an actual human being who has never dealt with data plans in any way shape or form and therefore has no idea what the word "data" actually means when people talk about 1GB caps and the like. Considering the fact that text messages are also "data" and are apparently not included in data plans, is it really that hard to believe that somebody somewhere might require clarification?

Yes, it is. Then again......

From the AT&T website: