I CANNOT BELIEVE How Much of a Rip-off Shared Data Plans Are!

[dave420]

why is everyone clamoring for Unlimited Data when they throttle you after a certain amount of GBs and don't really let you exceed 5GB?

Have you been throttled? It really isn't that bad. I'd take the throttled speed over overage charges any day. It sounds like the LTE iPhones are throttled to higher speeds as well.
And I have no trouble going over 5GB on my 4S if I watch Netflix, so I'm not sure what you mean by they "don't really let you exceed 5GB."

 

[megapopular]

False. Shared plans are a better deal in terms of voice, texts, and data if you're doing a plan of 2 or more people.

People need to stop trying to hold onto their precious "unlimited" plans. Throttling on an unlimited plan means you're not getting unlimited.

Not always. I have 5 lines, 4 of which are iPhones. Only one person uses less than 2gb's a month. That being the case, I'd need to use the 20 gb plan at least as everyone else uses over 4 gb's a month. It would run me over $300 dollars. ($200 for mobile share plan, $30x4 for the iPhones I have and then $30 more for the basic phone on my plan) That's $350 before taxes, right? My 15% Fan discount would take the share plan down to $170 for $320 before taxes, right?

Currently I'm on the 700 minute plan for $60 for the first line, $9.99 for the remaining 4 lines... I get unlimited text and free mobile to mobile calling for $30, I pay $30 per 2 lines for unlimited iPhone data, $25 for 1 line of 2gb data, $50 dollars for 5gb data with personal hotspot and nothing for the basic "dumb phone" for a total of $264.66.

Fan discount of 15% on main line, every single data plan and every single line charge drops bill down by $39.70 for a total of $224.96 before tax.

Just wanted to break it down that depending on usage needs, the share plans aren't always the way to go. Unless you want to give money away.

 

[BFizzzle]

Yes, throttling isn't ideal but I'd rather be throttled than be hammered with overages.

for sure, i was just saying id rather have verizon true unlimited and pay more for my phone then have atts unlimited and deal with the throttling but get subsidized phones

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It's called a SHARE PLAN. It's meant for TWO OR MORE PEOPLE!
Your opinion is meaningless as this plan is not meant for a single person to use. Look elsewhere. OBVIOUSLY it doesn't work for you as one person.

How exactly did you grow up sharing things with yourself?

Sharing..exactly... kind of proving his point.
For new customers to either att or verizon who only need one device there is no good plan. YOU HAVE to have the share plan.. even if you dont need to share it or need unlimited talk.

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Not always. I have 5 lines, 4 of which are iPhones. Only one person uses less than 2gb's a month. That being the case, I'd need to use the 20 gb plan at least as everyone else uses over 4 gb's a month. It would run me over $300 dollars. ($200 for mobile share plan, $30x4 for the iPhones I have and then $30 more the basic phone on my plan) That's $350 before taxes, right? My 15% Fan discount would take the share plan down to $170 for $320 before taxes, right?

Currently I'm on the 700 minute plan for $60 for the first line, $9.99 for the remaining 4 lines... I get unlimited text and free mobile to mobile calling for $30, I pay $30 per 2 lines for unlimited iPhone data, $25 for 1 line of 2gb data, $50 dollars for 5gb data with personal hotspot and nothing for the basic "dumb phone" for a total of $264.66.

Fan discount of 15% on main line, every single data plan and every single line charge drops bill down by $39.70 for a total of $224.96 before tax.

Just wanted to break it down that depending on usage needs, the share plans aren't always the way to go. Unless you want to give money away.

exactly. its seems to only be good for people who want unlimited talk.

 

[racer1441]

I know right?!?! Plus, how do they get away with forcing you into the store at gun point to buy the plan!

 

[iceman027]

Of course it's a rip off. You think they are changing these rate plans to get less money from their customers?

 

[mattopotamus]

why is everyone clamoring for Unlimited Data when they throttle you after a certain amount of GBs and don't really let you exceed 5GB?

My dad, my mom and I have the 4GB AT&T Shared Data and it's $150 + tax which comes out to about $165 a month.

We were paying $227 before.

mostly b.c unlimited data, throttled at 5gb, cost $30.....under the shared plans it would cost you $50 for that same amount of data.

 

[qckslvrsiete]

Just a question, I get a discount on my verizon access. The discount is applied only to minutes i pay for.

So for example if my main plan is 59.99 a month and then 9.99 for my extra phone, my discount will apply to the 59.99 and the 9.99 only.

It doesn't apply to the 30/month for each data plan or the charge for our text message plan.

So my question is, if I go with the 4GB plan for 150 a month, how much of this 150 would my discount apply to?

My FAN discount on VZW is applied to the shared data fee, so the $70 is all the discount applies to.

Also, I just switched to VZW from ATT. I formerly had 500 shared minutes, unlimited text, grandfathered unlimited data on a 4S, and 2gb data for a iPhone 4. I'm paying just a little less now that I've switched to VZW, for 4gb shared, unlimited minutes and unlimited texts. The unlimited minutes are actually a huge win for me because we use our mobile lines and have friends and family all over the country. Considering my FAN discount with ATT was actually larger than what I get with VZW, and the fact I'm paying less now for more than what I was getting before (combined we never used more than 4gb of data on ATT), I thought the shared data plan was a great value.

YMMV on this. I suspect the average user will probably benefit from the shared data plans. The only people I've really heard complain are those with grandfathered unlimited plans who were also very high data users.

 

[Mliii]

mostly b.c unlimited data, throttled at 5gb, cost $30.....under the shared plans it would cost you $50 for that same amount of data.

AND if you go over, you have to pay for that! Definitely a racket.
And of course the carriers know it. Why else would they try to sweeten the pot by adding certain features, but ONLY if you go to a shared plan? They're not doing it because they love you!

 

[CSpackler]

That's the part I don't understand. The people clinging to their precious unlimited plans even though they are NOT unlimited.

Because it's $25 per line after my fan discount. And I just blew through 2 gigs of data in a couple days in NYC (no hotel wifi).

 

[TallManNY]

Unlimited minutes are not worth anything cause of apps like google voice. Unlimited data is worth it's price in gold

Yes, but they don't really make sense from a business perspective. The companies that offered them screwed up and they are realizing it and that is why they aren't offering them this anymore. Bandwidth is a finite resource under current technology. Giving it away unlimited for a set price doesn't make sense. The low data users will switch out of the unlimited plan and the high data users will clog your system and not pay enough for the priviledge.

Everyone should just accept that unlimited plans will all end. They might get offered by the failing cell companies as they don't have enough customers to clog their system. And the customers they do have aren't expecting the best speeds because they are paying for the bargain cell service.

Cheap but metered data service is the way to go. Just pay a flat amount for every, say, 10 MB of data you use in a month. Have an app that keeps track of your usage and automatically resets at the end of your billing month. It is fair, it is something we are all used to (see your monthly electricity bill), and it makes the person who controls the ussage bear the cost. It is a win for the customers overall and for the cell service.

 

[opeepingtomo]

Not always. I have 5 lines, 4 of which are iPhones. Only one person uses less than 2gb's a month. That being the case, I'd need to use the 20 gb plan at least as everyone else uses over 4 gb's a month. It would run me over $300 dollars. ($200 for mobile share plan, $30x4 for the iPhones I have and then $30 more for the basic phone on my plan) That's $350 before taxes, right? My 15% Fan discount would take the share plan down to $170 for $320 before taxes, right?

Currently I'm on the 700 minute plan for $60 for the first line, $9.99 for the remaining 4 lines... I get unlimited text and free mobile to mobile calling for $30, I pay $30 per 2 lines for unlimited iPhone data, $25 for 1 line of 2gb data, $50 dollars for 5gb data with personal hotspot and nothing for the basic "dumb phone" for a total of $264.66.

Fan discount of 15% on main line, every single data plan and every single line charge drops bill down by $39.70 for a total of $224.96 before tax.

Just wanted to break it down that depending on usage needs, the share plans aren't always the way to go. Unless you want to give money away.

Are you with ATT or VZW? Reason I ask is I thought (at least with VZW) that discounts were only applied to the main service. For example. My main service is 59.99 + 9.99 for the additional line. I get 25% off of this total. The data plans and text messaging plans I pay full price for though, as the discount is not applied to them.

 

[outie2k]

YMMV on this. I suspect the average user will probably benefit from the shared data plans. The only people I've really heard complain are those with grandfathered unlimited plans who were also very high data users.

It depends on everyone's need and is not specific to unlimited/high data users. In your case it's worth it because you need unlimited text. Imagine someone who does not need that it'd make a big difference in monthly and yearly ($30/mo and $360/yr, respectively). The difference between Family/Mobile Share is likely to differ in that same amount for you. On a ~$100/mo bill we are talking about 30% increase, which is quite significant to some.

I am pretty sure by now we all understand the Mobile Share plan is *not* for everybody. The good thing is that AT&T does not force you to use this plan, but the bad thing is that they are keeping a lot of features in Mobile Share now (FT,hotspot,etc.) As we can all see some people will benefit from this, while some will not. It really boils down to your needs.

 

[qckslvrsiete]

It depends on everyone's need and is not specific to unlimited/high data users. In your case it's worth it because you need unlimited text. Imagine someone who does not need that it'd make a big difference in monthly and yearly ($30/mo and $360/yr, respectively). The difference between Family/Mobile Share is likely to differ in that same amount for you. On a ~$100/mo bill we are talking about 30% increase, which is quite significant to some.

I am pretty sure by now we all understand the Mobile Share plan is *not* for everybody. The good thing is that AT&T does not force you to use this plan, but the bad thing is that they are keeping a lot of features in Mobile Share now (FT,hotspot,etc.) As we can all see some people will benefit from this, while some will not. It really boils down to your needs.

Are there still plans that offer capped texts? The only reason I was on unlimited texts with ATT is because I was forced to choose between some absurdly small number (100 or 200) of texts vs. unlimited. It's the unlmited voice on a shared plan that I really benefited from, and that was the value I gained in giving up my grandfathered unlimited.

 

[DarwinOSX]

Wait until voice over LTE comes around. Then voice will go over data too. These shared data plans are such a gigantic ripoff I paid full price for my iPhone 5 so i could keep unlimited data even though i am due for an upgrade October 11th. It was worth it and i sold my 4s for $350 anyway.
At least Verizon has great LTE coverage but shared data plans on AT&T are highway robbery given their extremely poor LTE coverage.
Verizon needs real competition and why anyone is still on AT&T is beyond me. Unless you really need voice and data at the same time.

 

[qckslvrsiete]

Are you with ATT or VZW? Reason I ask is I thought (at least with VZW) that discounts were only applied to the main service. For example. My main service is 59.99 + 9.99 for the additional line. I get 25% off of this total. The data plans and text messaging plans I pay full price for though, as the discount is not applied to them.

I think with VZW, the family share plan is now considered the main service. If you look at their service table, they have a "per line" fee, and then a shared fee that includes voice, data, and texts. I assumed the FAN would be applied to the per line fee, but CS confirmed to me that it would be applied on the shared fee. Not too bad since I only have two lines and a 4gb plan (so fan is applied to $70 instead of $80), but I can see where this becomes less valuable when you have more lines (for example, 3 lines sharing 6gb of data only get the discount on the $80 shared plan instead of the $120 charged for the lines).

 

[NM08SRT8]

Maybe it's just worse for me since i could care less about unlimited minutes.
Really though, 30 dollars to add an additional phone while sharing the same data. That is the most stupid thing I've ever heard in my life. On previous plan you pay 10 additional dollars to add to your plan and then 30 a month for UNLIMITED data. At least make these deals worthy of a legitimate consideration so that I might possibly want to switch when I look them over. I forgot how horrid they were until I looked again just now.

You could care less?

 

[megapopular]

Are you with ATT or VZW? Reason I ask is I thought (at least with VZW) that discounts were only applied to the main service. For example. My main service is 59.99 + 9.99 for the additional line. I get 25% off of this total. The data plans and text messaging plans I pay full price for though, as the discount is not applied to them.

Yep, I'm on AT&T, and yes, they credit each line and each data plan when it's not on the share plan.

 

[Dwalls90]

Yep, I'm on AT&T, and yes, they credit each line and each data plan when it's not on the share plan.

I think it depends.

On ours, they credited the main line's family plan feature.

 

[dukebound85]

Unlimited minutes are not worth anything cause of apps like google voice. Unlimited data is worth it's price in gold

google voice uses your your cell minutes you know.....it is not data

 

[nefan65]

 

[Scrub175]

google voice uses your your cell minutes you know.....it is not data

I believe gv uses your number to dial a gv number that was never the same thereby using your minutes. The work around on android was an app that would route dialed calls through your gv number and select the option to call out from the prompts. Then u add ur gv number to friends and family as it wouldn't count against your minute pool. Not sure if App Store has a similar app.

Even without the app if you dial ur gv number it gives automated options, from there select call out. The key is to have ur gv number on your friend and family list. It used to be that way on android.

 

[chakraj]

First, No google voice does not use cell minutes. I have this argument every week on here, I know because I use 0 minutes of my plan every month. So to all of you just repeating false information does not make it true.


Second, anyone who thinks that Telco companies are running out of bandwidth is an id**t, with LTE they have plenty of bandwidth and next is LTE advnaced which is even more, and did you know the cost to the carrier for LTE is way lower than 3g.

You are getting scammed. wake up

in a few years you will see everyone will be offering unlimited again.

 

[Hammie]

You could care less?

Unfortunately, both are now acceptable in the American English language...

 

[wknapp0924]

Bottom line is cell companies should be required to have "Rollover Data" It is ridiculous to think you lose data that might not have been used.

What if the electric company tried to say you have to pay for a $300.00 a month electric bill, but if you are under we keep all $300.00, but if you go over we will charge you for overages. Cell companies and their plans operate differently from any industry and I think someone needs to step in and regulate them better!

 

[Scrub175]

First, No google voice does not use cell minutes. I have this argument every week on here, I know because I use 0 minutes of my plan every month. So to all of you just repeating false information does not make it true.


Second, anyone who thinks that Telco companies are running out of bandwidth is an id**t, with LTE they have plenty of bandwidth and next is LTE advnaced which is even more, and did you know the cost to the carrier for LTE is way lower than 3g.

You are getting scammed. wake up

in a few years you will see everyone will be offering unlimited again.

Sorry chief...