Need help - AT&T plan - 3 on unlimited, 1 on Data Pro, contracts almost up, new plans, HELP!

[Applejuiced]

Well, it's all done - this phase of the plan. Teenage daughter data sucker is successfully ported over to TMobile, and the three of us remain on AT&T. Next up is to figure out what to do after our contracts are up for husband and I (we got our 6S's on a 2 year contract last December). I'm anxious to run the math to see what is truly cheaper after the new bills settle for a month or so. AT&T with our grandfathered unlimited + our employer discount, or TMobile for four lines. I'll say it again that I'm still ill that the subsidized pricing for phones is gone...that kind of ruins the whole thing.

Last month we spent $180 in overage fees ON TOP OF the $50 we paid for her Data Pro 5G, plus her line fees...so yeah, $70 is a lot less.

With the subsidized model gone it didn't make any sense for me to stick with AT&T and after over 16 years with them I left and switched to Tmobile.
Couldn't be happier, great service and speeds and my family plan is now cheaper with unlimited data and 14GB's of tethering included per line.

 

[iPhone Momma]

My preliminary math based on our most recent bill tells me that the remaining three lines on AT&T with our discount and grandfathered unlimited is $218.57, plus the $70 at Tmobile, bringing the grand total to $288.57.

Four lines, all unlimited, at Tmobile is $160. $128.57 less.

Can anyone give me any good reason why anyone would not take advantage of this? Would would anyone in their right mind stay on AT&T or Verizon? What's the catch?

Right now, to move just my son, who is out of contract, would cost a few dollars more (it would be a jump from $70 to $120 but his line only costs $41 total at AT&T). It's only that amount of savings once my husband and I are out of contract and all three of us can move. But we are locked in a 2 year contract until December 2017.

Is there any way out of that contract and have TMobile pay the early termination fees if not buying new phones? Still though...$128 a month savings...

 

[ecschwarz]

My preliminary math based on our most recent bill tells me that the remaining three lines on AT&T with our discount and grandfathered unlimited is $218.57, plus the $70 at Tmobile, bringing the grand total to $288.57.

Four lines, all unlimited, at Tmobile is $160. $128.57 less.

Can anyone give me any good reason why anyone would not take advantage of this? Would would anyone in their right mind stay on AT&T or Verizon? What's the catch?

Coverage is the big issue right now, not to mention T-Mobile being notorious for having billing errors and just a lousy billing system in general. While T-Mobile has gotten a lot better in the coverage area, and are a great competitor, some of the other carriers have more towers or better building penetration in some places.

Don't get me wrong, I like what T-Mobile is doing, but in order to really enjoy their network and access all of their frequencies, you need to have a device with Band 12 (iPhone SE, 6S (Plus), or 7 (Plus)), which also knocks a lot of older iPhones out of the running.

I think with carriers, it really does depend on what you value for your money. I run our family plan on AT&T and we pay about $145/month before taxes for a 20GB plan (4 devices, 15% discount through work) and that's plenty of data for our use. All the phones are paid off or bought outright, so that does save about $100ish if we were replacing them. We don't have every feature and do have to keep an eye on the data cap, but the coverage is usable everywhere in our area. I suspect Verizon would be the same way.

T-Mobile trades some coverage for price and, with their newest plans, does some things to modify data usage - things like lower-quality video streaming with BingeOn built-in (you can't disable it, like you could with the Simple Choice plans) and very very limited tethering (2G) on their unlimited plans. Depending on your needs, coverage, and usage, these may be very worthwhile trade-offs.

Sprint seems to be really aiming on just being the cheapest thing out there, but they still haven't rolled out VoLTE (voice over LTE), so you still can't use data and make a phone call at the same time, not to mention a lot of their policies and practices feel like every bad aspect about '90s "cell phone stores" - BYOD is slowly becoming a part of their vocabulary.

Finally, the big concern that a lot of T-Mobile fans have is that the company is slowly morphing back into a traditional carrier, with plans getting more expensive (outside of promotions), "activation fees" (they charge you $20 for a SIM card), and the last couple of Uncarrier events have been sort of lackluster. There's also the ominous feeling that they may get bought out by someone within the next few years, due to a less-regulated environment.

That being said, if you have great coverage, and really need a lot of data, can live with some of the caveats, T-Mobile is a great choice, and they've really come a long way in the last 4 years.

 

[Applejuiced]

My preliminary math based on our most recent bill tells me that the remaining three lines on AT&T with our discount and grandfathered unlimited is $218.57, plus the $70 at Tmobile, bringing the grand total to $288.57.

Four lines, all unlimited, at Tmobile is $160. $128.57 less.

Can anyone give me any good reason why anyone would not take advantage of this? Would would anyone in their right mind stay on AT&T or Verizon? What's the catch?

Right now, to move just my son, who is out of contract, would cost a few dollars more (it would be a jump from $70 to $120 but his line only costs $41 total at AT&T). It's only that amount of savings once my husband and I are out of contract and all three of us can move. But we are locked in a 2 year contract until December 2017.
I switched to Tmobile from AT&T over a year ago and coverage and speed is solid and never had a billing issue or any other problems. They treated me very well and the money Im saving every month is great.

Is there any way out of that contract and have TMobile pay the early termination fees if not buying new phones? Still though...$128 a month savings...

I'd go to a Tmobile store and see what they can offer you as far as breaking your contract and switching to them. They have many specials here and there to reimburse you for the ETF's.
Of you could just break the contract and pay the ETF fees. In the long run you will still be saving money and paying less.
AT&T and Verizon are the biggest rip offs out there.

 

[Bart Kela]

I'll say it again that I'm still ill that the subsidized pricing for phones is gone...that kind of ruins the whole thing.

Not so sure I agree.

I owned a Pay As You Go dumb phone for years and adopted an iPhone rather late compared to my peers. I crunched the numbers between various plans periodically and one conclusion that I always reached was that subsidized postpaid phones were a poor value proposition given my usage patterns. Income and credit rating were not impediments to signing up for a postpaid plan.

The only real bargain was the original iPhone Unlimited plan from AT&T (and others with Unlimited Data). It's not surprising that a significant percentage of those original customers have tenaciously guarded their grandfathered status. If you were one of those who got that deal, enjoy it while it still exists. But for those shopping for services amongst today's offerings, that's not relevant.

The United States was one of the few cellular markets that had handset subsidies, most other markets on this planet have been unsubsidized, but that's sort of the nature of the US consumer marketplace, for big corporations to create an environment (like many leasing agreements) that trick math-challenged consumers who can't afford a product outright to buy on a carefully cloaked plan that ends up costing more in the long run (i.e., credit).

Sure, your out-of-pocket expenses are high when you buy a new device, but the recurring monthly costs are lower. In terms of long-term total cost of ownership, I found that the break-even point for my usage pattern was around month 13 or month 14, when going prepaid/unsubsidized became cheaper than going postpaid/subsidized. Thus, if you held onto a device for two years, it was far cheaper going unsubsidized. Naturally, the cellular carriers' accountants were aware of this, included upgrade and activation fees to make up for the difference if you upgraded after a year.

Plus, I had a device that was factory-unlocked from the outset; previously, US carriers locked iPhones to their own network during the duration of the contract (some wouldn't unlock the device after the contract had concluded although i understand they have eased up). I travel internationally once or twice a year, and it's nice to be able to buy a local SIM during my vacation. I think I bought a T-Mobile SIM in a European country for 10 euros (about $11) that included 1000 minutes, 1000 texts, and 1GB of cellular data, enough for my vacation needs.

I'm fortunate that my discontinued prepaid plan has been grandfathered but that has not always been the case. I used to use AT&T GoPhone and they had a killer deal where I was buying cellular data "packs." One month, I'd buy a big pack, followed by a couple of months of minimal packs to top off my account. Finally, AT&T apparently wised up and eliminated that GoPhone data offering. For a while, I was using StraightTalk and their $45 "unlimited offering" (unlimited domestic calls, unlimited domestic SMS, and "unlimited" cellular data which in fact was capped around 2GB even though they didn't outright mention it -- that was about four years ago).

I'm happy to see handset subsidies disappear, it levels the playing field considerably and makes my cost analysis easier.

 

[iPhone Momma]

Don't get me wrong, I like what T-Mobile is doing, but in order to really enjoy their network and access all of their frequencies, you need to have a device with Band 12 (iPhone SE, 6S (Plus), or 7 (Plus)), which also knocks a lot of older iPhones out of the running.

I think with carriers, it really does depend on what you value for your money. I run our family plan on AT&T and we pay about $145/month before taxes for a 20GB plan (4 devices, 15% discount through work) and that's plenty of data for our use. All the phones are paid off or bought outright, so that does save about $100ish if we were replacing them. We don't have every feature and do have to keep an eye on the data cap, but the coverage is usable everywhere in our area. I suspect Verizon would be the same way.

That being said, if you have great coverage, and really need a lot of data, can live with some of the caveats, T-Mobile is a great choice, and they've really come a long way in the last 4 years.

Grown son has an iPhone 7, hubby and I both have iPhone 6s's, and teenage daughter, the one now on TMobile, has a 6. So far so good, but we haven't ventured out of our area. But we aren't rural and rarely go rural, so it might not be an issue. Until we are somewhere and suddenly it's an issue. If that make sense. I've heard that TMobile has really expanded their coverage, though. Her high school is literally down in a canyon and hubby had "heard" she might not get coverage there. She was back to school today and had no problems whatsoever.

She alone uses 15-18GB, so we definitely need more than 20. You are getting a great deal though.
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I'd go to a Tmobile store and see what they can offer you as far as breaking your contract and switching to them. They have many specials here and there to reimburse you for the ETF's.
Of you could just break the contract and pay the ETF fees. In the long run you will still be saving money and paying less.
AT&T and Verizon are the biggest rip offs out there.

Yeah, at $128 a month, it might not be worth it to wait until December. I have to find out what the ETF's are. Will I have any trouble unlocking the phones after breaking a contract? It would only be for two of the three lines. Grown son's line is already out of contract and has an unlocked phone (I think).
[doublepost=1484043777][/doublepost]

The only real bargain was the original iPhone Unlimited plan from AT&T (and others with Unlimited Data). It's not surprising that a significant percentage of those original customers have tenaciously guarded their grandfathered status. If you were one of those who got that deal, enjoy it while it still exists. But for those shopping for services amongst today's offerings, that's not relevant.

Plus, I had a device that was factory-unlocked from the outset; previously, US carriers locked iPhones to their own network during the duration of the contract (some wouldn't unlock the device after the contract had concluded although i understand they have eased up). I travel internationally once or twice a year, and it's nice to be able to buy a local SIM during my vacation. I think I bought a T-Mobile SIM in a European country for 10 euros (about $11) that included 1000 minutes, 1000 texts, and 1GB of cellular data, enough for my vacation needs.

Yes, we have three lines on the original iPhone unlimited data, now at $35 a month each. Plus we have a 1400 minute plan (my hubby is a talker, so we do need that), and we pay $30 a month for family unlimited texting. Though with most people using iMessage now and texts at only 10 cents each (at least that's what it used to be), I'm not so sure we need that anymore. Still though it doesn't make up for the $128 difference in price if we all went over to TMobile.

Your other statement about buying a sim card in Europe reminds me of when we visited Greece in 1999. We didn't bring our cell phones...too expensive for an international plan at the time and pay phones were everywhere. It took us a few days to figure out how to use the pay phone though...finally had to ask for help. What you had to do was buy a sim card, or a "smart card" with a certain amount of minutes on it at a corner newspaper kiosk. You could insert that card into either a payphone OR a cell phone, and make your call. So after a few days of doing this with payphones, we bought a flip phone for $20 out of a vending machine in a convenience store and just kept feeding it with smart cards bought from a newspaper stand and made our calls with that. Something else we noticed where they were years ahead of the US, and still are, is that all of their cell phones - in 1999 - were satellite phones. We'd be on a ferry in the middle of the ocean heading to the islands, with no cell tower anywhere near, and peoples phones would be ringing. No problem. Why didn't we have that technology in the states? Why don't we still?

 

[Applejuiced]

Grown son has an iPhone 7, hubby and I both have iPhone 6s's, and teenage daughter, the one now on TMobile, has a 6. So far so good, but we haven't ventured out of our area. But we aren't rural and rarely go rural, so it might not be an issue. Until we are somewhere and suddenly it's an issue. If that make sense. I've heard that TMobile has really expanded their coverage, though. Her high school is literally down in a canyon and hubby had "heard" she might not get coverage there. She was back to school today and had no problems whatsoever.

She alone uses 15-18GB, so we definitely need more than 20. You are getting a great deal though.
[doublepost=1484043137][/doublepost]



Yes, we have three lines on the original iPhone unlimited data, now at $35 a month each. Plus we have a 1400 minute plan (my hubby is a talker, so we do need that), and we pay $30 a month for family unlimited texting. Though with most people using iMessage now and texts at only 10 cents each (at least that's what it used to be), I'm not so sure we need that anymore. Still though it doesn't make up for the $128 difference in price if we all went over to TMobile.

Your other statement about buying a sim card in Europe reminds me of when we visited Greece in 1999. We didn't bring our cell phones...too expensive for an international plan at the time and pay phones were everywhere. It took us a few days to figure out how to use the pay phone though...finally had to ask for help. What you had to do was buy a sim card, or a "smart card" with a certain amount of minutes on it at a corner newspaper kiosk. You could insert that card into either a payphone OR a cell phone, and make your call. So after a few days of doing this with payphones, we bought a flip phone for $20 out of a vending machine in a convenience store and just kept feeding it with smart cards bought from a newspaper stand and made our calls with that. Something else we noticed where they were years ahead of the US, and still are, is that all of their cell phones - in 1999 - were satellite phones. We'd be on a ferry in the middle of the ocean heading to the islands, with no cell tower anywhere near, and peoples phones would be ringing. No problem. Why didn't we have that technology in the states? Why don't we still?

Once you pay off the etf fees they must unlock them and will unlock the devices.
[doublepost=1484060656][/doublepost]

No, Greek cell phones aren't satellite phones! Do you have any idea how much satellite phones and satellite phone service cost? Do you have any idea how much they cost in 1999?

If they did have them, now I completely understand the reason for the Greek financial crisis!

It's not "the middle of the ocean". It's the Aegean Sea.

FYI, with masts at 200 feet, they could space towers at distances of 20-40 miles to provide coverage.

Do you have any idea what you have done to your child's ego by switching her to T-Mobile? Now you will have to deal with T-mobile bullying.

"Ewwwwww, you have T-mobilllllle? Really? Grosssssss! I have A T and Teeeeeee. It costs more, but it worrrrrrrrrks! My parents taught me to be respoooooooonsible!, so I can have nice things!"

Just convince her to go to the trouble of using WiFi, at home, at Starbucks, at the Malt Shop (do they still have those?) and at friend's houses. At school, too if they have WiFi. But she shouldn't be using it much there, should she? She's watching videos of reenactments of George Washington crossing the Delaware, right?



I have no idea how anybody uses this much cellular data, other than just being careless.

Is your whole family addicted to kitten videos? Do you take long road trips? Do you leave a trail of discarded plastic bags down the road? I don't want to think about your Carbon Footprint.

Wow what a horrible attitude.
What is wrong with you?
Step away from the computer and take a few deep breaths.

 

[jtara]

No, I don't have any idea how much satellite service cost in 1999 in Greece as we didn't live there and I didn't inquire, but 1999 wasn't the stone ages and everyone had cell phone, but when we were out in the middle of the SEA (good grief) with no cell towers nearby we asked how everyone's phones were in range and this is what we were told.

In 1999, several dollars per minute of usage.

Today, from 0.15/minute to $2/minute.

Greece gots mountains! It greatly increases range!

I have a colleague who works from his sailboat. He can hit cell towers from as far as 50mi from shore. Cell phone signals propagate better over water than over land - there is nothing to block the signal and the water is a perfect ground-plane. He has satellite, but it is very limited. I can go to a website and see where he is. We can send short text messages. Satellite data is way too expensive to be practical (he uses WiFi/Cell in port). He is hoping prices will come down enough to be practical for trans-Atlantic trips - there is a new system that promises much greater bandwidth and much lower cost, but not yet in place.

Anyway, it was peripheral to the subject. The point was that your expectations of the cell phone network are unrealistic. There is (apparently) good coverage between the Greek Islands because the area is relatively unpopulated, and they have lots of great natural high locations to place antennas.

That said, satellite phone costs have come down and are coming down further, to the point where in some emerging nations the cost is considered less overall than installing a landline or cell phone network. But does not make sense in the U.S. and likely won't in the near future. Your next iPhone will not be a satellite phone, nor the next, nor the next.

If your daughter's school is in a valley, and there is no natural high point nearby, it will be difficult to cover. Vast areas of the Plains are, for example, difficult to cover, as they are flat with few natural high points. Complaining to the phone carriers MAY get them to install a cell or more cells in the valley. They are all very keen to acheive "100%" coverage.

Yes, phone shaming and phone-plan-shaming among teens is a thing! Give your kid Boost and wait for the comments! Of course, it wasn't meant as a serious response. You shouldn't allow that to change your choices.

 

[ecschwarz]

Grown son has an iPhone 7, hubby and I both have iPhone 6s's, and teenage daughter, the one now on TMobile, has a 6. So far so good, but we haven't ventured out of our area. But we aren't rural and rarely go rural, so it might not be an issue. Until we are somewhere and suddenly it's an issue. If that make sense. I've heard that TMobile has really expanded their coverage, though. Her high school is literally down in a canyon and hubby had "heard" she might not get coverage there. She was back to school today and had no problems whatsoever.

She alone uses 15-18GB, so we definitely need more than 20. You are getting a great deal though.

Yeah, you should be good if and when you move over with all of your devices - AT&T's unlocking policy is typically that the phones must be paid off (either ETFs or Next plan paid off). Once that happens, you can go to att.com/deviceunlock and follow the steps to request an unlock for each device. When the unlock is approved, the iphones just need a T-Mobile (or other non-AT&T) SIM card inserted or if you do a backup & restore with your AT&T SIM card, that will work, too (I prefer the different SIM card method).

T-Mobile has gotten a bad rap for past coverage, but they have really come a long way and are giving the bigger carriers a run for their money (they moved up from #4 to #3 and are able to sink a lot of that money back into the network). They got the 700MHz block (they call it Extended Range LTE, it's also referred to as LTE Band 12) through a deal with Verizon and got quite a bit of money from the failed merger with AT&T, so that put them in pretty good shape to pull themselves out of a slump. Trying new things and having a very public-facing CEO doesn't hurt either. I think if anyone is making fun of her for having them, they probably should find something else to crack jokes about (also since there's Sprint ).

Our situation mostly didn't work with T-Mobile because everyone but me had an older iPhone (5, 5S) at the time and they couldn't take advantage of all the newer frequencies in use. Since they were generally happy with their devices at that time, it would've been a tall order to replace all the phones only to save something like $10/month. Even a year later, they're still on those devices, so the savings wouldn't have made much of a difference.

 

[gadgetfreaky]

No, Greek cell phones aren't satellite phones! Do you have any idea how much satellite phones and satellite phone service cost? Do you have any idea how much they cost in 1999?

If they did have them, now I completely understand the reason for the Greek financial crisis!

It's not "the middle of the ocean". It's the Aegean Sea.

FYI, with masts at 200 feet, they could space towers at distances of 20-40 miles to provide coverage.

Do you have any idea what you have done to your child's ego by switching her to T-Mobile? Now you will have to deal with T-mobile bullying.

"Ewwwwww, you have T-mobilllllle? Really? Grosssssss! I have A T and Teeeeeee. It costs more, but it worrrrrrrrrks! My parents taught me to be respoooooooonsible!, so I can have nice things!"

Just convince her to go to the trouble of using WiFi, at home, at Starbucks, at the Malt Shop (do they still have those?) and at friend's houses. At school, too if they have WiFi. But she shouldn't be using it much there, should she? She's watching videos of reenactments of George Washington crossing the Delaware, right?



I have no idea how anybody uses this much cellular data, other than just being careless.

Is your whole family addicted to kitten videos? Do you take long road trips? Do you leave a trail of discarded plastic bags down the road? I don't want to think about your Carbon Footprint.

this is a really terrible, nasty and unhelpful reply.

 

[jca24]

serious phone drama here.
1-change to ATT mobile share plan big gigs
2-put daughter back on your plan
3-pay for phones cash, makes no sense to finance silly phones, finance a house, not phones and cars
4-turn off daughters data when going over
simple

 

[jtara]

serious phone drama here.
1-change to ATT mobile share plan big gigs
2-put daughter back on your plan
3-pay for phones cash, makes no sense to finance silly phones, finance a house, not phones and cars
4-turn off daughters data when going over
simple

I disagree with (3), because the financing plans are at 0% interest, and they will (essentially) buy-back your phone at a guaranteed (but not great) price. You might find a better price to sell elsewhere, but at least it is an option. (There is always an option to purchase phone outright at end of plan.) If you think you can sell it at a better price, you need to act quickly, because used iPhone prices drop rapidly with each new product announcement, and then rapidly upon product release. If you do turn in a phone on one of these "lease" type plans, I suggest you take in the old phone in person. Then (with ATT at least) you have approval on the spot, and eyes on the device by a real person you've dealt with in person. I took in my 6S+ for a 7+, i was concerned about some minor screen scratches, rep just say "you really take care of your phone".

(4) Mom is indulgent, won't.

Note that ATT currently is giving 50% more data cap on share plans than contracted for, and with new plans data rollover for 1 month.

Mobile Share big gigs makes a lot of sense. I believe you can restrict per-device caps.

But see (4). Mom is indulgent, won't.

I do feel for people who have been conned by past "unlimited data" plans to believe that there is any sound financial basis for "unlimited" data. Those false promises got people onboard, and changed the minds of the public. Now they pulled the switched, and went opposite - unlimited talk and text, which is close to the truth - today, talk and text cost the carrier next to NOTHING. It is data (in the quantities consumed today) that is the bulk of usage now, and what needs to be charged by usage.

If you bought the "unlimited data" argument, you will be increasingly faced with higher costs, now that you have been entrained to use bandwidth willy-nilly.

5G, 6G whatever will bring more bandwidth at lower cost. At the same time, demand increases at a greater rate.

OF COURSE the school does not have open Wi-Fi. They know what would happen if they did. Kids are kids.

But they are mistaken if they think all parents will cooperate in keeping school a place for learning.

 

[jca24]

I disagree with (3), because the financing plans are at 0% interest, and they will (essentially) buy-back your phone at a guaranteed (but not great) price. You might find a better price to sell elsewhere, but at least it is an option. (There is always an option to purchase phone outright at end of plan.) If you think you can sell it at a better price, you need to act quickly, because used iPhone prices drop rapidly with each new product announcement, and then rapidly upon product release. If you do turn in a phone on one of these "lease" type plans, I suggest you take in the old phone in person. Then (with ATT at least) you have approval on the spot, and eyes on the device by a real person you've dealt with in person. I took in my 6S+ for a 7+, i was concerned about some minor screen scratches, rep just say "you really take care of your phone".

(4) Mom is indulgent, won't.

Note that ATT currently is giving 50% more data cap on share plans than contracted for, and with new plans data rollover for 1 month.

Mobile Share big gigs makes a lot of sense. I believe you can restrict per-device caps.

But see (4). Mom is indulgent, won't.

I do feel for people who have been conned by past "unlimited data" plans to believe that there is any sound financial basis for "unlimited" data. Those false promises got people onboard, and changed the minds of the public. Now they pulled the switched, and went opposite - unlimited talk and text, which is close to the truth - today, talk and text cost the carrier next to NOTHING. It is data (in the quantities consumed today) that is the bulk of usage now, and what needs to be charged by usage.

If you bought the "unlimited data" argument, you will be increasingly faced with higher costs, now that you have been entrained to use bandwidth willy-nilly.

5G, 6G whatever will bring more bandwidth at lower cost. At the same time, demand increases at a greater rate.

OF COURSE the school does not have open Wi-Fi. They know what would happen if they did. Kids are kids.

But they are mistaken if they think all parents will cooperate in keeping school a place for learning.

I don't care about resale of a phone, I used my 5 for 4 years and it was worn out, got an SE now, cash.
People need to get help for their phone addiction!!
When my daughter would go over we turned the data off online, simple, or she paid the overage. It's call discipline.
No cupcakes or snowflakes at my house.

 

[Applejuiced]

serious phone drama here.
1-change to ATT mobile share plan big gigs
2-put daughter back on your plan
3-pay for phones cash, makes no sense to finance silly phones, finance a house, not phones and cars
4-turn off daughters data when going over
simple

Very well said, Im the same way when it comes to number 3.

 

[iPhone Momma]

So this is interesting...since being on TMobile, she's barely used any data. It's the same phone - we brought our own device. Not even 2 gigs. Last month on AT&T this same phone used 18 gigs. I smell fish. Could AT&T have been doing something?

(Those of you who say I should have cut her off, this is why I didn't...she is not doing anything wrong or using her phone in any unusual way, and was very cooperative with our efforts to limit the data suck. We have been dealing with this issue since the day we bought her the iPhone 6. On her iPhone 5 she rarely used over 3 gigs.)

 

[ecschwarz]

So this is interesting...since being on TMobile, she's barely used any data. It's the same phone - we brought our own device. Not even 2 gigs. Last month on AT&T this same phone used 18 gigs. I smell fish. Could AT&T have been doing something?

If she's doing a lot of video, it could be falling under the zero-rated (aka not charged for data) BingeOn service. On older plans, you could turn this off if you'd rather have higher-quality video, but use data. On the new One plans, it's on by default and you have to buy a pass to temporarily disable it. What it does is any detectable video is throttled down to 480p (approximately DVD quality), so it uses less data. In exchange for reducing the quality (and bandwidth used), if the video provider has opted in to allow this, you, the user doesn't have that data metered. For services that haven't opted in, they're simply throttled so you can at least watch more (lower quality) video with the same data. MetroPCS (a sub-brand of T-Mobile) offers this as Data Maximizer and AT&T is going to be introducing their own version called Stream Saver soon.

https://www.t-mobile.com/offer/binge-on-streaming-video.html

The other aspect is the Music Freedom feature, which zero-rates participating music services: https://www.t-mobile.com/offer/free-music-streaming.html

I have not seen the billing or the My-T-Mobile account page for a One plan (only Simple Choice), so I don't know if these are actually notated. On the Simple Choice plans, you'd see the data that you used and then the data that was actually counted (so if I had a 6GB plan and used 10GB, but only 4GB of that was non-music/BingeOn, I'd see 10GB and then 4GB out of 6GB for use). Either way, it sounds like it's a good option for her!

From my experience, most carriers are fairly accurate with metering (you can reset the statistics for cellular usage on the iPhones under Settings > Cellular at the start of a billing cycle and then compare the results), so unless something was grossly screwed up, I doubt there was anything from AT&T that was intentional or shady. That being said, I have heard of horror stories about Comcast's metering for home internet being grossly exaggerated and incorrect, so anything is possible.

 

[Applejuiced]

So this is interesting...since being on TMobile, she's barely used any data. It's the same phone - we brought our own device. Not even 2 gigs. Last month on AT&T this same phone used 18 gigs. I smell fish. Could AT&T have been doing something?

(Those of you who say I should have cut her off, this is why I didn't...she is not doing anything wrong or using her phone in any unusual way, and was very cooperative with our efforts to limit the data suck. We have been dealing with this issue since the day we bought her the iPhone 6. On her iPhone 5 she rarely used over 3 gigs.)

Nope, the data is used.
Its not just made up by the carrier.
Its also all there listed in detail when you go to settings/cellular/Apps list of what amount of data was used. You can reset that counter every 1st day your billing cycle renews to see how much each app used and if the total amount used is accurate with what your carrier is reporting.
[doublepost=1484147907][/doublepost]

If she's doing a lot of video, it could be falling under the zero-rated (aka not charged for data) BingeOn service. On older plans, you could turn this off if you'd rather have higher-quality video, but use data. On the new One plans, it's on by default and you have to buy a pass to temporarily disable it. What it does is any detectable video is throttled down to 480p (approximately DVD quality), so it uses less data. In exchange for reducing the quality (and bandwidth used), if the video provider has opted in to allow this, you, the user doesn't have that data metered. For services that haven't opted in, they're simply throttled so you can at least watch more (lower quality) video with the same data. MetroPCS (a sub-brand of T-Mobile) offers this as Data Maximizer and AT&T is going to be introducing their own version called Stream Saver soon.

https://www.t-mobile.com/offer/binge-on-streaming-video.html

The other aspect is the Music Freedom feature, which zero-rates participating music services: https://www.t-mobile.com/offer/free-music-streaming.html

I have not seen the billing or the My-T-Mobile account page for a One plan (only Simple Choice), so I don't know if these are actually notated. On the Simple Choice plans, you'd see the data that you used and then the data that was actually counted (so if I had a 6GB plan and used 10GB, but only 4GB of that was non-music/BingeOn, I'd see 10GB and then 4GB out of 6GB for use). Either way, it sounds like it's a good option for her!

From my experience, most carriers are fairly accurate with metering (you can reset the statistics for cellular usage on the iPhones under Settings > Cellular at the start of a billing cycle and then compare the results), so unless something was grossly screwed up, I doubt there was anything from AT&T that was intentional or shady. That being said, I have heard of horror stories about Comcast's metering for home internet being grossly exaggerated and incorrect, so anything is possible.

Bingo.
I think that's what is happening below with her new Tmobile plan.
I have a simple choice plan and I turned off Binge so everything is listed there.
if binge on is on you will continue to use unlimited video but the carrier will not measure that or count it against your data plan.

 

[jca24]

Nope, the data is used.
Its not just made up by the carrier.
Its also all there listed in detail when you go to settings/cellular/Apps list of what amount of data was used. You can reset that counter every 1st day your billing cycle renews to see how much each app used and if the total amount used is accurate with what your carrier is reporting.
[doublepost=1484147907][/doublepost]




Bingo.
I think that's what is happening below with her new Tmobile plan.
I have a simple choice plan and I turned off Binge so everything is listed there.
if binge on is on you will continue to use unlimited video but the carrier will not measure that or count it against your data plan.

good info
[doublepost=1484175448][/doublepost]

So this is interesting...since being on TMobile, she's barely used any data. It's the same phone - we brought our own device. Not even 2 gigs. Last month on AT&T this same phone used 18 gigs. I smell fish. Could AT&T have been doing something?

(Those of you who say I should have cut her off, this is why I didn't...she is not doing anything wrong or using her phone in any unusual way, and was very cooperative with our efforts to limit the data suck. We have been dealing with this issue since the day we bought her the iPhone 6. On her iPhone 5 she rarely used over 3 gigs.)

Well, I can assure you the phone is not sucking data all by itself.

 

[iPhone Momma]

Well, I can assure you the phone is not sucking data all by itself.

We thought an app, or a combination of several apps, might be. For a while we thought YouTube was the culprit - using cellular data while on wifi. We turned off cellular data for YouTube and it helped, but didn't solve it. The day she got the iPhone 6 she was also upgraded to the new iOS, whatever it was that day, and that's where the problems started. Like her data SKYROCKETED from 2-3 gigs to 8, then 9, then 15, then 18...and finally enough to send us running for the TMobile hills.

Anyway...it seems to be solved now. She isn't complaining about speed or quality of anything, so we'll just leave it at that. And so far so good on coverage.