Carrier Question for you folks on AT&T Unlimited Your Way plans

[donawalt]

I am currently on a Mobile Share Value plan, and I am looking at moving to the Unlimited Your Way plan for my family so we can take advantage of the 5G speeds (it does seem you have to be on an unlimited plan for 5G). We have all Apple devices - 4 iPhones, 1 Apple Watch, and 3 iPads on our plan.

I saw two things in the compare plans charts that I didn't understand, which seemed like they might be a concern for at least one person in my family, if not more. I am wondering if the charts are inaccurate, or how it actually works.

1) The charts say on the iPads and Watch, in my current plan we have unlimited text and talk. I know currently we can text while on just cellular and not on wifi, and I can make FaceTime calls on cellular from my iPad (and I assume my family member can make phone calls without the iPhone nearby now, and not on WiFi). These capabilities are not "checked" for the Unlimited plans that you pay $20/month for iPads and $10/month for Watch. Is this true?

2) The Apple Watch supports HD video streaming on my current plan (small screen lol), there is no "check" for that capability on the Unlimited Your Way plan. What is that saying - it still uses plan data and it's not HD as it's a very small (watch) screen, so it's the same in reality, or does it mean something else?

Thanks for your help!

 

[ahodes]

#1 is not an issue. Those devices don’t really send texts or receive calls, they use NumberSync to do it. It’s a technicality and will be fine.

#2 is true. Both your iPad and Watch will technically be on an Unlimited Starter plan with the new Unlimited Your Way plan. This means that those devices will be throttled during network congestion and you will have stream saver forced on which will prevent HD streaming by limiting bandwidth to streaming providers as well. This is true even if your phone plans are set to a higher plan— all wearables and tablets are Starter if they are part of an Unlimited Your Way group.

 

[hbenitez09]

Check to see if you can move your ipad to the standalone $20 dollar unlimited data plan...... it was / is an add on to the previous generation unlimited plans. primarily intended for families who were limited by the 10 lines. you can throw your watch and ipad on a standalone plan that wasn’t part of the “unlimited group” if you can do this the ipad will stream in HD until 22GB.

the plan could have retired now that the new unlimited plans came out but if not that’s the way to go...... you wont find it on my att likely would need a retail rep to check for you.

 

[donawalt]

Thanks @hbenitez09 and @ahodes for your replies! I did a little testing. My iPad can in fact send and receive text messages now of course, with WiFi off, Cellular on.....but if I turn Data off, the text messages do not go out through cellular. So texting is done through data (I knew this doh!), and of course they are on the plan data. And it does seem video streaming on cellular is SD - which actually, I am not sure I have ever watched a movie through cellular - it's either on WiFi, or downloaded to watch like on a plane or train, etc. So maybe that's not a big deal...?