I'd have to weigh it out if I would look for another carrier/mnvo. Don't know want to lose our unlimited data. Was looking into Cricket as a 'just in case' but I'm not too sure about Cricket.
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Carrier Rumor that AT&T will end 2 year contracts at the end of May
- Thread starter barkomatic
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I'd have to weigh it out if I would look for another carrier/mnvo. Don't know want to lose our unlimited data. Was looking into Cricket as a 'just in case' but I'm not too sure about Cricket.
I agree with everyone here. 2 year contractual agreements should be deemed an outdated relic of the past. Most everyone I know would rather pay full price for a phone in exchange for either cheaper data or to stay on and unlimited data plan. Not to mention new phones are updated twice a year it seems. I would rather the phone companies get out of the "financing" game. If you can't pay for a phone outright, then put $50 a month away in a rainy day account. Hope this rumor is true.
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ATT NEXT is just something that will never be beneficial to me since I am on an individual line. I love my plan and would never change it because I will always be paying more on any NEXT plan. I'm on the 450 voice and unlimited data plan which comes out to $70 which doesn't include my corporate discount. My data on the high end reaches 8gb every month and I'm still able to use everything on my phone pretty well even if they throttle me. It's pretty funny trying to see an ATT store employee try to convince me to do a NEXT plan by telling me I can "save" money. 
ATT NEXT is just something that will never be beneficial to me since I am on an individual line. I love my plan and would never change it because I will always be paying more on any NEXT plan. I'm on the 450 voice and unlimited data plan which comes out to $70 which doesn't include my corporate discount. My data on the high end reaches 8gb every month and I'm still able to use everything on my phone pretty well even if they throttle me. It's pretty funny trying to see an ATT store employee try to convince me to do a NEXT plan by telling me I can "save" money.
My feelings exactly - sounds like my situation is pretty similar to yours. I remember when I upgraded from my 4S to my 5s and I even started off by saying "I don't want to change anything with my plan, I just want to upgrade my phone" and they STILL kept persisting about Next. I was like "NO NO NO" to each one of the AT&T rep's sales pitches. It got to the point where the lady handed me the iPad "terminal" she was using and told me to just go through the setup myself since I clearly knew what I was doing. She was basically admitting defeat in her quest to get me to sign up for Next.
I can see myself going through it again come the fall when I look to upgrade to 6s.
Lol, this is why prefer to buy stuff online. Bonus, I don't have to pay for gas and parking.
Disclaimer: We're on MSV 10/20GB + Next 12. The costs work out better for us being a family of 4.
I guess I had an honest rep. He told me I'm better off with no Next because of our grandfathered family plan.
I think it depends upon training and the local store management. I think some managers might discourage their employees from stating any opinion that doesn't support mobile share--even if it doesn't make sense for an individual.
In my area, people generally say what they want regardless -- and so the rep at the AT&T store in my neighborhood smiled and said I should hang on to unlimited as long as I can.
I dont think so. Profits is what companies stride for. Maybe the cheapest devices will go up in price, but S6 is a premium device that samsung is not going to give a huge discount when they are already losing money in smart phones.
Apple, Samsung, et al already give discounts to carriers. It's just a matter of whether or not carriers are willing to pass on the discounts to consumers in order to "lock" them in. If you really think about it, the remaining balance on the device functions pretty similar to the ETF.
Carriers have historically given $100-200 off devices' MSRP (even flagship models). Even now with installment plans becoming more popular, I still get junk mail from AT&T and Verizon giving me discounts if I upgrade via Next or Edge. For carriers, the $100-200 discount per device is a drop in the bucket compared to the expected thousands of dollars people will pay for service over the life of the contract or installment plan. For our family of 4, that's $4,080 ($170 * 24) just for service for 4 iPhones and 1 iPad. If you effectively pay full MSRP for devices from a carrier store, carriers are making extra money off the device purchase, too, since you can be darned sure they're getting bulk contract discounts when they buy phones from Apple, Samsung, HTC, LG, etc.
If anything, I think the full price of a lot of these phones will decrease, as we all know how subsidies artificially inflate prices. I'd imagine perhaps a $150-250 price drop across the board for all the phones as people are more exposed to the full price of the phone.
I hated the 2 year contract option as it was incredibly inflexible. Even worse was back in the day, sprint would pull the dick move on us by resetting our contract back to 2 years if we made any changes to our plan. Now with service separated, I find it is way simpler to deal with the carriers than before.
I hated the 2 year contract option as it was incredibly inflexible. Even worse was back in the day, sprint would pull the dick move on us by resetting our contract back to 2 years if we made any changes to our plan. Now with service separated, I find it is way simpler to deal with the carriers than before.
Agreed. Although in fairness to phone manufacturers, US carriers have been inflating phone prices for years. Back when I first moved to the US around 10 years ago, phones that were selling for $100-200 in Asia had $300-400 MSRP on AT&T making the free after 2-year contract seem like such a great deal.
Another thing, with pretty much all carriers except Verizon* jumping on the GSM bandwagon, I do hope we'll see more "universal" phone models like the iPhone 6/6 Plus (Sprint/Factory Unlocked version).
*Yes, I know you can use non-Verizon phones but that requires an existing activated SIM/service. As far as I'm aware, Verizon still does not fully support BYOD for new activations.
For as long as I had my had my 2 year contract plan since the first iPhone, I was never offered a free iPhone when I was up for an upgrade. I've always paid around $300 every time I upgraded... even more for my 128gb 6+.
Wait I'm missing something here, I live in Canada and here they make you choose how much you'd like to pay up front so you can subsidize ($450,$550,$650) and then pay flexible amounts for data and voice. And then you'd have to use for 2 years but if you were to cancel before then you'd just pay the remaining balance
Does this mean I can just buy a free iPhone and cancel and get a free phone cause there's nothing stopping me from leaving? Please explain this to me
Does this mean I can just buy a free iPhone and cancel and get a free phone cause there's nothing stopping me from leaving? Please explain this to me
ATT NEXT is just something that will never be beneficial to me since I am on an individual line. I love my plan and would never change it because I will always be paying more on any NEXT plan. I'm on the 450 voice and unlimited data plan which comes out to $70 which doesn't include my corporate discount. My data on the high end reaches 8gb every month and I'm still able to use everything on my phone pretty well even if they throttle me. It's pretty funny trying to see an ATT store employee try to convince me to do a NEXT plan by telling me I can "save" money.
Same here!
If they do away with two year contracts, I'll be tempted to switch back to a flip-phone and buy a tablet with a data plan. I'm the only one in my family of four who has a smart phone and I'll be darned if I pay what amounts to the cost of an iPad for a phone. I came of age in the mid-90s. I started off without smart phones and I can easily switch back to a Samsung flip.
If you are talking about this in relation to contracts then if you leave early you have to pay the ETF (Early Termination Fee) that in a way balances out the subsidy that you got for getting into a contract to get a phone cheaper.
Now with 700 min plan 69.99 + data 30+25+50 + 20 free sms and M2M after discount I pay 168.17 before taxes. 168.17*24=4034.13 per 2 years
Let assume I upgrade every 2 years
With subsidy:
iphone 6 128 is 399 dollar*3 =1197 +4034.13 = 5231.13
Without subsidy:
4034.13 + 849*3 = 6581
OK!...... I switch to 130 plan + 45 for 3 lines (I can get 30 gb, promo it is over, but they give it to me) whole plan with discount 151 dollar OMG I save 168.17-151=17.17 per month!!!!!!!! May be even more there is tax savings on 17.17
Let assume it is 20 dollars (even 23 - I will have free international texts)
151-(23-17.17)=~145 dollars (with tax adjustment)
145*24+849*3= 6027 per 2 years
BUT I travel and I use 300-400 dollars per year in roaming lets have a mean here 350 per year = 700 per two years.
Total I will pay for Att is 6027+700=6727+tax per 2 years
Let's take t-mo 140 free lines all includeed + roaming almost free instead of 350
140*24+849*24=5907
Old plan with 2 years contracts and roaming and 3 upgrades 128 iphone 6:
5231+700=5931.13
New share 130 plan with discount with roaming and full price 3 iphones 128
6727
T-mobile with 3 iPhones 128
5907
Should I pay more Att for their 4B payment for nothing to T-mo, for thier Mexican carrier, for 18.2B auction, for their CEO premium salary.....
People can say t-mo has bad coverage and so on. Over the last year t-mo has great, huge improvement in my area. Soon they will have LTE12 and iphone 6s/7 will support it. Of couse t-mo network not as good as att, but for 820 dollars I switch. I don't want to pay 34 dollars extra per month.
Att! Now is your move!!!
Let assume I upgrade every 2 years
With subsidy:
iphone 6 128 is 399 dollar*3 =1197 +4034.13 = 5231.13
Without subsidy:
4034.13 + 849*3 = 6581
OK!...... I switch to 130 plan + 45 for 3 lines (I can get 30 gb, promo it is over, but they give it to me) whole plan with discount 151 dollar OMG I save 168.17-151=17.17 per month!!!!!!!!
May be even more there is tax savings on 17.17Let assume it is 20 dollars (even 23 - I will have free international texts)
151-(23-17.17)=~145 dollars (with tax adjustment)
145*24+849*3= 6027 per 2 years
BUT I travel and I use 300-400 dollars per year in roaming lets have a mean here 350 per year = 700 per two years.
Total I will pay for Att is 6027+700=6727+tax per 2 years
Let's take t-mo 140 free lines all includeed + roaming almost free instead of 350
140*24+849*24=5907
Old plan with 2 years contracts and roaming and 3 upgrades 128 iphone 6:
5231+700=5931.13
New share 130 plan with discount with roaming and full price 3 iphones 128
6727
T-mobile with 3 iPhones 128
5907
Should I pay more Att for their 4B payment for nothing to T-mo, for thier Mexican carrier, for 18.2B auction, for their CEO premium salary.....
People can say t-mo has bad coverage and so on. Over the last year t-mo has great, huge improvement in my area. Soon they will have LTE12 and iphone 6s/7 will support it. Of couse t-mo network not as good as att, but for 820 dollars I switch. I don't want to pay 34 dollars extra per month.
Att! Now is your move!!!
And to the surprise of very few, two-year contracts will remain available.
AT&T will continue to offer two-year contracts in its own stores and online.
AT&T will continue to offer two-year contracts in its own stores and online.
As someone who has 4 lines thru ATT the Next plan makes no sense in my case. I recycle the two old phones(2 lines used by my mother and father who can barely text) the other two lines get a new phone every 2 years. No reason for me to change this setup I'm ok with skipping a cycle and waiting for the next phone.
On another note when the two old phones get replaced their resale value on Craigslist covers the $199 I would be paying to get the new phone.
On another note when the two old phones get replaced their resale value on Craigslist covers the $199 I would be paying to get the new phone.