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lordofthereef

macrumors G5
Original poster
Nov 29, 2011
13,161
3,721
Boston, MA
we are looking to move back to at&t from T-Mobile after four years for a few reasons that I won't really get into as they're irrelevant to my questions.

First, is there still an active Best Buy discount in their unlimited lines? We are looking to do 4 lines for $160 as is their current offering. My wife would be creating the account as she is the one who would receive the discount.

I'm also looking st seeing that AT&T's tv package is included. Is that accurate? We currently use YouTube tv and then seem to have virtually identical offerings. But no local channels? Is this actually included in the $160 price or is there an additional fee? I remember a few years ago it was additional but the verbiage seems to indicate it's included. YouTube tv is $40 a month so this would be a rather decent added value.

The four for $160 (plus taxes) is what this would cost, correct? There's no "access fee" added per line like they used to do? Again, things have changed so much since we left three to four years ago that's it's been hard to keep track; we just don't want to jump into something that seems like a better deal for us than we were expecting.

We are aware of the throttled video (T-Mobile does that too and the compression algorithms are so good anymore that it's a non issue). We are also aware of ATT reserving the right to throttle on a congested network (afaik that hasn't really been an issue for many people?).

We will probably being our own unlocked phones unless there is some active deal at the time that allows us to do a bogo or something; I don't see to see any carrier switch promo right now Our other potential option was the four for $100 at cricket but didn't know how well we could handle the constant 3mbps throttle. If the tv streaming is as it seems the savings on cricket will amount to $20 a month (plus taxes) without calculating In any form of Best Buy discount.

Appreciate the help!
 
I’ll do my best to answer your questions. First, I don’t know about the Best Buy discount. If it’s a FAN discount, it won’t work on the new unlimited plans. They’ve kept most of those discounts from working on the unlimited plans, but you can still get a Mobile Share plan if you want your discount to work.

As for the TV offering, it’s their “WatchTV” package and I’d be surprised if it’s as extensive as what you get with YouTube TV. The full channel list can be found here: https://www.att.com/plans/unlimited-data-plans.html It is, however, completely free.

They still have access fees per line, but that $160 plus tax figure is accurate. They’re including the access fees in that number.

Since you mentioned BOGO deals, they are running a BOGO on the iPhone XR. So you could get 2 of your 4 phones free.

Hope that helps.
 
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I’ll do my best to answer your questions. First, I don’t know about the Best Buy discount. If it’s a FAN discount, it won’t work on the new unlimited plans. They’ve kept most of those discounts from working on the unlimited plans, but you can still get a Mobile Share plan if you want your discount to work.

As for the TV offering, it’s their “WatchTV” package and I’d be surprised if it’s as extensive as what you get with YouTube TV. The full channel list can be found here: https://www.att.com/plans/unlimited-data-plans.html It is, however, completely free.

They still have access fees per line, but that $160 plus tax figure is accurate. They’re including the access fees in that number.

Since you mentioned BOGO deals, they are running a BOGO on the iPhone XR. So you could get 2 of your 4 phones free.

Hope that helps.
Thanks for the response!

I compared the channels to YouTube tv. It's about 70 channels versus the 30. But looking at the lineup, aside from local tv, it seems we don't use many of those 40 channels. Any idea if there's an addon available or is it basically the 30 channels and you get what you get (mostly thinking local channels for news and possibly sports).

I imagine the Best Buy discount is considered a FAN; it was back when we were still with ATT years ago. I entered my wife's email and it said she was eligible and to check her email so we will see what that ends up with. If you're saying FAN doesn't work the. I'm thinking I shouldn't count on the price dropping at all.
[doublepost=1548091094][/doublepost]Chatted with a rep. It sounds like you can't NOT add local channels. Bummer. That makes the watch tv no real added value to us as we likely couldn't get rid of YouTube tv.

There are also no discounts at all on unlimited outside of first responders and military, per the rep.

Seemed like a no brainer but will actually end up costing use more, sadly. Will have to continue weighing our options.
 
Thanks for the response!

I compared the channels to YouTube tv. It's about 70 channels versus the 30. But looking at the lineup, aside from local tv, it seems we don't use many of those 40 channels. Any idea if there's an addon available or is it basically the 30 channels and you get what you get (mostly thinking local channels for news and possibly sports).

I imagine the Best Buy discount is considered a FAN; it was back when we were still with ATT years ago. I entered my wife's email and it said she was eligible and to check her email so we will see what that ends up with. If you're saying FAN doesn't work the. I'm thinking I shouldn't count on the price dropping at all.
[doublepost=1548091094][/doublepost]Chatted with a rep. It sounds like you can't NOT add local channels. Bummer. That makes the watch tv no real added value to us as we likely couldn't get rid of YouTube tv.

There are also no discounts at all on unlimited outside of first responders and military, per the rep.

Seemed like a no brainer but will actually end up costing use more, sadly. Will have to continue weighing our options.
Why not get an antenna for OTA local channels for free?
 
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Why not get an antenna for OTA local channels for free?
We have gotten used to streaming most of our tv. All of our TVs are wall mounted with nothing beneath them so I would need a big ugly antenna sitting by it. I suppose I could do something on the roof?

Edit: looks like they make super low profile wall mounted stuff. I suppose it's worth a try.
 
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We have gotten used to streaming most of our tv. All of our TVs are wall mounted with nothing beneath them so I would need a big ugly antenna sitting by it. I suppose I could do something on the roof?

Edit: looks like they make super low profile wall mounted stuff. I suppose it's worth a try.
Antennas are great if they work in your location. In Philly, pretty much all of the towers are in the same area (Manayunk) and if you have a good line of sight in that direction, an antenna works great. However, if there are tall trees and buildings, you're SOL. You might get some magic and have signals bouncing off of windows and stuff, but it's not consistent.

Not sure if Boston has their TV towers all in the same area (preferably on high on a hilltop).

A rooftop antenna would work the best, followed by an attic antenna. That way, you can have a very large antenna pointed towards the towers. If you're using a small, portable antenna, you're going to get inconsistent results as they are generally small with lots of obstructions. I would imagine that the low-profile portable antennas (such as the Leaf, I think that's what it's called), would perform about as good as a quality set of rabbit-ears.

Oh, one other thing. A window in the direction of the towers also does wonders for reception.
 
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Antennas are great if they work in your location. In Philly, pretty much all of the towers are in the same area (Manayunk) and if you have a good line of sight in that direction, an antenna works great. However, if there are tall trees and buildings, you're SOL. You might get some magic and have signals bouncing off of windows and stuff, but it's not consistent.

Not sure if Boston has their TV towers all in the same area (preferably on high on a hilltop).

A rooftop antenna would work the best, followed by an attic antenna. That way, you can have a very large antenna pointed towards the towers. If you're using a small, portable antenna, you're going to get inconsistent results as they are generally small with lots of obstructions. I would imagine that the low-profile portable antennas (such as the Leaf, I think that's what it's called), would perform about as good as a quality set of rabbit-ears.

Oh, one other thing. A window in the direction of the towers also does wonders for reception.
This was my perception of antennas in general, but I didn't know if things had drastically. I'm unsure I've seen them used anywhere since I was a kid.

I appreciate the feedback. I'll try and find out where the towers are relative to me and go from there.
 
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We have gotten used to streaming most of our tv. All of our TVs are wall mounted with nothing beneath them so I would need a big ugly antenna sitting by it. I suppose I could do something on the roof?

Edit: looks like they make super low profile wall mounted stuff. I suppose it's worth a try.
Best of luck. I hope there’s an easy and reasonable solution for ya.
 
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