Apple's trade-in rates are pretty good. If you are able to buy an iPhone full, and trade it in every year, you would probably save money over this plan.
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T-Mobile's 'Go5G Next' Plan Lets Customers Upgrade Smartphones Every Year
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Please show us where you get unlimited talk, text, data, and 100 GB of hotspot for $10 per line. I'll sell you a bridge in London if you can.
Go5G Plus is, I guess, the same as Go5G Next but it's a new phone every two years instead of every year.
Looks like the standard rate is $80/mo for two lines, but when I did a chat w/ T-Mobile, they said they'd let me keep my "insider" discount and it will be $60/mo per line for me.
So $120/mo for 2 lines (wife and myself) and I should get $1k towards the 15 Pro when we trade in our 12 Pros next month. Pretty good deal I think if it holds up and they honor it (rep said he put notes on my account... we'll see). Hoping the base 15 Pro doesn't get a price hike 🤞
Looks like the standard rate is $80/mo for two lines, but when I did a chat w/ T-Mobile, they said they'd let me keep my "insider" discount and it will be $60/mo per line for me.
So $120/mo for 2 lines (wife and myself) and I should get $1k towards the 15 Pro when we trade in our 12 Pros next month. Pretty good deal I think if it holds up and they honor it (rep said he put notes on my account... we'll see). Hoping the base 15 Pro doesn't get a price hike 🤞
Just wondering, why don’t people do a plan with extended family or friends? It works out to a lot less and becomes much more feasible that way.
Because then they wouldn't be able to complain about their $30/month phone plan with unlimited talk, text, data, and 15 GB of hotspot included on a network that works when the network is congested.
No, I don't pay absurd amounts of money for "unlimited" data. WiFi is readily available all over the place.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
I believe this would sum up the answer to that good question very well...
In other words, even family & friends will have the one bad apple that will burn up too much data (slowing it down for everyone else) or make a bunch of international calls at added cost but be slow to pay, etc. Friendships and even family bonds can break over money matters.
And much like Netflix putting the pinch on sharing access in different households, if the goal IS to extract about $115 per household, I would guess that mass embrace of a friends & family pool at many addresses would lead the cell phone providers to implement the same IF it cut into maintaining and/or growing the average.
IMO again: best option to all of these "new plans" that all revolve around extracting about $100-$130 per household is "just say no." MVNOs are generally using the same networks, the same towers, the same 5G, etc but can cost considerably less than the "big 3."
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There's literally always a way to upgrade every year. It's a little crazy they keep rebranding their plans and pretending they're new. What was it called last time? Next? Honestly buy a phone and keep it every 2-4 years. No one needs a new phone every damn year.
Good for you. Everyone has a different lifestyle. If I do construction work and need to access my laptop/internet from my truck, then hotspot is very useful to me.
I’m upgrading this year first time i extended the window to 3 years now. I was on 2 years since original iPhone but 3 years feels good to me.
who cares about upgrading every year? Seems pointless in todays age where everything in the last few years has been very very good.
honestly I feel like my 12p max is totally fine for another few years on top of this but the battery has degraded too much and I might as well take advantage of the high trade in value now then get nothing for it in 5 years. I get basically top amount up to 3 years then it drops off
who cares about upgrading every year? Seems pointless in todays age where everything in the last few years has been very very good.
honestly I feel like my 12p max is totally fine for another few years on top of this but the battery has degraded too much and I might as well take advantage of the high trade in value now then get nothing for it in 5 years. I get basically top amount up to 3 years then it drops off
Data doesn't slow down on the unlimited plans through Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T unless the network is severely congested, and even then, those paying for the top tier plan (about the same price before autopay and workplace discounts) still get priority over everyone else except for those on a FirstNet network (built with AT&T).
I find it hard to believe the vast majority of users are making international calls, so that situation doesn't apply to 99% of the account holders out there.
Accounts from the "big three" are under one person's name, so it's nearly impossible to implement "cuts" because multiple people are under the same account but live in different households.
Oh, and the cheap carriers thrive off of the towers built by the "big three" so if they "big three" really wanted to, they would stop leasing towers to decrease competition.
Tried that with my Ram. There seems to be an issue with AT&T and UConnect, but not everyone's vehicle has the capability either.
It’s like a battle of the carriers for who can have the worst names, most confusing phone plan lineup 🤣
One thing to consider is what Apple will give you versus a carrier’s remaining value. If you owe $500 and the Apple trade in is greater, you are better of paying of the phone and buying a new on outright on Apple monthly payments.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Are you sure about the first paragraph because I see gripes about slowing down when too much "unlimited" is used all the time. I am under the impression that there is a general MAXIMUM that can be used in a period of time, after which those using that deal will have slower connections: still technically "unlimited" but no longer fast unlimited. But maybe that has finally changed since I last seriously looked at plans.
Again, the point was "one bad apple" making international calls. It doesn't take many. Pool a big family together or a bunch of friends. At any given time, does someone go on a Cruise? Travel out of the included zone? If the pool was maybe 12 people and each took an international vacation/trip once per year, every month might have someone making out of market calls. And then the plan figurehead may find themselves with the aggravation of playing "collections" agent, "surprised" travelers being slow to pay the extra bill, etc.
The Netflix password sharing issue is also under one person's name. However, it is incredibly easy to notice that calls are being made from the general vicinity of the household and also from distant locations. Say we can get 3 families to pool together: one in NYC, one in Chicago and one in LA. Cell companies could easily see the splits and that this "one household" is making 3 pools of many calls in NYC, Chicago and LA. This the same as Netflix noticing movies being watched in NYC, in Chicago and in LA on the same account... not occasionally like someone who is traveling might do... but consistently like whoever is also using that account LIVES at those distant locations, not in the billed household.
Part of getting to become the "big 3" required concessions in support of MVNOs. If they put that kind of pinch on MVNOs to basically reduce the market to just them, GOV would likely step in and seek breakups. See the AT&T story from back in the 1980s. GOV will actually take actions like that at times. I know: that seems impossible in America in the 2020s. But even the U.S. doesn't want competition to get too small (even though one could easily argue on 3 players of size is too small).
The main point though is the idea of pooling a whole bunch of people together to try to make the average cost for each phone user be lower in any kind of friend & families opportunity is a good one. It's the actual implementation and execution by those friends & families that is tough. The MVNO option is much easier to implement and gets immediate results. No collections. No managing bad apples. Etc.
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10 person per line maximum, except under special business accounts. International plan on AT&T charges $10 per day (when used), up to a maximum of $100 and it goes on your bill and the person simply pays it when they normally pay -- there shouldn't be an issue there.
I honestly don't think AT&T or any carrier cares where you live for many reasons - the more PPV accounts, the better. The more PPV accounts, the more insurance plans, NextUp, and other set services they can sell, and there's more usage that doesn't happen on their competitors. If the big three didn't give per line discounts, they'll lose a lot of business.
Our vehicle is Mazda. The only problem we've experienced with the service is the cap of 5 devices simultaneously on the hotspot.
Can’t speak for the person you quoted, but I pay $40/month on Visible and get 50 GB of priority data on LTE and nationwide 5G, and unlimited priority data on 5G UW. I haven’t had to contact CS since I switched, and I’m sure not about to pay $60/month more for better CS regardless.
I use MVNO Spectrum Mobile (Verizon) and I can tell you this...we MVNO customers gets the leftover bandwidth and reception compared to cadillac Verizon full service customers. It's not even close.
I’m using Mint for $20/mo (15 GB 5G data plan) as my average monthly data consumption is about 11 GB.
$100/mo for mobile seems insane for me for such low quality, speed and coverage as mobile operators have in US. I was paying $130/mo in Dubai for unlimited plan, but they have real 5G speeds there (around 800 Mbit/s) and you can access it even in the desert.
I’m done with Apple Upgrade Program. Each year, the phone is marginally better and it’s annoying to have to restore a new one each year. First world problem of course because Apple has made the process much simpler than it used to be. Just paid off my 13PM and will keep it until the 2024 model is released. Maybe. Probably gonna get my battery replaced next year and see how things go. Usb type C iPhone is appealing but I want a Mini.
