AT&T Tweaks Mobile Share Pricing

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
Joined
May 9, 2000
Messages
75,399
AT&T has discounted its shared-data family plans out of the goodness of its corporate heart. If you believe that, AT&T will also sell you a bridge at a discount. :D In fact, AT&T is trying to become more price competitive after losing customers to rival carriers like T-Mobile.

The most surprising part of today's announcement is that current customers with on-contract phones can switch to the new pricing structure.
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See AT&T customers, the T-Mobile and AT&T merger would have been bad. Competition is good, monopoly is bad.
 
Switched to T-Mobile last year and good riddance AT&T. Their wireless coverage, especially for LTE can't be beat, but paying almost double more than what I am paying now really didn't feel like it was worth it.
 
Thanks for the link, i just switched after reading it, for the same exact service my bill went from $250 down to $170 !! now thats [H]ard !
 
brian770 said:
Thanks for the link, i just switched after reading it, for the same exact service my bill went from $250 down to $170 !! now thats [H]ard !
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Sounds like what happened to my plan. My plan price went from $226 a month to roughly $160 a month before taxes. That's a $60 per month savings!
 
be careful, these plans worth it if you buy your own phones. but if you want subsidized phones, these plans cost more.
 
From ArsTechnica: http://arstechnica.com/business/201...ily-value-plan-but-read-the-fine-print-first/

We could save $30 a month by switching to the new 10GB plan and gain 4GB of extra data to use to boot—by the time our contracts were up, we'd have saved approximately $600. If we were on the current 10GB Mobile Share plan, we'd be saving $50 a month, for a total of about $1,000. We'd be on the hook to join AT&T Next or buy unsubsidized phones when our contracts were up though, and assuming we both bought high-end phones we'd end up paying around $600 per phone rather than the $200 per phone we'd pay with the current subsidized pricing model. The closer you are to your contract's renewal date, the less you'd stand to save by switching if you upgrade as soon as your contract is up, though obviously you can choose to defer and keep your existing phone longer if you'd like.
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As good as a deal this is, if you sign up for this plan, you will be basically be paying for a full unsubsidized phone price if you have to or want to upgrade your own phone.
 
Every time I go to the bank or to my wireless provider store, I have to spend 5 minutes arguing with the guy that I don't actually need to transfer my grandfathered plan onto their "new and improved" plan. Then I spend another 5 minutes checking up on them, making sure they didn't lie and change it anyway. Occasionally, I get to spend another 20 trying to get them to undo the change.
 
Wrecked Em said:
Every time I go to the bank or to my wireless provider store, I have to spend 5 minutes arguing with the guy that I don't actually need to transfer my grandfathered plan onto their "new and improved" plan. Then I spend another 5 minutes checking up on them, making sure they didn't lie and change it anyway. Occasionally, I get to spend another 20 trying to get them to undo the change.
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I had the same problem when I was with Verizon like 10 years ago. At the time they offered separate regional and nationwide roaming plans, and the regional plan was $15 cheaper.

Every time I went into a Verizon store they would always try to up-sell me on the nationwide plan (and on one occasion, they managed to "accidentally" upgrade me without my permission). Almost 2 years into my contract I decided to move to another state, and figured the time had come to finally listen to the salesman and upgrade to nationwide roaming, so I went to a store and had it changed.

As I was leaving the store I decided to read the fine print and discovered that ANY change to your calling plan automatically extends your contract to a minimum of one year, so I went from having 2 months left, to having a full year left.

I suspect that this is the reason they were pushing that particular up-sell so hard, because it automatically extended customer lock-in
 
sir-gold said:
I suspect that this is the reason they were pushing that particular up-sell so hard, because it automatically extended customer lock-in
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It my case, no. My contract wasn't extended because of the plan change.
 
Honestly, the best deal right now in the United States in the Straight Talk Sim ( ATT LTE ) unlimited text, talk and 2.5GIG high-speed LTE data. Unlimited after 2.5gig but at 2G/3G speeds.

Buy the one year card at Walmart and its only about $42.xx a month including all fees / taxes that are built in.
 
Ashbringer said:
See AT&T customers, the T-Mobile and AT&T merger would have been bad. Competition is good, monopoly is bad.
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I know the game can get a little boring after awhile as it can take hours to play but I wouldn't exactly call monopoly a bad game. it does help kids learn how to count and how money works.
 
brian770 said:
Thanks for the link, i just switched after reading it, for the same exact service my bill went from $250 down to $170 !! now thats [H]ard !
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Can you switch now even if you're currently on contract with subsidized phones?
 
brettjrob said:
Can you switch now even if you're currently on contract with subsidized phones?
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Yes you can as long as your contract was signed before Feb 2nd. On the other note I don't know why people bitch and some how try to justify its not a good deal. I just changed mine and I went down 60 bucks and my ccousin almost a 100. I will take this price and service of ATT any day over T-Mobile.and yes I know I you have to be on next or buy your own phone to keep the plan the same but how is mobile any different in that regard. If I go to T-Mobile with payments on the phone I pay over 250 with five lines. I really don't Carr about unlimited that shit is overrated unless your running your home internet over it which I dont plan on doing. Seen people brag about how much they use, reason unlimited is gone when people start using 100gb a month. Lol
 
sir-gold said:
I had the same problem when I was with Verizon like 10 years ago. At the time they offered separate regional and nationwide roaming plans, and the regional plan was $15 cheaper.

Every time I went into a Verizon store they would always try to up-sell me on the nationwide plan (and on one occasion, they managed to "accidentally" upgrade me without my permission). Almost 2 years into my contract I decided to move to another state, and figured the time had come to finally listen to the salesman and upgrade to nationwide roaming, so I went to a store and had it changed.

As I was leaving the store I decided to read the fine print and discovered that ANY change to your calling plan automatically extends your contract to a minimum of one year, so I went from having 2 months left, to having a full year left.

I suspect that this is the reason they were pushing that particular up-sell so hard, because it automatically extended customer lock-in
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Uh no it doesn't. Stop assuming things that aren't true. This doesn't extend your contract. And yes if your on a single line and have unlimited a person should keep it of they use a lot of data but don't be like my cousin who averaged 4 gigs a month and paying over 100 dollars extra just because his brain was afraid to comprehend that he he still saves money even if he went with 15gb plan. Which he finally did.
 
Went from 6GB plan @ $160.00/mo to 10GB plan @ $130.00/mo, works for me:

Previous:
Mobile Share plan fee: $90.00/mo
Smartphone access fee: $35.00/mo
Smartphone access fee: $35.00/mo
Monthly Total: $160.00/mo

Current:
Mobile Share plan fee: $100.00/mo
Smartphone access fee: $15.00/mo
Smartphone access fee: $15.00/mo
Monthly Total: $130.00/mo
 
SixFootDuo said:
Honestly, the best deal right now in the United States in the Straight Talk Sim ( ATT LTE ) unlimited text, talk and 2.5GIG high-speed LTE data. Unlimited after 2.5gig but at 2G/3G speeds.

Buy the one year card at Walmart and its only about $42.xx a month including all fees / taxes that are built in.
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Best deal is subjective to use case. My wife and I only end up paying $44/mo out the door for both of our smartphones on Ting. That's the best deal for us. Down-sides are that you have to buy phones at full retail (not a problem for us), and service is on Sprit's network, but upside for us is Sprint actually has great coverage in our area (and strong, consistent 4G, believe it or not).

Moral of the story; it's good to have options as not all of these "all you can eat" pricing schemes may not be relevant to everyone, and straight talk, aio, ting, etc. MVNOs are nice additions for options to the major carriers.
 
StraightTalk is nine until you realize what you can't do with that StraightTalk plan of yours. You should see the list of limitations that come with that data plan you get.

* Continuous uninterrupted mobile to mobile or mobile to landline voice calls.
* Uploading, downloading or streaming of uninterrupted continuous audio and/or video. (This is the biggest one of them all. This means no Pandora, Rdio, Slacker Radio, YouTube, Spotify, Hulu, etc. This kind of activity will put you in the sin bin with Straight Talk.)
* As a substitute or backup for private lines or dedicated data connections. (This could in theory be something that could make replacing your home land line with a cell phone under Straight Talk something that will end you up in the sin bin with Straight Talk.)
 
*yawn*

Just signed up with T-Mo earlier this morning.

3 lines, $76.50/month, unlimited talk, text and data*.

Yes, you're going to say throttled data, I'm going to say I don't give a shit. If I want to use the internet for actual "internet-y" things, I'll use a real connection. While I'm on the road I can happily browse, email, even stream music over my nice throttled cell phone to my heart's content.

Wake me up when AT&T or Verizon get to my price point so I can start caring about them as competitors.
 
Switched my plan over went from $310 a month to $200 a month. 6 lines and 1 ipad.

I don't care about the no subsidized phones half of us have the Nexus 5 and another has an unlocked iPhone 5S that was purchased off contract.

Good shit, was considering switching to Tmobile about a month ago, but their coverage sucks in some areas we go to. Now I have no reason to switch.
 
trparky said:
StraightTalk is nine until you realize what you can't do with that StraightTalk plan of yours. You should see the list of limitations that come with that data plan you get.

* Continuous uninterrupted mobile to mobile or mobile to landline voice calls.
* Uploading, downloading or streaming of uninterrupted continuous audio and/or video. (This is the biggest one of them all. This means no Pandora, Rdio, Slacker Radio, YouTube, Spotify, Hulu, etc. This kind of activity will put you in the sin bin with Straight Talk.)
* As a substitute or backup for private lines or dedicated data connections. (This could in theory be something that could make replacing your home land line with a cell phone under Straight Talk something that will end you up in the sin bin with Straight Talk.)
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I like how you cherry picked your information: "The Straight Talk Unlimited Plan MAY NOT be used for unauthorized uses that adversely impact our service. Examples of unauthorized uses include, without limitation, the following: (i) continuous uninterrupted mobile to mobile or mobile to landline voice calls; (ii) automated text or picture messaging to another mobile device or e-mail address; (iii) uploading, downloading or streaming of uninterrupted continuous video; (iv) server devices or host computer applications, including, but not limited to, Web camera posts or broadcasts, automatic data feeds, automated machine-to-machine connections or peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing; or (v) as a substitute or backup for private lines or dedicated data connections. A person engaged in unauthorized uses may have his/her service throttled and/or terminated. In some circumstances, Customers may be provided notice and an opportunity to take corrective action with respect to unauthorized uses before their service is terminated." -- http://www.straighttalk.com/wps/wcm/connect/straighttalk/footer/terms+and+conditions

I read it as they don't want you to use it in a continuous manner outside normal mobile usage. Example: 24/7 baby/security monitor (video and/or audio), 24/7 audio streaming for your business, etc. We stream on a regular basis and an occasional tether and it has never been a problem.
 
Database said:
Switched my plan over went from $310 a month to $200 a month. 6 lines and 1 ipad.

I don't care about the no subsidized phones half of us have the Nexus 5 and another has an unlocked iPhone 5S that was purchased off contract.

Good shit, was considering switching to Tmobile about a month ago, but their coverage sucks in some areas we go to. Now I have no reason to switch.
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Same, there is little reason for me to move now. I was purely switching to T-Mobile for the price alone but I was always skeptical of the lack of coverage.
 
To each their own. I will never switch to T-Mobile or sprint for now. T-Mobile tells me I get good to excellent lte coverage in my house and sorroinding area. But tried their sim in my nexus 7 and got one bar of hspa. So once they get their map right I light give them a shot but I got mostly 1x on the freeway to wwork so streaming is out the door.
 
My friend in England pays 10 Pounds a month for his iphone service. This country is a disgrace for utilities and telecom
 
maverikv said:
My friend in England pays 10 Pounds a month for his iphone service. This country is a disgrace for utilities and telecom
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Thats what happens when you have an entire political party (which currently has a majority) that believes corporate rights are more important than individual rights
 
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