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AT&T Imposes Another $5 Rate Hike On Grandfathered Unlimited Data Plans (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: ATT is raising the price of its grandfathered unlimited data plans by $5 a month, the second such increase in the past year. The price increase affects longtime mobile customers who have held onto unlimited data plans for years after ATT stopped selling them to new subscribers. The latest price increase was reported by DSLReports yesterday, and ATT confirmed the move to Ars. "If you have a legacy unlimited data plan, you can keep it; however, beginning in March 2017, it will increase by $5 per month," ATT said. The unlimited data price had been $30 a month for seven years, until ATT raised it to $35 in February 2016. The price increase this year will bring it up to $40. That amount is just for data: Including voice and texting, the smartphone plans cost around $90 a month. ATT encouraged customers to move to one of its new plans, most of which have data limits, saying the newer packages "provide several benefits that our legacy unlimited plan doesn't." For example, the newer plans support mobile hotspot connections allowing a phone's Internet service to be shared with another device. ATT had stopped selling unlimited smartphone data to new customers and to customers who are switching plans, but last year introduced a new unlimited plan that's available only to people who also subscribe to DirecTV or U-verse TV.
"Thank you sir, may I have another"
I thought AT&T had some great points advocating switching away from a low-priced, unlimited data plan - so I switched. I realize not everyone will agree with me, and for those who don't - you can keep AT&T.
I was AT&T since before they sold off wireless to Cingular. Got tired of the iPhone and switched to a Nexus late last year, then I bit the bullet and dropped AT&T for Google's Fi service. My only complaint with Fi is that it just works for Nexus and Pixel phones. The service and cost structures are incredibly refreshing (what do you mean I get credit back for unused data and don't get raped for overage charges???).
tl;dr: To hell with AT&T and the rest.
Since I have a Real Computer with Real Internet, I don't use massive amounts of mobile data, so I went with Ting and am pretty happy with the sub-$20 bills so far.
Because Fuck You that's why.
I don't think that word means what AT&T thinks it means.
Old gets expensive.. That's what it means...
The market is apparently moving away from "unlimited" data plans now that the transfer rates are above ISDN limits....I guess the carriers are starting to realize that bandwidth/data transfer costs money and the only folks who are still on their "grandfather's" data plan are soaking up more than their share of the costs for little or no profit.
All these "grandfathered" plans should never have existed... AT&T was stupid to set any of the terms of a deal in stone for life. Any contract attorney would advise you NOT to do that. Apparently AT&T didn't listen to their lawyers or figured the good press now out weighs the eventual bad press later. I guess they can drive off users on these plans if they keep bumping up the rates.... But If I was them, I'd not do this creeping drip drip $5 ever six months thing and just announce that starting in 2 months it's going to be $1,000/month per device....
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
I'm in the same boat - been an AT&T customer since before Cingular. Unlimited data has been pretty much the only reason I've stayed there this long. Now they're trying their best to get rid of me. It may just work.
I think the plan don't allow tethering ...
This is because mobile hotspot and tethering use are not allowed with unlimited plans (except for Connected Cars). If you want to use your device as a mobile hotspot or for tethering, you'll need to change your plan or move the device to a plan that supports mobile hotspot and tethering.
You're wrong. Raising it $5 at a time is probably one the smartest things any company has ever done.
It helps them discover what people are willing to pay for a given amount of bandwidth (hint: they know how much each person is using).
This will help them optimize the prices of future plans for maximum profit.
I was on the grandfathered plan but when you realize that the "Unlimited" plan is really just a 2GB or 3GB plan (they've changed it a couple times), and then throttling down to EDGE speeds the other plans are just cheaper, since this is what their other plans do as well. And "free" unlimited texting (a $20 add-on to the grandfathered plan). And you can hotspot. And unlimited voice. And you can add additional phones for pretty cheap.
There really is no reason to hang on to those grandfathered plans unless you don't text (pretty much at all), or you expect some day the FCC will force AT&T to unthrottle the unlimited plans, and you never need to hotspot.
Oh AT&T, you could've had me as a life long customer. I only use a reasonable amount of data, but the allure of my unlimited plan would have kept me bound to you for life. Instead you are pricing out your most loyal customers. Once the limited data plans becomes more price competitive than than the grandfathered unlimited plan for the amount of data I typically use, I will certainly be evaluating all options open to me.. And I may choose Verizon for better service or TMobile for better international roaming and more/unlimited data.
Verizon hiked our unlimited prices by $20 you ATT UDPers have had TWO price hikes and you're still $10 short!
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
Depends a bit on which European country, mind you.
In Denmark, a new plan called Plenti offers unlimited minutes, texts, and data for 119 DKR (approximately 17-18 USD) per month. If you tether they cap that data at 50 GB per month.
Meanwhile in Germany, just thirty minutes from the Danish border, Vodafone very kindly upgraded my phone's data plan last month from 200 MB per month to 500 MB per month, and I pay some 20 or 25 Euro (same in USD, basically) per month for that crap.
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
Yep. Unlimited everything, $65/mo. Switched last year. Same ~22gb before they look to throttle you that ATT has
The unlimited plans no longer are capped at 5gb before they throttle you. It's now set around 22gb, and the throttling is only if the cell tower is congested.
Now they're trying their best to get rid of me. It may just work.
How? By only charging you 1/2 the price and giving you unlimited data?
Any contract attorney would advise you NOT to do that. Apparently AT&T didn't listen to their lawyers or figured the good press now out weighs the eventual bad press later.
I don't see the problem, as long as they can raise the price to whatever they want. They are in complete control.
The carrier just blocks you from using your connection in this way unless you pay them an additional "tethering/mobile hotspot" fee for no reason whatsoever. It's ubiquitous among the major carriers now but not tough to get around.
Telecommunications in the US are controlled almost solely by a cartel of major players that do not prefer to compete on pricing.
It is not really unlimited, because after 2GB per line per month it gets throttled. But anyway I don't use much of data any way on the phone. 100$ for 4 lines. Including taxes i think it comes 125$ or so.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
I would literally love to see AT&T literally shit on your for using the word literally incorrectly.
So assuming that what you mean by 'correct' usage applies - that would be what ? About 800 AT&T employees all lining up to take a dump on him one at a time ? Nasty...
Thank goodness he used the it correctly then. As per the dictionary.com:
4. in effect; in substance; very nearly; virtually:
I literally died when she walked out on stage in that costume.
Here is Webster's (you know for your Americans):
2: : in effect : virtually
There are two things you should learn from this discussion. /. has an international readership it's quite likely you may encounter them on these forums at times so you really ought to learn them.
Firstly - the common usage of "literally" as a an exclamation preceding hyperbole is, in fact, entirely correct English according to every dictionary. The second is this: American English has half as many meanings for the word "literally" as British English do - which means there are two MORE fully correct usages of "literally" you probably wouldn't even recognise if one bit you on the ass - and since
The only thing worse than grammar nazi's are grammar nazis who can't even get the grammar right.
Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
I was AT&T since before they sold off wireless to Cingular
That only sort of happened. AT&T Wireless was already spun off from AT&T when it was sold to SBC/Bellsouth (Cingular). Then SBC bought AT&T and renamed itself AT&T. Then bought Bellsouth and renamed Cingular to AT&T.
Chart form: https://www.att.com/Common/mer...
Video explanation: http://www.ebaumsworld.com/vid... (Sorry, no longer on Youtube)
Good luck in finding a real unlimited data plan elsewhere. New real unlimited data plans do not exist as far as I know.
I have an unlimited sprint hotspot. I use it as my only internet. It's not super fast where I live but it's the only thing that really works in the somewhat rural area I live in. I get about 1-2 meg down and 2-4 meg up (yes, faster upload for some strange reason). I only use about 50GB/month but I haven't noticed any slow downs at the end of the month so if there is a throttle, it either doesn't affect me in my area or it's above 50GB.
AT&T will be raising the rates every 6 months until it hits $100/mo like most other "not really unlimited plans"
This may really be their plan. The would upset a lot of customers if they jumped the price to $100/month or just kicked everyone off but by doing a gradual increase, people will gradually move to other plans and aren't going to freak out about $5/month jumps. A slow "boil a frog" strategy to not upset too many people and have a backlash.
Its pretty hard to get upset about our mobile phone prices when they're placed against the backdrop of our bankrupting and life destroying healthcare and college education prices.
ATT is raising the price of its grandfathered unlimited data plans by $5 a month, the second such increase in the past year..beginning in March 2017, it will increase by $5 per month," ATT said. The unlimited data price had been $30 a month for seven years, until ATT raised it to $35 in February 2016.
No, it's not the second increase in a year.
My point here is that AT&T *should* have put time limits on all these contracts and never "grandfathered" them. Unlimited data should have been a time limited agreement that went away w/o the user renewing it with AT&T when the contract expired. That way they remain in control and can just stop offering Unlimited data plans any time they wished, wait for the current crop of existing contracts to expire and be done with the whole problem.
That would have eliminated the whole negative PR problem we have now..
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101