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If you are looking to switch to AT&T soon, be warned that you won’t be able to get a minimal texting plan if you aren’t the heaviest of texters. Today, they’ve confirmed that they are axing the metered texting plans and will only offer unlimited plans – you either pay per text (which get extremely pricey if you aren’t careful) or pay the $20 or $30 for unlimited texting on individual and family plans, respectively. Anyone currently with AT&T is grandfathered into their old texting plans, of course. [Engadget]
This is just another fine example of how AT&T looks after their customers. I bet T-Mobile customers are even more ecstatic to join the funnest carrier in the US now!
The only real issue with this is how much they charge for unlimited texting. t-mobiles is only $10 a month.
Would love to see a survey of how many ATT customers there would be if you eliminated the “look at me and my beautiful sexy iphone” crowd and the “I don’t care what it costs, I pass my mobile bill to our expense department each month” crowd. I’d have to imagine its got to be pretty low…maybe 5 or 10 %…..is there any other reason you’d still be with ATT? Service, Coverage, Android line up….? I sincerely doubt it.
ATT = poop
By far the main reason I stick with AT&T is because they are the only major US carrier that uses SIM cards and standard GSM bands.
I also love how you can use their website to change your plan and features and you get the option to change them retroactively (starting at the beginning of your current billing cycle), effective immediately (pro-rated), or starting at the beginning of your next cycle.
I also actually like their cheap 200MB plans as I have wi-fi most of the time and this plan saves me $360 a year for my wife’s and my phones compared to the old unlimited plan.
Sure they do plenty of things I don’t like (like this change for instance, or the way they crippled the first Androids they released), but none of the other carriers seem that much better to me.
you are wasting money by buying a 200mb data plan. That usage will be gone in a day and then you’ll be paying overages if you accidentally go over. If no other carriers seem better to you than AT&T then you must have been living under 2 rocks in your lifetime.
Thanks for the advice but we have been on the 200 MB plan since they implemented it (about a year ago I think) and haven’t had any problems.
We have gone over 200MB once or twice, but when this happened we just retroactively changed the data plan to 2GB for that month for $25. Even if I didn’t change the plan it would just be $15 for the next 200MB (for total cost of $30 which is what I was paying before).
I am certainly open to suggestions for a carrier that would meet my needs better though :)
My main priorities are:
– Uses standard GSM bands
– Price
– Coverage
Only other carrier I have really considered is T-Mobile, but the bands they use are not very standard at all and I hear their coverage is not that great.
Do you a suggestion?
I think most people don’t understand the retroactive aspect. They all just assume that if you go over, you pay the overage, which isn’t the case.
I personally could not go with a 200mb plan, but those who think NOBODY can are fools. I know plenty of people who use their data only to check emails. That’s it!
I will say that it would be nicer, for those that use very little data, to just omit a data plan altogether. This will likely never happen though, at least not with the heavy subsidies these providers pay on our handsets.
Verizon will soon follow suit. It’s funny how they mirror each others moves.
This is ridiculous. All over the world SMS is getting cheap, they just throw this feature in the plan without charging a penny. Best telecom company award goes to AT&T. :=(
Chris beat ya to it. This tends to happen more often on this site than it should.
http://phandroid.com/2011/08/18/att-giving-the-axe-to-10-messaging-plan-only-20-unlimited-to-remain/
He was too busy filing his fingernails down to check.
Another great reason why T-Mobile customers are running for the hills. Anything is better then AT&T, they are just thieves. Why would any T-Mobile customer want AT&T as their new provider? There isn’t, I have already ponied up with Verizon, they may be a little expensive but I refuse to get involved with AT&T. Try calling their tech support and ask where or when they will have HSPA+ up and running in your area? I live in a suburb of Boston with super fast T-Mobile and Verizon’s LTE both up and running fantastic. AT&T does not have their HSPA+ working in the Boston area, their is just no excuse for that and they can not or will not give you a date for when and where it will be working. So much for the nations largest and most expensive carrier.
Verizon is more expensive, yet somehow you are still justified going with them? How does this make Verizon less of thieves? Because they were more expensive to begin with?
Not trying to rip on you here, just trying to understand.
That’s horrible for the individuals who don’t text much.
Especially with all of these texting apps that essentially use data to function, regular texting through the network isn’t needed.
Now they’ll have to pay for it regardless.
AT&T sucks! I hope the T-Mobile deals falls through.
$20 for unlimited texts? That’s insane!
i like t-mobile plan. $0 for unlimited texting plan. :)
If you’re grandfathered from an older plan. Right now, T-Mobile’s classic plan adds $20 for unlimited texting. The value plan gives you unlimited everything(ish), but you either gotta pay the full price of the phone or the whole 24 month contract up front.
Haters! Couple guys at work with tmo went 2 days without service..guy with Verizon droid 2 global cant come CLOSE to my captivates 5.17mbps DOWNLOAD SPEED. yea u read it right. So att is not perfect….but we at least get service.
LOL only 5mbps? on average on my 4G with tmo I get averages of 10mbps and bursts of high 13mbps of which is only because the limitations of the device is 14.4mbps I got 5mbps average on my non 4G device (nexus s) and oh please your story is so full of crap.
Google Voice free text messages. Here I come
this is stupid, just get 3g/edge/4g and use those msg app. people need to upgrade themselves.
Up in Canada, unlimited SMS (with Picture and Video messaging) costs $15/month, so I’m pretty surprised by AT&T’s decision. Furthermore and working for a mobile service company, limiting consumers’ choices with SMS seems pretty restricting. If SMS is to be promoted among non-texters, then this measure seems to be counter-productive.
I personally like to be very proper on the internet and not act like an idiot… But there is a time and place for everything, is there not? AT&T can go suck a corndog with mustard. That’s all i got to say. -.-
Are they getting rid of the $30 family text plan too? With 5 lines, that’s worth it IMO.
AT&T us really fucking up their plans. FIRST they GOT RID of our UNLIMITED data packages. now their getting rid of their cap 500 texts? Doesn’t AT&T knows that not too many people can’t afford 30$ for unlimited text. think of some people that doesn’t text. their marketing director is really fucking up and going to loose lots more consumers.