# AT&T New Shared Data Plans



## Herdfan (Mar 18, 2006)

Available August 23rd.

http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/data-plans.html#fbid=FH7in6oxOrj?tab2source=EC0000PP100000JD

Not sure if this will save me money or not.

Edit: Looks like it might.

10G Shared data - $120
3 x iPhones @ $30 - $90
1 x Original iPhone - $30
Non-smartphone - $10

Total - $240 plus taxes vs. the $280 (including taxes) I pay now.

Dropping to 6g saves another $15


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## MikeW (May 16, 2002)

What a bargain. $120 for 10 GB of data. So disappointing that this is where we are. A complete lack of competition with no regulation leads to AT&T/Verizon to do nothing but rake in the profits for their shareholders. It's really making me begin to re-think the desire to have anything other than a simple phone.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

No competition? 
I think that depends entirely on where one lives. 
Do you really want more regulation?


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## 4HiMarks (Jan 21, 2004)

If I read this right, it looks like the new individual plan is giving 250MB of data at no charge? Even if that doesn't include texts, I think it would save us money. We're paying $35 for 300MB on one phone and 200 on the other. Add in $30 for unlimited texting and it's $65 before any voice plans. We've got the cheapest possible Family Talk voice and three lines (my mom has no data), coming to about $145 total (+taxes & fees). If we can get 250MB on each phone for free, that would save the $35. But if the cheapest shared data plan is $40 with another $45 per phone, we're up to $130 already before adding in my mom, and then they want $30 per line for a basic messaging phone that I pay $9.99 for now? No Thank You!


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## David Ortiz (Aug 21, 2006)

4HiMarks said:


> If I read this right, it looks like the new individual plan is giving 250MB of data at no charge? Even if that doesn't include texts, I think it would save us money. We're paying $35 for 300MB on one phone and 200 on the other. Add in $30 for unlimited texting and it's $65 before any voice plans. We've got the cheapest possible Family Talk voice and three lines (my mom has no data), coming to about $145 total (+taxes & fees). If we can get 250MB on each phone for free, that would save the $35. But if the cheapest shared data plan is $40 with another $45 per phone, we're up to $130 already before adding in my mom, and then they want $30 per line for a basic messaging phone that I pay $9.99 for now? No Thank You!


I don't think you're reading it right. All smartphones require a data package and the minimum is currently 300MB for $20 a month.


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## Shades228 (Mar 18, 2008)

Laxguy said:


> No competition?
> I think that depends entirely on where one lives.
> Do you really want more regulation?


I have worked for both ATT and Sprint and I can assure you that with these companies, in the wireless world, that more regulations would help the consumer more than hinder it.

There should be regulations that require, and legally grant, them to expand networks based on subscriber base numbers per area and there should be regulations make them have to break out costs of individual services along with profits on their filings.


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## MikeW (May 16, 2002)

Laxguy said:


> No competition?
> I think that depends entirely on where one lives.
> Do you really want more regulation?


Yes.


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## Herdfan (Mar 18, 2006)

Laxguy said:


> No competition?
> I think that depends entirely on where one lives.
> Do you really want more regulation?


But with AT&T/Verizon as national as they are, they have set national rates. Now they can adjust promotions regionally, but the rates are set.

The one area where they can compete with each other is coverage. Some areas, like mine, AT&T is better, in others Verizon is better. All depends. Competition though sure didn't force AT&T to fix NYC.

As for the regulation, I am torn. I am all for less regulation on businesses, but I have to accept that some people are inherently stupid. Given that, the carriers should be forced to have clear terms and conditions and rates that the average middle schooler can understand.


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## raott (Nov 23, 2005)

For my situation, I'll save quite a bit of money over the two individual plans we had.


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## djlong (Jul 8, 2002)

For comparison, I have a family plan - myself, my wife and my younger daughter - all with iPhones (model 4S to be precise), unlimited text, unlimited data, more minutes than we ever use and I'm paying around $180/mo.

I'm on Sprint.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

"djlong" said:


> For comparison, I have a family plan - myself, my wife and my younger daughter - all with iPhones (model 4S to be precise), unlimited text, unlimited data, more minutes than we ever use and I'm paying around $180/mo.
> 
> I'm on Sprint.


I wouldn't assume it's actually unlimited. One of my users was told to leave by Sprint for using too much data on his iPhone. At least they waived the ETF.


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## HDJulie (Aug 10, 2008)

Herdfan said:


> Available August 23rd.
> 
> http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/data-plans.html#fbid=FH7in6oxOrj?tab2source=EC0000PP100000JD
> 
> ...


You have the price on the non-smartphone wrong. It is $30 for a non-smartphone now.


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## davring (Jan 13, 2007)

HDJulie said:


> You have the price on the non-smartphone wrong. It is $30 for a non-smartphone now.


On the family paln it is still $10.00


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## HDJulie (Aug 10, 2008)

davring said:


> On the family paln it is still $10.00


I think he was checking to see the price on the new shared plans to see if it would save him money. It still would but $20 less than he thought originally.


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## davring (Jan 13, 2007)

HDJulie said:


> I think he was checking to see the price on the new shared plans to see if it would save him money. It still would but $20 less than he thought originally.


It would cost us more, we dont need unlimited talk/text.


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## Doug Brott (Jul 12, 2006)

I'd save about $15/month based on my current usage. I'll probably be taking advantage of this offer. The bonus is that I could add my Tablet @ $10/month and still be saving, but the even bigger bonus is that I currently pay a $15/month premium to enable tethering on one phone. Now that will come with all phones and for free (comparatively). Yup, I'm gonna do it simply because it's more flexible for me.

Also, even at our worst, everyone on my family plan struggles to use 2.5GB of data each month. Since the 6GB/month plan is virtually the same price as the 4GB/month plan, I'll get the extra headroom. 10GB would be serious overkill in my case.


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## dennisj00 (Sep 27, 2007)

We're currently paying $15 a month for 200MB for 2 iPhones (each) plus $5 each for 200 texts (super rip-off!!)

So it looks like they're raising our data to 3GB shared for the same $30 unless I switch plans.


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## Shades228 (Mar 18, 2008)

dpeters11 said:


> I wouldn't assume it's actually unlimited. One of my users was told to leave by Sprint for using too much data on his iPhone. At least they waived the ETF.


They do that if you use too much roaming data.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

"Shades228" said:


> They do that if you use too much roaming data.


Funny thing is, two weeks after going to AT&T he called me that he had hit his limit there. At least then, he had tried to send a fairly large attachment from his iPhone and it kept trying to send. But I'd just seen them say unlimited, not unlimited when not roaming. Makes some sense, it is more expensive for them.


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## Shades228 (Mar 18, 2008)

dpeters11 said:


> Funny thing is, two weeks after going to AT&T he called me that he had hit his limit there. At least then, he had tried to send a fairly large attachment from his iPhone and it kept trying to send. But I'd just seen them say unlimited, not unlimited when not roaming. Makes some sense, it is more expensive for them.


Yeah here's part of their terms and conditions:



> *Voice/Data Usage Limitation:* Sprint reserves the right, without notice, to deny, terminate, modify, disconnect or suspend service if off-network roaming usage in a month exceeds (1) voice: 800 minutes or a majority of minutes; or (2) data: 300MB or a majority of KB.


People use this to get around cancelation fees with them. Just find a good place to roam and stream some audio for a few hours.


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## djlong (Jul 8, 2002)

dpeters11 said:


> I wouldn't assume it's actually unlimited. One of my users was told to leave by Sprint for using too much data on his iPhone. At least they waived the ETF.


Well, I have myself using plenty of data on a daily basis and my daughter streaming stuff to her iPhone (wife doesn't do much data).

It clearly said on the forms that I signed that I had unlimited data BUT that data was restricted to handsets. If I wanted to activate TETHERING - THEN I would be subject to a surcharge if I went over a limit (which I believe was 5GB but I'm not entirely certain).


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

Shades228 said:


> People use this to get around cancelation fees with them. Just find a good place to roam and stream some audio for a few hours.


Very dangerous. You're still liable for the charges, and there's no guarantee that action will get you around cancellation fees.


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

I still don't get how they measure traffic on these plans. I regularly use 15-20Gb/mo as measured by a program called NetWorx. I have no idea how accurate it is compared to whatever meters the cell carriers use.

That's one person, one PC, no streaming -- only general browsing.

I'm paying $40/mo for DSL (3Mb down) and would like to find a backup provider if DSL crashes, but there's NO way I could afford the cell rates mentioned up-thread.


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## Shades228 (Mar 18, 2008)

SayWhat? said:


> I still don't get how they measure traffic on these plans. I regularly use 15-20Gb/mo as measured by a program called NetWorx. I have no idea how accurate it is compared to whatever meters the cell carriers use.
> 
> That's one person, one PC, no streaming -- only general browsing.
> 
> I'm paying $40/mo for DSL (3Mb down) and would like to find a backup provider if DSL crashes, but there's NO way I could afford the cell rates mentioned up-thread.


As an emergency back up for being able to check things like bank accounts it would be fine. If you wanted to read DBSTalk, watch the news, play games, and other things then you would run into charges pretty fast.


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## The Merg (Jun 24, 2007)

SayWhat? said:


> I still don't get how they measure traffic on these plans. I regularly use 15-20Gb/mo as measured by a program called NetWorx. I have no idea how accurate it is compared to whatever meters the cell carriers use.
> 
> That's one person, one PC, no streaming -- only general browsing.
> 
> I'm paying $40/mo for DSL (3Mb down) and would like to find a backup provider if DSL crashes, but there's NO way I could afford the cell rates mentioned up-thread.


But is the app you are using able to differentiate what traffic you are using is via a 3G connection and which is via Wifi? With VZW, I rarely use over 1GB of data on my data plan, but that is because most of my data use is via Wifi.

- Merg


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