# AT&T Texting $$ ripoff - now $20/month minimum



## TBlazer07

Beginning this Sunday the cheapest texting plan on AT&T will be $20 month (unlimited)! So now it's $20 for texting using the same data one pays $25 for. So $45 + your voice plan for a smartphone. They went from $5/month for 200 texts to $10/month for 1000 texts to $20 all since last November.

I use Google Voice for free texting. I probably don't use more than 50 texts a year.

GV was fully integrated on a jailbroken iPhone and works with a separate app on Android. I'm sure all the rest of the mobile providers will be close behind.

Existing plans may be maintained this is only for new accounts.

So much for the value of the AT&T-Mobile merger.

http://connectedplanetonline.com/mo...xting-plans-by-essentially-doubling-fee-0819/


----------



## dennisj00

Texting in general is the biggest rip-off in mobile phone technology. It has no delivery commitments, no priority, and can be sent during any pause in any verbal conversation.

Basically an idle packet.


----------



## dpeters11

"dennisj00" said:


> Texting in general is the biggest rip-off in mobile phone technology. It has no delivery commitments, no priority, and can be sent during any pause in any verbal conversation.
> 
> Basically an idle packet.


Exactly. Especially with apps like PingChat or Google Talk available, at least on the smartphone side.

Plus you having to pay for incoming texts. One think UK does right, no charge for incoming text or phone calls.


----------



## TheFigurehead

Has anyone heard about ATT and/or VZ offering a family plan for sahring data and texting? I think Sprint already has some kind of shared plan... I have 4 VZW phones (3 smartphones and 1 text phone) and was thinking a shared data plan might be cheaper than paying 3 data plans. I currently pay $207 per month for 1400 shared minutes and unlimited data + unlimited texting.


----------



## kiknwing

TheFigurehead said:


> Has anyone heard about ATT and/or VZ offering a family plan for sahring data and texting? I think Sprint already has some kind of shared plan... I have 4 VZW phones (3 smartphones and 1 text phone) and was thinking a shared data plan might be cheaper than paying 3 data plans. I currently pay $207 per month for 1400 shared minutes and unlimited data + unlimited texting.


Both att and verizon require a separate data plan for each phone. Can't share data with the big two.


----------



## Kevin F

However VZW has hinted that family data plans will be coming soon


----------



## trh

If you have AT&T family plan, you can share unlimited texting. I think the amount is $30 per month. But data is by phone.


----------



## dpeters11

If you have a data cap, you should be able to spread it across devices.


----------



## TheFigurehead

I agree with that. If the contract contains a cap, why not just apply it accross all phone...? I don't think I use more than 2 GB data with all my phones combined. I pay $30 for unlimited data on each of my lines now... $90 per month for data (3 smartphones) seems kind of pricey. I'd give up my 'unlimited' plans if I could save by sharing data.


----------



## Stewart Vernon

I don't even understand the fascination with texting. You have a phone that you can use to talk to someone, a smartphone that typically allows you to send emails, and some phone can even do videoconferencing... so why text at all?

I called AT&T and had them block all texting so I wouldn't get charged when people send me unwanted texts. I was getting wrong-number text messages from people I didn't know and I never used the service... and since AT&T couldn't stop those charges from happening, they agreed to block the service entirely (except for the free ones they send to remind you of the bill and other things).


----------



## SayWhat?

^^Same here. Got no use for it at all.


----------



## TBlazer07

Stewart Vernon said:


> I don't even understand the fascination with texting. You have a phone that you can use to talk to someone, a smartphone that typically allows you to send emails, and some phone can even do videoconferencing... so why text at all?


 I've probably sent less than 100 texts in my (long) lifetime but I can see the use for it under some circumstances.

All phones that can do text aren't necessarily smartphones and don't have access to email or video. A large number of texters do not use smartphones. My spare umpteen year old Moto Razr can do texting and it's definitely dumb.

Sometimes you just don't want to call someone just to remind them to bring home a quart of milk on the way home from work.

There are some good uses for it but today some kids are simply obsessed with it and human contact is replaced with texts. That is bad.


----------



## paulman182

AT&T is keeping the option of paying 20 cents per standard text message with no minimum fee, and is grandfathering those already on the $10 plan.

Text messaging is very convenient when you need to get a message to someone in a meeting, or someone whom you know is busy and may not be able to talk at a given time.


----------



## xzi

They are probably doing this because they know once iMessage launches with iOS 5, it's going to take a huge hit out of their texting business. It's essentially automatic, provider-agnostic, free text messaging between every iOS device (iPhone, iPad, etc.)


----------



## wingrider01

trh said:


> If you have AT&T family plan, you can share unlimited texting. I think the amount is $30 per month. But data is by phone.


with the right base plan family and individual unlimited text also include unlimited any mobile to any mobile talk time, family is a minimum of a 700 minute shared paln


----------



## wingrider01

xzi said:


> They are probably doing this because they know once iMessage launches with iOS 5, it's going to take a huge hit out of their texting business. It's essentially automatic, provider-agnostic, free text messaging between every iOS device (iPhone, iPad, etc.)


doubt it will be as huge as you think - compared to all the other devices that ATT and Verizon have available for texting, the IOS based devices are a minor amount


----------



## TBlazer07

paulman182 said:


> AT&T is keeping the option of paying 20 cents per standard text message with no minimum fee, and is grandfathering those already on the $10 plan.
> 
> Text messaging is very convenient when you need to get a message to someone in a meeting, or someone whom you know is busy and may not be able to talk at a given time.


 Yea, 20cents INBOUND and 20cents OUTBOUND = 40Cents. Most people don't just send 1-way texts. As stated in the OP it is only for new subscribers. They are also grandfathering the $5 plan if you still have it.

This will make the cheapest smartphone plan close to $100/month if you include the ripoff fake fees & taxes.

Next they probably will eliminate the 400 minute $39.99 voice plans. Just wait until they suck up T-Mo. It's only going to get worse.

This should be getting cheaper not more expensive.


----------



## SayWhat?

TBlazer07 said:


> This should be getting cheaper not more expensive.


Guess you missed the *AT&T* part.


----------



## Herdfan

trh said:


> If you have AT&T family plan, you can share unlimited texting. I think the amount is $30 per month. But data is by phone.


I just made some changes to my AT&T account. I had the unlimited family plan texts for $30/mo and had the AT&T A-list which gives you unlimited calls to 10 numbers. So I changed back to the Family Talk 1400 and changed my texting plan to unlimited text and unlimited mobile to ALL mobile #'s instead of A-List. Should work out for me.


----------



## Herdfan

Stewart Vernon said:


> I don't even understand the fascination with texting. You have a phone that you can use to talk to someone, a smartphone that typically allows you to send emails, and some phone can even do videoconferencing... so why text at all?


My daughter can shoot me or my wife (actually she Groups sends) a text when she gets to Cross Country practice. That way I can know she is there and she is not embarrassed around her friends that she has call her parents and let them know where she is.


----------



## dpeters11

"xzi" said:


> They are probably doing this because they know once iMessage launches with iOS 5, it's going to take a huge hit out of their texting business. It's essentially automatic, provider-agnostic, free text messaging between every iOS device (iPhone, iPad, etc.)


Provider agnostic as long as its Verizon or AT&T, in the us at least. Though that reminds me, didn't they say that they were opening up FaceTime to other makers? Haven't seen anything.


----------



## hilmar2k

dennisj00 said:


> Texting in general is the biggest rip-off in mobile phone technology. It has no delivery commitments, no priority, and can be sent during any pause in any verbal conversation.
> 
> Basically an idle packet.


Amen to that. The maximum text size is 140 bytes. Even if you send/receive 2000 texts per month, you are paying $20 for at most 0.25 MB of data.

Yikes.


----------



## Stewart Vernon

I guess I'm a little old fashioned... I miss the days when I was not home and I missed calls because I wasn't home. Today people seem to think they need to be 24/7 in contact with people, even people they will never meet.

I'd rather make a quick 1 minute phone call to talk to someone than send a short text and be impersonal.

What's funny is I was considered anti-social as a kid... since I didn't like parties... but now it seems like nobody wants to talk to people anymore... they want to send short messages instead.

So now I have become more social by default since I actually like contact with actual people and conversations.

It's weird.


----------



## dennisj00

I'm in my 60s and I do text for those messages that are easier than calling.

But the real money is from the kids that send hundreds of messages a day! A daughter of a friend of ours texts her boyfriend when they're sitting in the back seat of the car with their parents . . . wonder why!!??

(I also agree with Lance Armstrong - no one over 35 should use emoticons!)


----------



## wingrider01

dennisj00 said:


> I'm in my 60s and I do text for those messages that are easier than calling.
> 
> But the real money is from the kids that send hundreds of messages a day! A daughter of a friend of ours texts her boyfriend when they're sitting in the back seat of the car with their parents . . . wonder why!!??
> 
> (I also agree with Lance Armstrong - no one over 35 should use emoticons!)


funny, have 2 teenage daughters on my text plan along with mysefl, wife and mother in law - of all the people with the highest amount of texts it is my mother in law, there are months when see topped 2300 messages


----------



## txtommy

Herdfan said:


> I just made some changes to my AT&T account. I had the unlimited family plan texts for $30/mo and had the AT&T A-list which gives you unlimited calls to 10 numbers. So I changed back to the Family Talk 1400 and changed my texting plan to unlimited text and unlimited mobile to ALL mobile #'s instead of A-List. Should work out for me.


I have the same 1400 minute family plan with unlimited texts. You can have both the unlimited mobile to mobile and the A-list for calling to 10 non-mobile phones. With 5 phones we used less than 100 plan minutes last month as all our other calls were mobile to mobile, A-list or night and weekend. Really takes the worry out of having teenagers with phones.


----------



## TBlazer07

They should have one "low use" texting plan (like the 200mb data plan) for those who rarely use it. The $5 plan for (I think it was) 200 mgs was just about right. That plus the unlimited at least gives everyone a chance. Now it's either $20 unlimited or 20cents sent and 20 cents received. AFAIAC that is actually 80c per text message if both parties are on AT&T and both get charged 20c for send and receive.


----------



## wingrider01

txtommy said:


> I have the same 1400 minute family plan with unlimited texts. You can have both the unlimited mobile to mobile and the A-list for calling to 10 non-mobile phones. With 5 phones we used less than 100 plan minutes last month as all our other calls were mobile to mobile, A-list or night and weekend. Really takes the worry out of having teenagers with phones.


have a discontinuned plan - 700 minutes with Unity, bascily unity gives us the ability to call any ATT owned phone number - land line, cellular, voip and not get get charged minutes, add unlimited any mobile with the text pan and we end up using about 20 minutes a month on 5 phones, can understand why they dropped the plan


----------



## Herdfan

txtommy said:


> You can have both the unlimited mobile to mobile and the A-list for calling to 10 non-mobile phones........ Really takes the worry out of having teenagers with phones.


Instead of A-List, I get unlimited mobile to mobile to ALL mobile phones, regardless of carrier. The way he explained it, I had unlimited mobile to mobile to AT&T phones, now I have it to any mobile phone.

Never really used A-List. Got it, set up a couple of numbers but never really took full advantage as well were always way under on minutes anyway.


----------



## 4HiMarks

TBlazer07 said:


> Next they probably will eliminate the 400 minute $39.99 voice plans. Just wait until they suck up T-Mo. It's only going to get worse.


400 minutes for $39.99? Where? We have 550 minutes, and that was the lowest available. Between three of us, we use less than 100 minutes per month, and have more rollover minutes expire than we ever use.


----------



## TBlazer07

4HiMarks said:


> 400 minutes for $39.99? Where? We have 550 minutes, and that was the lowest available. Between three of us, we use less than 100 minutes per month, and have more rollover minutes expire than we ever use.


 Sorry, actually it's 450 minutes for $39.99. That's a standard AT&T individual plan. That's because you are on a family plan.

You are better off with pay-per-minute for the rest of the family (assuming you are using a smartphone and want to stick on AT&T). I was paying for a family plan and it was ridiculous. It was $59.99/month + my Data came to over $1200/year. Between us, we barely used 60 minutes plus I had to pay for the 550 minute plan.

I put my wife on a Pay Per Use plan on T-Mobile (AT&T has it as well but the T-Mo plan is better because you can roll your minutes over to the next year). I paid $85 for a 1000 minute card which is good for 1 year. After the year is up if you add a $10 card it extends the time by 1 year and keeps what is left of the 1000 minutes which AT&T doesn't do.

So far it is almost 2 years, she still has 700 minutes left and it has cost me a total of $95 (and no taxes) for 2years service. Plus she can text for "1 minute" each and there is no contract. She gets my hand-me-down phones and is perfectly happy. I have over 5000 roll-over minutes left on my account.

My account with unlimited data is $55/month after taxes (I get 25% discount). Saves me close to $1000/year. I am also considering a switch to PPM on my android phone to save another $400/year. Wi-Fi works fine (don't really need a data plan) and if I want data I can buy it for $1.50/day unlimited.


----------



## trh

Stewart Vernon said:


> I don't even understand the fascination with texting. You have a phone that you can use to talk to someone, a smartphone that typically allows you to send emails, and some phone can even do videoconferencing... so why text at all?


I don't use it much to communicate with family/friends/co-workers, but I use it to receive various updates. All the major networks will send "breaking news" text messages, I get sports updates via text, Amber Alerts, our local sheriff's department texts whenever there is a traffic accident that blocks any roads, weather updates, hurricane updates (Irene is heading our way) and following Steve Martin on Twitter always makes me smile. No charge for any of these services (other than the $30 unlimited Family texting plan).

Regarding the pricing and how expensive texting is: From *Ars Technica article on this subject*: 


> From regular data plans, such as AT&T's $25 for 2GB data plan, the company pulls in about a millionth of a cent per byte. At that rate, a single 140-byte message would cost about 0.0002¢, meaning customers would have to send 11 million text messages to make AT&T's $20 texting plan a money-losing proposition for the telecom giant. The average American teenager-the most avid texting demographic-sends an average of 3,339 texts per month, or 58¢ worth of regular data charges


----------



## knot

Stewart Vernon said:


> I guess I'm a little old fashioned... I miss the days when I was not home and I missed calls because I wasn't home. Today people seem to think they need to be 24/7 in contact with people, even people they will never meet.
> 
> I'd rather make a quick 1 minute phone call to talk to someone than send a short text and be impersonal.
> 
> What's funny is I was considered anti-social as a kid... since I didn't like parties... but now it seems like nobody wants to talk to people anymore... they want to send short messages instead.
> 
> So now I have become more social by default since I actually like contact with actual people and conversations.
> 
> It's weird.


Couldn't agree more.


----------



## Lord Vader

Stewart Vernon said:


> I guess I'm a little old fashioned... I miss the days when I was not home and I missed calls because I wasn't home. Today people seem to think they need to be 24/7 in contact with people, even people they will never meet.
> 
> I'd rather make a quick 1 minute phone call to talk to someone than send a short text and be impersonal.
> 
> What's funny is I was considered anti-social as a kid... since I didn't like parties... but now it seems like nobody wants to talk to people anymore... they want to send short messages instead.
> 
> So now I have become more social by default since I actually like contact with actual people and conversations.
> 
> It's weird.


Today's generation is all about NOT talking live. Emails, texting, etc.--no one wants to use a phone for what it was originally designed--TALKING!

I hate it.


----------



## Herdfan

The first "text" I ever got was from my neighbor. I was going to be picking her up at the airport and she was going to call me with her flight information. Instead of a call, she sent me a text with all the info I needed. I didn't have to write it down or try and remember it. So I sent her back my first ever text telling her I got the info. I thought at the time it was a handy feature.

Of course, I didn't realize that soon teenagers would be using it to hold entire conversations:


----------



## mikeny

Group Texting is extremely convenient as a mobile mass communication tool. 

All the parents on my son's baseball team welcomed getting a text as an option for updates as to the field conditions/changes, cancellations etc. They all get the message no matter where they are and simultaneously. It saves a lot of unnecessary time and gets the word out before these folks leave their home without reason.

A lot of guys I play handball against like to use it too. "going to the park @3". These guys don't want to make a dozen calls to coordinate. It's just easier.

For personal use, it happens to be fun.

FWIW I'm just went up to the $10 Verizon plan which is 500 message but unlimited mobile to mobile ones. It feels like unlimited to me. I had been on the $5 plan for 250 messages for a long time.


----------



## Herdfan

mikeny said:


> Group Texting is extremely convenient as a mobile mass communication tool.
> 
> All the parents on my son's baseball team welcomed getting a text as an option for updates as to the field conditions/changes, cancellations etc.


My daughter's softball coach did the same thing. Was really handy with this sping's weather not having to go to the field only to find out the game had been cancelled.



> FWIW I'm just went up to the $10 Verizon plan which is 500 message but unlimited mobile to mobile ones. It feels like unlimited to me.


Aren't all texts mobile to mobile?


----------



## mikeny

Herdfan said:


> My daughter's softball coach did the same thing. Was really handy with this sping's weather not having to go to the field only to find out the game had been cancelled.
> 
> Aren't all texts mobile to mobile?


True.:lol: Actually you can send a text to an email address also. I'm not sure if you're joking but that's what Verizon calls it. In any case in this context it refers to Verizon to Verizon (within network) texts.


----------



## Herdfan

mikeny said:


> True.:lol: Actually you can send a text to an email address also.


I knew you email to a phone via text, didn't know you could do phone to email texts.

Given Verizon's size, probably 40% of all texts are to a Verizon phone.


----------



## Stuart Sweet

I think this is hogwash. It's things like this that create the need for restrictive legislation. The carriers should charge one rate per megabyte, whether that megabyte carries voice, data, text, whatever.


----------



## hilmar2k

Stuart Sweet said:


> I think this is hogwash. It's things like this that create the need for restrictive legislation. The carriers should charge one rate per megabyte, whether that megabyte carries voice, data, text, whatever.


Pretty sure that's VZW's plan for LTE. Everything will be data, and charged for accordingly.


----------



## mikeny

Stuart Sweet said:


> I think this is hogwash. It's things like this that create the need for restrictive legislation. The carriers should charge one rate per megabyte, whether that megabyte carries voice, data, text, whatever.





hilmar2k said:


> Pretty sure that's VZW's plan for LTE. Everything will be data, and charged for accordingly.


It is a ripoff, for sure. Hopefully they go this route at least.


----------

