Used with permission. CC DerkT.
AT&T announced new data plans today. The new plans do not include their former unlimited data plan.
Fists began flying as irate users claimed AT&T was trying to squeeze more dollars out of consumers for overages.
I consider myself a higher-than-average user of data. I use a few social media networks, watch the occasional YouTube video, do plenty of web surfing and maps/navigation, and listen to a bit of online radio over 3G. Apparently, AT&T considers me a higher-than-average user, too. Nonetheless, the company claimed they were providing new, discounted plans that would benefit 98% of their users. They proposed that the remaining 2% of the users (likely jailbroken tetherers) are stressing their maxed-out network, saturating it, and ruining the experience for the rest of us.
After briefly reviewing the details, I am forced to concede. AT&T appears to be doing us a favor. Take a look at our usage trends for the past six months:
My wife and I currently pay $30 each, per month, for unlimited data. But the most either of us has ever used in a month is around 0.5GB. We're well within the 98% of users. AT&T's new plan would provide up to 2GB per month, per line, for $25.
If I'm reading this correctly, that means we can switch from the unlimited plan to the 2GB/mo. plan, save $120 a year on the family budget, and still watch our data usage increase by almost 4x before we have to rethink things.
There's also an even more-discounted, "ala carte," 200MB/mo. plan for $15. They say this will cover 65% of users. I can believe that. You'll pay an additional $15 for each 200MB you go over that, but for 65% of users, they're only getting dinged by AT&T if they don't take advantage of the deal.
If you are a current AT&T unlimited data user, and you disagree with this post, you are still "grandfathered" in to your unlimited data plan if you so choose. AT&T currently has no roadmap to eliminate this plan for existing unlimited users.
And that's good news.
- Log in at http://wireless.att.com.
- Go to Usage & Recent Activity.
- Look for a link that says View Past Data Usage and click on it.
More news on the same thing:
- Cautious: AT&T Drops Unlimited Data Plan, Impacts iPhone Owners, from Tom Kaneshige at CIO.com
- Indifferent to Negative: AT&T phases out unlimited data plans, from Ben Patterson at Yahoo! News
- Positive...ish: New AT&T data plans milk data gluttons, lower costs for most, from Ars Technica
Questions:
- Are you an iPhone user who will benefit from the new plans?
- Are you upset by the announcement?
Logging you in...
Nick the Geek 85p · 774 weeks ago
More over, if I want to upgrade my phone to something comparable, they are going to force me to get a minimum data plan of $15 per month, which is $13 more than they are charging me now for the data I don't use.
Peter_P 91p · 774 weeks ago
They refuse to believe it though and tell me that she must do one thing a month which kicks off the $2 charge.
Problem is... I have no way to prove them wrong!
Jeffrey Holton 67p · 774 weeks ago
My parents managed to do that with Sprint.
I'm not sure what "disabled all data on the phone" really means. You turn a cell phone on and the first thing it does is looks for a cell tower and starts talking back and forth with it to establish location and connection. That's data.
Peter_P 91p · 774 weeks ago
I deleted all those details so the phone cannot create a valid internet connection and will just give you an error if you try.
Yet AT&T are adamant that every month, my wife goes online and uses exactly 1Mb of data through her phone. Every month, same amount without fail.
Crazy.
What's even more crazy is that AT&T can disable internet access on the phone so the charge will no longer appear BUT that means she won't be able to send or receive MMS messages.
So I asked them... is it the MMS messages which are causing the charge and they told me categorically NO yet MMS and Internet are somehow intertwined.
Crazyness!