AT&T Announces Shared Data Plans

[Phokus]

Look at T-Mobile's prices prior to the failed merger. They weren't much better than AT&T or Verizon. Granted they were slightly better, but nothing you couldn't get from smaller carriers such as Cricket. The only reason why the price for that plan is so cheap is because they are hemorrhaging customers.

Do you think for a moment that T-Mobile would be offering cheaper plans if it was doing better than it is? Which is relatively flat or declining revenues and bleeding customers?

Now, as you noted, T-Mobile is still profitable but they've been bleeding customers for a long while now. Outlook is not bad by any means but not great. At some point, losing that many customers is going to negatively impact their bottom line.

And for the record, the T-Mobile plan you guys are mentioning is not widely advertised and is known as the "walmart" plan. There is also a negative in that if you use your phone even moderately, you can easily exceed the 100 minutes. I don't do much phone calls but I exceed 300 minutes a month.

Bottom line. Eliminating contract phones is the only way we're going to see lower priced plans across the board on all carriers.

This is a dumb point. You can either add more money to your prepaid account so you can go over 100 minutes (10 cents a minute), and you're still paying FAR less than verizon/AT&T or many people use VOIP dialing on their phones to basically get unlimited minutes.

 

[akugami]

This is a dumb point. You can either add more money to your prepaid account so you can go over 100 minutes (10 cents a minute), and you're still paying FAR less than verizon/AT&T or many people use VOIP dialing on their phones to basically get unlimited minutes.

So...pointing out the negative (or at least an area where your prices can increase depending on personal usage) in a plan is a dumb point? OK...

Also while VOIP can stretch the minutes, after 5GB of "4G" data, your data is throttled to 2G speeds.

It's still a great plan for the average Joe that doesn't do much talking but for anyone who talks moderately, the plan gets worse the more you need to use your phone. For myself, with my requirements increasingly being on call after hours and weekends for work related calls, this plan wouldn't cut it.

Not to mention some of you zero in one just facet of my post and have repeatedly ignored my other argument. That real change in prices will only happen if the government steps in and eliminates contract plans. That's when the real savings will happen. Looking at worldwide prices for cell phones, it's only places where there are little, if any, contract phones that you see the really cheap plans.


Also, for anyone interested in the new pricing, I found a WSJ link to calculate what the new costs are for the shared data plans by Verizon and AT&T.

 

[kaerflog]

Look at T-Mobile's prices prior to the failed merger. They weren't much better than AT&T or Verizon. Granted they were slightly better, but nothing you couldn't get from smaller carriers such as Cricket. The only reason why the price for that plan is so cheap is because they are hemorrhaging customers.

Do you think for a moment that T-Mobile would be offering cheaper plans if it was doing better than it is? Which is relatively flat or declining revenues and bleeding customers?

Now, as you noted, T-Mobile is still profitable but they've been bleeding customers for a long while now. Outlook is not bad by any means but not great. At some point, losing that many customers is going to negatively impact their bottom line.

And for the record, the T-Mobile plan you guys are mentioning is not widely advertised and is known as the "walmart" plan. There is also a negative in that if you use your phone even moderately, you can easily exceed the 100 minutes. I don't do much phone calls but I exceed 300 minutes a month.

Bottom line. Eliminating contract phones is the only way we're going to see lower priced plans across the board on all carriers.

Do you even know what you are saying ??
Who cares WHY Tmobiles plans are cheaper. The FACT is that they ARE CHEAPER.
And the FACT is that all those rates were going to vanish had they merged with ATT.

Go ahead and find me a plan coming anything close to what I'm paying.
I have 5 lines with 1000 anytime minutes.
We text mostly and when we do talk its with each others so we don't touch the "1000" minutes. We usually use about 600 every month with the highest being 800 minutes.
Unlimited texting for everyone.
4 lines get 2GB and 1 line get 200mb.
- $60 for 1000 minutes.
- $20 for texting.
- $20+20+20+20+10= $90 for data.
- $15 for +$5 add a line for 3 lines.
$185 TOTAL - 15% = $181 each month for 5 lines with REAL fast data.
Not like all the dogshit unlimited data that piggyback off Sprint/Verizon crappy 3G.
The only decent data off prepaid is through Tmobile or ATT and they either throttle you or cut you off.(and still more expensive than what I listed)
And I dare you to find anything remotely close from the BIG 3.
OH and BTW, that plan I listed you can get RIGHT NOW. Not some grandfathered old plan.

 

[basslover1]

Do you even know what you are saying ??
Who cares WHY Tmobiles plans are cheaper. The FACT is that they ARE CHEAPER.
And the FACT is that all those rates were going to vanish had they merged with ATT.

Go ahead and find me a plan coming anything close to what I'm paying.
I have 5 lines with 1000 anytime minutes.
We text mostly and when we do talk its with each others so we don't touch the "1000" minutes. We usually use about 600 every month with the highest being 800 minutes.
Unlimited texting for everyone.
4 lines get 2GB and 1 line get 200mb.
- $60 for 1000 minutes.
- $20 for texting.
- $20+20+20+20+10= $90 for data.
- $15 for +$5 add a line for 3 lines.
$185 TOTAL - 15% = $181 each month for 5 lines with REAL fast data.
Not like all the dogshit unlimited data that piggyback off Sprint/Verizon crappy 3G.
The only decent data off prepaid is through Tmobile or ATT and they either throttle you or cut you off.(and still more expensive than what I listed)
And I dare you to find anything remotely close from the BIG 3.
OH and BTW, that plan I listed you can get RIGHT NOW. Not some grandfathered old plan.

T-Mobile's value plans would be about half of what you're paying. Downside is you don't get a phone subsidy

 

[lupi]

i'm just surprised that people don't realize the sole reason for these new plan structures is to cost you more.

 

[kaerflog]

T-Mobile's value plans would be about half of what you're paying. Downside is you don't get a phone subsidy

So what are we arguing ??
Its still is a T-mobile plan.
Akugami stated that " They weren't much better than AT&T or Verizon. Granted they were slightly better, but nothing you couldn't get from smaller carriers such as Cricket."
Show me.
T-mobile value plan would in fact disappeared too had the merged occurred.

 

[lothar]

That's more an exception to the rule just because T-Mobile is doing so horrible in the USA. They are desperate for customers and we really don't know how this "blue light special" will run.

Get rid of subsidized contract phones for the industry as a whole and watch prices like that be the norm rather than the exception.

Look at T-Mobile's prices prior to the failed merger. They weren't much better than AT&T or Verizon. Granted they were slightly better, but nothing you couldn't get from smaller carriers such as Cricket. The only reason why the price for that plan is so cheap is because they are hemorrhaging customers.

Do you think for a moment that T-Mobile would be offering cheaper plans if it was doing better than it is? Which is relatively flat or declining revenues and bleeding customers?

Now, as you noted, T-Mobile is still profitable but they've been bleeding customers for a long while now. Outlook is not bad by any means but not great. At some point, losing that many customers is going to negatively impact their bottom line.

And for the record, the T-Mobile plan you guys are mentioning is not widely advertised and is known as the "walmart" plan. There is also a negative in that if you use your phone even moderately, you can easily exceed the 100 minutes. I don't do much phone calls but I exceed 300 minutes a month.

Bottom line. Eliminating contract phones is the only way we're going to see lower priced plans across the board on all carriers.

False.

 

[basslover1]

So what are we arguing ??
Its still is a T-mobile plan.
Akugami stated that " They weren't much better than AT&T or Verizon. Granted they were slightly better, but nothing you couldn't get from smaller carriers such as Cricket."
Show me.
T-mobile value plan would in fact disappeared too had the merged occurred.

I have no idea what he's on about, I was just agreeing with you that T-mobile is cheaper, that's why I switched. I was paying 112 at Verizon for two lines, 450 mins each, 250 txt each, unlimited data on one line no data on the other.

I haven't received my first "real" bill from T-mobile, they pro-rate your first month+ pay in advance for the next so my bill is close to double what it should be currently. Regardless, for the services at T-mobile BEFORE my discount is 74.98 + taxes.

That's for 1000 shared minutes, unlimited texts, 2GB data for me, 200MB data for the other line.

Oh, and that 112 @ Verizon was after a 20% discount. It's looking like T-mobile is going to be almost half what I was paying before.



I don't understand how anyone could argue that AT&T buying out T-mobile would have been better for the mobile industry as a whole. Though, the failed merger is definitely better for T-mobile because they get free spectrum for 7 years from AT&T which is going to help with their LTE rollout starting next year.

 

[basslover1]

False.

Agreed. We can already see this as being false when you're out of contract. After the contract is up, do any carriers lower your monthly rates? Since they've recouped the phone subsidy it should be cheaper right? Right???

That's what I thought.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Agreed. We can already see this as being false when you're out of contract. After the contract is up, do any carriers lower your monthly rates? Since they've recouped the phone subsidy it should be cheaper right? Right???

That's what I thought.

he said to eliminate contract phones. we haven't seen that yet.

furthermore being out of contract in the US means nothing when none of the phones are allowed to operate on another's network.

essentially customers are LOCKED IN to their carrier with their phone. thus even if you are off contract you're not really free to switch around. and americans are too stupid to buy a phone to bring onto a plan...