AT&T Responds to T-Mobile With 'Mobile Share Value Plans'

I can't wait for the day that AT&T and Verizon finally have some real competition and are forced to offer sane and decently priced plans to compete with all the customers they will be losing to T-Mobile.

T-Mobile needs to boost their coverage area significantly and they will finally be a major player.

$15 savings if you are paying for your device, either off contract of via next.
$10 savings on dumpphones

$5 price increase on the 1 and 2 GB plans, which is a sneaky way to undercut the $15 savings I admit.

everything over 2GB is cheaper or the same price.
While I admit the $5 price increase on the 1 and 2 GB plan sucks, the rest of the pricing looks good.
Just getting AT&T to offer a discount to customers who pay for their smartphone outright is a big win the way I see it, T-mobile is disrupting the industry.
This makes next actually viable, compared to jump.

Still I'll stick with my $60 unlimited/ unthrottled MetroPCS plan thank you

Would anyone expect anything different? The job of sales personnel is to sell the most expensive options they can. AT&T is a BUSINESS and not a non-profit charity. Why should AT&T be expected to look out for what is best for the customer and get them the cheapest least profitable plan possible?

So you save $15 on the plan, but the installment plan for the phone will be how much? $25 per month? So the net will be $10 higher but you'll be able to save after two years or so when you've paid off the phone?

Because you can make money without being sleazy. Jacking up the price of the most common plans is pretty pathetic.

you could change to the no contract and get the $15 even if you did a regular 2 year contract saving $10/month. these plans are not a good deal if you finance a phone. you only save if you bring your own phone from the beginning or your contract is already up and you are happy ro stick with what you have got.

AT&T Mobile Bank-robbery Share your Wallet with us plans

I would only be saving $5. I have two iPhones on my account and the 2GB plan. Right now, I pay $50 for the data and $45x2 for the iPhones. With these new plans, the data goes up to $55 and the phone fees go down to $40x2.

There are dozens of AT&T MVNO that you can get significantly less $$ for prepaid, so I fail to see how these are any kind of deal.

Just signed up rents for H20 for $30 (no tax or fees either) for unlimited talk/text and 500MB on AT&T network.

The ONLY$$$ benefit to postpaid is family plans with fully subsidized phones and corp discounts. Outside of that you are simply adding to the coffers...

These half-in plans are even more profitable than postpaid, meaning you are really getting killed.

It will be interesting to see if Verizon follows. We have 2 phone both out of contract. I would like to stop paying the new phone subsidy for my plan since we are out of contract. Of course since I am on a grandfathered unlimited plan I am sure i wouldn't qualify anyway.

Just gave up my unlimited data plan. I have 4 iphones on the account - 2 are paid off and 2 normally upgrade every year. The new plan has NO ETF on lines that are paid off.

My monthly ATT bill went down $62/month!!!!

Old plan was 700 minute family share with 2 phones with 4 gig, 1 with 2 gig and one with 500mb

New Plan 15G total data, unlimited talk and text and 4 iphones

Under the present Verizon plans if I give up my unlimited for a 6GB (what I would need) plan my cost would go up $15/month.

True. There are very competitive prepaid options out there. More so now than ever before. The tricky piece with prepaid is the data options. You may have 500MB of data included, but many times it is 2G or 3G speeds. To fine a prepaid plan with 4G/LTE speeds... then you're going back into postpaid plan option price ranges.

It's not really an increase on the 1GB/2GB plans if you have 2+ phones, which is the ENTIRE point of the shared plans I think.
Right now I have 2 GS3s on 1GB shared, which costs me $40+$45+$45=$130. I can start a new contract for $45+$40+$40=$125, so I'd save $5. Or, now when my contract ends, I can just keep my same phones and pay $45+$25+$25=$95. This seems really good if you don't care about getting new phones all the time. I'd immediately start saving $35/month to keep the same 1GB shared plan as far as I can tell. It's about time you got a break after your contract ends. Why should people keep paying for the subsidized phone price long after it's been paid off?

It isn't sleazy to sell customers what they think they want.

If a consumer is returning to the scene of the crime (i.e. AT&T Mall Store) six years after the beginning of the iPhone disaster, then they must approve of the company's tactics.

Usage patterns / demands have changed over the years, so the pricing structure of the "most common plans" will too. Modest increases in rates aren't "jacked" prices.

I don't care what people buy, just saying it's sleazy to up your price at the same time of launching plans that "lower" your price.

Then again, T-Mobile Simple Choice is a Value Plan rate hike, so none of the carriers are really that different.

I was talking merely about the cost of the data alone.
Not entire plans, I agree that overall it's nice that AT&T finally is giving users who have a paid for device a break.
And who can complain about cheaper larger data plans.

My MetroPCS plan and the T-mobile network is still a vastly better deal for me.
But for people who need the larger coverage of the big two this is a good deal.

... until Wall St. figures out that AT&T is still more expensive.

I have been avoiding subsidized phones so I can switch to prepaid when Verizon lets MVNOs have access to LTE. But I would settle for this. Cut $30 off my bill for our two phones and it almost becomes reasonable.

some times the speed is horrendous.

Or not.

They just put my area up to 10+10 LTE, and I am now seeing download speeds above 50Mbps.

Not so any more.

I switched them from Tmobile $30 plan because TMO coverage sucks outside the urban areas in Upstate.

Redpocket and Carlos Slim conglomerate (net10, ST) use AT&T LTE SIMs now. Even older HSPA+ networks are fast enough as it is and use less battery.

And H20 seems to cap at 6 Mbps which is fast enough (fauxG) HSPA+ to watch any video if you really like burning data. Anything more than 1-2 Mbps will suffice. Heck Netflix can stream HD under 2 Mbps.

I also do not say it is 100% seamless. There are sometimes w/ network issues, but this has gotten better every year.

I'm grandfathered in with the unlimited LTE for 30 bucks a month plus I get a 25% off corporate discount so my monthly bill is 81 a month including taxes with AT&T.

A week and a half ago I went to t-mobile got myself a sim card with the 50 dollar a month plan, a day later I left for Europe was constantly online and making phone calls. I spent a total of 32 minutes on the phone (outside of skype/magicjack app) that came up to $6.20 worth of phone calls sent 16 texts (no charge for that) and used 363.14mb worth of data.

So far my only overage is the $6.20 for the phone calls. The simple fact that I was able to go to travel outside of the US and use my phone and not have a crazy bill waiting for me at home is making me really consider jumping ship. I know AT&T has great coverage and that T-Mo's LTE footprint is limited... With AT&T 363 mbs = $7,260 right now with T-Mo = ZERO.

MVNOs do have access to LTE on the VZW Network. NextG is one of them. PagePlus will be next after they're part of the TracFone companies.

I'd suggest it's more of a reaction to the fear that the big two are ready to start competing. How much of a chance do you believe T-Mobile has if Verizon and AT&T decide to fully engage in competition?

This is actually really good. It gives people more options, and they can still be on a real phone plan with great coverage.

They won't. They've already shown what they'll do with these silly (trickery) responses, eg. to the Jump option. They'll have to if T-Mobile is able to develop coverage to compete, but until that happens, they can continue with much higher rates.

Just to enlighten you to recent developments in the past few months, StraightTalk(ATT) is $45/mo, 2GB and LTE. GoPhone(ATT) is $60/mo, 2GB and LTE. VZW Prepaid is $60/mo, 2GB and EVDO only.

Pretty much jump on an ATT or TMO MVNO and you'll enjoy full LTE wherever each carrier offers it. VZW/Sprint MVNOs are for the most part EVDO only.