|
 glinc
join:2009-04-07
New York, NY Reviews:
 ·Verizon FiOS
| Re: AT&T is just screwed up regular upgrade dates are 4 months before your contract ends. So if your wife signed up in May 2008 then her contract is up in May 2010 so in January is correct. Besides, secondary lines affect on that because you are only paying 9.99/month compared to a primary. | |
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 |  gdmPremium,MVM
join:2001-06-15
Mchenry, IL
kudos:3
·AT&T U-Verse
| Re: AT&T is just screwed up I didn't say my wife's didn't make sense but mine doesn't. Primary line vs add lines makes no difference in when you can upgrade. I have always had to upgrade at month 20 of a 24 month contract.
Some how since I have an iPhone I can upgrade at month 11 of a 24 month contract.
My point is AT&T does make a difference with iPhone users vs any other type of users but they do it half a**ed. | |
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| |  en102Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA | Re: AT&T is just screwed up Interesting... they must really want to
a) Push product (iPhones)
b) Keep people in contract
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Canada = Hollywood North | |
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| | iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
kudos:2 Reviews:
 ·Comcast
| I think at month 11 you get a $200 discount. At month 18 you get the full $400 discount. At least from what I hear.
Original iPhone users didn't subsidize their phones so they can get ANYTHING at the full discount  | |
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| | | gdmPremium,MVM
join:2001-06-15
Mchenry, IL
kudos:3 | Re: AT&T is just screwed up Ok but that it appears AT&T is treating iPhone accounts differently then others. If that 11month was true for all across the board my wife's BJII should be upgradeable now. | |
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| | | | iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
kudos:2 | Re: AT&T is just screwed up It probably is, just not at full discount. Just like in a few months yours will get a $200 discount on the 3gs, no more. | |
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| | | | | gdmPremium,MVM
join:2001-06-15
Mchenry, IL
kudos:3 | Re: AT&T is just screwed up Not sure you understanding me.
BJII purchased 5/2008
iPhone purchased 12/2008
According to AT&T the BJII isn't upgradeable till 1/2010 but my iPhone is on 11/2009. | |
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| | | | | | iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
kudos:2 Reviews:
·Comcast
| Re: AT&T is just screwed up BJII is 18 months for a full subsidized upgrade.
iPhone is for a "halfway" $200-off upgrade.
At least that's what it looks like.
iPhones *do* get special treatment in that AT&T will let them do an upgrade for the full $400 off at 18 months instead of 20, but other than that your situation is perfectly normal.
Interesting to see when the "upgrade phone at full discount" period is for different carriers; for Sprint it's 22 months. For AT&T it's 20... | |
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| | | | | | | gdmPremium,MVM
join:2001-06-15
Mchenry, IL
kudos:3 Reviews:
·AT&T U-Verse
| Re: AT&T is just screwed up To me that seems stupid IMO. Either treat iPhone customers completely different or all smartphone/bb users the same.
I was debating on upgrading to the 3GS for the faster processor and RAM. Honestly if another carrier can pickup the iPhone next year. I would potentially look at switching. | |
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| | said by gdm:I understand the 2 year contract but they really are shooting themselves in the foot with that, mms and tethering. This.
I think most honest folks understand that 3G customers aren't getting screwed on the upgrade; it isn't consistent with AT&T's profit model to subsidize a phone to the tune of $400 every single year....
The only thing I've heard people say in response is, "well, AT&T makes plenty of money already!" That's just Marxist BS. If you don't want the product, don't buy it. It's called business.
But I continue to agree with you on the point about MMS and tethering. AT&T had plenty of lead-time on this one and blew it. Couple that with the CONSTANT dropped calls on the 3G network and you've got a dysfunctional network that desperately makes me want to switch to Verizon. Hopefully there will be an LTE device on Verizon by the end of next year, if not a CDMA phone (less likely) before. | |
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|  funchordsHelloPremium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Yarmouth Port, MA
kudos:5 | Re: AT&T is just screwed up said by gopnick:The only thing I've heard people say in response is, "well, AT&T makes plenty of money already!" That's just Marxist BS. If you don't want the product, don't buy it. It's called business. True to a point, but that point is where it impinges progress.
At what point can a market be captured so completely that a single-provider's bad policies start putting the country's technological prowess on the bricks? Has Apple+AT&T reached that point? (Has Samsung+Verizon? Has Android+T-Mobile?)
I don't have an iPhone, and I have no plans to get one. I'm not ready to say that, for the good of the country, AT&T ought to be forced at gunpoint to provide MMS. That said, there are very smart people that I work with making the argument that people in the "advanced" data and phone business selling access to our public airwaves ought to be heavily scrutinized when they find reason to put the United States behind the ball, technologically. Seeing how well Asia uses this technology, I honestly can't say that my friends' concerns are unreasonable.
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Robb Topolski -= funchords.com =- District of Columbia -- KJ7RL | |
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| | | | Re: AT&T is just screwed up A polite, well-reasoned response on DSLR? Say it isn't so!
I agree that there is a point at which a monopoly has formed that must be regulated or broken apart. In the case of telecom, breaking them up clearly does little good, since they often will not duplicate infrastructure. I further agree that things haven't gone far enough to necessitate government intervention. As you mentioned, there are other choices for Smartphones, and though the iPhone is widely acknowledged as being among the best, if not *the* best, there are still alternatives both in network and equipment.
Asia is effective mostly because countries like Japan are just so much smaller than the U.S. We're a country of vast, open-spaces, and it's no surprise that it takes us a little longer to build out networks that kick butt.
Market forces still reign: if people were truly that upset with the iPhone's lack of MMS (and, as of June 17th, AT&T's inability to support it) they wouldn't buy iPhones... and some people (you included) did not. I'll be very surprised if we get through 2010 without an iPhone on either Sprint or Verizon (most likely Verizon's LTE network). | |
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| | | funchordsHelloPremium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Yarmouth Port, MA
kudos:5 | Re: AT&T is just screwed up Thanks!said by gopnick:Asia is effective mostly because countries like Japan are just so much smaller than the U.S. We're a country of vast, open-spaces, and it's no surprise that it takes us a little longer to build out networks that kick butt. I've heard that rationale, but at the end of the day, I can't cash that excuse. Asia is still ahead. We're innovating with a garden hose of bandwidth while Asians bathe under a waterfall.
My friends (U.S. network product developers) live and work on the network we have here. How can they possibly be expected to invent the future from a network deep in the past? I fear we're going to be seeing Asia's taillights for a lot longer than we should, given that the carriers want to squeeze a few more years out of their 2.5G and copper investments.
We will be first again. We will leap-frog Asia and the Netherlands, and then they will leap-frog us. And this race will continue. As a matter of policy, though, we can choose to stay among the front-runners, or we can keep losing.
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Robb Topolski -= funchords.com =- District of Columbia -- KJ7RL | |
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| | | | | The argument that the US is so much bigger is just so very tired and inane.
Market forces DO NOT REIGN. Our market is controlled by 4 colluding carriers who offer the exact same prices for the exact same data plans, all with the exact same cap.
You need to read about Somalia, a backwards place which is chronically lacking in capital and technology. It has been constantly racked by warfare between groups vying for control of the government. A country like that has been able to produce a highly advanced and competitive telecom system, all because of a truly competitive market where the government refuses to protect monopolies.
So no, there is no excuse for the stupidity of the US wireless market.
As for the iPhone...
The iPhone is the DOMINANT smartphone on the market. It has been such an innovative CULTURAL FORCE that it has ushered in brand new bandwidth-intensive services over the mobile internet. iPhone users use 5 times as much bandwidth as normal smartphone users.
People LOVE the iPhone the same way they loved the iPod and almost every other device Apple has released. | |
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| | | | funchordsHelloPremium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Yarmouth Port, MA
kudos:5 | Re: AT&T is just screwed up said by sonicmerlin:People LOVE the iPhone the same way they loved the iPod and almost every other device Apple has released. The iPhone is the Paris Hilton of technology: it offers little in the areas unique talent or great capability, but it is sexy and heavily marketed.
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Robb Topolski -= funchords.com =- District of Columbia -- KJ7RL | |
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funchordsHelloPremium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Yarmouth Port, MA
kudos:5 | said by gdm:I understand the 2 year contract but they really are shooting themselves in the foot with that, mms and tethering. Yeah, exactly.
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Robb Topolski -= funchords.com =- District of Columbia -- KJ7RL | |
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Reviews:
·Verizon FiOS
| said by gdm:I understand the 2 year contract but they really are shooting themselves in the foot with that, mms and tethering. I got my iPhone last December and it says I am eligible on 11/2009. Yet my wife's BJII which we got May of 2008 says it's not upgradable till 1/2010. Explain to me how that makes any sense what so ever. It has to due with ARPU in the system. I bet your line is the master on the account so you are generating a TON of revenue on that number which means you will get special treatment when it comes to discounts. That is how it works in the ATT system, the one who is billing the most money usually can upgrade a lot earlier. It's an odd system but ATT put it in place because they wanted to reward people who spend a lot. Problem was the 2ndary lines on ATT are getting screwed because they are only billing out 9.99 plus whatever else you have on that line a month so it can't generate near as much as the main line that is billing 60+ a month. It's the glorious cracked out ATT system at work.
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Need some IT work? Hit me up, I'm now in IT recruiting and looking for ways to give back to the DSLreports community for all the years of support. | |
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| gdmPremium,MVM
join:2001-06-15
Mchenry, IL
kudos:3 | Re: AT&T is just screwed up It wasn't like that under cingular was it? I don't remember being eligible before her with cingular. | |
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| | Reviews:
·Verizon FiOS
| Re: AT&T is just screwed up said by gdm:It wasn't like that under cingular was it? I don't remember being eligible before her with cingular. No the rules changed when ATT took them over. They reshuffled the ARPU rules and set it up so people who are the main account holder can get upgrades earlier.
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Need some IT work? Hit me up, I'm now in IT recruiting and looking for ways to give back to the DSLreports community for all the years of support. | |
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| | | gdmPremium,MVM
join:2001-06-15
Mchenry, IL
kudos:3 | Re: AT&T is just screwed up Thanks for the info! | |
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AT&T is just screwed up
