AT&T Unveils New $65 Prepaid Option Unlimited Voice, Text, and 1 GB of Data AT&T today introduced a new $65 prepaid plan that provides their GoPhone users with unlimited talk and text and1 GB of data for $65 per month. Verizon is taking aim at pesky upstart prepaid competitors, as well as a Verizon prepaid plan launched back in May that provides unlimited talk and text with 1 GB of data -- but for $15 more. AT&T continues to offer GoPhone customers the option of a $50 plan with unlimited voice and texting, or a $25 plan that provides 250 voice minutes and unlimited texting. AT&T offers prepaid data users the ability to grab more bytes if they pay $25 for 1 GB, $15 for 200 MB and $5 for 50 MB. Prepaid customer growth has been 15% year over year compared to just 1% for postpaid service.
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 | | Straight Talk If you go with them you can get AT&T for $55 a month. Unlimited talk, text and web. | |
|  | ssavoyPremium
join:2007-08-16
Dallas, PA | Re: Straight Talk $45. I'm using them now on AT&T. | |
| | | BiggA
join:2005-11-23
EARTH | Re: Straight Talk Exactly. And ST includes domestic roaming and GoPhone doesn't. ST is just a better deal in every way. | |
| | | | | | Re: Straight Talk STRAIGHT TALK 4 THE WIN!!!!! Sorry ATT but your "amazing pre paid deal" SUCK!!! | |
| | | | | Rob_Premium
join:2008-07-16
Mary Esther, FL | Re: Straight Talk Just don't go too far away from the city straight talk uses Sprint (no roaming)
-Rob | |
| | | | | |  nightshade74Yet another genxerPremium
join:2004-11-06
Prattville, AL
 ·Charter
| Re: Straight Talk said by Rob_:Just don't go too far away from the city straight talk uses Sprint (no roaming)
You cant just say they just use sprint...
If I recall correctly -- it's just Android phones purchased
from them that use sprint. See coverage map --
»www.straighttalk.com/Coverage
You can buy SIM cards from them for use in AT&T or T-Mobile
devices. | |
| | | | | | | BiggA
join:2005-11-23
EARTH | Re: Straight Talk Most Android phones from them are Sprint, but there's T-Mobile ones, and a phone with AT&T, and a phone with Verizon (no roaming on VZ). Then they have ST SIM, which you can choose T-Mobile or AT&T. | |
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| | | | | | | Well I been all over NJ and PA with my ST Iphone 3GS and no signal issues or roaming I even called over seas for 5 minutes each time and no warning or issues. Still I do wish ST had LTE . | |
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| | | said by brianiscool:If you go with them you can get AT&T for $55 a month. Unlimited talk, text and web.
except, using that on an iphone is kinda quirky in the sense that users are advised to use unlocked iphones and change apn setting to make data work...
and still some doesn't have data even after changing settings... | |
| | | Reviews:
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| Re: Straight Talk said by medbuyer:said by brianiscool:If you go with them you can get AT&T for $55 a month. Unlimited talk, text and web.
except, using that on an iphone is kinda quirky in the sense that users are advised to use unlocked iphones and change apn setting to make data work... and still some doesn't have data even after changing settings... You do NOT need an unlocked iphone, all you need is iOS3 or above that supports carrier profiles from unlockit.co.nz and you simply install the carrier profile for either an ATT MVNO or ST. I have been using ST for 7 months now with zero issues with data doing this. | |
| | | Reviews:
·Time Warner Cable
 ·Verizon FiOS
 ·voip.ms
| It's not unlimited either. There is some chatter that if you become one of the 5% ers on a tower, they will throttle you to dialup, so good luck getting over 2GB, and there is no warning. The price is $45, but there is a good deal of risk in that. And it depends if you are using at&t or Tmobile SIM.
Iphones sometimes work and sometimes don't and certain features may or may not work.
If you have good Sprint coverage and not a lot of min, VM $25 plan is great price, or upcoming Ting.
For AT&T, Straighttalk is the best right now if you can live with random throttling.
For TMo, Tmo $30, and I hear Solavei will use Tmo towers.
Verizon - Only pageplus. And that's $55 for 2GB but only works w/ 3G phones (using LTE phones a real challenge).
Gophone only has crappy smartphones, so this is more of a check the box until they get some real phones. | |
| | | | Reviews:
 ·AT&T DSL Service
·Verizon Online DSL
·Comcast
 ·T-Mobile US
| Re: Straight Talk said by elefante72:It's not unlimited either. There is some chatter that if you become one of the 5% ers on a tower, they will throttle you to dialup,
For AT&T, Straighttalk is the best right now if you can live with random throttling.
For TMo, Tmo $30, and I hear Solavei will use Tmo towers.
Verizon - Only pageplus. And that's $55 for 2GB but only works w/ 3G phones (using LTE phones a real challenge).
Gophone only has crappy smartphones, so this is more of a check the box until they get some real phones.
None of the prepaids are truly unlimited they all throttle you the question is when.
I agree if you want ATT service without the ATT price hop on the straight talk train.
The jury is still out on Solavei, I hope they succeed but so far it looks to be a MLM scheme in the making.
Verizons own prepaid unlimited (not pageplus) ..Phones that should make you laugh at how far behind they are in technology. That was done for a reason, so on one would want it.
GO phone service well yes ther normal phones offered are almost as bad as Verizons, the plus is you could use any GSM phone you want thats compatible with ATT network, cant do that with Verizon.
Funny thing is ...I have a friend that before this Offer was and still is using a Smartphone on ATT gophones $50 plan, even though they stated you cant do that unless you have the extra data plan. All ATT did was throttle his connection to under 256K. | |
| | | | | Reviews:
·Time Warner Cable
·Verizon FiOS
·voip.ms
| Re: Straight Talk I was talking about MVNO, but IMHO the only prepaid main line to even look at is Tmo. The others are just check boxes.
The problem w/ ST is that unlike the others you have absolutely no idea what the trigger is for throttle. The other major ones sorta tell you where it is. VM used to be unlimited, now after 2.5 it throttles. Some people say it's too much in one day, or too much in a month, and that ST doesn't do the throttle, the main line does. So some people want Tmo ST vs AT&T, however the coverage varies between the two. In fact there are even ST Verizon phones.
Verizon by far is the most hostile to MVNO's, so they are truly the premium brand. Tmo and Sprint are the best for MVNO so much so that postpaid Sprint is questionable unless you are a massive data user. While there are VZ MVNO, they are mostly targeted to the flip phone sector...Only PPC The 55 is the 2GB/data plan out there, but again only on older 3G phones unless you muck w/ the LTE ones.
There are lots of gotchas out there, so do your homework. | |
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·Charter
| Re: Straight Talk Tmo is a good prepaid, but only in certain situations. If your area does not have a ton of tmo towers, and you roam on AT&T too much, tmo kicks you off. Also, if you have a gsm iPhone, you cannot use tmo's 3G network unless they have turned on 1900mhz spectrum in your area or you bought it from them. Up where I live, tmobile hardly exists, and they have only towers in town, which covers only about a 5 mile radius thanks to the hills). | |
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| |  skeechanAi OtsukaholicPremium
join:2012-01-26
AA169|170
kudos:2 | It's easy. AT&T unlocks the phone and Apple provides the APN tool. | |
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| SunnyD
join:2009-03-20
Madison, AL | And if by "unlimited" you mean "don't use more than a couple hundred meg at any given time otherwise you'll get your account suspended". | |
| | | Reviews:
·Charter
1 edit | Re: Straight Talk said by SunnyD:And if by "unlimited" you mean "don't use more than a couple hundred meg at any given time otherwise you'll get your account suspended".
Don't know about you, but I have used so far on this monthly billing cycle 2.5GB according to my phone over cellular, and have not been throttled or heard a peep. | |
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| rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO | Unlimited talk and text seem clear but what does the term "web" mean? Does it mean proxy access to a walled garden of web sites or any IP protocol to any site? | |
| | | Reviews:
·Charter
| Re: Straight Talk said by rradina:Unlimited talk and text seem clear but what does the term "web" mean? Does it mean proxy access to a walled garden of web sites or any IP protocol to any site?
GO read their self contradicting ToS on your own, it says you can use it to download music, and then it says you cannot use it to download music. | |
| | | | | | Re: Straight Talk That's pretty awesome. Can you quote the relevant parts? | |
| | | |  clevere1Premium
join:2002-01-06
Vancouver, WA
kudos:1
·CenturyLink
| I'll take throttled over a per-gig charge anyday.
I've had ST for 4 months on iPhone 3gs. Never had a problem until I went mucking with stuff. Even after IOS6, things work great.
I went over 2GB and didn't get throttled, two months in a row.
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Where's th' DAFFY DUCK EXHIBIT?? | |
| | | | |  BF69Premium
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN | Re: Straight Talk said by clevere1:I'll take throttled over a per-gig charge anyday. Sure but they shouldn't say it's UNLIMITED. | |
| | | | | | | | Re: Straight Talk It is tho, albeit, at a slow speed, but you can still use as much as you want unless they cut you off completely. Currently at 2.7GB for this month and not throttled or cut off. | |
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| | | | Reviews:
·Charter
| Straighttalk eased up on the cutoffs and throttling because of bad PR they were getting, including customer service reps and other company representatives calling users and yelling at them over "excessive" data usage and minutes and text usage. Remember, ST, and by extension TracPhone is owned by Mexico teleco giant Carlos Slim, and their service centers get away with crap like that in Mexico, whereas here, they got slapped with a few lawsuits and they eased up on the throttling. Also, I found a way around the throttling, but it only works if you gain access to the iPhone APN settings. | |
| | | | | | danry25Premium
join:2008-05-21
Seattle, WA Reviews:
·Comcast
| Re: Straight Talk There is a way around it? Are you using an apn for a diffrent mvno or an apn that is for technicians to use to test a phone's data service? Regardless, that is pretty interesting, but all networks have holes that you can push data through  | |
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| | | | BiggA
join:2005-11-23
EARTH | Re: Straight Talk Huge equipment costs for use equipment subsidies, tower lease fees, maintenance, leasing fiber, none of that is a cheap business. | |
| | | | | I'm sorry, but you are absolutely incorrect when you assume that providing wireless service is inexpensive. Do you know what a fiber connection to a cell site costs each month? Try anywhere from $5K to $10K per month. Rent to be on a tower? Try $1K to $5K per month. The equipment in that cell site? Well over $100K, with more costs when capacity is added. This is for each and every cell site that is on the air, for every real carrier (not MVNO's, since they just buy minutes from real carriers) and is nowhere near a complete list of costs associated with providing service. It always amazes me how everyone on this site seems to think it is so cheap to provide cell service. I'll say it now, all of your assumptions about the costs of providing service are very wrong. | |
| | | | | said by r81984:I dont get why cell phones are so expensive.
Cell service went live in like 1981.
The provider spends nothing on content as the content is free (talking to friends, and internet).
There are no expensive wires ran all around town and towers can handle more customers than ever.
Towers and antennas, fiber drops to the towers, power, are all already in place. All the provider has to do is upgrade equipment every now and then which is pennies for the number of people the equipment can support.
But yet cell service costs just as much as cabletv which has to pay for all of its content.
It just does not make any sense.
We lease the spectrum to these companies for cheap and in return they sell us service with like 1000% margins on it.
except when users saturate the connections and complain about why it isn't fast or telcos isnt upgrading it and all that....
all of that costs money...they're running a business which sadly sometimes can be a disappointment but it's their business which you're subscribing to... | |
| | | | Rob_Premium
join:2008-07-16
Mary Esther, FL | Re: Straight Talk How is their coverage in rural areas? I need a phone with more memory but, according to the coverage maps, the android coverage areas are very limited.
-Rob | |
| | | | | BiggA
join:2005-11-23
EARTH | Re: Straight Talk Most of their Android phones are on Sprint, so it would suck. However, they have one on Native Verizon, and two on AT&T, including roaming partners. Easily Googleable what's what. | |
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| | | I wish we can let some Chinese company come in and offer cell service. I bet they would charge $11 a month or something for unlimited service. | |
| | | | | Re: Straight Talk said by brianiscool:I wish we can let some Chinese company come in and offer cell service. I bet they would charge $11 a month or something for unlimited service.
yeah, and then have chinese tech support not completely understanding what your issue is and then you complain... | |
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| | They're Kidding, Right? $65 for 1Gb of data? Is that a joke? | |
| | BF69Premium
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN | Re: They're Kidding, Right? better than Verizon 3G smartphone plan. It's $80 for 1 GB and you get 1 phone to choose from. 3G only no 4G. | |
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 winsyrstrifeRiver City BouncePremium
join:2002-04-30
Brooklyn, NY | $65 seems like a lot for one cell phone. I'm currently re-evaluating my own services. I'm getting sick of my my T-Mobile plan (for my wife and I) cost of about $110.
$60 shared minutes plan or whatever, which includes 700 minutes. We're on fire if we break 200 voice minutes...
$2.99 x 2 for 600 text messages, of which 42 were used for the month. Meh...I think I'm going with Google Voice or Kik.
$17 in taxes and fees.
The data plan is $20 for 2GB. I'm about to end the month, and I'm barely at 80 MB...I'm coming from a 2G phone, so I don't really care about data. It's nice to have on the go, but I just check-in and check-out (weather, news, e-mail). I might end up dropping the data altogether unelss there is a 100-250MB plan or something like it.
Is there a cheaper plan I should be considering? Nothing seems feasible for 2 phones...
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"Suddenly everything is fainting, falling from a broken ladder's rung. There's a jolt exhilarating from the phone I'm holding...
I hear the words of what I'll become, how eager the hands that reach for love." - Blind Melon - New Life | |
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See 11 replies to this post | |
 IowaCowboyWant to go back to IowaPremium
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA
·Comcast
·Verizon Broadban..
| They control the pipes Since some MVNOs use the Verizon/AT&T pipeline, the big duopoly could close the valve on MVNOs at any time without notice. Yes there is sprint/t-mobile but AT&T/Verizon are the only ones with the best coverage. The only real competition is if you are lucky enough to have US Cellular or C-Spire in your area (and the first of the two refuses to carry the iPhone).
I have Verizon postpaid and I like getting a bill every month instead of having a call drop because I ran out of minutes (and you have to run to the gas station or cell phone store to buy more minutes). You also get more privileges with postpaid. When I had prepaid years ago (back in my high school years), I had Verizon Prepaid (back when it was called FreeUp) and you did not have access to anything more than talk, text, and 411 (no roadside assistance, handset insurance, etc) and when your minutes ran out, your call dropped. Also with prepaid, roaming was more costly as you had to pay more if the tower was not owned by Verizon (extended network).
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I wish I still lived in Iowa; Everything there from rent and groceries to Cable TV is much cheaper in Iowa (especially with an overbuilder in town). | |
| | | |  tiger72SexaT duorPPremium
join:2001-03-28
Saint Louis, MO
kudos:1
3 edits | said by IowaCowboy:Since some MVNOs use the Verizon/AT&T pipeline, the big duopoly could close the valve on MVNOs at any time without notice. Yes there is sprint/t-mobile but AT&T/Verizon are the only ones with the best coverage. The only real competition is if you are lucky enough to have US Cellular or C-Spire in your area (and the first of the two refuses to carry the iPhone). If you had said this 2 years ago I would have believed you. MVNOs had the worst phones, limited (or more frequently no) data, and only offered unlimited voice/talk to compete. Worse yet, activating CDMA phones on different CDMA MVNOs is *still* a crapshoot. This means that even though you didn't have a contract, you'd be "invested" in whatever network you bought your branded phone from. The only advantage to going with an MVNO a couple years ago was if you had shitty credit.
Jump to 2012, and most MVNOs support and even sell top-tier phones (like the iPhone). MVNO adoption is on the upswing and MVNO pricing is far more competitive. Some MVNOs offer the same roaming as postpaid carriers (Tracfone, Solavei), while others provide cheaper data. GSM MVNOs have expanded immensely, meaning if you buy an unlocked phone with the right bands (say, a Galaxy Nexus) you can use high speed data on either ATT or T-Mobile's network without being "invested" in a particular ecosystem. No activation. No carrier-branding hassles.
And it's not just some oversight by the big carriers. They benefit by having you on an MVNO as well. A significant portion of a carrier's costs goes into customer support. If you call Verizon or ATT to have them correct your bill each month, or to negotiate lower prices, or for questions about your phone, etc. etc. that costs them. Prepaid offerings let them cut costs on customer support (they don't have to pay for any support for MVNO customers), while generating guaranteed profit on wholesale.
It's a win-win for those of us who don't call carrier support anyways.
I have Verizon postpaid and I like getting a bill every month instead of having a call drop because I ran out of minutes (and you have to run to the gas station or cell phone store to buy more minutes).
In fact, the only plans I see that restrict minutes are T-Mobile's 5GB, 100min plan for $30, and Virgin Mobile.
You also get more privileges with postpaid. When I had prepaid years ago (back in my high school years), I had Verizon Prepaid (back when it was called FreeUp) and you did not have access to anything more than talk, text, and 411 (no roadside assistance, handset insurance, etc) and when your minutes ran out, your call dropped. Also with prepaid, roaming was more costly as you had to pay more if the tower was not owned by Verizon (extended network).
The world changes man, and the market has changed a LOT in the past couple years alone. As others have mentioned though - thanks for subsidizing prepaid services. The network's the same. The sales and support model is typically the only change.
Have a read:
»forum.xda-developers.com/showthr···=1455014
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"What makes us omniscient? Have we a record of omniscience? ...If we can't persuade nations with comparable values of the merit of our cause, we'd better reexamine our reasoning."
-United States Secretary of Defense (1961-1968) Robert S. McNamara | |
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| | ?!? what a damned ripoff!!!! why even bother?!?
you can buy this kind of service for as low as $25. | |
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| | | | Re: Wireline mentality in a wireless world. Verizon charges $80 for the SAME prepaid option....So, how's AT&T the bad guy here? | |
| | |  nunyaWho is John Galt?Premium,MVM
join:2000-12-23
O Fallon, MO
kudos:8
1 edit | Re: Wireline mentality in a wireless world. Because you can go to almost ANY other prepaid service and get the same thing plus more for $45.
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If someone refers to herself / himself as a "guru", they probably aren't. | |
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| nunyaWho is John Galt?Premium,MVM
join:2000-12-23
O Fallon, MO
kudos:8 | Typo. I was going to say $20 less. | |
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