AT&T Close to Wireless Family Data Plans Hopefully They Won't Screw Up Pricing Both Verizon and AT&T last year hinted more than a few times that they'd finally be joining the modern age by offering family data plans. Ideally the bucket-o-bytes approach would, like voice minutes, work across different family accounts and more importantly across devices, meaning no more annoying additional individual subscriptions for your tablet, handheld game console, or other device. While AT&T did recently announce a price hike, family plans were nowhere to be found during recent earnings announcements. However Engadget has obtained internal documents showing shared family data is coming soon. The only questions are when, and how exactly AT&T will sock you with added fees and caveats to counter the added value.
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 mist668
join:2011-02-15
Middleburg, PA | To bad The pricing will be just about the same as you would find if you have separate data plans on each line. I am sure the usage caps/allotments will be just as bad. | |
|  |  NickDPremium
join:2000-11-17
Princeton Junction, NJ
 ·Comcast
| Re: To bad I have an iPhone and an iPad. I just tether my jailbroken iPhone to my jailbroken iPad instead of getting a separate data plan for my iPad. Data is data no matter which device uses it. I don't need a separate 2 gig data plan for my iPad that will be 75% unused when my total usage is less than 2 GB. I use wi-fi whenever possible. The nice thing is that my iPhone can connect to wi-fi and the iPad can use the iPhone's wi-fi connection when tethered. So the only wi-fi network my iPad connects to is my iPhone's network, and the iPhone switches between 3G and wi-fi. | |
| | | | I can see att come out with a ridiculous price structure just to turn around and say no one wanted that kind of bucket of data usage. They will then go back to business as usual except prices on individual device data plans will go up another $5-10 just for the heck of it. | |
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| | Unlimited It would be so cool if there were a way to turn an unlimited plan into unlimited family plan. I know it won't happen, but it'd still be a cool idea. | |
| | | | Re: Unlimited AT&T might offer such a thing to save face. They'll throttle you back to 300 bps after using 100 MB of data though. | |
| | |  bigunkGort, Klattu Birada Nikto
join:2001-02-10
USA | Re: Unlimited They'll blow it. Just you wait and see. | |
| | | | | | Re: Unlimited said by bigunk:They'll blow it. Just you wait and see.
Now, with all of the pro-customer changes they have made lately, what would make you think that?  | |
| | | | decifal
join:2007-03-10
Bon Aqua, TN
kudos:1 Reviews:
 ·Verizon Broadban..
| said by bigunk:They'll blow it. Just you wait and see.
shhh, your starting to sound like me  | |
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| |  ctgreybeardOld dogs can learn new tricksPremium
join:2001-11-13
Bethel, CT | said by Pirate515:They'll throttle you back to 300 bps
I remember 300 bps. Speedy! Much faster than the 110 baud we used to use.
But, seriously, when did attracting customers with VALUE to increase revenue go out of fashion?! It seems like we are in the inverse of "We lose money on each sale but we'll make it up on volume." Now it seems like we are at "We make tons of money on each sale but nobody is buying." Unfortunately we would prefer NOT to buy at the price offered but we have no choice but to bite that bullet. And they know it. But wouldn't it make MORE SENSE to go back to actually ATTRACTING customers rather than the current "robbery at gunpoint" stance?
Just askin'! 
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Old dogs can learn new tricks! | |
| | | | mist668
join:2011-02-15
Middleburg, PA Reviews:
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| Re: Unlimited said by ctgreybeard:said by Pirate515:They'll throttle you back to 300 bps
I remember 300 bps. Speedy! Much faster than the 110 baud we used to use. But, seriously, when did attracting customers with VALUE to increase revenue go out of fashion?! It seems like we are in the inverse of "We lose money on each sale but we'll make it up on volume." Now it seems like we are at "We make tons of money on each sale but nobody is buying." Unfortunately we would prefer NOT to buy at the price offered but we have no choice but to bite that bullet. And they know it. But wouldn't it make MORE SENSE to go back to actually ATTRACTING customers rather than the current "robbery at gunpoint" stance? Just askin'! The problem is these companies are still gaining customers and until they start to lose them, they will keep their prices going up and up. They are trying to see how much people will pay until they think like you, and I, in the quoted above. | |
| | | | | | | Re: Unlimited Agreed. Both T and VZ still gain customers while the others are losing them, and yet ppl complain and bitch about service and data caps. To the whiners; Sprint still has unlimited data (along with your precious iphone), and while they don't, T-Mobile atleast only throttles your data after a certain usage instead of overages (and they are open about this), so you got a couple of more national options (and some more regional ones). | |
| | | | | |  jkj860The Final Frontier
join:2002-01-10
Valparaiso, IN
 ·Comcast Digital ..
·Comcast
| Re: Unlimited said by itsthatguy :Agreed. Both T and VZ still gain customers while the others are losing them, and yet ppl complain and bitch about service and data caps. To the whiners; Sprint still has unlimited data (along with your precious iphone), and while they don't, T-Mobile atleast only throttles your data after a certain usage instead of overages (and they are open about this), so you got a couple of more national options (and some more regional ones).
I have been with verizon forever (currently 4 family plan phones / no data or smart phones) Im thinking of going with sprint with 4 iphones as soon as my contract is up in July on all phones.
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I know you think you understand what you thought I said, but I am not sure you realize what you heard is not what I meant. Nixon | |
| | | | | | | | said by itsthatguy :Agreed. Both T and VZ still gain customers while the others are losing them, and yet ppl complain and bitch about service and data caps. To the whiners; Sprint still has unlimited data (along with your precious iphone), and while they don't, T-Mobile atleast only throttles your data after a certain usage instead of overages (and they are open about this), so you got a couple of more national options (and some more regional ones).
But their coverage sucks for most people, and Sprint's unlimited is unusable. It's improving with every cell site they upgrade thanks to their "Network Vision" project, but that's going to take time. | |
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| | | | | | said by mist668:said by ctgreybeard:said by Pirate515:They'll throttle you back to 300 bps
I remember 300 bps. Speedy! Much faster than the 110 baud we used to use. But, seriously, when did attracting customers with VALUE to increase revenue go out of fashion?! It seems like we are in the inverse of "We lose money on each sale but we'll make it up on volume." Now it seems like we are at "We make tons of money on each sale but nobody is buying." Unfortunately we would prefer NOT to buy at the price offered but we have no choice but to bite that bullet. And they know it. But wouldn't it make MORE SENSE to go back to actually ATTRACTING customers rather than the current "robbery at gunpoint" stance? Just askin'! The problem is these companies are still gaining customers and until they start to lose them, they will keep their prices going up and up. They are trying to see how much people will pay until they think like you, and I, in the quoted above. But that's true in every oligopoly. They price at what the market will bear, rather than compete with each other on price like in a truly competitive market.
OTOH, it never ceases to amaze me how willing Americans are to spend more money on their wireless bill than their car lease. In France you can get unlimited voice, text, and 3 GB of data (throttled thereafter) for $20. In America... sigh. | |
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| | | | said by Pirate515:AT&T might offer such a thing to save face. They'll throttle you back to 300 bps after using 100 MB of data though.
I was thinking more Verizon than AT&T. It would be awesome if I could extend my unlimited LTE plan to the whole family. I actually have to go out of the country for a long while and will probably have to drop the plan, since no one else needs it. But extending it into an unlimited family plan would make it definitely worth keeping. | |
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 crazyk4952Premium
join:2002-02-04
united state
kudos:1
·Charter
·voip.ms
| how else can then screw over their customers? The'll find a way to fool their customers with an illusion of value. I am sure there will be some sort of surcharge for the "privilege" of pooling your data.
They are still mad that they were not allowed to buy T-Mobile, so now they are taking it out on their customers..... | |
| | | Prepaid baby! I just got me an unlocked Internatinal Galaxy Note for a measly $700..Everytime someone asks me how much it is they about fall over and consider me dumb..
I passed math class so
$45 unlimited everything through Straight Talk
vs
$100 2 yr contract + phone sub... cost.
Yeah I'm the dumb one.. | |
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