AT&T: Mobile Hotspot Service Costs $20 A Month Company Raises Maximum Data Cap To 4GB To Allow For Multi-Device Use AT&T today officially announced that users can now use select phones as hotspots -- if they pay AT&T an additional $20 a month. The company has also shifted their mobile data pricing accordingly, offering more data for those who pony up the cash for AT&T Mobile Hotspot. In addition to the usual tiers of $15 for 200MB and $25 for 2GB a month, AT&T's now offering users who tether and/or use the new hotspot functionality a pool of four gigabytes a month -- with each additional gigabyte still billed out a whopping $10 per gigabyte. The press release contains a very dim admission that a maximum 2GB of usage was an unreasonable limit for multiple device connection in the modern age: "Our customers want to connect as many devices as possible to the nation's fastest mobile broadband network, which is getting faster with 4G," said David Christopher, chief marketing officer, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. "We want to extend the benefits of an additional 2GB to smartphone customers on our tethering plan. This delivers more value today for the price they're already paying – and that's what our customers want." Customers will receive a text message from AT&T – as soon as February 13 – once the additional 2GB has been auto-added to their plan. Granted to get particularly excited about this news you have to ignore the fact that AT&T is charging you a $20 premium simply to use functionality embedded in smartphones by design, pretend that being charged $10 per gigabyte is a great value, and ignore the fact that many users can simply jailbreak their phones to avoid AT&T's "because we can" additional $20 monthly fee (assuming you're not usually exceeding 2GB a month of usage). Still, it's at least good news that AT&T's now offering users an increased total of 4GB a month before smacking you with the per-gig overage hammer.
|
 openbox9Premium
join:2004-01-26
japan
kudos:2 | Not Really... said by David Christopher :"We want to extend the benefits of an additional 2GB to smartphone customers on our tethering plan. This delivers more value today for the price they're already paying" Umm, it's not more value for the price T's customers are already paying if they have to pay an extra $20/mth.
Oh, and collusion, collusion, collusion. Just wanted to get that out of the way.
Edit: I guess the "value" comment was aimed at those customers already paying for a tethering plan. | |
|  | fiberguyMy views are my own.Premium
join:2005-05-20
kudos:3 | Re: Not Really... said by openbox9:said by David Christopher :"We want to extend the benefits of an additional 2GB to smartphone customers on our tethering plan. This delivers more value today for the price they're already paying" Umm, it's not more value for the price T's customers are already paying if they have to pay an extra $20/mth. Then go to T Mobile. You also talk about collusion.. yet, everyone seems to be comparing provider A to provider B and wants them all to be the same, or close to the same in their thinking.
Can't have it both ways.. but, like I said.. if you think TMobile is a better value, then go there. This story is about AT&T. | |
| | | openbox9Premium
join:2004-01-26
japan
kudos:2 | Re: Not Really... I'll stick with my satisfactory VZW service, thank you. I only mentioned collusion because others were bound to raise the subject. I don't believe this is collusion.
BTW, T=AT&T on the NYSE. If I wanted to discuss T-Mobile, I would've written TMo, T-Mobile, or TMobile. And I don't believe it's a better value. I prefer to have coverage wherever I may go  | |
| | |  LagzPremium
join:2000-09-03
The Rock
 ·AT&T DSL Service
| said by fiberguy:said by openbox9:said by David Christopher :"We want to extend the benefits of an additional 2GB to smartphone customers on our tethering plan. This delivers more value today for the price they're already paying" Umm, it's not more value for the price T's customers are already paying if they have to pay an extra $20/mth. Then go to T Mobile. You also talk about collusion.. yet, everyone seems to be comparing provider A to provider B and wants them all to be the same, or close to the same in their thinking. Can't have it both ways.. but, like I said.. if you think TMobile is a better value, then go there. This story is about AT&T. So competition and shopping around are bad things?
--
To talk much and arrive nowhere is the same as climbing a tree to catch a fish. | |
| | | | fiberguyMy views are my own.Premium
join:2005-05-20
kudos:3 | Re: Not Really... You totally missed the point.
I never said nor implied that it was a bad thing to shop for competition. However, people are quick to bash one provider for offering a service at one price while someone else is offering a "better value" or "better deal".. and still, at this point that's fine.. but it's when it gets taken to the level of it must be collusion or X company is nuts because they think they can charge what they do.. Y company has a better deal. It is implying that they should lower their rate and match. So, I guess collusion only applies when a company RAISES its rate and it's competition when the rates fall to match each other.. is that right? Is that the way it works? | |
|
| | Here we go. Cell companies always try to squeeze more money. "Granted to get particularly excited about this news you have to ignore the fact that AT&T is charging you a $20 premium simply to use functionality embedded in smartphones by design, pretend that being charged $10 per gigabyte is a great value, and ignore the fact that many users can simply jailbreak their phones to avoid AT&T's "because we can" additional $20 monthly fee (assuming you're not usually exceeding 2GB a month of usage). Still, it's at least good news that AT&T's now offering users an increased total of 4GB a month before smacking you with the per-gig overage hammer."
I guess at&t isn't the only one doing this but fer crying out loud. Why are they charging for this supposedly built-in feature? Because they want to take all the money they can from the bill payers.
"Oh yeah, lets add more stuff to charge for on top of what we are already charging for service" I'd be willing to bet this feature was put in there as a helpful add on, not some "thing" for greedy cell phone companies to charge for.
--
brought to you by Carl's Jr.
Esteban Colberto for President of Cuba | |
| | | | Re: Here we go. Cell companies always try to squeeze more money. Yo dawg I heard you like paying for 3g data, so we charge for tethering so you can pay while you pay. | |
| |  koolman2Premium
join:2002-10-01
Anchorage, AK | They're charging for the extra 2 GB you'd probably use while tethered ahead of time so you don't have bill shock!!!1  | |
|
 EdrickI aspire to tell the story of a lifetimePremium
join:2004-09-11
Woburn, MA | iPhone So when can we enable this plan and start using the hotspot feature? Has Apple even released iOS that supports it yet? | |
| | openbox9Premium
join:2004-01-26
japan
kudos:2 | Re: iPhone Is the iPhone a select smartphone? I guess you'll need to wait for the 13th to find out. Only the HTC Inspire was name in the press release. | |
|
| | All users need to bypass this ridiculous fee Iphone- use MyWi
Android- Use the slew of free Apps out there now. Not to mention you can do Custom ROM's all of which have it built in.
This metered internet BS needs to stop it is nothing but a way for providers to milk the every living crap out of every consumer especially since smartphones are becoming more and more data intensive.
As long as I am alive and as long as I have a smartphone I will use whatever methods I can to make sure I am never charged extra for tethering and I advise everyone else to go to google.com or youtube.com and learn how to install the programs on their device. | |
| | | | Re: All users need to bypass this ridiculous fee I don't disagree with the assertion that is made by the carriers that wireless service is "different". Given the current infrastructure, it can only support a very finite number of concurrent users. But that isn't a license to bill $10 for a gigabyte of data as an overage. The carriers want a hefty fee for the privilege of maybe getting service, but then install punitive measures should you actually use it.
I fully agree with you that this milking of the customer has to stop. If I pay for 2 gigabytes of data, then how I consume that data should be of little consequence. If I choose to share my connection with 5 users and burn through my 2 gigabytes of data in 2 hours, then that's my business. I shouldn't have to pay an additional $20 for the privilege of using data services for which I've already paid in a manner that is of the greatest utility to me.
If the network is *that* fragile in that kind of utilization has an adverse affect, I think the problem isn't with people who tether or share the connection. | |
| | Reviews:
 ·AT&T U-Verse
| I just rooted and installed Warm TwoPointTwo on my Android phone, which has tethering built-in. It works quite well. Nice thing is when I'm in a 4G city, I can tether and get 4G speeds on my laptop and save myself a hotel WiFi charge. Also, it's a lot more handy to carry around than a MiFi (and the additional charge for a MiFi).
Providers will continue to charge for tethering as long as people don't figure out how they can do it themselves for free. | |
| | |  JohnInSJPremium
join:2003-09-22
San Jose, CA
 ·PHONE POWER
 ·Comcast
| Re: All users need to bypass this ridiculous fee said by dustman81:Providers will continue to charge for tethering as long as people don't figure out how they can do it themselves for free.
Like they can get free mp3s and movies? Awesome.
--
My place : »www.schettino.us | |
|
criggs
join:2000-07-14
New York, NY | AT & T: The Generosity Overwhelms Me I am seriously awestruck by AT & T's extraordinary and totally unexpected generosity.
I could just s**t. | |
| Reviews:
·Mediacom
·RoadRunner Cable
| I think you've got this backwards, Karl... The current 2GB plan is $25 plus $10/GB above 2GB, so 4GB is still $45 -- no change. You also get the use of the WiFi hotspot for nothing (other than being committed to a minimum of 4GB/month).
So the $10/GB price point is the same for all plans.
If you accept the $10/GB price point, this is actually a pretty good deal. You can use your WiFi hotspot to connect to the net from any other device, including a laptop, and assuming you were going to use 4GB/month anyway, the hotspot capability is thrown in for free.
Basically, all AT&T is doing is defining their WiFi hotspot plan with a minimum of 4GB/month. The pricing isn't changing, and they are charging no extra fees for hotspot functionality. | |
| | | | Milk Me Dry Just another CASH COW, and another way for AT&T to milk customer's wallets dry.
OH HOW I HATE AT&T! | |
| | | openbox9Premium
join:2004-01-26
japan
kudos:2
2 edits | Re: Milk Me Dry And people will pay for it, just like SMS plans | |
| | | eakenn
join:2005-02-20
Ormond Beach, FL | Hence why they need to rename themselves to A Fee & Fee | |
|
|  Duramax08Win8 sucksPremium
join:2008-08-03
San Antonio, TX
 ·Millenicom
·Cricket Broadband
| Re: I think you've got this backwards, Karl... said by MyDogHsFleas:The current 2GB plan is $25 plus $10/GB above 2GB, so 4GB is still $45 -- no change. You also get the use of the WiFi hotspot for nothing (other than being committed to a minimum of 4GB/month).
So the $10/GB price point is the same for all plans.
If you accept the $10/GB price point, this is actually a pretty good deal. You can use your WiFi hotspot to connect to the net from any other device, including a laptop, and assuming you were going to use 4GB/month anyway, the hotspot capability is thrown in for free.
Basically, all AT&T is doing is defining their WiFi hotspot plan with a minimum of 4GB/month. The pricing isn't changing, and they are charging no extra fees for hotspot functionality.
yeah its not that bad but still, you can jailbreak it. | |
| | | Reviews:
·Mediacom
·RoadRunner Cable
| Re: I think you've got this backwards, Karl... said by Duramax08:yeah its not that bad but still, you can jailbreak it.
What's the point? You don't save any money, unless you use less than 4GB. | |
| | | | Duramax08Win8 sucksPremium
join:2008-08-03
San Antonio, TX Reviews:
·Millenicom
·Cricket Broadband
| Re: I think you've got this backwards, Karl... said by MyDogHsFleas:said by Duramax08:yeah its not that bad but still, you can jailbreak it.
What's the point? You don't save any money, unless you use less than 4GB. Rather then buy a AT&T wireless 2yr contract broadband usb card for $60 which gives you only 5GB a month, if you have a 3g enable smartphone, you can pay $20 to get 4GB. Might be good for a few people out there but it isnt really for the majority.
Jailbreak on your grandfathered unlimited plan and you dont have to pay this $20 a month fee or have a cap.
It depends whats your situation is. | |
| | | | | Reviews:
·Mediacom
·RoadRunner Cable
| Re: I think you've got this backwards, Karl... said by Duramax08:Jailbreak on your grandfathered unlimited plan and you dont have to pay this $20 a month fee or have a cap.
Ah now I see what you mean! I did not think of the grandfathered plans.
My view of this is that you are hiding in a shadowy little corner, hoping no one notices what you are doing, for the sake of saving a few bucks per month, and voiding your warranty on the phone. Not a winner for me.
If AT&T notices enough people doing this they will shut it down somehow. | |
| | | | | | Duramax08Win8 sucksPremium
join:2008-08-03
San Antonio, TX | Re: I think you've got this backwards, Karl... Thats what im thinking too and this is my only connection for internet......
With AT&T about to start rolling our DSL to rural areas, hope they offer it to me soon...... | |
|
| | | so sad ... I'm not surprised the 'new' at&t is pulling something like this, but I think it's so sad that customers put up with this kind of malarkey.
hopefully the millions of iPhone users on at&t will shift to other carriers and become happy and well served by the provider.
at&t can eat my shorts! | |
| | fiberguyMy views are my own.Premium
join:2005-05-20
kudos:3 | Re: so sad ... So what exactly does "hoping" the millions of iPhone users on AT&T shifting to other carriers really get you other than fill your you're clear hatred for a company and your desire to see a company get hurt?
Millions of customers moving to another carrier only empowers the other companies to take advantage of THEIR size, or THEIR niche to manipulate and justify their higher charges that are sure to follow.
Personally, I could give a rat's ass less what you, or any other user here on BBR does with their money and where they spend it because no matter what you all do, it doesn't change my mind, or my decisions.
I could care less if anyone tells me that AT&T is a bad company. I've used them all and they all have issues but AT&T works for me, and I really don't care for them either. I didn't care for sprint towards the end so I left. But, for the 6 years I used them and Nextel collectively, they were fine. I could care less if an Android based phone user tells me iPhone sucks because that's their opinion, not mine. I certainly have issues with Android but what I feel has no bearing on the next user.
This isn't a popularity contest nor a football game. Cheerleaders aren't needed. | |
|
 FBGuyPremium
join:2005-03-19
Evanston, IL | hotspot tether... free to rooted android users everywhere. | |
|
| |
|
|
AT&T responding to Verizon