AT&T altering pricing for text messaging, upgrade plans
Summary: AT&T has gone and changed around the pricing and availability of its text messaging and early upgrade plans. Certain changes might come as upsetting for some customers.
AT&T has gone and changed around the pricing and availability of its text messaging and early upgrade plans. Certain changes might come as upsetting for some customers.
Let's start with upgrades. First, those $50 and $100 discounts on top of subsidized pricing for upgrading customers will be gone after July 23. For those who want to upgrade to an iPhone, the standard subsidized price plus $200 option will only be available for six months after an existing iPhone activation. Thus, iPhone 4 owners who activated their devices last year won't be eligible for an early upgrade. (Not sure this is exactly the best damage control approach...)
Next, text messaging. Say goodbye to the Messaging 200 (200 messages for $5 per month) plan. Current subscribers of this plan will have it until their contracts run out, and it won't be there as an option when it comes time for renewal. The Messaging Unlimited ($20 per month; $30 for families) will stay put, and the new option is the Messaging 1,000 plan (1,000 texts for $10 per month with $0.10 for each additional text over 1,000). As someone with an iPhone 4 who sends about an average of 150 texts each month, I'm not pleased.
Oh, and the Family plan add-a-line activation is increasing $10 to $36. Bummer. All of this goes into effect on Sunday, January 23rd.
So what do you think about the new pricing?
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Talkback
I like it
Also if it goes like the past unless you remove the feature or change it it will still be in effect just like I still have unlimited data on my phone even though it is not really offered anymore.
RE: AT&T altering pricing for text messaging, upgrade plans
RE: AT&T altering pricing for text messaging, upgrade plans
I agree and I have raised that question myself. The cell phone companies look for every way to make a buck. Just like the ISPs are trying to do by charging you based on how you use your internet connection. It doesn't matter if it is a text, MMS, browsing the web, checking email, or using an internet based app. Its all data and you get charged for the text fee and the data used to send that text so they are effectively double dipping.
Texting is cheep for the carrier and should not cost much
Texting isnt even a hiccup on a cell network. Most of the text plans offered by companies are gouging customers.
RE: AT&T altering pricing for text messaging, upgrade plans
I suspect AT&T is trendsetting
Besides, given the option to eat or doing my part to keep a corporate giant up, I suppose I'd rather eat. Like most people ultimately would. But then we'll get blamed for not spending enough to keep the American economy and these large corporations afloat... but that's okay, they get enough taxpayer-funded subsidy so it won't matter either way.
So the iPhone is not the only character without a shirt now!
Like the changes
But, I recently upgraded to the family unlimited text plan for $30 to accomodate my daughters texting habits. Piror, we both had the 200 for $5, ie. I was paying $10 a month + overages for my daughter. She averages about 400 texts a month and I average 150. So, with the new pricing (I will have to look at changing again) I could get what I need for $15 ($5 200 texts for me, then $10 1000 texts for my daughter) a month instead of the family unlimited texts I currently have for $30 a month.
I also wish that AT&T would let you share texts and do cary over like they do minutes in the family plan, because 1000 txts per month would be more than enough for my daughter and I combined.
Overall though, I am not happy with AT&T's pricing (or any of the wireless carriers really). Seems to me that they take advantage of people, especially when it comes to data plans. And I would like to know how they've avoided being sued and fined for false advertisement and misrepresentation of their services? For example, I have an unlimited data plan. But, it is capped at 5gb! That's not unlimited! It's limited to 5gb. So, how can they say it's unlimited? The same goes for my home internet provider. I pay so much a month for a certain connection speed, and for unlimited service. But the fine print says I'm really limited to Xgb's of data a month, and for the speed it says "up to". I monitor my speed and one month my service didn't even equal the lower speed offering. I called and complained and said that I would expect for paying the higher price I would at least get service greater than the offering below the one I subscribe to. But, they explained that they hadn't guaranteed any minimum speed, therefore they had provided what I had signed up for!
RE: AT&T altering pricing for text messaging, upgrade plans
About 'unlimited' plans...there is no such thing as 'unlimited' and never has been, 'unlimited' generally means 5Gb and always has...
Let's be realistic here and use some common sense here: no one can EVER promise anyone a truly 'unlimited' amount of anything.
Let's use an absurd example to make the point: Suppose someone on one of those allegedly 'unlimited' data plans used up 20 exabytes of data in one month, and by doing so completely shut down the towers in his area by overloading them, thereby depriving everone else of the service they paid for. You don't think the carrier should be allowed to move in at some point and prevent ONE GUY from using so much data that no one else can use it? Is that at all realistic?
Common sense tells us that 'unlimited' doesn't mean genuinely 'unlimited', it means 'the cap is so high we assume few people will be able to reach it', but it certainly cannot mean a genuinely 'unlimited' amount....it is impossible to fulfill that promise to even ONE customer, let alone millions simultaneously.
No, unlimited means unlimited...not "so high as few will reach it".
I see nothing in the following definition that agrees with what you said:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/unlimited
If carriers can't / won't offer unlimited, and I'm fine that, then don't advertise it as much. Even if the fine print says it's not. It's either unlimited or it's not. It's that simple.
Grandfather Plans
Price Changes
What is disheartening is the increase in costs for items like activating a new line on a family plan. That cost should be going down, not up.
Wonder what is next?
:(
Why should costs be going down?
RE: AT&T altering pricing for text messaging, upgrade plans
Yes, costs of physical things like food and products you buy may rise but the cost of hitting a couple buttons to activate a phone should be going down. Reminds me of the Southwest Airline commercial where they rip on other Airlines for charging up to $150 for a change flight fee. The cost of hitting a few keys and the minimal cost of printing the ticket is not even close to that amount of money. Same with phone activation. It is not a physical object they are selling. Charging more for essentially flipping a switch is extortion.
End carrier collusion
If I have a 200 MB or 2 GB "data" plan, WHY WHY WHY should I pay for "text messages" at all? Why, because everybody charges extra for text messages. Yeah, all four of the government-granted not-really-competing national companies.
It's sad that we're in a cellular backwater, paying way too much for second-rate service. That's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it. Until somebody gives me a really great deal on a new smart phone....
RE: AT&T altering pricing for text messaging, upgrade plans
If you don't agree with what they offer you're free to choose another...
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