PJNC284 wrote:
already announced.
http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/data-plans.html#fbid=kQP5kstzU_E?tab2source=EC0000PP100000JD
Was that posted here previously or on another thread? I didn't see it, otherwise I would not have sent it.
I linked it in the Share Everything- DOA thread earlier. It wasn't actually announced until after Droid-Life posted though.
I think Share Everything is basically an attempt at trying to save face without losing profit. One thing that is becoming abundantly clear to customers as they become better-informed is that they are not charging you to actually "do stuff" for you. They are in fact charging arbitrarily based on what will help them rake in the most cash. And no, super-capitalists, I do not think this is acceptable behavior from corporations that are pretty much guaranteed a piece of an entire massive industry.
Take mobile hotspots for instance:
They were 30 bucks a month. What are they actually doing for you there? Well, they're not turning it off. "What?!" Yes, they're not turning off a feature that's built into your phone. Same data, your electricity used to power the radio, only broadcast via your phone. They were pulling 30 bucks/month for doing almost nothing, when they could have done just a little bit less by not telling your phone to disallow mobile hotspot and offered better, more competitive service. They could say mobile hotspot encouraged more data use, but that doesn't really fly when they also charge you for the data separately.
Text messages:
Complete scam. Everybody was in on it. Tech-informed people have been outraged about this for years. A single text character is a byte, the smallest block of memory you can actually move around possible. There may be some build-up/tear-down process overhead in sending lots of little messages, but I seriously doubt that was as much wear and tear on their network as full-blown phone conversations that could be had in the span of 10-25 cents worth of voice minutes. I would wager good money sending texts is actually less wear and tear on their network than any other means of communication.
Shared plans:
Yay families! No wait a minute, that's "screw families." Here's a thought. How come they never offered an option where your kids had their own caps or when you exceed your minutes, the phone disconnects until you indicate willingness to continue in spite of overages unless talking to Friends/Family listers or an emergency number? More people on the same plan, means greater difficulty predicting overages. They like that.
People will tend to argue that this is merely capitalism at its best and I can always choose another provider or to not have a smartphone, but that's missing the point. For one thing, I am fed up and I have designs on moving on but it will cost me owing to the contract cancellation factor, which reduces my ability to make more natural choices in a free market, now doesn't it? Two, this is not good capitalism. Because none of the larger providers is providing decent service. They're all pretty much competing for least offensive fleecing-the-customer scheme more than they are providing best service at given price-points. I'm sorry but it is way past due time to whomp these guys with the regulation stick.
So what is Verizon doing actually? Well they might actually be taking a slight hit here I believe which indicates to me that their last plan which IIRC was "give us more money for data if you want a new phone" didn't really go over well with their established customers and probably didn't attract a whole lot of new ones. This plan could actually help my wife and I save a few bucks since we run into more trouble with the non-data stuff than data, which on my end is unlimited even though I rarely stream anything. But that's still an absurd flat rate they're throwing at the data and quite frankly, because of all of the above, I think I'm going to wait and watch to see how the small print pans out before sacrificing unlimited data for nothing. Not to mention after getting hit by overages when my wife didn't think about how long she was spending on hold with her doctor's office, I don't think I'm really looking forward to discovering new pitfalls designed to maximize profit that is in no way tied to what they actually have to do to maintain their network for customers like me. That is unless of course I try these other guys with the 3G unlimited everything (including data) for a flat rate of 50 bucks a month and like it enough to jump ship in spite of the cancellation fees and cost of investing in a new phone that won't be loaded down with garbage apps and people telling it not to do stuff until I give them money for nothing. (now THAT, is good capitalism)
Gee, it's almost like they're the same big giant mono-corporation. Or maybe just working together to screw everybody in similar ways so nobody has to innovate. Did AT&T ever limit mobile hotspots? Because I don't know why anybody would pay for a tablet and a smartphone with a hotspot.
Well, the new plans worked for me.
I had 3 smartphones with unlimited data At 30 a pop. At home we on wifi and my brother doesn't get much signal in his house •. Also have a tablet that was on a 5 gig 50 plan. And 1 basic relic of a phone. Simply everything saves me 30 bucks due to lack of usage of unlimited data. I can call or text to my hearts content. And since on wifi at home it feels like everything is unlimited. I'm cool with that.
and data on the basic phones which i doubt you have right now
but yah, its not for everyone. some people can save money some can't
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