re: AT&T and their new smartphone charges

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You aren't crazy, you people just don't know what you're actually complaining about. AT&T essentially had one plan, now they have 2, and uninformed consumers are going around screaming to high heaven about being screwed by the new plan which is actually the old plan.

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don't like defending the wireless carriers, they have a well earned reputation for screwing their customers, but in this case the only thing they've done wrong is not realized how much hand holding their customers needed to understand the improved choice they've been given.

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Ding ding ding.

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This is not new, this is how AT&T's pricing has been for years. What is new is that if you pay the phone in full instead of upgrading, then your monthly bill is less.

AT&T's mistake really seems to have been to let people switch to the new rate plans without upgrading a phone and therefore understanding the differences in their 2 different pricing structures, the old way and the new way. The old way is cost effective for people that regularly upgrade their phones, the new way is cost effective for people that don't. It's actually an improvement for customers but AT&T has poorly communicated it and now have tons of customers complaining about getting screwed with a new way when they are really complaining about the exact same system they've been under for years.

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How has every line on our mobile share plan going up at least $25/month the same thing as the old plan?

ETA: Phone bill was $215/month before we all upgraded to new iPhones. 2 got a subsidized iPhone, so their line went from $15/month to $40/month. I got the Next plan because if the bill was going up at least $25/month away, might as well have the company pay for my phone while we're at it. So my portion of the bill is now $15 for the line, plus $35 for Next. Now our phone bill is about $295, but yeah, the plans are the exact same.

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My bill for 2 iPhones with 200 MB of data each and unlimited voice/text used to be $130. Now I'm paying $75 for 1 GB of shared data and unlimited voice text.

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So you switched plans? Does ATT still offer the original plan you were on? I think you're comparing 2 different plans and acting like they are the same.

Here's the math. Note this excludes taxes and fees (usually about $5/line on both plans, so that's a wash):

Old plan: $100 for talk and text
Lines 1-4: $10 (line charge) + $30 (3GB data) = $40/month. Pay $200 for phone + $40 upgrade fee = $240 upfront cost to upgrade each line.

Total cost/month = $100 + (40*4) = $260/month.



New plan: $100 for 15GB mobile share data. 4 lines sharing 15GB of data = 3.75 GB per line--so you get more data than previous plan.

Lines 1-4: $15/month per line.

Total cost = $100 + (15*4) = $160/month = savings of $100/month compared to old plan while nobody has upgraded.

Now for the ease of calculation, let's say 1 line upgrades to the iPhone 6 on the ATT Next 18 plan (can trade-in after 18 payments/months or you own it outright after 24 payments/months).

Upgraded line: $15 + 27.08 (cost of iPhone per month) = $42.08/month

So old plan was $40/month, new plan with upgrade is $42.08/month = difference of $2.08/month. Now that $2.08/month over the 24 months = $49.92. But you don't have to pay the $240 for phone outright + upgrade fee as before, so you're saving $190 ($240 - $49.92) over the 24 months. Plus at the end of 24 months, you can request to unlock it from the carrier and sell however you wish (trade-in, eBay, Swappa, Gazelle, etc.) just the way you have always done. And if you want to compare apples to apples, you still get the same resale value.

How is this paying more money????

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Where is this plan at on ATT? 2 lines every way I try to add it up from them with my own phones runs 120+

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you won't find a price as good....we were discussing how the larger pools of data were cheaper, making it cheaper per line when you add more lines to your share plan


we only have 2 phones in my household as well...but if we could find another couple or family members to add to our plan, we could all save each other money

truth is, with 1 or 2 lines, the mobile share plans don't benefit you much at all

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Before, the remaining cost of your phone was built into your wireless plan.

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Except they dropped the base price of the plan. My 2 year contract was $85 for 450 min, 1500 texts, and 2GB.

Last night I switched to a "discounted" $65 plan that gives me unlimited talk and text with 3gb of data.

If I choose to do a standard phone upgrade when my ATT contract is up in DECEMBER, then my monthly plan goes back up to $85. If I don't "upgrade" my phone, then my bill stays $65.

My monthly bills goes up if I upgrade (subsidize) my phone or use the Next payment plan.

I can now save money by never "upgrading" my phone or buying a used phone.

Yes:

I bought an LG G3 on Swappa.. You don't need an old phone or one of theirs. You just need to make sure you get a GSM phone for ATT and Tmobile SIM cards or a CDMA for the Verizon side. (Not sure if LTE is flowing for most carriers for CDMA lines)

I'm paying about $50 less per month for 5 smart phones on my AT&T plan and we switched to the NEXT plan on 3 of those and the other two have not been changed yet.

We can argue all day long, but my monthly bill is lower and I have the same exact plan I had before.

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The bottom line is there is now a buy option when before there was only a short term lease option.

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I hear ya and I agree. I'm just confused why everyone is running around screaming that the next plan is AT&T's master plan to screw them.