My calendar has a reminder to "reset my statistics" tomorrow for my cell phone plan. And it got me to thinking about the variety of cell phone plans out there. People always seem to be looking for a better plan. Then I realized that I seem to have the perfect plan...for me. I get unlimited calls and texts and 500MB of high speed data, after which it's unlimited but throttled in speed to 128 kbps. I've yet to come close to my monthly high-speed limit. And it's costing me $20/mo. including all fees and taxes. Most importantly, for 99% of where I go, I always have a decent signal. Most of the time, it's a great signal. It's such a nice feeling to not constantly be looking for a better deal. Now, I suppose they could change it at any time (see "grandfathered" thread earlier this week). But for the time being, I'm very pleased with this particular part of my hi-tech life. How about you?

which carrier you have, which plan?

I am using ATT, because my former company used ATT and Verizon, and I wanted to keep the same number. So I have to stick with ATT for 2 more months to be able to unlock the phone, then I plan to switch to Xfinity (Verizon). Wife is also on ATT (prepaid) and I just got her iPhone unlocked a few days ago, so it's time to switch her to Xfinity as well. One kid is on T-Mobile prepaid ($3 per month), so I am thinking to switch him to Xfinity as well (if I turn off his cell data, it will only be taxes and fees which are $2.77 here).

Xfinity offers 5 lines per account, we are 4 people (the little one does not use a cell phone yet), but I think I am going to get all 5 lines just to have some spare phones for visitors.

I have six phones on ATT Unlimited Plus with tethering, I pay about $200/m, not counting all the phone payments as well.

EDIT: I do have a small corp discount, about 5%. Overall service has been great, and now I get free HBO on my DirecTV and HBO Now on my AppleTV/phones as well. I have uVerse and that gets me more discounts. While I'm all for Internet Equality, I will take what I can get.

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San Antonio, TX (in the old city)


"All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing."
-- Edmund Burke
“Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."
-- Eli Weisel

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." Theodore Roosevelt (1918)




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/09/2018 06:36PM by Rolando.

On AT&T.

I recently checked to see whether any current plans were better than what I've got and they're all worse at or above the same amount of data, so I'm stuck with it for now.

What pisses me off is AT&T's secret $10/month "because we can" charge that they don't disclose until you're about to seal the deal on the $10/month LTE Apple Watch plan. It turns their advertised $10/month plan into a $20/month plan. Apparently, Verizon does the same thing in this region (and when I followed up with Verizon I found that they've colluded to the point where all of the plans come to the same amount as AT&T down almost to the penny).

T-Mobile supposedly sticks to their advertised rates. $10 bucks is $10 bucks. But there's no coverage with T-Mobile in this area.

So, am I "happy" with my plan? No. Not with the plan, nor the provider. But there's not a lot of choice. And it could be worse. Heck, in this regulatory environment, it's certain to be worse any day now.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/09/2018 06:33PM by Sarcany.

Sure, as an individual it might be OK. But my family would eat thru 500 MB of data in just a few days.

We have ATT -- been with them for many, many years, even before they were ATT. Service is alway excllent, so kind hate to switch. Wish I could get mine cheaper. we are 3 lines, 6 GB month full speed, then unlimted throttled after (also rolls over) @ I think $130 a month. Need to add another line in about 3 months = another $25 a month. Ugh. So $155.

I have a $10 a month Corp discount I would lose by swtiching. And of course, we all have ATT phones, so would need to factor in new phone costs. Family would be fine with new, but I just want to keep my SE...

A 4 line plan with Verizon is the same $150.

xfinyt is $45 per line (unlimted) so $200 for 4 lines. If I drop down to 3 GB per line, its $144. Back to same ATT price. xfinty can be a huge savings if you use little data. 4 lines are $50. (these prices dont include taxes or other what not)

So not moving.

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Edited 999 time(s). Last edit at 12:08PM by jdc.

Yeah, definitely only worth it for me, individually. My family stayed with our T-Mobile Unlimited family Plan which works great for the three of them as they all get good signals where they are. I couldn't get any signal at work, so I bailed and went to Puretalk (ATT mvno). If I had a signal, I would have been happy to jump on the senior plan with T-Mo, but it wasn't to be. But right now, I'm happy, they;'re happy. It's all good.

Wirecutter updated their evaluation recently, but left most recommendations in place. They pointed to Whistleout as a good site to check MVNOs. I plugged in our family numbers (and Verizon) and it came back with a $95 plan for four lines and 25Gb of shared data using Verizon on Total Wireless. I have not moved to them so far...but it sounds interesting. The biggest negative seems to be no international roaming.

I put my parents on Tracfone (on Verizon) with 500Mb for $17 a month each prepaid to the credit card.

Unlimited talk and text, and 100 GB (yes you read that correctly) of data for around 15 bucks a month. I cancelled my home internet and just tether from the phone.

No, I am not in the US....

I hear you fauch... every time I travel to Europe, I pick up a prepaid SIM, and for like 5 or 6 Euro I can get virtually unlimited talk and text, and 6-10 GB of data. And with contract, you can get even more data or even unlimited data.

But, do you still run extension cords to your neighbors?

Quote
Sarcany
What pisses me off is AT&T's secret $10/month "because we can" charge that they don't disclose until you're about to seal the deal on the $10/month LTE Apple Watch plan. It turns their advertised $10/month plan into a $20/month plan.

Is that where ATT charges $10, but taxes and fees bring it to about $18?

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San Antonio, TX (in the old city)


"All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing."
-- Edmund Burke
“Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."
-- Eli Weisel

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." Theodore Roosevelt (1918)

Quote
Rolando

Quote
Sarcany
What pisses me off is AT&T's secret $10/month "because we can" charge that they don't disclose until you're about to seal the deal on the $10/month LTE Apple Watch plan. It turns their advertised $10/month plan into a $20/month plan.

Is that where ATT charges $10, but taxes and fees bring it to about $18?

I had a very long series of chats and phone calls with AT&T about this.

There was a brief summary of charges that listed $.80 in taxes at one point in the process. $10 service fee. $.80 in taxes. $9 in "fees."

Beyond that, they refused to itemize. One of the people that I spoke to said that my state allows them to charge any fees they cared to levy per device and as this was an additional device, they were allowed to charge additional fees.

I didn't get far pointing out that the $10/month that we started with (plus $30 activation which they said they'd waive, but didn't waive when I got that far into the activation) was, itself, a fee.

I was escalated to someone who was allegedly a manager and his suggestion was that I should activate the watch at $20/month and then contest the fees when I got my first bill.

Not sure what that would accomplish. When I asked him what the likely result of that would be, he said that he was instructed to tell people that and then he cut off the call.

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Surcharges and Other Fees
3. Administrative Fee 1.26
4. Federal Universal Service Charge 1.43
5. Regulatory Cost Recovery Charge 1.25
6. State Cost-Recovery Fee 0.07
7. Texas Universal Service 0.49
Total Surcharges and Other Fees 4.50

Government Fees and Taxes
8. 9-1-1 Service Fee 0.50
9. 911 Equalization Surcharge 0.06
10. City Sales Tax - Telecom 0.31
11. TX State Sales Tax - Telecom 1.54
Total Government Fees and Taxes 2.41

Total 6.91 In "fees & taxes" on top of what ATT says is theirs.

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San Antonio, TX (in the old city)


"All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing."
-- Edmund Burke
“Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."
-- Eli Weisel

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." Theodore Roosevelt (1918)

I'm on Boom (Verizon MVNO) for $30 per month out-the-door. It has 2 GB data and unlimited talk and text. My wife is on Google Project Fi because it has overseas service (through TMobile). Her service is $24 this last month because she just doesn't use much data. I'm happy with both.

I might shift us to Tmobile senior for $70 for 2 depending on the new fall iPhones and presuming a BOGO. The Project Fi cheap phone that my wife has (Nexus 5) apparently bootloops pretty commonly although hers has been flawless. I'd be irritated if I have to replace it within a couple of years (it's 1 year old now). The downside of Tmobile vs. Project Fi is that it would end up costing about $15 a month more and the Tmobile overseas service is sllllllow (2G speed) unless you buy a $10 add-on bump up in speed. I don't know if that's just for the month of service--that wouldn't be bad, at all.

No, att 'grandfathered' plan.

I'm looking for something else. I've got four Watches because I like the looks of different cases, but not of them are S3LTEs.

And I imagine att will want to charge $10+ per Watch for LTE service. If that's the case, then I'd only have one LTE Watch. The rest would be GPS only.

I see that some places are selling iPads with data plans, now. No way would I need data for more than one month in a row.

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When a good man is hurt,
all who would be called good
must suffer with him.

You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

There is no safety for honest men
except by believing all possible evil
of evil men.

We don’t do focus groups. They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products. —Sir Jonathan Ive

Perfection is the enemy of progress. -Winston Churchill

-An armed society is a polite society.
And hope is a lousy defense.

You make me pull, I'll put you down.

Mister, that's a ten-gallon hat on a twenty-gallon head.

I *love* Sigs. It's Glocks I hate.

I'm thrilled with my Tmobile plan. I have 9 unlimited lines for less than $270, with the possibility (happens on half of the lines each month) of $5 per line kickback for <2GB usage per line.

Free Netflix, unlimited international text and data (stated to be 2GB, but in my experience (Spain, England, Israel, New Zealand) is not throttled, friendly (but sometimes) incompetent customer service, and good (but not great) coverage make me a happy camper.

T-mobile prepaid - 100 minutes talk, unlimited text and internet (throttled after 5 gig) for $30 a month - spouse has the $3/month plan - neither of us ever come close to using it all.

I think the most talk I ever used was 40 minutes, and about 1 gig of data

So with 1 or 2 exceptions, $40 a line is about average, no matter where you go, or unless you are a person that uses little data.

Our "average" family of 4 (2 adults and 2 young teenage girls) has used 4500 MB of our 6500 MB plan, which resets on the 15th. The oldest girl has used the most, close to 3000 MB. Ive used 307... =)

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Edited 999 time(s). Last edit at 12:08PM by jdc.

Quote
RAMd®d
...I imagine att will want to charge $10+ per Watch for LTE service. If that's the case, then I'd only have one LTE Watch. The rest would be GPS only.

This is what I'm telling you guys: AT&T charges $20 per month per watch in my state and charges are probably pretty close to that elsewhere. They say that it's $10 until you go to activate service and then they reveal that it's $10 plus arbitrary FEES.

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.......same goes with landline.......thus why people are cutting landline phones........they charge the base monthly fee for service, then there are taxes, etc. that add additional 50-70% every month........

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I reject your reality and substitute my own!