Thoughts on the AT&T tiered data plan?

[e1000sn]

My 2 cents:
I use about 600 megs a month mostly because of Pandora. I would happily uninstall Pandora if it meant I could have a $15 a month plan. If only AT&T offered some decent Android phones. I do think I'll check out the backflip.

I know that some people are outraged at the loss of the 5 gigabyte "unlimited" plan, but by not claiming the plan is unlimited there is room for incremental competition. I could see a scenario where Verizon offers a $15 plan that includes 250 megabytes; let the competition begin.

 

[colnago]

I think the pricing tier is out of balance.

 

[ewingr]

I have mixed emotions about it. If AT&T ever gets a decent Android phone, I anticipate i will use more data than now. based on my current use, it would be good for me, and I would use the $15 plan. With the Android, I'll probably go wiht the $25 plan. But my wife too will be on a Smart phone, and likely will use the $15 plan.

I checked the 'time will tell' option on the voting, but I think I just realized it will likely be somewhate better for me from a cost perspective.

Now, if they don't get a good high end Android phone soon (Galaxy S hopefully, or at least comparable to the Incredible), I will be gone anyway.

[EDIT]
I do think the tethering cost is a ripoff given that it does not increate the data quota.

 

[Chroma]

I used 3 gb d/l last month. Not happy, but I am able to keep my current unlimited* and so shall.

 

[xmr405o]

Bad thing only because it won't be long until VZW implements the same data tier. Hopefully their data plans will be more broad than the two tier plan that ATT is starting.

One good thing- I believe this will turn people away from ATT and Iphone. Which will bring more eyes to the Android system. Because if I had an Iphone, I would go through 2GB in less than two weeks.

I wonder how Apple feels about ATT's tiered data plans.

 

[HustlinDaily]

Looks like its time to jump ship to Sprint.

Though I just bought my GSM phone. Sooo next year lol.

 

[xmr405o]

Looks like its time to jump ship to Sprint.

Though I just bought my GSM phone. Sooo next year lol.

That's a good plan. I bet Sprint will be getting some of ATT's and VZW's customers if they both plan to price data using the tiered method.

 

[Aaronneyer]

I personally love it. I'm gonna try to save some money by switching to the 200 MB plan and just using Wi-fi whenever I can.

 

[SBCT]

I use about 500-600 megs per month so the tiered plan would save me a few dollars. Like previously mentioned, I could also consider using WiFi at home and work and only use the verizon network when I am out of range of either of these and I could probably get my useage way down. Either way it would save me a few dollars so I am for it!

 

[IOWA]

Ahh another reason I'm happy with sprint. Evo4g + unlimited data. Woohoo!

Tapatalk. Samsung Moment. Yep.

 

[tsanuri]

It is hard for me to say I think time will tell but my gut tells me something is up. No company out of the kindness of their heart will do something that will lower profits. And the only way that they can make profits off this is due to overages or that they hope by lowering the price they will get that many more subs in.

 

[e1000sn]

I agree, they probably did this because they anticipate higher profits, but perhaps this could turn into a win-win kind of scenario.

$30 a month was scaring many customers away from smartphones, perhaps what they loose in profit margin, they will gain in quantity. The whole 'unlimited' thing worked well when nobody could use it, but now we all have awesome smartphones that can monopolize their bandwidth. By making people pay for the bandwidth they use, AT&T will lower usage and raise income-per-usage.

 

[Railz]

Personally, I like their tidbit about 95% of the customers only using 200MB and the rest will get the hit.

Uh AT&T, if it was true that only 5% of costumers went to 2gig and you only charged them 5$ more and NINETY-FIVE PERCENT you dropped 5 dollars, then you'd be loosing a hole shit full of money.

I think you lied about the usage AT&T, if it is indeed to save money.

 

[IOWA]

Personally, I like their tidbit about 95% of the customers only using 200MB and the rest will get the hit.

Uh AT&T, if it was true that only 5% of costumers went to 2gig and you only charged them 5$ more and NINETY-FIVE PERCENT you dropped 5 dollars, then you'd be loosing a hole shit full of money.

I think you lied about the usage AT&T, if it is indeed to save money.

I think they lumped dumbphone users in that category. Most dumbphone users don't use much if any data at all.

Tapatalk. Samsung Moment. Yep.

 

[Aerimus]

My only problem is Tethering. The justification for charging extra for tethering has always been that you would end up using more data on the unlimited plan. So if you're changing the plans to charge appropriately for the specific amount of data used....why are you going to charge an extra $20 for tethering? This makes absolutely no sense to me and seems like a complete ripoff.

 

[powrful1]

I have checked my usage since I got my droid the first day it came out w/verizon....never over 2GB, usually over 1GB so for me it would probably work and the price isn't too bad...but I will hold onto unlimited as long as I can if verizon tries to follow suit.

 

[e1000sn]

RIM is loving the new pricing. I've heard that blackberry email is more efficient, but I was surprized when I read that the average data use of a blackberry was less than 60 megs. Obviously their browser sucks and that is partially responsible for the low data usage. But still, blackberry users are going to be eating that $15 plan up.

 

[tsanuri]

I think they lumped dumbphone users in that category. Most dumbphone users don't use much if any data at all.

Tapatalk. Samsung Moment. Yep.

I really do not think they did since if you look at the cisco study from a few months ago I think said the adverage user was at 1.3gb. The problem is that the same study said by 2014 that will be a 7gb which is an adverage increase of about 1.4gb a month per year. So if that study is right then by next year they will be making an extra $5 per user that changes away from the unlimited plan and $25 more the next year. So unless things change this will hurt people exponentially in just a few years.

 

[Tre Lawrence]

I think more carriers will start creating tiers for data. Data is the new voice.