Data packages only avalable with monthly plans starting 4/18!!

[smsgator]

This will come back to AT&T to bite them, just as it did for DSL landline providers who tried their mightiest to force the voice tax with data there.

Verizon's landline service is ending naked DSL service and re instituting the voice tax.

[fonezfonz]

Aren't you the one who was shilling for other prepaid plans in the GoPhone Forum? That's loyalty for you.
http://www.howardforums.com/showthre...es-work/page31
http://www.howardforums.com/showthre...es-work/page30

Prepaid plans can change at any time. The suggestions I make are based on as close to real time alternatives as possible when such a thing happens to a carrier . When a prepaid carrier changes their policies and don't allow grandfathering options for older customers who are currently on that plan (like H20 seems to), that element of loyalty goes out the window.

VM isn't the greatest here either and even Att is inconsistent. There are still a few users on the old Gophone unlimited data $20 plan but they aren't going to GF the current paygo users for data? Makes no sense as far as consistency is concerned.

And Customer loyalty is simple, be loyal to those customers , however when you monkey around with what is keeping them loyal, why should they be?

As for other companies, the prepaid landscape is changing constantly and I merely suggest other alternatives to those who choose to look elsewhere to find something that might more match their needs , especially when what they are/were using is either no longer offered or changes in a way that introduces a minus for them (throttle, cap, higher cost, lower amount, etc).

And as for shill, it appears, you have a vested interest in Att considering all the defending/moderating you do of their policies.

[smsgator]

If this is what is AT&T's mentality, than that must mean they're making so much money that they don't care if they lose even several million users (& tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars) a year. Considering that every quarter, they're still adding at least a million postpaid people, than I guess AT&T can afford to become postpay only.

The low ARPU prepaid customers they lose are the necessary fallout of preventing the use of prepaid by smart phone users that make few voice calls and that can get by with 500MB or less of data per month. Clearly they ran the numbers and decided that this was the more profitable approach to take.

It's not just the current prepaid customers they're so worried about. It's looking at the trends of voice minutes and data. Now that unlimited 3G data is gone, subscribers are watching their data usage more carefully and are apt to realize that they're using only a fraction of their 2GB/month, especially with the incentive to use Wi-Fi when available rather than to automatically use 3G.

In 2011, 80% of smart phone users were under 500MB of data per month. I suspect that when AT&T ran the numbers they were alarmed to realize that the vast majority of their smart phone customers would pay far less for the same usage if they switched to prepaid with a 500MB (or smaller) data package; those customers don't realize it--yet.

What keeps many users under contract of course is the highly subsidized handsets, but for those that are good at math they may realize that it would be better to pay full price for a handset and switch to prepaid--AT&T has now eliminated that problem.

If I had just bought an expensive handset and/or had a big balance on prepaid, I would take AT&T to small claims court. While they're free to do whatever they want in the future, selling a product then completely changing the terms and conditions would not be looked upon favorably by a judge (and you see that in AT&T's recent losses in small claims court related to throttling). Win or lose, the case would go viral and AT&T probably does still care, at least a little, about their image.

[smsgator]

Only thing I tell those who are effected and thinking of switching be very careful and do a lot of research. The saving with st, rp, etc. are great and worth the trouble but whenever you have a problem their CS is jumping out a plane with no parachute! Never had a problem with rp but I guarantee if I do I'm going to hate it! Online chats and Facebook are better ways to get fast answers on any problems! If your not wanting to do that them just stick where you are

That's true, but how often do you really have to contact CS?

RP has never been a very good deal, but it doesn't look bad compared against GoPhone's 500MB/$25 plus 250 minutes/$25. $59.99 for 2GB of data plus unlimited voice and text.

ST is the real good deal, especially now that they are selling SIM cards and don't require the rigmarole and expense of buying a phone just to get the SIM card. Unlimited voice, text, and data for as little as $42.50/month. Well unlimited really isn't unlimited, but reportedly it's at least 2GB.

[PL1]

Of course the net result will be that these users will leave AT&T completely, not sign up for a monthly plan, so revenue will decrease, but ARPU will increase.

Hi, New user here, Just wanted to say, that sums it up for me. I'm definitely leaving AT&T Wireless completely. I came to them from T-Mobile because they started offering prepaid data. Now, they take it away without Grandfathering any of it. That is not how to earn customer loyalty. Anyone asks me? I'll tell them stay far far away. Unlike the Amazon model of customer service, AT&T's is hit and run away.

[ThaKizzle]

That's true, but how often do you really have to contact CS?

RP has never been a very good deal, but it doesn't look bad compared against GoPhone's 500MB/$25 plus 250 minutes/$25. $59.99 for 2GB of data plus unlimited voice and text.

ST is the real good deal, especially now that they are selling SIM cards and don't require the rigmarole and expense of buying a phone just to get the SIM card. Unlimited voice, text, and data for as little as $42.50/month. Well unlimited really isn't unlimited, but reportedly it's at least 2GB.

Just because you don't contact consumer service doesn't mean all do. Regardless CS is something to consider no matter what company you go to. St not 2gb because others have been kicked off before even reaching that limit! Really nobody knows the actual limit and rather be with a company that tell you upfront what your getting regardless of the 10 dollar price difference between st and other AT&T mvno's. I had the st sim swap way when the e71 was 200 and even then I got my data turned off at 60mb of use! Just glad I got my refund and been with red pocket since then!

[CeluGeek]

ST is the real good deal, especially now that they are selling SIM cards and don't require the rigmarole and expense of buying a phone just to get the SIM card. Unlimited voice, text, and data for as little as $42.50/month. Well unlimited really isn't unlimited, but reportedly it's at least 2GB.

Straight Talk is not a good option, unless you are a light user. Not only there is an undisclosed 2 GB monthly limit on their so-called unlimited data plan, but there's an equally undisclosed DAILY limit of 100 MB. Use 150 MB or more three days in a row, and you'll get the warning call of them complaining you are using too much data. Unless you are really a light user and expect to continue that trend, stay away from NET10 and Straight Talk.

[ThaKizzle]

Straight Talk is not a good option, unless you are a light user. Not only there is an undisclosed 2 GB monthly limit on their so-called unlimited data plan, but there's an equally undisclosed DAILY limit of 100 MB. Use 150 MB or more three days in a row, and you'll get the warning call of them complaining you are using too much data. Unless you are really a light user and expect to continue that trend, stay away from NET10 and Straight Talk.

Yea you have to be a light user to enjoy st or net10 Byod. Unless you have wifi where you go all the time then not worth it! Not downing st on what they offer but what they don't disclose and the ways they operate

[Bob859]

I have had a bit of a setback with my plan to use a Tru Phone SIM to access data, where I can't get Platinumtel/Sprint. The SIM arrived and I activated it. I put it in three different unlocked AT&T phones. I entered the settings that Tru Phone gave me. To my disappointment, I could not access data on any of the phones. It works on AT&T for voice, but not data. I called customer service. They said that their SIM accesses data on T-Mobile, but not AT&T. So much for that idea.

[fonezfonz]

Prepaid data is going to become more and more of a needed/wanted commodity as the market continues to shift away from feature phones to smartphones . And data usage will increase on average over the year. Tmobile and Att have both clipped the wings of gsm data paygo users on phones pretty much for paygo.
Tmobile is pushing unlimited daily and monthly plans , both of which make them more money then paygo and Att is simply reducing it.

I don't think they are going to be allowing their mvnos much of a data allowance either.
Paygo data options for users who are mostly data is down to pretty much Boost cdma with some Sprint byod (no 4G/LTE/Wimax, Android, newer phones) with their high 20 cent per text /minute rate. Their unlimited 50 cents a day paid on every day (10.50 for a 30 day cycle ) appears to be one of the few options left. Ptel has a good rate too at 10 cents a meg but they have very limited byod. Both are limited by Sprint native coverage with no roaming options.

It's the bad old days where it's either/or . You either have a monthly plan or don't.

[smsgator]

Straight Talk is not a good option, unless you are a light user. Not only there is an undisclosed 2 GB monthly limit on their so-called unlimited data plan, but there's an equally undisclosed DAILY limit of 100 MB. Use 150 MB or more three days in a row, and you'll get the warning call of them complaining you are using too much data. Unless you are really a light user and expect to continue that trend, stay away from NET10 and Straight Talk.

The data users on AT&T prepaid are, by definition, pretty light data users. At 500MB/month that's only an average of 16.67MB/day for a 30 day month. Even though ST is really not unlimited, 100MB of data per day, along with unlimited voice and text, on a decent network, for $41.58 per month, is a very good deal. Red Pocket is 44% more expensive.

Personally my whole family is on Pageplus, all with Android phones. I recently dropped the 1200 minute/3000 texts/100MB for $30 plan because I was not using enough data to make it worthwhile. With so much free Wi-Fi around I was using only about 30MB of 3G data a month, and probably half of that was unnecessary use. So I'm trying out the $12 250 minutes/250 texts/10MB of data plan. Even if I have to pay a little extra over 10MB, it's unlikely to come anywhere near the $30 I was paying (and I can always switch back). Their $55 plan with 1GB plus unlimited voice and text isn't a bad deal either, and it's on Verizon which has much better coverage than AT&T.

[graveboss]

The BBB is a joke. What you should do is to file in small claims court if you recently added sufficient money to the account to make the filing fee worthwhile. It's not just that you have a good case, it's the incredible hassle for AT&T to fight thousands of small claims court cases, as is what's happening with the throttling of unlimited users.

Apparently AT&T is paying the small claims awards, and not appealing, see http://news.yahoo.com/t-scotches-app...213224134.html.

I know don't know what your experience is with BBB.org, but I have used BBB.org before and I have come out on top. Of course I went after GoDaddy.com for a domain issue, not AT&T. But I will say this, if a current AT&T GoPhone is going to go this route, then they should wait until 4/18 because its seems like nothing is official yet and all the customer has is a text message and a few CSR's to account for the changes. And small claims court isn't really an option for most users/customers.

[gensuki]

My company issued Blackberries on AT&T so I've used AT&T for years. When I left the company in November, I continued with AT&T using prepaid because they were fine and it was what I knew. Now that they have eliminated the data packages for my 10cents/minute deal, I am dropping them as soon as my minutes expire. Unfotunately, that will be next year since I bought $100 to use for minutes and data packages, now to be used only for minutes. I will try to hook up with an AT&T 3rd-party provider since I have an AT&T phone. So at the end of the year, I'll see who is left standing and figure out if I can get a small amount of data for a reasonable price.

Today was a good example of what I needed the data package for. Power went out in my house so of course wifi was not working. I looked up the power company outage number on my phone and called them. Next month I won't be able to do that. Grrrrr.

[efparri]

You should save that number in your contacts once you found it.

[PL1]

I will try to hook up with an AT&T 3rd-party provider since I have an AT&T phone. So at the end of the year, I'll see who is left standing and figure out if I can get a small amount of data for a reasonable price.

No need to stay with AT&T. Any GSM carrier including T-Mobile should work on your phone. The only issue, if it is one for you, is that T-Mobile uses different frequencies for 3G, so if you are getting 3G on AT&T, you would probably be limited to 2G/Edge on T-mobile. But, your talk and text would be fine, just slower data speeds.