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

[naranja]

I should have been more patient with ditching AT&T
I already ported my number to Airvoice a few months ago.

Is it worthwhile to attempt to setup another PayGo account to take advantage of this $1 m2m loophole? I really don't like paying 33 cents/MB for data on Airvoice.

How would I go about reestablishing the ATT account? ...
Thanks!

Buy an AT&T Gophone sim from att online, an att store, or ebay. Activate it on the 10 cents a minute plan no need to add money. Then call and switch to the $1 a day plan. Then port your number back over to att or consider porting your number to google voice and aiming at your new gophone. If you run into a glitch along the way you're out only a few bucks but should work without too much effort based on everybody's experiences.

[Rob S]

I came up with a very strange solution. I use two gophones.

I'd had a cheap little gophone for voice only, and really liked switiching from 10 cents to $2. Right before the plan changed, I bought a cheap refurb feature phone to check out, Pantech Link, liked the web browser, etc. esp for $5 data. But then they changed the plan. So I decided to keep both phones. The original phone is still on the 10 cents/$2 plan, so lots of routine calls are dirt cheap. (Especially on big talking days with the $2 option.) I switched the Link to the $1/day plan, virtually never use it for talking, just data. The new higher amts of data for $5 data package last forever on a feature phone. So, I pay $25 for 3 months for each phone, never approach the limits, always rollover voice & data.

For both phones together, it only comes out to $16.67/month, pretty cheap and gives me more than I ever wanted.

[Jairzinho]

I came up with a very strange solution. I use two gophones.

I'd had a cheap little gophone for voice only, and really liked switiching from 10 cents to $2. Right before the plan changed, I bought a cheap refurb feature phone to check out, Pantech Link, liked the web browser, etc. esp for $5 data. But then they changed the plan. So I decided to keep both phones. The original phone is still on the 10 cents/$2 plan, so lots of routine calls are dirt cheap. (Especially on big talking days with the $2 option.) I switched the Link to the $1/day plan, virtually never use it for talking, just data. The new higher amts of data for $5 data package last forever on a feature phone. So, I pay $25 for 3 months for each phone, never approach the limits, always rollover voice & data.

For both phones together, it only comes out to $16.67/month, pretty cheap and gives me more than I ever wanted.

I may end up ditching Airvoice for data on my iPhone as it seems that they will never come up with some reasonable data packages for PAYG service, and instead do what you did and switch one of my junk GoPhone accounts to $1 M2M and use it for data only instead. I cannot use it for voice too as it'd become too expensive for me as I use the phone 1 or 2 minutes most of the days. I'm already carrying two phones so this won't be any worse and I wont have to be so careful about not using too much data when no wifi is available as I am today. Airvoice's $0.33/MB can get expensive if one is not careful and diligent on the use of cellular data, especially with an iPhone.

I'd think that after having passed more than three months since at&t shot itself in its foot with the data packages thing, they would have realized by now that many light users didn't and won't budge to their mandatory minimum $25 voice tax for their data service, and would have taken some action to reverse that misstep, but it seems that this will not be the case in the near future.

[r_calimer]

Thanks in advance for your time and answers, I have the 10 cents a min plan with At&t and have a balance of $215.00, if I ask At&t to switch my PAYG plan to $1 M-M will I lose my balance of $215.00 or will they roll it over to the $1 M-M plan?
Thanks
r_ :-)

[pofpof]

let me apologize first as I'm not tech savvy and my question might seem dumb

If I switch to $1 per day mobile to mobile plan will I be able to use a smart phone on that plan and only buy the $5 data plan

here's more detailed explanation

I'm on the 10 cent per minute plan with a regular phone, I used to buy $5 data package for mobile web etc (basic weather check, twitter etc). When they cancelled the data packages I started to pay for usage. I only talk around 60 min or so per month and use very low data so $25 a month plus data package was expensive for me. Currently I'm thinking about replacing my regular phone with Samsung Galaxy Appeal so I'm looking for the best way to do it for the lowest cost.

Thank you for your answers

[naranja]

...I cannot use it for voice too as it'd become too expensive for me as I use the phone 1 or 2 minutes most of the days. I'm already carrying two phones...

Unless your calls are mission critical it would seem like there would be a free or cheap solution that would fit for those couple of minutes a day. There are drawbacks: using seperate dialers, setting up new accounts, possible call quality issues if using cell data instead of wifi, batttery life, etc. but it would eliminate the cost and hassle of carrying two phones.

Talkatone and Groove IP with GV work for free out going calls, not sure how effective for incoming. Vonage has a new app that lets you make free (for now) calls and lets you set the out going caller id to any phone number you own. Excellent quality for outgoing, doesn't work for incoming. Groundwire is an app that can be used with your home voip service if you have, or set up with free or cheap VOIP services, some of whom offer custom caller id. Groundwire works excellent for incoming calls and also offers a codec optimised for cellular data. There are tons more options.

********
For people with questions on att's $1 m-m plan start with the last post on page 34 for details and let us know if you are successful in switching!

[Vince888]

I might get the answer wrong so I will just post the cheapest on AT&T i have done.
I have the $25 talk plan that gives me the option of 3 data plans and to carry over unused date need to auto top up or buy before expire data date.$5 50mb, $15 250mb, $25 1gig.
AT&T is brutal changing the plans 3 or 4 x in the last few months . Before I only had $100 a year Go Phone card and carried over the unused minutes.I use verry little date but do need it so am stuck to pay the $25 month talk plan. Changing the data on line on how little I need it can stay under $150 a year estimate but prisioner to the $300 talk a year when I might only talk 15 to 30 minutes a month. For a little more a year I may as well go on the family share plan with someone in my family . Tracphone I hear is cheaper but I dont want a smaller smart phone already have AT&T smallest



someone e mailed me :
If I switch to $1 per day mobile to mobile plan will I be able to use a smart phone on that plan and only buy the $5 data plan
Here's more detailed explanation
I'm on the 10 cent per minute plan with a regular phone, I used to buy $5 data package for mobile web etc (basic weather check, twitter etc). When they cancelled the data packages I started to pay for usage. I only talk around 60 min or so per month and use very low data so $25 a month plus data package was expensive for me. Currently I'm thinking about replacing my regular phone with Samsung Galaxy Appeal so I'm looking for the best way to do it for the lowest cost.

[DreamOWD]

I want to join the party!

After leaving AT&T for some time, I decided to go ahead and do $50.

$25 a month for voice
$25 for 1GB of data

But now I read this!!!!

I want:

$1 mobile-to-mobile with 1GB data package for $25.

If it works, I'll go ahead and activate the auto refill.

Can I do that today?

[dehory]

Word of warning: I switched to the $1 mobile-to-mobile plan over the weekend and my rolled-over data got wiped out. I'd just purchased a 200 MB package the previous week. When I called, the first rep said he couldn't help me because the system wouldn't let him add prepaid data plans for iPhone 4s. The second rep said a similar thing (are they cracking down on iPhones?) but offered me a $15 account credit, which I gratefully accepted.

All that said, everything is working fine now. I added a 50 MB package with auto-renew with no problems. I'd just advise anyone with a large amount of rolled-over data to think before jumping...

[cacophony555]

Word of warning: I switched to the $1 mobile-to-mobile plan over the weekend and my rolled-over data got wiped out. I'd just purchased a 200 MB package the previous week. When I called, the first rep said he couldn't help me because the system wouldn't let him add prepaid data plans for iPhone 4s. The second rep said a similar thing (are they cracking down on iPhones?) but offered me a $15 account credit, which I gratefully accepted.

All that said, everything is working fine now. I added a 50 MB package with auto-renew with no problems. I'd just advise anyone with a large amount of rolled-over data to think before jumping...

Calling to complain about data not rolling over to a plan that's not supposed to allow data is not a good idea.

[su_A_ve]

Darn! I knew about the change and was ok with paying $25 a month and adding $5 for data, provided the data kept rolling over. (this is my kids phone - heavy txting and some data, but light calls) All of a sudden, I realize yesterday when refilling it, that data rolled over data is gone - I thought it was slowly used (I started with 500mb 6 months ago). So I went ahead and added 1gb for $25.

And now I realized that data no longer rolls over??? WTF.

This is an iPhone 3gs unlocked by ATT - so I have two months to move away (based on my $100 balance), but to what? TMO? I have a some SIMS from them, so I need to just port the number?

TIA for any advice...

[dehory]

Calling to complain about data not rolling over to a plan that's not supposed to allow data is not a good idea.

The rep who initially switched my plan over said nothing about data not transferring over to the new plan, so when I called back about the lost data quota, I politely played it dumb and said it seemed they'd made a mistake when switching me over. I figured at the very worst, they'd tell me the $1 mobile to mobile plan didn't support data packages and I'd just have to switch back to the $25 monthly plan -- and at best, they'd give me a data or account balance credit. I didn't really have anything to lose.

[ppa]

Actually, at worst they'd look into why this plan has data in the first place and correct it. But hey, $25 is worth that gamble, right?

Sent from my Wildfire S A510e using HowardForums

[cacophony555]

Actually, at worst they'd look into why this plan has data in the first place and correct it. But hey, $25 is worth that gamble, right?

Sent from my Wildfire S A510e using HowardForums

At worst you'd unintentionally call attention to an irregularity with the data settings for the $1 M2M, and they'd report it which would shut off the data purchase loophole for all AT&T customers.

There's a saying on slickdeals: Never call.
I think that same rule should apply here

[1earful]

At worst you'd unintentionally call attention to an irregularity with the data settings for the $1 M2M, and they'd report it which would shut off the data purchase loophole for all AT&T customers.

There's a saying on slickdeals: Never call.
I think that same rule should apply here

you really believe at&t doesn't monitor these forums? right now no one is paying much attention from a policy perspective because of other things (opening up those new lte networks, setting up a new plan for charging for data usage), but i think eventually this "loophole" will be closed. till then folks should just enjoy.