To ditch AT&T or not ditch AT&T, that is the question....

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the dropped calls and unlimited data plan alterations, or to take arms with the sea of 'Droids and by opposing, end deceptive billing practices, ay, there’s the rub!

Sorry, couldn’t resist torturing Hamlet’s soliloquy :wink: …

Anyway, I’ve never really been happy with the performance of the AT&T network in my area, too many dropped calls and such, it happened on my MotoRazr, it happens on my iPhone, at home, if I want to make a call on my iPhone, I have to practically stand on one foot, hold my head at an uncomfortable angle, spin three times, and genuflect towards Cupertino to get even a slightly reliable connection…

The latest news about AT&T discontinuing the $30 “Unlimited” data plan in favor of “cheaper” capped plans also annoys me, and it also makes me a bit concerned that AT&T may sometime in the near future, arbitrarily decide to discontinue the “grandfathered-in” Unlimited plans, and force all smartphone users into the crappy capped plans…

First, one clarification, any AT&T smartphone customer with the $30 “unlimited” plan can keep that plan for as long as they use a smartphone, any smartphone, if you switch from an iPhone to a Blackberry/palm/Android/etc… smartphone, you can stay with the unlimited plan, if you upgrade from an iPhone 1G/2G/3G/3GS to the upcoming iPhone 4GS, you can retain the unlimited plan, yes, even if you have to enter into another 2 year contract, the only ways you can lose your grandfathered unlimited plan is if you switch to a non-smartphone, or if you decide to switch your unlimited data plan to one of the capped plans, once you’ve done that, there’s no way to get the unlimited plan back, this is direct from two different AT&T customer service reps, called on two different days, their stories match up

Call me cynical, but I am a little suspicious that this “grandfathering” is temporary at best, i’m sure AT&T will find some way of discontinuing the grandfathered unlimited plans and forcing everyone into the capped plans

So, as it stands right now, I’m safe, I’m in under the grandfathered unlimited plan

That said, I’ve always been a bit annoyed about the poor phone performance on the AT&T network, however, I’ve had no issues with their 3G network, still, I’ve been contemplating switching to an Android based phone, as I like the open-source OS, replaceable battery, and replaceable memory cards, plus, the current HTC Droid Incredible and EVO look to be faster and better performing than the iPhone

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE my iPhone, it’s basically a Mac you can slip in your pocket, and I know I could jailbreak the phone and switch to another network (T-Mobile, maybe Sprint or Verizon), and even install the Android OS, but I’m really being tempted by the newer, faster 'Droids, yes, they are the Droids I’m looking for

I also feel a bit vindictive, and want to somehow “punish” AT&T for their poor phone performance and their frelling around with the data plans, but seeing as I’m currently safe under the grandfathered unlimited plan (at least for now), I feel I’d be cutting off my nose to spite my face, I bought my iPhone at least six months or so ago, so I’ve snuck in under the wire of the increased early termination fee, ($175 worst-case, rather than the $350 for new smartphone customers), so I could potentially escape my AT&T account and switch over to Verizon/Sprint, both of which are (currently) offering “unlimited” data plans and have the cool new Droids I’m looking for

So, ditch AT&T or stay with them (for now)

Right now, I’m leaning towards staying with AT&T for now, I don’t use the phone part of my iPhone all that much (perhaps 10-20 minutes per month), but I do use the data plan a bit, and if AT&T does cancel the unlimited plan and attempts to force me into a tiered plan, I’ll leave at that point, as long as I can keep my unlimited plan, I’m relatively happy

So, what would you do, stay or go?

2

I’d stay with them, at least until the day they drop the grandfathered unlimited plan. That’s a good deal, even if you have to do a backward three point twist and genuflect towards Nashville three times a day. But if you can test a phone from one of the other carriers, or go to a store and talk honestly about reception, it might be better to switch now. The Droids are cool.

In other words, I’m no help!

3

I am very happy with my motorola Driod on the Verizon network, I am uncapped with the data plan, and it is normally pretty dependable [except for known dead zones CT has a lot of granite in certain places surrounding the road so it can generate dead zones in really hilly areas until you get to hilltops.]

Why not hit the verizon store and ask them what the equivalent to your ATT plan would be and cost, and make the decision from there?

4

On the way home from work, I stopped into the local Sprint shop, and took a look at the HTC EVO…

Not bad, nice mid-sized touchscreen phone, gorgeous screen, but the Android 2.1 OS felt slightly…laggy for lack of a better term, scrolling through the different screens had a very slight “choppiness” to the scroll, even with all running apps force quit, sometimes the screen would not respond to an initial touch, and the camera seemed…okay, nothing really special, my iPhone felt far more polished and put together OS-wise, scrolling through screens/webpages were buttery smooth, the screen responded to every tap without delay, it just felt faster and smoother than the EVO, even though the EVO has, on paper, a faster processor

Don’t get me wrong, the EVO wasn’t bad, just when compared directly against my iPhone, the user interface felt a little rough around the edges, but then again, the iPhone has been out longer and had more time to mature, it’s not completely fair comparing a third-generation smartphone against a second-generation smartphone

Google Skymap was really cool though, wish Google would make an iPhone version

I’ll have to take a look at the Incredible as well, see how that compares to the iPhone/Evo

To make matters slightly worse, the Sprint store actually takes trade-ins, my iPhone 3GS would be worth $199 in trade towards the Evo, making it almost an equal swap, they’re selling it for $299 with a $100 mail-in rebate, so my out-of-pocket for the EVO would initially be $100, until the rebate came back in, but i’d also have to deal with an early-termination fee on the iPhone as well, and I’m not sure I’d trade the iPhone anyway, as it would still work as an iPod Touch…

If it did come down to selling/trading the iPhone, I could get more for it private sale, as I’d be selling the phone with the Zagg Invisishield screen protector and OtterBox case, I could easily sell it for $299 as it is

5

I spent about six months fighting with AT&T over my shitty DSL connection at home, dealing with departments warring to pass the blame (and customer) off to one another, threatening to charge me $70 service charges to come take a look at their broken connection, and giving me completely stupid and incorrect advice (“Your connection isn’t working because you didn’t fill out your AT&T user profile!”). Eventually I switched to another company, and I’ve not once regretted it.

6

This could actually save me money. I have an iPhone and mostly use it on wi-fi when I’m at home. On 3G, I rarely use more than 120 Mb per month. I could easily use their 200 Mb plan at $15 a month. AT&T doesn’t charge for wi-fi usage, that comes over my Comcast cable connection, so I could easily save $15 a month. I’m happy with AT&T’s call quality where I am. I do plane to upgrade my iPhone to a newer model when I’m eligible in October. I don’t see a downside for myself.

7

FWIW, we keep waiting for AT&T to cut us off of our ancient 1,000 minutes for $49.99 plan (right now the cheapest is 550 for $59.99), but every other year they tell us to go ahead and renew. Usually after commenting, “I’ve never even HEARD of that plan?!?!?!” :slight_smile:

8

The cheapest AT&T plan (my plan) is 450 any time minutes and 5000 night and weekend minutes for $39.99.

9

Well…the cheapest FAMILY PLAN is $59.99

10

Ah, I see. Your post hadn’t made that clear for me.

11

I used to have the $39.99 1000 minute rollover plan with Cingular which turned into At&t but they did not let me keep it when I upgraded to an iPhone last year.

As for data, I think it would be really hard to go over 2 gb a month with an iPhone unless you actually did use the tethering feature. I checked my stats and unfortunately I do go over the 200 mb limit half the time but I never go over 500 mbs. That’s 5$ off a month. I think it is actually a good deal for most since most do not use more than 200 gb and can cut their data bill in half.

12

I cannot believe how many people cannot see when the wool is being pulled over their eyes. Do you really believe that AT&T, a souless corporation who’s only reason for existing is to separate your from your money, will voluntarily take less money from you?

They are doing this now so that you don’t notice that you’re being screwed.

13

I want an iPhone pretty bad, but like millions of other people, I’m not getting one until I don’t have to go AT&T. I’ve settled for a pretty basic Verizon phone and an iTouch.

14

I find it hard to believe that anyone who uses a data-heavy-use smartphone could think these tiered plans are “good”, AT&T is doing this solely so they can profit off the inevitable overages that smartphone users are going to run up…

Keep this in mind about the iPhone and other smartphones;

if you have “push” technology on (it’s on by default), the phone is always checking the network, a few seconds at a time, this will count against your capped data plan, it may be a bit here a bit there, if it finds no updates, no biggie, if it finds new data to push to the phone, it automatically does so

streaming video/music takes up a lot of bandwidth, and will chew through data like crazy

the next iPhone (iPhone HD?) has a front-facing camera to allow videoconferencing/video chat, that’s also going to eat up bandwidth, very possibly pushing the data plan into overages

Are those issues, amongst others, worth saving $5 or $15 a month? isn’t it better to have the safety net of unlimited data?

I average about 250-300MB of data per month, my highest data use to date has been 475MB, back in March, during the big New England windstorm power outage, in theory, I could get by with the 2GB plan, but I’m not downgrading to save a mere $5 per month…

The tiered plans are simply an evil plan to bring back overage penalties

Of course, worst comes to worst, I could get out of my contract for $140 (ETF drops by $5/mo each month I stay with them) and move to Verizon/Sprint, heck, if I wanted to, I could transfer my iPhone and AT&T account to another person, and they would retain the grandfathered Unlimited Data, and I would keep the phone number to transfer to a new phone

I also found out that the reason AT&T cell coverage is so poor at home is that there are no AT&T towers close by, the closest one is around 20 miles away…

15

I was already being screwed by being forced to pay 30$ a month regardless of how much data I actually used. I think having a tiered pricing structured based on my actual use is the lesser of the two evils.

And no, I don’t think that AT&T is doing this out of the kindness of their hearts. They will be able to make more money on people who go over their limits (ie, not me). And they will also be able to get more customers as there are many people who want smart phones but are not willing to pay an extra 30$ a month, but might for an extra 15$.

16

I used to want an iPhone pretty bad, but for other reasons would never leave Verizon Wireless. I was waiting and hoping the iPhone would come to Verizon, but now the Android phones are so good I don’t care anymore. I probably wouldn’t get the iPhone over an Android even on Verizon at this point.

Back to the opening post, if it weren’t for the bad signal I’d recommend staying with AT&T until they actually reneged on your better data plan. You could always cancel there.

The bad signal issue changes things though. I’d recommend doing a little research before committing to another carrier - while I believe Verizon is in general the superior network it can be very regional - perhaps your location sucks for all carriers. Better to find that out before committing to a new provider.

I’d be careful about moving to Sprint for network performance reasons, by the way. I think they are a company in trouble, with a disheartened and jumping ship engineering department. I don’t believe they invest a lot of money in maintaining or improving their network compared to Verizon or even AT&T.

17

shrug I just went over my data plan for the past year. I rarely got above 50MB per month. 90% of the time, I’m within wi-fi range, so I don’t use much cell data.

If I opt for the 200MB plan and go over, I get another 200MB automatically for $15. So I’m right where I was with the unlimited plan. If I do it a lot, I get the $25/2Gig plan, which is still $5 cheaper than the unlimited plan, and despite what you say I don’t think I’ll go over 2Gig, ever. I have no need to watch YouTube videos, video chat, or any of those other things that take up a ton of bandwidth. Occasionally I listen to Pandora while out, but not enough to go over 200mb.

18

It’s good to hear that we keep the grandfathered rate even if we upgrade to a new iPhone- that pretty much decides it for me. I’ve been agonizing over the decision to get the new iPhone, considering I use mine for data *much *more than I use it as a phone.

19

I switched from Verizon to AT&T last September. I can’t say my coverage has changed that much up here in NH. I have been unable to get more than a bar (if that) at home with either carrier.

The main reason for switching carriers was my frustration with the phones Verizon offered. It always seemed that any phone having all the features I wanted also needed a data plan, yet none had a real web browser.

So, I switched to an iPhone on AT&T and love that I have an actual web browser essentially identical to what is on my computer. I also love wifi capabilities.

So, for me it comes down to the phone. Before switching, I would suggest you try and get your hands on someone’s Verizon phone and use it for 30 minutes or so. It is surprising how completely annoying a small lag time with menus and such can be after extended use (my last Verizon phone, the Alias 2 had me wanting daily to destroy it).

As to the new data plans AT&T is coming out with, if it saves me money, cool. I usually use about 350mb a month, with my heaviest month being 1.1Gb (lots of Pandora use). So, I don’t see myself going over the 2Gb limit.

20

Google Maps is a great (terrible?) example of push causing massive data use. You’re driving around and every time your location shifts off screen a new mp gets pushed to the phone. On a trip to Europe where only capped plan was available, we got hit with $200 in overage fees.

Capped plans wouldn’t be bad if you could cap the overage. Options for this are being discussed in bills being considered now. Carriers are fighting it as if in defense of their customers.

Capped plans are a huge step backwards, unless they continue to offer unlimited plans as an option.