If you have a grandfathered unlimited smartphone data plan from AT&T Mobility, it’s about to get a rate hike of $5 per month effective February, 2016.
In an announcement, AT&T says, “This is the first price increase in 7 years.”
• This price increase will not impact your current unlimited data speeds. You’ll still be able to enjoy the nation’s most reliable network and will only see reduced speeds if you exceed 22GB of data in a billing cycle and are in a congested area. Learn more about reduced speeds for smartphone unlimited data plans.
• You can change your plan at any time. Learn more about the benefits of Mobile Share Value and how to switch today. If you switch to a different plan you will not be able to switch back to your Unlimited Data plan in the future.
• Should you decide to cancel your wireless service because of the $5/mo. increase, we will waive the early termination fees (ETFs) for the lines impacted by the price increase, so long as you cancel within 60 days after the price increase first appears on your bill. If you cancel after that time, you will be subject to the usual ETF.
• As with all service cancellations, if you have a smartphone on an AT&T Next installment plan for the lines you are canceling, the cancellation will require the remaining NextSM balance to be paid.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Okay, who’s still got their AT&T unlimited data plan and are you planning on keeping it?
Keeping
I am as well. I gobble well over 8GB of data per month (my employers don’t typically offer wifi for personal devices), so even with the increase, keeping it is a no-brainer.
Gave it up last year
I still have mine but does this mean I can move my 6S off contract for no early termination fees?
According to the AT&T statement, the answer is “yes.” Because of the changes to the terms of your plan, you can opt out without paying the ETF.
But it will still be locked to ATT right?
At the local bar I patronize in Grosse Pointe Park MI,
cigarettes cost $7 in the vending machine and a
Heineken Lite costs $4.50. An increase of 17 cents
a day for my grandfathered unlimited plan has me
worried? No way.
I’m not affect by this but I’m pissed off.
Voice plans have always been a rip off and now that voice is less popular and data usage is more popular the telcos start raising the prices on data plans. Pretty soon we will all be up to $100 per month for data usage VoIP included (for what used to be a $35 data plan).
2 packs of skittles
No way! Mentos or nothing! 😉
I finally dropped my unlimited plan (plus a metered plan for my wife) last month. With our usage pattern, a family plan with two lines saved us considerable money on the total bill (in part because I can now use a portable hotspot instead of cellular on my iPad)… even though I added an iPhone 6s on Next at the same time. Unlimited really only pays if you use a whole lot of data on a single iPhone. I stuck with AT&T because it has good local coverage and my wife’s phone is still under contract.
Gee, 5 bucks a month… No sweat! I’ll keep it. And AT&T just informed me that my 450 min/mo is now also unlimited, so now I’m unlimited voice & data for $75 a month. The first iPhone was $110 a month. I’m going to have to start boring my friends more!
are you on a family plan? I had to upgrade my 450 voice to 900 last month due to work and the agent never informed me about a free upgrade to unlimited.
I have the unlimited plan and for the most part it is well worth it. A to their marketing BS, I find AT&T’s data network outmatched in many urban ares. Verizon- whom I have a data plan with for my iPad Air 2- seems to outperform AT&T in urban areas.
We are living in an age where pickup trucks cost $40,000 and up and Half Million Dollar homes in some places are considered “fixers”. I cannot say I like it, but the alternatives are not many. T-Mobile and Sprint are worthless when you get away from narrow Interstate corridors and large Metros.
Got it on my iPad. Will probably keep it as their other plans are still expensive.
I’m holding onto my plan as long as I can.
Keeping!!
I will be a grandfather when I let it go. Currently I am parenting toddlers.
keeping it for all four iPhones in our family. We are however moving (two currently) to the Apple lease for purchase of handsets. Philosophically it sucks that ATT refuses to discount the data plan although they are no longer subsidizing the handset purchase. I hope Apple sets up a MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) and bypasses these dumbass data pipe carriers someday
dan
When I purchased my 6s, I was still eligible for the standard $450 subsidy if I bought it through AT&T. You cannot get it by ordering directly from Apple, but AT&T still offers it.
I’m using a 6s Plus with my Grandfathered plan.
I did buy it from Apple unlocked. I went in and asked AT&T before I did buy from Apple. I wanted Apple to get the money and not AT&T and cut them out of being involved.
No upgrade charges etc. I can take a $5.00 increase for 22GB of LTE
T-Mobile is now offering 4 lines with unlimited everything for $180 ($45/month), including their deal of offering unlimited data roaming, and phone calls in other countries — plus, they will pay off any competing finance or ETF plans.
AT&T seems so determined to get rid of Grandfathered customers — well, they just managed to finally get rid of me. Done. No more $320/month for them.
Yep, I just got a TMobile sim last week after buying a 6s+ on the Apple upgrade plan. Made a trip to visit family using TMobile sim. I am currently a grandfathered ATT customer. TMobile had a few weak spots along the way but at home and at my destination in a small town in Arkansas, I had excellent LTE data speed and regular phone calls exhibited very good voice quality. That sold me. I am porting mine and my wife’s new phones to TMobile. Will all the stuff they are doing that doesn’t actually count against your data plan, I don’t even need to go for full unlimited although I can if I need to. No contract, unlocked phone from Apple, NO CHARGE for tethering, let alone the fact that I couldn’t even get it on ATT with a grandfathered data plan. A data bucket that rolls over up to a year instead of ATT’s one month, etc. In one place where I ran Speedtest, I got 68mbs down and 25mbs up. That’s plenty for me. And TMobile is expanding their 700mhz coverage which works better indoors and carries further. John Legere already announced that they are going to be bidding for more 700mhz spectrum in the upcoming auction next year.
You all enjoy your incredibly inexpensive plans while they last.
I currently pay $60/month for 2GB and 12GB would cost me $240/month. The two phones in my family plus an iPad cost me $170/month in telco fees. Add my home broadband for $50 for 1GB pipe and we are up $220/month. Just for Internet.
There are 3 companies to choose from here, but they are all basically the same price.
Enjoy
Wait till i complain im pulling my service. Ill see if they roll it back. Stay tuned
With my unlimited plan, it didn’t include unlimited text messages. That was an extra 10$ a month per phone otherwise it was 10c a message over the 200 messages. I dropped the plan it about a year ago when there were reports that they were throttling the speed after a certain threshold and saw that I never really went over 6GB.
Plus we added a line for my daughter which changed the dynamics. Still feel like i’m being gouged.
You are paying for cell phone service in the U.S. By definition, you are being gouged. There is a reason that you feel that way.
I live in Eastern Europe now with an unlocked ATT iPhone 6+. I have a pay-as-you-go SIM card and spend about $25 every 3 months. I use anywhere from 1-4GB of data per month, about an hour of calls and ~100 text messages. I don’t know how the pricing breaks down between them, but I’m basically paying 400% less than I would as part of an ATT family plan in California.
T-Mobile is a lower priced alternative and offered significant cost savings for my family. However, as a T-Mobile customer for the past six years or more using my phone at home, at work, and on travel, I know from personal experience that T-Mobile coverage is spotty, especially indoors. As the saying goes, you generally get what you pay for…
Yep, keeping it. Came with the free iPhone I received as an employee at Apple in 2007.
“Should you decide to cancel your wireless service because of the $5/mo. increase, we will waive the early termination fees”
Boy, AT&T REALLY doesn’t want you for a customer!
“it’s about to get a rate hike of $5 per month”
With all the new smartphone customers and technology improvements since the original iPhone, the price should go down, not up.
still got mine, and planning on keeping it.
Still have it. Though I am giving thought to jumping ship.
AT&T — No bars in more places.
Wish AT&T would allow hotspot capability.
Do you mean using your iPhone as a hotspot? I believe they do though not on the unlimited plan. Here in Poland I use my unlocked iPhone 6+ as a hotspot whenever wifi is weak, it’s great as a backup.
To keep an AT&T unlimited data plan, do you have to pay full price for the phone? Or does AT&T provide incentives like unlimited text messaging? I ask because Verizon requires that you pay the unsubsidized price for the phone and they also lure people away from grandfathered unlimited data plans by offering new phone plans with unlimited “text and talk”.