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AT&T Confirms Changes to Messaging Plans

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This is a BS money grab...

will-and-mary

Aug 18, 2011, 8:47 AM
This is a BS money grab, but that shouldn't be a surprise. My wife and I use hardly any text messaging so we each have the 200 text message plan for $5. At least ATT is not forcing us to change texting plans.
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goldenoc

Aug 18, 2011, 9:02 AM
This is a prime example of why am I trying to cut At&t out of my life. I am just waiting for my contract to expire (10 months to go). In the words of Bart Scott, "Can't Wait".

I have already eliminated my At&t home phone, At&t Uverse and one line of the two mobile lines I had with At&t.

This is greed. I can only imagine what is in store for consumers if the At&t and Tmo merger actually occurs.
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tschlicht

Aug 18, 2011, 9:32 AM
This does suck, but at least they didn't rise the family one that I use.

@goldenoc, you're cutting ties with greedy AT&T to do what, deal with greedy Verizon or Sprint? Their all the same.
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acdc1a

Aug 18, 2011, 9:56 AM
They aren't all the same. The smaller providers have to be more competitive to EARN your business.
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tether

Aug 18, 2011, 2:04 PM
Who are these competitive little carriers? Boost & Virgin have an atrociously bad coverage area and where you do have coverage, good luck with signal strength and keeping data at 3G (always reverting to 1XRTT). Cricket caps data on their Android phones at 1GB & so does Simple Mobile (joke!). Straight Talk, Net10 & Tracfone all have such lame, terrible phones I wouldn't want my dog using them. The only one I haven't had personal experience with but may be OK might be MetroPCS but I'm not sure? Might save a little dough monthly, but I think you get what you pay for with most of these "little carriers"
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T Bone

Aug 18, 2011, 4:48 PM
Small carriers have lower prices because they have NOTHING for coverage....they have to compete on price because they can't compete on quality.
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WiWavelength

Aug 18, 2011, 6:03 PM
T Bone said:
Small carriers have lower prices because they have NOTHING for coverage....they have to compete on price because they can't compete on quality.


That is a gross simplification. For many rural subs, small carriers provide coverage SUPERIOR to that of national carriers in those subs' rural markets.

In eastern New Mexico, VZW has native coverage, but Plateau Wireless has better coverage. In southwestern Kansas, AT&T has native coverage, but United Wireless has better coverage. In Iowa, AT&T has native coverage, but i Wireless has better coverage. And the list goes on...

AJ
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T Bone

Aug 18, 2011, 8:44 PM
Superior coverage in a small, local area, yes. But they can't offer national coverage, at least not without roaming 90% of the time.

When I said 'nothing coverage' I meant nothing in terms of the geographical area they cover.

When I lived in Florida, I almost signed up with MetroPCS because of the price, but then I looked a the coverage map and saw MetroPCS basically only covers the east coast, which won't work for me.
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Vmac39

Aug 18, 2011, 10:04 AM
These plans have been in place for a while. However, it was only available with certain plans, if I am correct. As for greedy, no more then VZN. The whole idea of being able to choose what features you wanted, so you could kind of tailor make your plan to fit you, started years ago. I do agree that some of these features could be prices a little lower but, it started out a good idea. Keep in mind, VZN's plans aren't much better, when you add up the total cost. I did, when I was considering switching last year. In fact, at that time, VZN's plans were worse in price for what you got.
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goldenoc

Aug 18, 2011, 12:26 PM
@tschlicht, you're correct about the greed with the other 3 big cellular companies.

With Vzw, I will have coverage in most places. I have gone on several vacations and my At&t phone did not work whereas my wife's Vzw worked.

So, I hoping the better coverage will make the greed a little more tolerable.

In my opinion, when choosing a cell phone company, you are really deciding on which of the evils you can tolerate the most.
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Mark_S

Aug 18, 2011, 1:43 PM
Your last sentence summed it up very well.
Personally I do not think the T-Mobile acquisition will improve AT&T coverage at all. Just their data. T-Mobile already completely lacks coverage rurally.
VZW in general for the U.S. footprint is your best bet. Sprint and MetroPCS still have a way to go. 🙂
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tether

Aug 18, 2011, 1:55 PM
Verizon is greedy no doubt, but at least some of that greed goes back into their network.
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T Bone

Aug 18, 2011, 4:50 PM
So THAT'S why I can get one to two bars of 2G Verizon coverage where I work!
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Sisyphus

Aug 19, 2011, 10:15 AM
You know damn well that no carrier guarantees coverage everywhere in the nation. Do a google search, Verizon is the only carrier that constantly dumps millions of dollars a year back into their network.
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T Bone

Aug 19, 2011, 11:25 AM
So, the $6 BILLION that at&t spent on expanding it's network in 2009 (the last year for which numbers are available) doesn't count?
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Mark_S

Aug 19, 2011, 7:03 PM
Again, no carrier guarantees coverage everwhere and is dependent on terrain and other factors.
Verizon is not perfect either. No one is.
Other that talking and surfing at the same time I see nothing to merit at all any great leaps forward by AT&T.
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Tofuchong

Aug 18, 2011, 12:56 PM
new value plans - unlimited messaging per one line is five bucks, messaging for all the lines is ten.
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tether

Aug 18, 2011, 2:08 PM
Unless you are an existing T-Mobile customer under contract, then you need to pay their bogus "migration fee" per line to go to one of these plans. Glad I left them for Verizon prepaid and Unlimited Data. I really can't wait to see how ATT treats these T-Mobile refugees and their grandfathered plans/features and all the people with preferred stuff. Even though I don't care for them anymore, I would hope the merger doesn't go through to keep TMO as nationwide competition to the Big 3.
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Tofuchong

Aug 18, 2011, 2:09 PM
alright fair enough. Classic plans have $10.00 messaging for singles and $20.00 family messaging, still unlimited, and still $10.00 less expensive than at&t.
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ELawson87

Aug 18, 2011, 4:01 PM
If they could force you to change it without letting you out of your contract, they'd do it in a second.
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medic6037

Aug 18, 2011, 6:11 PM
but choose not to.
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T Bone

Aug 18, 2011, 8:46 PM
If you actually read your contract you will see that the carrier has the right to remove any plan or features, or change pricing, at any time.

The reason they don't force people off old plans is not because they can't, but because they know it will increase churn.
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marufio

Aug 19, 2011, 12:12 AM
I can see a lawsuit coming and negative press.
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T Bone

Aug 19, 2011, 7:30 AM
Notwithstanding the fact that many trial lawyers are greedy money grubbers who would run over their own grandmother for a $1 bill lying in the middle of the street, there is no legal basis for a lawsuit when a person voluntarily signs a binding legal contract and nothing happens which violates the terms of that contract. 'I'm suing because I voluntarily signed a binding legal contract and the other party has successfully fulfilled all of their obligations under that contract and has not violated it but has followed it to the letter' is not the world's strongest legal argument.
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jt82

Aug 19, 2011, 10:14 AM
However let's trot out contract law. In order for said contract to be binding, there has to be concessions on both sides - otherwise it qualifies as usury. That being said, yes it says "We may change prices, promotions, etc. at anytime with or without notice" thats fine and dandy UNTIL you read the part about Material Adverse Affect (and I'm speaking for VZW contracts because I'm in them but have sucessfully broken all contracts with the carriers between the contract and using State Law) which gives the consumer the right to break the contract IF they change what was agreed to in the original or renewed contract.

So yes its a voluntary binding legal agreement but it pays when people actually read their agreement and know all their rights...
(continues)
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