Verizon Wireless just did something telecoms almost never do: It lowered the cost of wireless service. This is part of the carrier’s renaming and changing of what it includes in all its unlimited plans.
T-Mobile just added a third unlimited data plan for your iPhone or Android. This one costs less than the others, but also offers less. And it comes wit a big caveat: it’s always subject to slowdowns.
No changes are being made to the earlier T-Mobile One and One Plus plans.
Sprint has renamed and changed some of the features of its unlimited data plan. iPhone users now have a choice between paying more or getting less.
It’s not all bad news. There’s 50 percent more tethering data in a new top-tier plan, and the TIDAL music streaming service has been added.
AT&T wants to stand out in the wireless market by combining streaming TV with unlimited data. Two newly-announced WatchTV options add dozens of TV channels and thousands of on-demand TV shows to the carrier’s unlimited data plans.
This move comes in the wake of the $85B AT&T/Time Warner merger, giving the carrier far greater access to video content that can be streamed to your iPhone or iPad almost anywhere.
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If you’re one of the lucky sods who is still grandfathered into an AT&T unlimited data plan, you’re about to pay a little bit more for it.
Sprint’s unlimited talk, text and data plan is about to get more expensive. The wireless carrier announced that the plan will jump from $60 per month to $70 per month starting October 16. Existing customers will be grandfathered in to the current price, but new customers will have to start paying up if they want the rare gem that unlimited data has become.
AT&T is increasing its data cap to 22GB for customers who are still grandfathered into unlimited data plans. This is more than four times the 5GB cap previously offered to LTE subscribers, and more than seven times the 3GB cap offered to 3G subscribers.
Some lucky folks at Verizon were recently able to upgrade to a new phone without losing their unlimited data plan. Color us totally jealous.
This was the result of a glitch, said Verizon, and not a change in policy like some may have mistakenly hoped for.
Verizon told AllThingsD on Monday that it would, however, honor the unlimited plans of customers that were able to upgrade without the dreaded limited data plan of doom.
AT&T has been dancing around its FaceTime restrictions for several months now. Before iOS 6 even went public, it was discovered that the carrier would block FaceTime calls over a cellular connection at its own discretion. AT&T later confirmed that users would have to be on one of its new shared data plans.
Public outcry caused AT&T to then backtrack and extend the feature to anyone with a tiered, traditional data plan and a LTE device. That still didn’t cut it. Now AT&T has updated its policy again, and subscribers with grandfathered unlimited data plans are the only ones still left out in the cold.
AT&T received a lot of negative attention in the press when it announced that it would restrict the use of FaceTime over cellular on Apple devices running iOS 6. Instead of letting anyone use the video chat feature no matter the device or data plan, AT&T decided to keep FaceTime limited to customers with new Mobile Share plans. This meant that traditional data plan customers, including those with grandfathered unlimited data, were out of luck.
Today AT&T announced a change to its FaceTime over cellular policy, and things are looking better for iPhone 5 and LTE iPad owners on tiered data plans.
Verizon has been a bit of a dick about unlimited data and the iPhone 5. First, they told customers that they’d need to pay full price for the iPhone 5 if they wanted to keep their unlimited data plans; now, they are telling customers that they shouldn’t care about unlimited data anyway, because unlimited “is just a word.”
The future of unlimited data on AT&T and Verizon doesn’t look promising, but potential iPhone 5 owners with grandfathered unlimited data plans on AT&T can rest easy. AT&T today confirmed that it will allow grandfathered customers with unlimited data to keep their plans when upgrading to the iPhone 5.
Unlike Verizon, AT&T will let its customers keep unlimited data if they buy a subsidized or unsubsidized iPhone 5. Verizon requires that customers pay the full, unsubsidized price of the device to keep unlimited data.
It’s no secret that many of us aren’t fans of the new shared data plans being offered by Verizon and AT&T. Worse are the tactics these carriers are using to all but force us into the new plans. Consumers aren’t the only one’s disappointed, as Sprint and T-Mobile both discourage the practice and prefer to stick with the assumption that users enjoy having unlimited data with no fear of overages. Why should anyone have to pay a premium to see their data capped and divvied up between their data hungry family?
T-Mobile isn’t exactly the carrier of choice these days. After their failed merger with AT&T, they seem to be lost in carrier limbo. Verizon and AT&T have the largest 4G LTE coverage, Sprint has the only true unlimited data plans, and all three of them offer the iPhone. So where does that leave T-Mobile? T-Mobile knows it has to do something, and it appears that something, is unlimited data for $20 a month.
Unlimited data plans are becoming scarce options for smartphone and tablet users. Sprint remains the only carrier to offer an unlimited data plans. Most Verizon and AT&T customers, however, need to make do with tiered data plans. Tiered data plans get more cash from customers and deter customers from overloading mobile networks with excessive data use.
As a result, a lot of us try to avoid excessive data use by limiting the types and amount of content that we access when using a device’s 3G or LTE connection. That, in turn, blocks many content companies from capturing ad or subscription revenue from mobile users. That reality is leading major content companies to complain to the carriers and which AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson recently said may lead to “toll free” data plans.
The internet was sent into an uproar yesterday after Verizon CFO Fran Shammo revealed that the carrier would be effectively killing off grandfathered unlimited data plans as subscribers are transitioned to 4G LTE plans. The change will come alongside the introduced of shared data plans for families and businesses this summer. Once the new policy is in effect, you’ll lose grandfathered unlimited data on Verizon when upgrading to LTE or a new device.
In an attempt to calm its disgruntled customers, Verizon has issued another statement today that details more closely how unlimited data will die a slow death.
Bad news for grandfathered unlimited data subscriber on Verizon: the nation’s largest carrier will kill unlimited data once and for all when subscribers switch over to 4G LTE data plans.
Starting in mid-summer, when you buy a LTE handset and switch over to 4G data, Verizon will make you buy one of its new data share plans. Switching plans will end your grandfathered unlimited plan.
Most news about the iPhone in the U.S. is centered around the major national carriers including those that offer the iPhone (AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint) and T-Mobile, which doesn’t.
Today, however, that news focuses on Virginia-based carrier nTelos, which will become the second smaller carrier in the U.S. to offer the iPhone. Seeking to differentiate its iPhone options from the larger carriers, nTelos is also offering some sweet deals on the purchase of an iPhone 4/4S as well as a bargain price for unlimited data.
Did you know Cult of Mac has a brand new podcast? No lies! We’re calling it The CultCast, and it’s the best 30 minute conversation you’ll hear about Apple all week long.
And wouldn’t you know it, we just released episode two into the wild! Join Leander Kahney, Buster Heine, and me, Erfon Elijah, as we yay and nay our way though all the iPad 3 rumors you’ve been hearing; ponder how Apple’s stock price could make it to $1000 per share; and argue about whether AT&T should be allowed to throttle those of us with unlimited iPhone data plans.
Sound tasty? Well dig in my friend! You can subscribe to The CultCast right now in iTunes and listen to episode two on your way to work!
This fall, Sprint became the third U.S. carrier to offer the smartphone. Sprint is the third large largest carrier in the country and the only one to coninute to offer unlimited data plans to new customers – a point that Sprint makes in most of its advertising.
Sprint talked about the iPhone’s impact as part of its quarterly earnings Tuesday. Although Sprint reported large overall net loss of income, the company maintains that the launch of the iPhone was a success. It’s important to note that the iPhone, while helping Sprting add customers, was a factor than the larger than typical net loss, whichthe company expects to recoup in future quarters.
If you’re still boasting a grandfathered-in unlimited iPhone data plan, AT&T’s just effectively said they’re going to stop honoring it. If you use more than 2GB of data per month, AT&T will now throttle your data speeds down to completely unusable levels.
I have some amazing news for our friends over in the UK. T-Mobile UK has announced that they will be bringing the UK its first mobile phone plan to offer consumers the freedom to make unlimited calls, send unlimited texts, and use as much mobile internet as they want – with no fair use restrictions. This is a breakthrough plan for the UK and one I wish all carriers would adopt. The Full Monty plan will kick off tomorrow and will be available via T-Mobile stores, online, telesales and in-direct partners.
Right now, if you want to get an iPhone with unlimited data, your only option is to sign up with Sprint… but given how slow Sprint’s 3G speeds are, unlimited data isn’t really saying much. Wouldn’t it be great if you could get unlimited data on a faster network? Say, Verizon’s?
Well, thanks to a little bit of CSR hacking, you can add unlimited data to any Verizon iPhone plan. Better act soon, though. The VZW is likely to shut down this exploit as soon as their engineers get back from holidays.
Sprint’s debut iPhone 4S commercial (unsurprisingly) boasts about the biggest reason for choosing Sprint over its rivals, and that’s “truly unlimited” data. It also praises Apple’s App Store, which is home to half a million apps, by floating popular app icons around New York City.