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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
