Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone

clickboom.me

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 164 posts

Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone

#131

Post by aneth4 »

joelrunyon wrote: post #86
aneth4 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AT&T is a company providing a service for a price. They are not scum. I've used AT&T for many years. I'm not always delighted with every policy - the now changed policy of refusing to unlock out of contract iPhones was a particular bone. However I have almost always been satisfied with the service and have had no problem contacting them to correct billing issues. Why people feel entitled to services at the price they…

> Your ungratefulness is likely to bring a well deserved meteor strike leaving you with fewer telecom options. I was perfectly happy with my previous contract. If I'm being "ungrateful" for the privilege of getting charged extra for a service I didn't agree to, then I guess we have different definitions of gratefulness.

You have a choice. Switch to T-Mobile.

Regardless, calling AT&T scum is out of line. You are not mandated to purchase their services.

Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone

#132

Post by tramster »

learc83 wrote: post #92

I've been using republic wireless for about a year now. $19 a month for unlimited everything. For people who don't know, it's a hyrbid wifi phone that also allows for unlimited 3g, talk and texts on sprint's network when you're not near wifi.

Wow, just looking over it, that looks great!

How long has it been around for? I've never heard anything about it.

Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone

#133

Post by bifftannen »

aneth4 wrote: post #128
w1ntermute wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why people feel entitled to services at the price they choose is beyond me. Telecom is a competitive market. Because it isn't a competitive market. Wireless telecoms have been granted licenses to spectrum by the FCC so they can run their businesses. There's a limited amount of spectrum and it's hard for new companies to get any of it. The wireless telecoms industry is anything but competitive.

There are at least 3 major nationwide providers competing against each other on service and price. There are also many secondary local providers and providers renting networks from the national providers. How is that not competitive?

You can't take a unlocked GSM phone onto Verizon or Sprint. You can't take a Verizon phone onto Sprint. You can't take a Sprint phone onto Verizon.

The only carrier you can choose with GSM is T-Mobile. But wait, they use the 1900MHz 3G band, so if you've got a phone that doesn't use that band, you're stuck with EDGE data.

LTE won't change this, they've chosen different bands.

Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone

#134

Post by bconway »

This is not an issue with prepaid plans, either carrier or MVNOs (Straight Talk, Net10, etc). You pay in advance for the features you want (data or not, etc), and that's what you get. No surprises, no automatically signing you up for anything, and no contracts.

We've been using these on our Galaxy Nexus and other unlocked Android and iPhone devices for a couple years now with great success.

Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone

#136

Post by danielweber »

yellowbkpk wrote: post #8

This started happening about 1.5 years ago on AT&T. Any smart phone that AT&T "knows about" will get a ~$30/mo smartphone data plan added the moment you insert your SIM card into it. You'll get a text message ~30 minutes later saying so. You can get around this by using a phone that hasn't previously been on AT&T's network. For example, I have a Galaxy Nexus, iPhone 2G, and Nexus One that have all gotten past this ch…

I was told by AT&T that my new phone "required" a data plan but they never actually turned it on.

... no, I just checked. They've been billing me $30 a month for a data plan. BASTARDS!

Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone

#137

Post by sp332 »

aneth4 wrote: post #129
logn wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Why people feel entitled to services at the price they choose is beyond me Did you read the article? ATT detected he had a smartphone and upgraded his plan to include data, forcibly. That's like GM saying, oh we've detected your car comes with OnStar and are activating the OnStar plan. If you don't like it, you're more than free to sell your car.

Except you can switch to a different provider. You are not forced to do anything. If AT&T wants to have this requirement, that's their choice, just as it's your choice to use T-Mobile, Verizon, or Sprint.

You can't switch to Verizon or Sprint with a GSM phone.

Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone

#138

Post by ctbeiser »

easternmonk wrote: post #72
padmanabhan01 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Telcos like AT&T are scum and they have a thousand shady ways to get money out of customers. But I don't think this is one of them. There is no way to use a smartphone without using data. Smartphone OSs use data in the background for so many things, for even voicemail. So, in this case, I think they are justified in adding a data plan. It is near impossible to use iOS or android without data, even when using them wit…

If you turn off the data your phone is as good as a dumb phone it can not use data at all unless you are on a wifi network.

If you turn the data off on say, an iPhone, it's as good as say, an iPod touch with calling capabilities, which is really all a lot of people want.

Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone

#139

Post by Symmetry »

kevingadd wrote: post #3

AT&T are scum and this sort of stuff is standard practice with them. You shouldn't be giving them your money if you can avoid it. If you've got a GSM phone with the right radio bands, I suggest taking a look at the $30 plans here: http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans For CDMA I believe Sprint and Verizon offer prepaid plans without contracts at around $50 for talk/data. The key is that IMO, a prepaid p…

As much as I'm happy with my T-Mobile experience I'm not sure I'd call them nice. According to Consumer Reports Verizon is the clear leader in customer service overall, with T-Mobile and AT&T not that different for most people.

What separates T-Mobile is that they're much less evil. Things like making pre-paid cards easy, giving you a discount if you're not on a plan, not going to bat in Congress for SOPA etc. They may be stupid or unfeeling sometimes, but they never seem to be actively opposed to one's freedom like the other big carriers are.

Re: AT&T Will Force Your Data Plan For Your Unlocked Out-of-Contract "Smart" Phone

#140

Post by krschultz »

aneth4 wrote: post #128
w1ntermute wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why people feel entitled to services at the price they choose is beyond me. Telecom is a competitive market. Because it isn't a competitive market. Wireless telecoms have been granted licenses to spectrum by the FCC so they can run their businesses. There's a limited amount of spectrum and it's hard for new companies to get any of it. The wireless telecoms industry is anything but competitive.

There are at least 3 major nationwide providers competing against each other on service and price. There are also many secondary local providers and providers renting networks from the national providers. How is that not competitive?

"Competitive" is not binary. Yes, 4 networks is better than 1, but it's not like you have 30 choices.

Even with MVNOs, there aren't many real options. If Verizon were GSM it'd be a lot better, but as of now you are really locked in.

Post reply on HN