AT&T Will Soon Require Smartphone Buyers to Get a Smartphone Data Plan

[JRakes]

Starting early next month, AT&T will require all its customers who are buying a smartphone to sign up for an "appropriate" data plan.

An internal memo that has leaked out of this wireless carrier spells it out:

Beginning September 6, 2009, customers who activate or upgrade to a Smartphone will need to sign up for an appropriate data plan. Existing Smartphone customers active prior to September 6, 2009 will be grandfathered and exempt from the new policy.

Can anybody clarify the implications of the (bolded) "activate" situation? If a Customer were to bring their own unlocked device in, could it be setup for a PAYG plan. In particular, I'm thinking about Hook's approach.

Just curious... Perhaps I misinterpreted the statement as written.

[Hook]

Can anybody clarify the implications of the (bolded) "activate" situation? If a Customer were to bring their own unlocked device in, could it be setup for a PAYG plan. In particular, I'm thinking about Hook's approach.

Just curious... Perhaps I misinterpreted the statement as written.

PAYG is a completely different business model. You don't even need a phone, you can just walk in to the ATT store and buy a PAYG SIM. You can then go home and stick into anything --well, anything with GSM-- you want.

Yes, it gets activated (sort of), but that "activation" just links it to a money account you manage on the web. You can't even buy a plan... you can only buy features which come out of that money account. If I get another GSM smartphone, I will just take the SIM I already have and move it over.

There is no scenario under which the statement Ed quoted would have any meaning for PAYG.

[JRakes]

Ah... So, basically, anybody who doesn't really need unlimited data or such is silly for buying a phone through AT&T (or others) and/or signing a contract!

[Hook]

Ah... So, basically, anybody who doesn't really need unlimited data or such is silly for signing up for it!

Yup, I can't tell you how happy I am with my data plan arrangement. I mostly use wifi, but those times when I really need 3G I have it and it is veeery cheap. I add 1 MB per month (for $5) but I am still at over 60 MB of the original 100 MB I bought at the beginning of April. I'm going to add email, but I don't think even that will make much of a dent.

[chris777]

Well I guess the slave drivers whips will eventually catch all who try and use a pda phone , to get that extortion money, er access.

I am growing increasingly interested in Straight Talk, especially when my centro dies, or ATT decides to force me to reinstate my data plan.

I am really interested in hooks option, but I figure they will close that route just as soon as I got my iphone and tried to activate it, so it is looking like an ipod touch after the t/x dies, and whatever crappy phone straightalk offers.

I wonder if I could use the included data with the t/x?

I personally would love to see the telecom companies, get hit like the banking industry and now the auto industry, prices cannot be maintained at the momentum we are going at, or else We might as well just all start printing money since the government is already doing that anyway.

In a perfect world prices would drop on much of these hyperinflated things, and my guess is it will once either people start passing on extortion, er data.
or they just defect to tmobile or one of the other underdog companies.
IF any and I do mean ANY of the big dogs had rates that were fair , I might not care, but its like the HDTV debacle, where we were all forced to upgrade to a standard that has no standard. or in other words remove money from our pockets, and place in in theirs.

I am just shocked at the sheer number who actually thank them for taking them for a ride, but its their loss.

Funny thing about a free market, is that it is not really free when there is price fixing, and racketeering, going on as business as usual.

I am hearing a rather large number of people coming into some very hard times, and while a bunch of egg head accountants can rattle this stuff off after themselves getting pillaged by a consulting agency, all the while rubbing their hands together imagining money flowing fourth, it does not make money actually appear, or else we would all rub our hands together.

But this has all happened before when we all believed we tapped the bottomless well, only to hit said bottom, and few of which are still alive that actually lived it.

I for one have more important things to do with my money than to voluntarily allow the phone companies to fleece me unnessesarily.

[NamelessPlayer]

Well, hey... Sometimes I call 'em as I see 'em.

Yes, feel free to use that. Along those lines, though, you do realize what that makes the Customers, right?

It's a scary thought, but I understand what you're getting at perfectly. The customers certainly don't seem to mind bending over along with their wallets and bank accounts...

Perhaps the day will come where it isn't ASSUMED that a pocket computer has an always-on Internet connection like the good old days, and thus consumers may realize that they won't be tied to the pimp-lord carriers as much.

(Seriously, high-end smartphones have gigabytes upon gigabytes of internal storage now, let alone memory cards. That would be plenty of room for large databases of vital information!)

[Hook]

I am really interested in hooks option, but I figure they will close that route just as soon as I got my iphone and tried to activate it, so it is looking like an ipod touch after the t/x dies, and whatever crappy phone straightalk offers.

Just to Clarify, ATT has never allowed the iPhone to be used as a gophone, even if you bought one full price. I doubt they ever will.

I don't think, as I have said, that they will do anything different with my situation. It's a different business model and I think it is actually quite profitable for them.

[questionfear]

Just to Clarify, ATT has never allowed the iPhone to be used as a gophone, even if you bought one full price. I doubt they ever will.

I don't think, as I have said, that they will do anything different with my situation. It's a different business model and I think it is actually quite profitable for them.

They did during the original launch, when you took the phone home with you. There was a go-phone option if you failed the credit check.

Now that you buy and sign up in-store they don't do that anymore.

[Hook]

They did during the original launch, when you took the phone home with you. There was a go-phone option if you failed the credit check.

Now that you buy and sign up in-store they don't do that anymore.

Interesting. I guess now if you fail te credit check, they want you to buy an iPod Touch.

[JRakes]

Perhaps the day will come where it isn't ASSUMED that a pocket computer has an always-on Internet connection like the good old days, and thus consumers may realize that they won't be tied to the pimp-lord carriers as much.

Oh... So you're suggesting I'm actually ahead of the curve, eh?