Attention AT&T Users: Get Ready to Pay Another $5 Rate Hike on Grandfathered Unlimited Data Plans

AT&T, cellular phone service provider, is augmenting the price of its grandfathered unlimited data plans by $5 per month from March 2017. This is the second such increase in the past 12 months. This price hike will affect the longtime mobile users who are availing the unlimited data plans for years after the company restricted selling them to new subscribers.

Know the AT&T's Statement on the New Pricing:

“Our Mobile Share Advantage plans and our AT&T Unlimited Plan provide several benefits that our legacy unlimited plan doesn't. If you have a legacy unlimited data plan, you can keep it; however, beginning in March 2017, it will increase by $5 per month”.

Further details of the unlimited data rate per month:

The unlimited data rate had been $30 per month for seven years, until AT&T upturned it to $35 in February 2016. Now, the price will come up to $40. This amount is for data only, including voice and texting, and it will be around $90 a month for the smartphone plans.

The company no longer provides separate unlimited data plans to its customers, but several people still hold to its unlimited data plans that were purchased before AT&T discontinued them in 2010. Those plans allow them to use unlimited data, but regulating does occur with excessive data usage.

Over last several years, AT&T has used data caps, and price hikes to encourage its grandfathered unlimited customers to switch to new plans. In the year 2014, the FTC propelled a federal court complaint against AT&T for its throttling practices leading AT&T to measure them back. In the beginning of 2016, AT&T reintroduced $100 unlimited data plans for its AT&T DirecTV or AT&T U-Verse plan subscribers.

AT&T, cellular phone service provider, encouraged customers to move to its new plans, having data limits, saying the newer packages "provide several benefits that our legacy unlimited plan doesn’t." For example, with its newer plans, users can share the Internet services with another device through mobile hotspot connections. AT&T had stopped selling unlimited smartphone data to new customers and for people who are switching plans. However, last year, they introduced a new unlimited plan, which is available to people who also subscribe to U-verse TV or DirecTV.

While Verizon Wireless encourages users to stop availing unlimited data plans if they use more than 200GB a month, AT&T has used several other tactics to limit the usefulness of the grandfathered plans. In 2011, AT&T started withdrawing unlimited data plans from customers who escape iPhones to use illegal tethering services. This cellular phone service provider also used to control unlimited data customers for the rest of the month when they used more than 3GB or 5GB, depending on what device they had. AT&T has made the throttling less disciplinary, now applying it after users use at least 22GB in a month, and even then only when customers connect to a congested cell tower. The Government agencies try to penalize AT&T for unlimited data throttling have so far come up empty.

Rush to T-Mobile Stores for Mouth-Watering Black Friday Deals 2016

The festive season has started in the US with Black Friday on November 25, 2016. This is why T-Mobile, one of the major cellular phone service providers in the United States, is all set to feed on your hefty wallet with mouth-watering deals. T-Mobile Black Friday deals have been up and running since Thanksgiving Day on November 24, 2016.

Don’t Worry!

Are you late on grabbing these deals? It happens to most of the late comers, at least to the best of our knowledge. However, it’s still not too late. Rush to a T-Mobile store and grab any one of the following deals before the time runs out.

Black Friday Deals by T-Mobile for its Customers

Sync Drive Deal: The Company has branded this deal as the easiest way to monitor cars, safe driving and connection to Wi-Fi while you are travelling. If you are a T-Mobile cellular phone service subscriber then you can get this for free for a limited time. However, you must have a 2 year financing agreement and an eligible data plan for this service.

Google Pixel Deal:

The company has been doing its best to inspire you to bring your Google pixel phones to its stores. The company is making the deal mouthwatering with a $325 discount through a two year monthly bill credit after joining a T-Mobile One Unlimited plan. It is your chance to get everything unlimited at the cost of $70 on first line. T-Mobile cell phone service users can also get all this at the cost of $50 on the second line and $20 on third line.

Deal of $100 off on Samsung Galaxy On5:

Rush to your nearest T-Mobile Store immediately to get $100 off on a Samsung Galaxy On5 smartphone. This is one of the best holiday deals of the year by T-Mobile for its cell phone service subscribers. 

$200 for Every Line You Bring to The Un-Carrier through a Trade-in:

The list of deals does not end here. The company is also offering the deal of $200 for every line brought to the Un-carrier via trade-in. It means that cell phone service users bringing their line to T-Mobile will get a $200 prepaid MasterCard. More importantly, you are not going to be capped unless you hit the amount of $2400.

Earlier, T-Mobile was offering a lot more deals. These mouthwatering deals were for those using one of the following three phones:

•    Apple iPhone  7 32GB
•    Samsung Galaxy S7 32GB
•    LG V20 64GB

However, the company has now discontinued this deal.

Summary of the News:

Be on your toes post turkey and rush to your nearest T-Mobile store to get the leftover black Friday deals. Coming to the point, the company has launched these deals for better revenue and to grow its subscriber base. These are very attractive deals. Let’s see how many customers ditch their carriers and join T-Mobile in order to get these deals.

T-Mobile Restores Cellular Phone Services After Serious Network Connectivity Issues

It appears as though this is not a good time for T-Mobile. Recently, T-Mobile’s cell phone service users faced network connectivity issue again. The customers certainly did not appear to be happy with it. They logged into their social media accounts and started expressing their annoyance in this regard.

What Exactly Happened?

A lot of T-Mobile customers lost cellular their connection in places where they should otherwise have full connectivity signals. Customers faced this problem mainly because of a carrier settings update that is related to iOS 10.

Apple Insider Confirmed the Glitch

This glitch has been confirmed by Apple Insider. This technical glitch kept the editor’s iPhon6 totally offline in an area which generally receives full strength of signals. He had to reboot the phone in order to get rid of this annoying problem. 

Customers Reaction

The T-Mobile Cell phone service network wasn’t facing such a problem for the first time. It has happened in the past too, and the customers didn’t seem to be in a forgiving mood this time. They started complaining to the company through social media. Some of the complaints were aggressive as customers were openly expressing their annoyance about the quality of T-Mobile’s network.  Some of the customers even predicted expected excuses about this problem by T-Mobile. Some of them openly threatened to give up using T-Mobile Cellular phone services, particularly after facing a similar problem for a second time in less than 30 days. Customers were also asking for some kind of compensation whereas some customers also complained of their work suffering.

T-Mobile Acknowledged Some Calling Issues

The company acknowledged some sort of calling problem nationwide for a particular period of time during the early hours on Friday morning. Therefore, CEO Mr. John Legere tweeted and said that the company is aware of this issue. He further assured a quick solution to the problem.

T-Mobile Support Staff Got into Action

The Company’s support staff advised all customers facing this problem to restart their phones in order to get connected to the network. Restarting the phone helped many cellular phone service users get connected to the network again. However, this solution did not work well for some subscribers. Some received five bars on their cell phones whereas some users hardly got one or two bars on their phones in the same area. However, they were happy to get connected again to the network. They applauded the way T-Mobile handled the problem and resolved it.

T-Mobile Issued a Statement in This Regard

Now the T-Mobile media department got into action and released a statement on the situation. Actually, the company’s media department confirmed to the associated press that “the issue is fully resolved”. As for the cause of the service interruption, T-Mobile’s media department kept quiet but thanked all customers for keeping their patience.

Although the problem has been resolved, the company should not relax as this has happened twice in less than 30 days. Instead, the company think tank needs to do a lot of serious work to determin appropriate actions to make sure that this does not happen again. Now it will be very interesting to see the way T-Mobile prepares itself to eliminate any possibility of such a problem in future.

Sprint Joins AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile by Allowing Zero-Rating Videos

Sprint has joined the league by becoming the fourth wireless service provider to implement data cap exemptions. The communication services company is allowing streaming of some online videos without any data charges from customers. So, for all those looking for free government cell phone plans in their state, you should consider the opportunity. 

As per the announcement made last week, the company will offer an enhanced experience to soccer fans by giving free access to live matches on Sprint phones, VIP giveaways and fan experiences at specific match locations of upcoming 2016 Copa América Centenario. The beginning of the tournament is scheduled on June 3 in Santa Clara, California.

Marcelo Claure, Sprint president and CEO said “This is the first time the tournament is being held in the United States,”. “We’re celebrating by giving our customers free access to watch every match of the 2016 Copa América Centenario. With FuboTV, customers can use their Sprint smartphones anytime, anywhere on our fastest and most reliable network ever to watch the tournament. Everyone wins with the opportunity to save 50 percent off most AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon standard rate plans when they switch to Sprint. In addition to a world-class network, we are also creating unique experiences for fans to win prizes like a trip to the final match.”

Under the partnership with FuboTV, customers will be given access if they sign up for a 60-day trial. The zero-rating will vanish on June 27, right after Copa America ends.

Read more: Order Free Cell Phone Plans

There are various subsidiaries of Sprint which provide free cell phone programs or free government cell phone plans. So, fans can enjoy the benefits and enjoy the matches. 

The Federal Communications Commission has been closely examining the zero-rating plans. Wireless carriers are of the opinion that these exemptions benefit customers, whereas net neutrality advocates argue that it provides unfair aids to services that don't count against data caps and allow carriers to prefer some content over others.

AT&T was the first of US mobile carriers to implement zero-rating, followed by Verizon and T-Mobile USA.

The FCC is also reviewing zero-rating implementation from Comcast. But there is no information regarding the timeline for the completion of review and implementation.

Bonus 1 GB of LTE Data for AT&T GoPhone Prepaid Customers

AT&T GoPhone prepaid customers are going to receive an extra 1GB of LTE data. It puts AT&T in a better position with its competitors, Verizon and T-Mobile.

Another competitive strategy of AT&T Mobility floated is the data allotment for select GoPhone rate plans.

Starting from May 27, GoPhone customers are going to get extra LTE data access. Customers on the $45 plan are going to get 3 GB and those on the $60 plan are going to get an extra 6 GB per month. The ability to rollover unused data for one month will remain in place. Those with the $60 plan get the privilege of access to their data allotment when traveling in Canada and Mexico. There is no change in the basic $30 per month GoPhone plan.

All the GoPhone plans include unlimited voice calling and text messaging service in the US, Canada and Mexico. Customers who sign up for an automatic payment service are going to get a $5 per month credit for $45 and $60 per month plans.

AT&T witnessed a vigorous prepaid customer growth in the first quarter with 500,000 direct net additions through its Cricket Wireless and GoPhone platforms.

On top of the $45 and $60 per month plans, GoPhone service included unlimited calls to landline phones in the Dominican Republic and 10 cents per minute rates for calls to mobile devices for a $5 per month fee during the earlier part of this year.

The recent GoPhone move seems to be an answer to the latest advancements of competitors Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile US.

Verizon Wireless, a wholly owned subsidiary of Verizon Communications made some recent advancements. Starting from May 15, smartphone-based prepaid plans will include three tiers priced at $30, $45 and $60 per month. The entry level plan will offers unlimited domestic calling, unlimited text messaging across North America and a reliance on Wi-Fi for data. For customers signing up for an Auto Pay service, the $45 per month plan offers three gigabytes of cellular data, or 2 GB without. For $60 per month, data up to 6 GB with Auto Pay, 5 GB without and unlimited calling from the U.S. to Mexico and Canada. Alterations to $45 and $60 per month plans were initially floated just for promotions, but were later made permanent. An offer providing unlimited calling from the U.S. to Mexico and Canada on the $60 plan came as a new addition to the plan.

“We’re really not competitive in that environment for a whole host of reasons,” stated Shammo. “And it’s because we have to make sure that we don’t migrate our high quality postpaid base over to a prepaid product. If you look at the competitive nature, they’re doing it with sub-brands. They’re not really doing it with their brands. And quite honestly we use the TracFone brand as our prepaid product. And TracFone has been extremely successful for us. It’s not something that we disclose any more on reseller. But it continues to increase on the high quality base of TracFone. So that’s really where we use and go after the prepaid market.” 

See Also: Order Free Cell Phone Service

T-Mobile US is also not behind in the race. A new multiline promotion was unveiled last month. It includes targeting customers porting their lines in from a rival carrier. The offer includes unlimited domestic voice calling, text messaging and six gigabytes of LTE data per line for $30 per month for up to five lines of service. In order to get 6 GB of data, customers must port their number in from another wireless carrier, otherwise they only receive 3 GB LTE data for the $30 per month price.