Rumour Mill: AT&T to Offer Unlimited GPRS for $24.99

[Jason Dunn]

This is a completely unsubstantiated rumour, and I have no way of confirming it, but this is great news for those of you in an AT&T service area if it comes true! $24.99 is a reasonable rate for all-you-can-eat GPRS, and as carriers offer plans like this, I think we'll see a real evolution of wireless services. When people aren't in the "I'm paying for this every time I use it" mentality, they're more inclined to experiment, and even pay for services that they find useful.

[ricoks]

This is information that I just heard about as well when I called the data tech support for AWS. The guy told me that it was coming 'soon', but that could mean days, or weeks. He didn't seem to think it was months. This is huge, as now i can browse with my Nokia 6310i w/o worrying about cost. This will hopefully also prompt for better devices that use bluetooth for connectivity. It just seems to work so well for internet->phones->handheld. :mrgreen:

Let's hope now that they just start aggressively expanding their coverage, then this will ROCK!!!! :D
Will be surfing more often for sure :google:

ps, this is my first post i think, so, WOOOHOOOO

woot

Ryan

[Joff]

Yes, I also think flat rate is the way to go. I don't know how much bandwidth has been allocated to GPRS but It surely is not picking up as fast as mobile operators were hoping for.

So, it's about time that they put all this bandwidth in full use. But I can understand that it is difficult for operators to offer so much data fo so little cost when they are used to charge you like 20p for a 168 bytes (if I remember correctly) Text message. But I can see that there is a business case. For example poeple would pay a flat rate and be allowed to use the service as it is without speed guarantee. Then, for more demanding users, they could charge a premium and in return guarantee them a minimum quality of service. The data delivered to these users would then be prioritised over 'flat-rate' users. I would not mind such a compromise.

[Paragon]

DANG!!

Why doesn't Passion have sources like "Sandra the sexy sales staff?" Geeez....all I ever get are reported posts, and whiners. :D

I wouldn't be surprised if this were true. I remember listening to a couple of cellular network provider types at the PPC Summit last fall talking about issues like this. They projected the feeling that at the time the reason for not having affordable unlimited plans such as this was that they were afraid people would use them, and they were not confident that their systems were strong enough to handle the potential load. I'm sure they have built their systems up enough now that they feel they can now become more aggresive in their approach.

We have had unlimited plans such as this here in Canada for some time now. I think largely because there just aren't enough of us up here using it, that it has caused any kind of problems.

Dave

[PPCRules]

When people aren't in the "I'm paying for this every time I use it" mentality, they're more inclined to experiment, and even pay for services that they find useful.

The other side of this is ...

$25 added to my voice cell phone bill ($15) is a lot of money for someone who just wants to check things out. This is not likely to draw in more subscribers, just better utilize the system that's just sitting there now.

I think they should strive to increase adoption rate, which to me would be offer very low cost, no commitment use at some useful monthly level, or a six months free unlimited use trial, with a no cost cancellation provision.

Incidentally, I am still using (free) PocketNet, which is very suitable for a cell phone screen. (AT&T never did know how to market that, so they may not ever do any better with GPRS.) So, anything I have to pay for has got to be much superior.

Also, my local rep mentioned some partnership deal they recently did with another carrier that will very soon increase the coverage area greatly.

[kaiden.1]

Awesome!!!!!! What else can I say?

[Janak Parekh]

$25 added to my voice cell phone bill ($15) is a lot of money for someone who just wants to check things out. This is not likely to draw in more subscribers, just better utilize the system that's just sitting there now.
On the other hand, most people's cell phone bills (I think) are more than $15. Mine certainly is. Maybe they'll offer a free trial? That is, if this rumor is correct in the first place :lol:

Incidentally, I am still using (free) PocketNet, which is very suitable for a cell phone screen. (AT&T never did know how to market that, so they may not ever do any better with GPRS.) So, anything I have to pay for has got to be much superior.
I think you'll have to pay sooner or later -- CDPD (e.g., PocketNet and others) is to be phased out in the US in the next 2-6 years, from what I've heard, although I could be wrong.

--janak

[danmanmayer]

Wow... If this actually happens i will have to get an ATT account fast... Leaving my T-moble 20 a month for 10 mb in the dust. This would just be amazing. I dream of the day when i am free to use internet anywhere and everywhere. For now i can but it costs me a arm and your leg. hehe

[Gamma Ray]

Hey guys, I am in New York and am just looking at killing my land line and going wireless. I have been putting this off because of the expense and the confusing systems and standards in the USA. Can anyone make some recommendations on either information or systems?

[Jonathan1]

:jawdrop: DUDE! *gets on his hands and knees and begs* Please let this be true!! I dropped wireless back in 2001 because CDMA sucked monkey feces, it was SLOOOOOW, and it was expensive. If I can get wireless for $25 a month!! :clap: 8O :D

[hifiguy]

I've been using ATT GSM in LA since october and the service coverage has been pretty good.

I have used GPRS to surf on my e740 and thinkpad x24 but at $20/MB it's EXPENSIVE!! The 9.6kps is pretty weak but better than nothing.

If they introduce that unlimited plan for GPRS I'll def be there. A few months ago ATT GSM offered unlimited anytime minutes for $99 so I snatched that up, good thing too since they don't offer that anymore.

[AZMark]

GPRS is close to 56K. That is if your phone modem is having a bad day and your GPRS device is having a good one. But it is much better than the old TDMA, CDMA days. Just this weekend Bluetoothed a GPRS connection and did Terminal Service remote in to work. Would have been totally out of the question at 9.6k

Anyhow also spoke with ATT here local,,,there thought is the unlimited data plan will come it at $99.00. Hopefully this rumor is true, but alas, I fear it will not be.

[MooseMaster]

That's great, but in June AT&T and TMobile are merging their networks for internetwork roaming, and TMobile offers 10MB's free and $1 a MB after that. I'm stuck with $13 a month for 4MBs. Also text messaging is free with TMobile (and every other provider). Come June I'm switching to TMobile.

GPRS can go as high as 64K ISDN speeds if you've got a good signal, a marginal signal drops you to around 28Kb. It's plenty fast enough for mobile content and in most cases faster than my dial-up. GSM is 9.6k. If you have GSM voice then you have GPRS data.

[Abba Zabba]

Also, my local rep mentioned some partnership deal they recently did with another carrier that will very soon increase the coverage area greatly.

They just signed a roaming agreement with T-mo

[Abba Zabba]

PLEASE :!: let this be real. I'm paying $20/8mb Thats WAY overpriced. I hardly use it anymore because to this fact since the last time I was "playing" around it cost me twice that for the month :evil:

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

Wow... If this actually happens i will have to get an ATT account fast... Leaving my T-moble 20 a month for 10 mb in the dust. This would just be amazing. I dream of the day when i am free to use internet anywhere and everywhere. For now i can but it costs me a arm and your leg. hehe
Wow! This would actually be the first good justification I've seen for having picked AT&T over TMobile... I had been regretting my decision to go with AT&T for a while now...

[JRMuller]

I was at AT&T a week ago to upgrade my service, and the guy doing it stopped mid-way and asked for his manager. The manager comes over and says hmm, looks like that's not available yet. The guy I'm talking to after the manager walks away states, this exact same offer is coming soon and I should come back next week.. I told the guy thanks for the tip!

[anthonymoody]

"Wow! This would actually be the first good justification I've seen for having picked AT&T over TMobile... I had been regretting my decision to go with AT&T for a while now..."

If it's true, you still may wind up regretting your choice...Why? B/C if it's true, TMo will HAVE to respond with something similar, otherwise it would leave it as the only major data player (besides Sprint and ATT) not to offer an all you can eat plan. So you'll still be stuck with ATT horrible customer 'service' while TMo will likely have similar plans sooner or later, and I'm thinking sooner.

TM

[don dre]

I've had ATTWS for several years and most of thetime the customer service has been pretty good. Far better than my other telecom experiences with Verizon. Teh only gripe I've had is that mybilling was all screwed up since I upgraded. basically I ahve a corp acct with two phones. Now they cannot separate them and originally my second line was attached to Steve W. while I had some guy in MA who kept running over his minutes. they fixed the lines issue but the two are inseperable. It seems like it's a glitch in their mgmt software...which the custoemr service wil readily vent to you about if you ask. It seems it has caused them quite a bit of grief. Doubtless ATT pushed out their GSM before they were ready b/c of T-Mobile. The service has been great and gets better all the time. I would recoment, though, that everyone avoid the T68i unless they need BT. the reception sucks. My friend with the T720 always get service in places I don't, like in NYC in a bar or here in Philly. If I left ATTWS, I'd def go T-mobile instead but I ahve the $35/mo nat'l plan which is the best plan out there. well, actually it's not out there anymore.

[hopeful797]

if you look at the att wireless newsgroup, it appears that it will only work with the pocket pc phone, not with a bluetooth connection to a pda from, say, the sony t68i. this is like the sprint vision plan. unlimited for phone users (and they will, apparently, include the xda in the definition of a phone).

[dcharles18]

if you look at the att wireless newsgroup, it appears that it will only work with the pocket pc phone, not with a bluetooth connection to a pda from, say, the sony t68i. this is like the sprint vision plan. unlimited for phone users (and they will, apparently, include the xda in the definition of a phone).

That's funny, because when I went to use our corporate discount on a phone edition (45% off all phones) I was quickly told that it was not a phone, that it was a 'device'. :roll:

[papasula]

I was just at my local store and they told me that it may be just downloaded data will be included and you'd have to pay for uploaded data. Can't wait 'til the day that all reps across a company have the same information...the same correct information.