AT&T announces Mobile to Any Mobile plan

[CWO]

...details tomorrow LOL

http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/plans/anymobile.jsp

http://www.mobileburn.com/news.jsp?Id=12859

finally, hopefully they don't make you get the most expensive calling plan to actually use it

[GT Fanatic]

sprint has had this for a while now. sweeeet.

[Tx Redneck]

What a rip off. It cost an additional $30 a month for Family plans. I already pay $170 for 2100mins, ONE 2Gig data plan an NO text and have 1800+ roll over and A-List.

I don't see how anyone could benefit from this. I know it wouldn't be prudent for us at all. I already can call ANY number via Google Voice for free and can text unlimited via GV for free too.

This seems like a "suckers" deal to me.

http://www.wireless.att.com/answer-center/main.jsp?t=solutionTab&ft=&ps=solutionPanels&locale=en_US&_dyncharset=UTF-8&solutionId=KB116690

EDIT: Google Voice FTW!

iPhone users clicky.

[hunt4m3x]

Sprint Unlimited everything 2 x phones, evo and epic. 135$ a month. 25% discount FTW.

[Tx Redneck]

My monthly bill is after my 15% discount. :grrr:

[projectPONY]

Sprint owns ATT right now with their Everything Plan.

[90GT50]

Sprint owns ATT right now with their Everything Plan.

If only their service didn't suck balls.

[Tx Redneck]

Sprint owns ATT right now with their Everything Plan.

I've had an ongoing rant w/ ATT about this very thing. Here's the emails.

#1

Why for the love of all things good are yall pushing out devices for the new 4G that are running Android 2.2Froyo? 2.3 was released and yall don't even have updates for current equipment to use 2.2. Stuff like this makes me want to leave ATT as a carrier. HORRIBLE support for devices. Does ATT expect us, the end users to keep dishing out multiples of $100 for devices that aren't even up to date? On top of that, with newer web enabled devices consuming more and more data w/ each iteration, ATT still imposes BS limits on data allocation so the customers must have internet at home and a wireless router to skirt around the data limits. It's crap and I’m just about fed up! When will ATT learn and start providing us w/ a great products and service that we ACTUALLY get our money's worth out of?

One other thing, when will yall stop locking down the OS on Android phones so we can use them the way we want, after all, we do purchase them don’t we? The prison cell yall put on them defeats the WHOLE purpose of Android being OPEN SOURCE!

Sincerely,
Absolutely disgusted customer who's seriously seeking services from a competitor.

Response

Thank you for contacting AT&T about your wireless service. My name is Nancy M., and I will be more than happy to assist you with your inquiry regarding the new 4G system today.

If you would like to send a note/letter to AT&T the address is on page 2 of your bill. Here is the address for you: AT&T, 2321 N University Lubbock, TX 79415

Independent research confirms that AT&T has the nation?s fastest mobile broadband network. We allow customers to talk and surf the Web, check e-mails, or send text messages simultaneously on mobile broadband and Sprint and Verizon?s networks do not.

We offer qualifying Smartphone customers free access to the entire AT&T national Wi-Fi network, the nation?s largest with over 22,000 hotspots nationwide. We have an industry leading selection of Smartphones to choose from, allowing us to provide the right solutions to each customer?s unique data needs.

Independent research has confirmed that we have the nation?s fastest mobile broadband network. Our network claim is based on comprehensive drive tests conducted by a wireless network testing company that measures wireless network performance. They drive more than 950,000 miles in over 400 U.S. markets covering about 88 percent of the country's population. According to the drive tests, we have national average mobile broadband speeds that are much faster than the competition.

Our nearest competitor is running 20% slower than AT&T on average nationally. Our largest competitor ran 60% slower than AT&T?s network on average nationally. Long term evolution (LTE) is a wireless broadband technology designed to support mobile Internet access and is commonly referred to as 4G.

As CDMA competitors such as Sprint and Verizon begin to roll out their WiMAX and LTE networks, their customers could face a significant speed drop when outside the limited LTE coverage area. When we begin deploying our LTE network in mid-2011, our customers will have a more consistent experience and the benefit of our faster mobile broadband network to fall back on.


I hope this information has been helpful. We are here to assist you and appreciate having the opportunity to serve you. I encourage you to visit us at www.att.com/mywireless often to view your monthly account statements, make payments and shop for new products and services. If you have additional concerns or questions about this issue please reply to this email. If you need to contact us again regarding a new issue please send us another email via the contact link through your online account. You may also call us on your cell phone by dialing 611 or 800-331-0500. Thank you for choosing AT&T. We appreciate your business.

[GT Fanatic]

If only their service didn't suck balls.

I've had them since 2002 and haven't had any problems. Unless I broke a phone and had to deal with the insurance or something.

[90GT50]

I've had them since 2002 and haven't had any problems. Unless I broke a phone and had to deal with the insurance or something.

Every person I know with sprint has different issues with it, they don't get texts, don't get calls, sometimes get MMS messages, just spotty overall.

[Tx Redneck]

#2

I'd like to take the time to respond to this pseudo answer I was given about the devices and the OS yall are shipping them with. You never addressed my concerns in the reply, in fact, all you did was regurgitate the info that you so heavily market and is readily available to any and all who view the att wireless website.

Why is it that you completely overlooked/ignored the issues I presented? Is it that ATT has no intent of offering real support beyond wireless service for the devices yall market? Give me a good reason why I should stay with ATT. I don't want anymore of the garbage you already copy/pasted, I want a real good reason. Tell me what it is about ATT and the devices yall offer that puts yall above an beyond the competition. If you're going to try and rest on your laurels that the "service covers 97% of Americans", then why do I have to configure my phone in a way so as NOT to use 3G if I don't want to drop a call? I am in one of your most densely saturated 3G coverage areas.--->75040 check it on your coverage map

At this point, the only thing keeping me with ATT is the fact that my wife and I have been customers for 8+ years and it would be a hassle to go to a competitor. Besides, market studies show ATT to be the worst of the major providers and for the most part, I agree.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704156304576003423395003238.html

On top of that, as a business, it costs on average 5 times more money to attract new customers than it does to keep the current ones.

http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/crosscuttings/customer_retention.html

Having said that, why would you NOT want to provide the customers, the reason you stay in business, the devices and software that we want and keep your grubby locks and hindrances off of them. All it takes is the competition picking up your slack to lose your customer base. I know that VZW will garner some when the iPhone is released, despite not being able to use voice and data simultaneously, but solely on call stability.

So you see, I'm not going to be satisfied with the status quo answers you're accustomed to giving. Tell me why I should stay with ATT.

Response

Thank you for your response. My name is Jean Melvin.



I apologize if the previous information was not up to par for you. It is the correct and current information that we have at this time.



We definitely appreciate your customer tenure with us. We at AT&T feel we have the best product as advertised on commercials and the internet and previously mentioned to you. We have the largest Wi-Fi Network, our phones work in over 220 countries internationally, we have the Nation’s fastest Mobile Broadband Network, and simultaneous voice & data to talk and surf the web at the same time on AT&T’s Mobile Broadband. These are some of the things that set us aside from other carriers.



As we mentioned, we definitely appreciate your tenure with us and hope to continue to service your wireless needs. Please keep checking back with us at www.att.com/wireless for future updates on device, service, coverage, etc.



Jean Melvin

eCare Customer Service Specialist

AT&T Email Business Customer Care for Wireless.

#3

Hello Jean,

You too, dropped the ball and completely overlooked the issues I posed. Those being, the operating system(OS) on Android(latest release and or offering updates to the previous 2.2 Froyo from 2.1 Eclair) or any other phone for that matter, and the restrictions you place on them, Android, for example, is a Linux based OS and is completely open source and should have no restrictions placed on it. My Aria came with 2.1 Eclair and HTC's proprietary addition called Sense. Sense cannot be modified, reproduced or released without consent from HTC, aside from that, there's nothing about the OS that should be restricted. ATT however, chose to block the installation of Non-Market apps from "unknown sources" a well as blocked the ability to Side-load apps. These features are part of an unmolested OS. Why does ATT do this? It goes against the very core of being Open Source.

Second. Why has ATT not released an OTA(Over The Air) update for the Aria, Captivate, or any other Android phones? My Aria still has 2.1 Eclair on it and is 2 versions outdated now. These are just a few of the many reasons that drive me to switch to a competitor.The HTC EVO, Sprint's flagship device is newer than my Aria, yet Sprint has released an OTA to 2.2 Froyo for it. THEY GET IT and just might get myself and the 3 other lines on my acct.

With Sprint, I can get UNLIMITED DATA,Text and calling to ANY mobile phone, plus 1500 non-mobile minutes and night/weekends starting @ 7PM on all 4 lines for 169.99+tax. I pay dang near that for 2100 minutes, 10 numbers of choice that I can call w/out worries of using my available minute allotment and a whopping 2Gigs of data on ONE line. Now tell me who has a better plan going?

I want you to know that ignoring the issues posed is not helping keep me with ATT. PLEASE give me a real good reason why I should stay besides what's already been beaten to death.

PS.
Part of the reason this started was that I saw ATT's offerings for when 4G comes available and the fact that they're only running on 2.2 when 2.3 was released nearly 2 months ago. There are unpaid developers out there that have already gotten 2.3 working on the Aria, yet for some reason ATT and it's multi-billion dollar business can't even get 2.2 out for their current offerings. I have coworkers coming to me asking me to update their devices despite the "warranty" since ATT isn't. How pitiful is that?

[90GT50]

LOL @ at that return letter, looks a little pre-written to cover every base of complaint.

[Tx Redneck]

I never received a response after the third email.

Competition here we come.

[Tx Redneck]

LOL @ at that return letter, looks a little pre-written to cover every base of complaint.

Pitiful huh?

[90GT50]

I never received a response after the third email.

Competition here we come.

I don't really care about having any of their OTA updates, I'd rather go with a custom ROM that strips the BS out anyways. But it is pretty fucking annoying for the people that more than likely won't ever mess with their phones, who probably think 2.1 is the latest and greatest on their captivate/aria/any other android device ATT carries.