News
AT&T Testing GoPhone $3/day Unlimited Plan
AT&T CFO Richard Lindner commented on a new GoPhone plan that AT&T was testing in “limited markets in Florida.” PhoneNews.com has obtained details of the test plan.
GoPhone has two pricing models, Pay As You Go (a flat prepaid service model) and Pick Your Plan (a hybrid model based on standard postpaid plans, but billed as a recurring prepaid plan). Today’s new plans appear to be limited to the Pay As You Go model.
Specifically, the plan calls for unlimited calling at a rate of $3/day, which will only be charged on days that you use your phone. If this plan goes nationwide, it would result in undercutting AT&T’s own $99/month unlimited voice plan. Unlike Sprint’s Simply Everything plan, AT&T’s plan only includes voice (data, messaging, GPS, and video remain add-on features).
As such, this plan would likely prompt AT&T to change their unlimited postpay plan in some form; either by adding data/messaging features to the plan, or in a rate drop significantly below the $90/month rate. Otherwise, it would clearly make more sense to sign up for the GoPhone $3/day plan.
Despite a declining economy, such changes may be necessary to keep AT&T competitive. MetroPCS now offers unlimited calling in most metropolitan areas for $40/month, and Boost Mobile offers 2G unlimited voice/data/messaging for $50/month.
We are still trying to pin down the exact areas in Florida, and what area codes you need to activate service with, in order to sign up for the unlimited plans. However, the news isn’t all great; prepaid data remains capped at $20 per 100 MB of data.
Widget
HTC Snap (GSM) / T-Mobile Dash 3G
Motorola Karma QA1
HTC Ozone/Verizon Wireless XV6175
HTC Snap (CDMA)
Samsung Exclaim
I don’t really see what’s so great about this. Sure, you don’t have to sign a contract, and you save about 10 bucks a month, but you won’t get a subsidised price on a new phone, or unlimited data.
In all honesty, I would expect most customers that this is marketed to would rather go with Cricket PayGo for just $1 a day. Now if this included 3G Data, then maybe it would be worth getting excited about…
The Cricket PayGo price structure is much better if you meet the stringent criteria for its use: if you live in one of the very few native Cricket coverage areas, if you never travel out of that area (as the basic $1-per-day PayGo plan does not include roaming), if you never make long-distance calls (ten cents a minute if you do), and if you’ll be happy using one of their POS PayGo phones.
If you honestly don’t see what’s so great about one of the industry giants finally capitulating to the growing demand for unlimited prepaid voice service, you need to broaden your vision a bit. This is a huge step in the right direction for a company that has thus far had its feet stuck in the mud when it comes to courting and keeping prepaid customers.
Now if they’d just permit a recurring debit from your prepaid balance to pay for data services like text packages, instead of requiring them to be purchased every month, I might consider using them again.
Is this really limited to Florida? I know I’ve heard radio ads to this effect ($3 / day unlimited talk on the days you use it for AT&T Pay as You Go) here in Houston, TX … unless that means they’re going to test it here soon as well.
As usual, it may be in more areas. Florida is all we could confirm when we went to press…
Well looks like the OTHER sleeping wireless giant finally woke up! Att’s finally blinking at the unlimited flat rate challenge in this economy. But it looks like they’re trying to take more of a Verizon prepaid approach then a Metro/Cricket/Boost approach. I.E. Premium branding/pricing compared to Metro/Cricket/Boost. Verizon has an unlimited talk plan with 3.99 a day so this would be more in line with that area of the market. At least Att is finally doing something though. Tmobile already gave a lot of its customers 49.99 unlimited talk to keep them and it was Sprint who launched the Boost Unlimited plan for $50. Att is the last of the Big Four national wireless carriers to respond. About time.
[...] The majors haven’t really gotten in on the action…until now. AT&T GoPhone is now testing an unlimited plan in “limited markets in Florida.” Details after the jump, but as a teaser: it’s [...]
How many people really use all these minutes? I think they need text and data plans with like 200 minutes a month.
AT&T are a bunch of crooks. Their plans are unaffordable and their sales reps laugh at you when you call to voice concern. I’m cancelling my iphone / at&t tryst and going back to Verizon.
Go to Sprint and you’ll save gobs
yeah att its too late to try to woo customers that have been affected by the economy now. Iphone will be coming to other carriers soon and then youll see how many people leave att. Iphone has been holding att on top. I feel bad when their exclusivity agreement is over. There will be a mass exodus.
So does this include unlimited mobile to mobile minutes? If you use nothing but mobile to mobile minutes, will you get charged the $3.00 for that day?
This could be nice if it had unlimited data, mobile to mobile, and messaging.
SaltyDawg, yes, if you make an M2M call, that will start the $3 charge for the day.
The only thing that appears to avoid the charge, as we understand it, is the 3000 N&W Feature Pack ($20/month). We have yet to confirm that though.
When you access the voice network for AT&T you activate the plan for that day. That means if someone calls you and you press the end button to send to voicemail… you just accessed the network. IF you allow it to go to voicemail on its own… you will not be charged. Call your voicemail… charged the access fee. Text Msgs do not use the voice network so if you were to just text msg all day you would not be charged the daily access fee.
BTW with the 3000 N&W feature plan you still need to access the network so you are charged for that day. Also with plans like the 3000 N&W plans… if you call someone on the AT&T network you use your minutes from the 3000 pool before you use minutes from your free mobile to mobile. Free M2M is last on the list of minutes used.
[...] Following up on our initial report of the $3 per day GoPhone unlimited voice plan, AT&T has officially announced nationwide [...]
I don’t know why people are even considering this offer, if you add it up this $3 per day is over $90 per month, that is outrageously expensive and it’s not as if they are offering anything extra to go with it. Even if I were to use it for only ten days per month I would still be paying more than I do with my Net10 phone. You then can’t take all your calls and and have to worry about how often you make calls instead of calling whoever, wherever and from wherever you want whenever you want to call like I do on Net10. That is because Net10 only charges 10 cents per minute without any daily fee, no roaming or long distance charges and no hidden costs. I’ll keep my Net10 phone thank you and AT&T can keep their expensive packages.