There's nothing groundbreaking in here, but AT&T has just thrown up a good one-page summary of how this whole WWAN thing is going to go down for new
iPad 3G owners
come this Friday. As we've already known, you'll be paying $14.99 for 250MB or $29.99 for unlimited (yes, truly unlimited with no 5GB cap) data in addition to free access to AT&T's comprehensive collection of WiFi hotspots -- perhaps the more interesting bits, though, have to do with plan management on the 250MB setup. Basically, you'll get a warning on your iPad when you get to 20 percent of your allowance remaining, then again at 10 percent, and finally when you run out; at each message, you'll have the chance to re-up (of course, if you find yourself blowing through 250MB on a regular basis, you probably want the unlimited plan anyhow). Plans renew automatically after every 30 days, and you can check your usage at your leisure from Settings on the device. Sure, you might be cursing the fact that you've found a legitimate reason to spend another $30 every month -- but at least you'll be able to set it up and manage it without a call to customer service.
posted April 28th 2010 2:58PM
This just makes me wish I got a Pre Plus with the free wifi.
@yulebellow
or you can JJ your iphone and get it to work as a wifi spot for your ipad
@htd
I mean JB
@htd
Why not BJ it? (hehe)
...and I'm on verizon, if I get an iPad then I'm getting a pre plus on craigslist since I'm already paying for the data on the Droid.
@yulebellow
what?? No $1 for an extra kb after the 250MB? that is so not AT&T
@yulebellow
So how come I cant get prepaid Data for my iPhone?
I'll gladgly pay $15 for 250 MB
@yulebellow Yeah, I wonder if they're going to be including the hotspot app when the Pre Plus comes out for AT&T. The guy at the store toda said he expected it would release in May, maybe closer to mid-may, so it would be interesting to see. Once he finished telling me this, another guy pipes up and says "well you can have a way better phone now, the iPhone!" which I think, should be a "no-no" in his sales training. You don't tell a guy who is obviously more interested in Palm than the average visitor to forget it and buy an iPhone. Don't you think I've already thought of that? If he thinks that a bigger app store makes a better phone then he should tell all his Apple customers to install Windows 7
@yulebellow
Too bad wifi barely works on my iPad.
@yulebellow I’m thinking the 3G preorders were a lot more than expected, and they are scrambling to manufacture more of those than planned, delaying things. Remember AT&T saying they thought iPad wouldn’t affect them much because everyone would be on WiFi? I thought, “Bunk, wait till people see those big Google maps, and iPad navigation apps!” There is a lot of 3G demand, more than AT&T – and Apple – thought. Opinions. http://j.mp/apple-tablet-experience
@elyon
There is no Wifi Hotspot on the AT&T unit, at least not at this point.
tethering > this
@hang
Not if you tether offically with support from the carrier.
Usually tethering is $60 / month + 2 year contract
@hang
You're saying tethering beats consistant 3G data? How?
I say jailbreaking your 3G iPad and using it as a mobile hotspot beats all.
@hang
yah. When do we get tethering!
-_-
So where's that tethering we've been waiting for forever and a day? Hoping we'd forget?
@Plazmic Flame I think the real key is to having a smartphone, and anyone with an iPad should maybe have a smartphone but I'll let those without one slide, with a plan that allows just as consistent 3G (and hopefully 4G) tether to all their devices...this is where the Evo 4G and Sprint come in big. Regular contract, faster speed, and a beautiful eco (FYI, I don't think I can even buy a Evo, but I still have respect for those who can't see past it).
@hang From a cost perspective yes but not from a performance perspective
@Andronicus For ATT users, likely never I have heard that if you do tether (it can be done w/o jailbreak remember) they charge you for it. I guess I would have to read my contract to see if they are allowed to do that.
@Helblaze I tethered for a while, never get charged for it.
It does show up slightly different bill though.
@ToneyC
Tethering has been around for years, you just have to do it yourself.
I've never had to pay for tethering and I've never been charged for it. Yeah, its lame that its not just built-in, but no matter what phone I've had, someone has figured out how to tether.
-Taylor
What I want. A box the size of a cigarette pack that's a 3g hotspot which clones the ID of an iPad. Also, it should scrub all packets transferred, so only the iPad clone's MAC shows up. I think I might have a summer project on my hands.
@mikend Sub "box the size of a cigarette box" with "4th-gen iPhone" and I'm right there with you.
@anonimo I refuse to play a game where I am expected to pay multiple wireless data bills for the same internet. I have a phone. I don't need, nor do I want, an iPhone. I don't even want an iPad, other than for its identifying information. I want 1 $30/m unlimited internet plan for all of my internet consuming devices. Just a little black box with a power button, a webpage for settings, and a strong wifi chip. If such a device existed I could happily cancel my phone's data plan and add more 3g capable devices to my collection.
@mikend
The little box you are all looking for exists, it's called a Novatel MiFi device. These devices use a regular SIM card as your phone would and produce a WiFi signal that any WiFi enabled device can connect to.
Now, the key is that, when will a company create a microSIM adapter so that you could put it into one of these Novatel devices...?
@mikend, Apologies if this is a double-post; it's been close to 10 minutes and I still don't see it.
100% agreed - so much so that I refuse to pay for a data plan along with my voice plan (for which I'm still only paying $30/mo, and that's all I'll ever pay)… if I could get an iPad plan on a non-iPad-sized device (eg, 4th-gen iPhone), I'd use it as both my access point and my smart-VoIP-phone.
@Plazmic Flame, the problem remains the $60-80/mo required to use them; we're talking primarily about money here, not just technology.
@Plazmic Flame I think mikend was saying that he wants a portable wireless hotspot that charges for service the same way that AT&T is charging for the iPad.
Devices like the MiFi are out there, but you have to pay $60 a month, with a 5 GB cap. If the only device that you're going to use wirelessly is your iPad, then the iPad data plan is the most cost-effective plan out there, hands down. (That is, provided that you're not tethering to your phone without your carrier knowing.)
@Plazmic Flame I want a device that looks like an iPad to AT&T but is in actuality a hotspot. To conceal its tethering nature, it should scrub all packets, replacing any other device's MAC with the clone's.
@anonimo A device that looks like an iPad to AT&T (to take advantage of the pricing) but is in actuality a hotspot. To conceal its tethering nature, it should scrub all packets, replacing any other device's MAC with the clone's. Such a device would probably be illegal, but as with all law breaking, its not illegal until you get caught. The way I've described its functions should be enough to slip through a moderate level of scrutiny, and in the event it were sniffed out I imagine the penalty would be something like cutting off access, not sending a forensic team to confiscate all my equipment.
@mikend, I want exactly that, except I want the hotspot to BE the phone; I don't want to have to carry two devices everywhere I go to make this work. Of course, the reality of actually accomplishing that - even jailbroken - is virtually nil, but as long as we're dreaming…
@anonimo Given the slightly nefarious nature of the device, I'd rather see it as a stand-alone product. One that has a single function, and is a master of it. It wouldn't be hard to create such a tool, the technology exists and is available. If I were to undertake this project, I would start with something like this:
http://www.www.matrixmultimedia.com/product.php?Prod=E-blocks%20mobile%20comms%20system&PHPSESSID=
In europe, if you allready have a unlimited dataplan, it cost 4 euros per month to get a clone SIM for iPad.
They will share the phone number, and you can't use both same time, but for that price who cares.
@newone
Can you post a link to that information so I can read more about it? I have searched deutch telecom, Vodafone and O2's sites and haven't been able to find anything about that. You didn't make that up did you?
@newone Mate don't make stuff up.
@Mentat
no, he s right
@FrankDTank
http://www.sonera.fi/files/Sonera.fi/Yksityisille/asiakasjulkaisut/Sonera-uutiset/SNews_01_08_screen.pdf?LinkType=Static%20File
On the 250MB plan, I'm glad that the plan expires when you reach 250MB, and doesn't charge a ridiculous amount of fee for additional data.
@Reggie Yes! I like that part too, no $.50 per kilobyte insanity...
This plan should be how every carrier does data, on every device. Start at $15 for 250MB, which is reasonable, as text-only data and weather updates will likely not use more than 250MB of bandwidth.
Offer to extend the plan, or auto-cancel, once the 250MB limit is reached and don't start charging crazy per-kilobyte fees.
Hopefully this catches on with Verizon.
@Reggie
Yeah, this is pretty decent of Apple. The warnings and no overage fees should be standard across carriers. Thanks, Steve!
@Abe
I believe we owe this to *gasp* AT&T, though it could be the the result of Jobsian joint rearrangement.
The smart thing to have done would be to exhibit some sort of 'loyal customer' situation and give existing iPhone subscribers with 'unlimited' data deals a break -- say, $10 a month.
I'm somewhat sympathetic to AT&T because I think any phone that consumes data like the iPhone does will lead to network load issues, but small easy opportunities missed like this one make me count the days until the phone isnt exclusive and the whole bottom falls out.
@devron Why should only iPhone customers get that sort of a break? Its definitely not only iPhone customers that are loyal to AT&T. In fact, I'd argue its the non-iPhone smart phone customer that is most loyal for sticking around despite the fact that AT&T has the shoddiest smartphones on the market besides the iPhone itself, and has a reputation for poor network performance.
@devron Smart? No. Kind? Generous? Decent? Sure, but not smart.
Our free market at work: if enough people are willing to be gouged, they have no incentive to stop reaming us. Making the phone inexclusive won't change a thing; Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile are just as greedy with their Android/Blackberry/Other (smartphone) plans. *shrug* At this point, I'd settle for a smartphone that doesn't require a data plan.
@Luxury Guy At&t beat everyone in a recent pc world performance test
@anonimo I'm entirely the opposite. I originally wanted an iPhone without the voice contract, just the data. I only very occasionally use my iPhone as a phone, but I use the data all the time. Of course now that I have an iPhone I've decided I don't really want to have to carry another phone around for calls, so I wouldn't really want that, but what I would very much like is a super cheap voice plan and unlimited data. I'd be happy to pay, say $10 per month for no free minutes at all, 30 cents per minute for every call, and $30 for unlimited data. $40 a month with perhaps $2 or $3 worth of calls, which is about all I'd use a month, would save me money.
@crunc, Again, apologies if this is a double-post… I seem to be having some trouble with posts getting posted.
I want that too (except for paying per call, that would incessantly piss me off). I'm saying, [i]at this point[/i] I'd settle… if I [b]could[/b] get just a data plan ala iPad's, I'd just VoIP my calls - but that's exactly what the carriers don't want.
@crunc Dude they wouldnt gain anything. The badwidth for a voice channel is so tiny compared to data that its basically free. All the money they collect pays the bills, phones have been mastered for a while, until we are full voip. Data just seems like a deal, It can be transferred much easier due to the protocol and it being at least semi elastic makes it easier to fool users into working quality. They collect the money from the one that 'works' and pay for the one that doesnt because charging more than $30 bucks a month for data is marketing suicide.
I really wish they would stop calling it unlimited
@admlshake The internet can never run dry. Brb, I'm gonna go refill my cup.
@admlshake
Doesn't have anything to do with the internet, I was talking about their 5gb cap limit on "unlimited" data plans.