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AT&T lowering some GoPhone plan pricing this weekend, adding bundled data option
Prepaid wireless plans are seeing a resurgence in popularity lately, due in part to the fact that top-tier carriers like Verizon are getting with the program and adding prepaid smartphones into the mix. AT&T is looking to get a little more competitive with its GoPhone brand this weekend, it seems, taking a gander at this chart we've obtained that shows a few options actually decreasing in price -- an absolute rarity for this business. Notably, the unlimited daily talk and text plan will be dropping from $3 to $2, and the per-minute "simple plan" will be dropping from 25 cents to 10 cents. The 1MB and 100MB data add-ons remain the same at $4.99 and $19.99, but there'll also be a new $75 unlimited talk and text plan that bundles 200MB of data into the mix with additional kilobytes charged at one cent each. Starting to make postpaid look a little lame, isn't it? Look for it all to go into effect this Sunday, October 3. [Thanks, anonymous tipster] Update: Confirmed -- here's the press release.
AT&T ponies up $60 unlimited GoPhone plan
It may not be the cheapest unlimited around -- Boost, Cricket, and MetroPCS have all gone lower -- but AT&T figures that it can throw its network and brand recognition around as bargaining chips to get customers to pay $60 a month for pay-as-you-go unlimited voice and messaging through the company's GoPhone prepaid brand. The zinger here is that the plan also includes texting to Canada, Mexico, and 100 other countries, so it's actually a pretty good deal if you've got a lot of buddies chilling in Calgary or Cancun. It'll be available starting October 12, but there's nothing stopping you from lining up now outside your AT&T store -- just be prepared for some odd stares. [Via Phone Scoop]
Pantech C180 for AT&T frugally tiptoes its way through the FCC
If you're looking for the most basic of basic candybars and you happen to be using AT&T service, today is a glorious day, friends, because Pantech's submitted a doozy for the FCC's perusal. The C180 lacks virtually every modern mobile convenience, eschewing even EDGE data -- though they have managed to keep a memory slot and FM radio aboard. Mentions of MEdia Net in the manual and the "C" model name -- historically reserved for Cingular, which is now AT&T -- tell us where this one's going, but we can't imagine that it'll see duty beyond GoPhone. [Via Phone Scoop]
International iPhone users: bringing your iPhone to the States? Your options are limited.
The iPhone seems like it should be the perfect companion for the international traveler. Not only can it make phone calls in pretty much any country, it can also help keep you entertained on long flights. You can even use it to hold your flight itinerary and other important info like hotel and car reservations. But if you're an international iPhone owner and you were planning on using the device to its fullest potential during your trip to the United States, such as keeping track of e-mail, surfing the Internet, checking weather, getting driving directions, or even making cheap phone calls, then I have some very shocking news for you, delivered courtesy of everyone's favorite telecommunications conglomerate, AT&T. Before a recent vacation to visit with family in the US, I decided that instead of paying for international roaming rates that are tantamount to armed robbery (US$2.42 a minute for phone calls and up to US$19 per megabyte of data -- totally not kidding), I'd instead perform a trick that savvy international travelers have pulled for years: upon arriving in the States, I'd visit an AT&T store, purchase a SIM and pre-paid plan from them, and reap the benefits of far lower charges for voice calls. Though I'd still suffer exorbitant data rates, I was aware beforehand that the lovely folks at AT&T had already discontinued pre-paid data plans for the iPhone. Still, at least I'd be able to make cheaper calls to my family if necessary; or so I thought.
AT&T trying to force iPhones out of prepaid plans
There have been various ways of getting iPhones onto AT&T's prepaid GoPhone plans pretty much since the beginning, but for some inexplicable reason (hint: contracts are lucrative), the carrier is closing the door on prepaid in concert with the release of OS 3.0 this week. To be clear, we have absolutely no idea how AT&T would reliably detect whether you're running 3.0 on your iPhone -- unless Apple were to report it to AT&T using data culled from iTunes, and we somehow doubt it's happening that way -- so in all likelihood, they're just assuming most folks will move to 3.0 within the next few weeks and are using the release as a convenient line in the sand. New iPhone 3G and 3G S owners will have a hard time signing up for GoPhone altogether, and legacy customers are being told that the upgrade "may impact the data service" unless they move to postpaid. Actually, it's even more stratified than that: only original iPhones are being allowed to stay on Pick Your Plan with the unlimited data add-on, while 3Gs have to move. To be fair, this has been the policy all along -- 2G on Pick Your Plan, 3G not eligible -- and it seems they're just now deciding to lay down the law and bring everyone into compliance, but that doesn't mean we have to like it.[Thanks, Kris]
AT&T's $3-a-day unlimited calling, Samsung a177 both go live
Today AT&T begins selling an interesting new GoPhone pay-as-you-go option, offering users unlimited domestic local and long distance for $3 a day, only on the days that you use it. If all you need is a sheer crapload of voice minutes, this actually stacks up really favorable against AT&T's postpaid offerings, which price unlimited service at $99.99 a month -- with this, you'll be paying between $84 and $93 a month, assuming you end up springing for service every single day. Of course, the tradeoff is that you're stuck bringing your own phone to the network or picking up one of AT&T's GoPhone devices -- which tend to dominate the low end of the spectrum -- but then again, if voice is really your thing, odds are you don't care about how many accelerometers your phone features. On a related note, Samsung's a177 (pictured) has gone live on AT&T's site, bringing a solid text messaging experience to the prepaid market. As you might expect of a $99.99 no-commitment phone, all you've got is a VGA cam -- but roughly $110 a month for unlimited contract-free voice and texting on a top-tier carrier might be enough to sway a few in the a177's direction, assuming value leaders like Boost, Cricket, and Virgin Mobile aren't picking everyone off. Read - Samsung a177 Read - $3-a-day option
Samsung's a177 is a prepaid texter for AT&T
As you may have gathered from the ultra-low model number, the Samsung a177's coming in as a bargain-basement GoPhone device -- but seeing how carriers are trying to attack every single market segment with messaging capabilities, they've still managed to pack in a full QWERTY keyboard. Conveniently, the device's FCC filing just came off confidentiality, so we have access to all the goods; we know that it'll be EDGE-only, have a camera (likely VGA if we had to guess), and a patterned back, because let's be honest -- a phone is never too cheap to be stylish. We imagine we'll see this one in stores very shortly. [Thanks, Kal]
AT&T loses its cool over GoPhone unlockers
AT&T's mad as hell that people are buying its prepaid phones in quantity for the sole purpose of unlocking and reselling them, and it's not going to take it anymore. The megacarrier has filed a lawsuit in Texas targeting so-called phone traffickers who are allegedly sending boatloads of people -- "runners" as they're called -- into AT&T's retail locations to pick up GoPhones and circumvent its per-person purchase limits. To AT&T's credit, the DMCA's exemption on phone unlocking doesn't protect those looking to profit from the sale of unlocked phones, so the lawsuit looks pretty straight on the surface; TracFone has made a killing recently in its legal pursuits, and it turns out that one of TracFone's lawyers is involved with AT&T's case, too, so the defendants might be staring down the barrel of a big ol' fine here. Besides AT&T and TracFone, AT&T's court filing claims that T-Mobile, Virgin Mobile, and Nokia (huh?) have all filed similar lawsuits recently, and the legal team promises there are more in the pipe. Anyway, let's try to keep the GoPhone purchases to under a hundred units a day until this all blows over, okay?
iPhone + Disposable Cellphone + Prepaid Cards + New Activation Tool = Holy Cow
Holy cow. Those guys at fusion.osx86.hu/#iphone are geniuses. Late yesterday, I downloaded a copy of iASign, their new iPhone activation tool. Right now, at this second, my iPhone just made its first call using the SIM from my disposable Cingular phone with its $10 card. After, I dialed *777# and it told me I've got $9.25 left on my account. The phone number in Settings -> Phone shows the proper number for the disposable phone (versus the one I activated with the iPhone PickYourPlan).
GoPhones are no go for iPhone upgrades
It sounded good. Buy an inexpensive GoPhone and transfer service to an iPhone, add the $20/month data plan and save roughly a thousand dollars over the two-year contract period. Things that sound good are often too good to be true. This was. Today, AT&T officially announced that GoPhones are no-go as far as iPhone upgrades are concerned. GoPhone customers cannot transfer their service, instead, they must activate their iPhone as a new account with a new phone number.
AT&T's GoPhone plans get new options, complexity
We always thought one of the big draws of prepaid plans was simplicity, but AT&T's looking to prove us wrong with a series of new add-ons available with its GoPhone service. Customers can now tack on 3,000 off-peak minutes for $20, messaging plans ranging from 200 messages for $5 up to 3,000 for $20, and a pair of data plans: 1MB for $1 and 5MB for $5. With us so far? Good, but here's where it gets kinda weird: the 3,000 off-peak minute package can only be added for GoPhone customers paying the optional $1 / day fee to lower their per-minute talk rates from 25 cents to 10 cents. AT&T's billing the data as the only prepaid data packages among major competitors, so we figure that's good news for the prepaid world -- we think, anyway, once we make sense of it all.
Wal-Mart cracks the whip on prepaid phone purchases
There's plenty of us who aren't exactly fond of commitments, especially those multi-year types that wireless providers try to rope you into whenever they drop a snazzy new phone. But if you're looking to snag a prepaid GoPhone / TracFone for the entire family, you may have to take your business somewhere other than Wally World. The world's largest retailer is cracking down on "entrepreneurs" (read: notorious phone hackers) who are buying the subsidized handsets "by the hundreds to resell for profit," by reducing the amount of prepaid mobiles one can purchase from three to two. While "two national carriers" voiced support for Wal-Mart's decision, the only confirmed provider was said to be Cingular, who certainly doesn't stand to profit from selling prepaid devices sans (pricey) prepaid air time. While the company hasn't exactly figured out how to stop tricksters from circumventing the system by purchasing multiple units at varying registers, at least the restrictions give parents with teenage triplets (or quadruplets) a valid excuse to delay their gratification.
Pantech C120 heads to Cingular prepaid
In case you haven't heard, Cingular has an official corporate policy of not talking to us (no, seriously) so forgive us in taking a few days to gather all the requisite details of Pantech's new C120 for Cingular's GoPhone prepaid service. The diminutive candybar serves as Pantech's followup to the crazy-small C300 clamshell; like the C300, it's initially available exclusively through GoPhone, but we wouldn't be surprised to see it head over to postpaid before terribly long. Considering the handset moves for $140 contract-free, the C120 holds its own with a 128 x 128 color display, speakerphone, and VGA cam, but with a mere 2.5MB of memory on board, don't expect to fill 'er up with your favorite tunes.[Via Slashphone]