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AT&T signals an abrupt end for some prepaid iPhone plans (updated)
Update 4: I am working with an AT&T spokesperson to try to detangle the contradictory information discussed below. No results as yet, but will update when that becomes possible.Update 5: The prepaid crackdown for iPhone applies to only some prepaid plans. PayAsYouGo GoPhone customers will be affected but not PickYourPlan GoPhone customers, who will be safe from service degradation. Brad Mays of AT&T tells TUAW that they are briefing their reps to better convey the distinction to customers. Similar carrier restrictions are apparently not limited to the United States. TUAW reader Robin forwarded a screenshot from the UK, which directs customers to this O2 information page. Customers are being urged to change from normal prepaid plans to an authorized O2 iPhone tariff.Update 6: Brad Mays emphasizes that PAYG customers do not have an official iPhone Data Plan and that PickYourPlan data "is necessary to make the 3.0 software work properly with their device". PAYG customers are directed to this page for more information. He added, "[O]ur reps are now fully aligned around this information."TUAW reader Daniel B. called AT&T today and writes that he was offered a prepaid PYP option with a $30 iPhone data plan. This is the first we've heard of PYP prepaid accounts being offered, believing AT&T would no longer provide this option. I have, once again, contacted Mays to see what's going on.Original PostI just spent the last half hour on the phone with AT&T, and I can't quite believe what I heard. I am an AT&T customer, and have been so since the weekend that the iPhone debuted. I am on an official iPhone GoPhone plan. I have paid monthly for two years and am up to date on said payments. After two years, AT&T now tells me that I will either begin a new contract on my existing equipment, or lose access to a reliable data plan. My jaw is dragging the floor. When TUAW reader Daniel Burkholder tipped us off this afternoon, I thought he was somehow misled by the text message that appeared on his iPhone. It reads: AT&T Free MSG: A new software upgrade for iPhone will be available on 6/17. This upgrade may affect your data service. Please visit att.com/iphone or call 800-901-9878 for a representative. If you download the software and are not on an approved iPhone data plan, your data service will be interrupted. So I called, despite the fact that I am on an approved data plan. Sure, my account is grandfathered in, and new iPhone 3G purchasers can no longer get GoPhone activation (click the "New to AT&T" link to see the relevant section), but it's never been an issue. I was told that AT&T was asking customers to move to a contract plan as they no longer plan to support prepaid data. "This is a recommendation," the technical support person told me. "If you decide not to go, it's okay but we're informing customers that service will not be up to par." I asked if they were deliberately cutting out GoPhone customers from full Internet access (and mind you, I asked this in several ways, at least three or four times), and was told 'Yes.' "This will affect logging onto the Internet and using your data services." How will they detect this? According to the technical representative, their equipment will be checking the SIM and using the account information when accessing AT&T's data services. "Based on your plan, you will not receive the same quality service on your GoPhone plan, even with the same equipment. This is a technical change on AT&T's end on how we service that data plan." Gotcha -- so nothing at all to do with the 3.0 OS upgrade, but merely a convenient point of transition. I pushed further, asking whether I could move to a postpaid plan without invoking a two-year contract as I already fully owned my equipment and had been a customer for two years on my current plan. "You will have to enter a new contract as this service change is not compatible with the iPhone prepaid. You cannot enter a postpaid contract without a two year commitment." The technician pointed out that "the iPhone has drastically cut prices" on recent models. I responded that my 2G iPhone was working fine. He pointed out that this was an official AT&T policy and that they have decided that "all prepaid customers should transfer into a contract plan for the iPhone." I asked him to point me to an official policy statement but he said at this time only the text messages going out are available as official communications with customers. "This is an official iPhone advisory. We are informing customers by text messages." So this is how AT&T rewards me for two years of customer loyalty: I either have to start paying up another $20+ per month and commit to two years of additional service (without any further breaks on equipment or contract terms, if I don't choose to buy a 3G S right now), or accept that I'm going to be paying good money each month for a plan with substandard data service. Based on the fact that the data pinching will happen deliberately on AT&T's end, I'd call it a strongarm approach and a rotten way to treat customers. It's one thing, if you're going to make a change in the terms of service for an admittedly legacy (but still perfectly usable) service plan, to clearly communicate customer options well ahead of the transition date, and to work with loyal users to find accommodations that satisfy. It's quite another thing to lower the boom with two days warning: upgrade or suffer. Update Official statement here, which does not yet shed any further light on the matter. Developing. Update 2 Three different AT&T reps checked my *specific* plan using my account information, which is the original iPhone GoPhone plan and said that yes, I would be affected and that no, this didn't just affect people who stuck SIMs into iPhones Update 3 We have a query into AT&T PR that has not yet been replied to, asking why service reps are giving information that seems out of line with the statement
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
T-Mobile UK rolling out annual data plan for BlackBerry
We can think of a wide variety of BlackBerrys we'd rather have, but let's take a good, hard look at what T-Mobile UK is proposing here: basically, it wants you to shell out £179.99 (about $265), and in exchange, you get the venerable BlackBerry Pearl 8110 plus a full year of unlimited email and web access. That works out to something like $22 a month for unlimited on-device data -- and on top of that, you'll be paying as you go for voice minutes, texts, and MMS messages. Not a terrible deal by any stretch, but we'd characterize this one less as blowout pricing and more as creative deal packaging. Oh, and we'll take a Curve 8900 with that, T-Mobile, thankyouverymuch.
O2 UK shows the LG Cookie sporting a new whiter look on Pay & Go
O2 seems to like LG's KP501 Cookie so much that its decided to offer it in white with shiny metallic accents in the Pay as you go realm. Pricing is listed as £99 (roughly $140) and for that money you'll get stuff like a 400 x 240 touchscreen display, a 3.2 megapixel sharpshooter, Bluetooth, FM radio, and so forth. Sound like it's too good to be true? Well, it isn't, though, you'll need to sit and wait a tick as this guy is listed as "coming soon" to shops and the O2 online store.
Orange UK gets pay-as-you-go BlackBerry Pearl 8120
Orange UK has chosen to Launch RIM's BlackBerry Pearl 8120 as a PAYG number for all the would be messengers out there who prefer to remain sans plan. Price for this exclusive indigo set seems set at £145 (roughly $200) and should be landing in a shop near you in early February. Price of admission -- handset aside -- includes needing to grab an Animal package (Dolphin, Canary, Racoon, or Camel) and taking out a £5 BlackBerry internet service deal as well. Enjoy! At this point, pay-as-you-go is about where this set should be in terms of its age, you listening, Fido?
Verizon killing pay-as-you-go data plans, making other changes
Rumors on this one have been flying in the VZW world, but now it looks like we've got some confirmation on the matter -- and chances are, some folks won't like it one bit. According to a leaked document from within the company, every new PDA / smartphone launched on or after November 14th will "require a data feature / plan of $29.99 or more." Additionally, Pay As You Go, 1X Block and the 10MB data plan / feature will be unavailable for those very phones on the same day. Ready for more? In 2009 (vague, right?), "select" Mobile Web 2.0 devices will also require a data feature / plan. We are told that those who have one of these soon-to-vanish plans can keep it so long as they stick with their current phone, but as soon as the upgrade bug bites, be ready to pony up for data, too.[Via Boy Genius Report]
O2 announces iPhone 3G Pay & Go pricing / launch date
We've known that a pay-as-you-go iPhone 3G plan was in the works at O2 since June, but the carrier has at long last fessed up and provided the formal introduction. The iPhone 3G Pay & Go plan will be live on September 16th, enabling users in the UK to purchase the handset sans contract for £349.99 (8GB) or £399.99 (16GB). Yeah, it's quite a bit more than free on contract, but those prices do include unlimited browsing and WiFi for the first 12 months after the phone is activated. Once that honeymoon ends, you're looking at £10 per month to keep browsing. Also of note, Visual Voicemail is conveniently omitted from Pay & Go phones, but if you're cool with that, you can get going in a fortnight by heading to your local O2, Apple or Carphone Warehouse store.[Via Stuff, thanks to everyone who sent this in]
TUAW Hands On: Trying out the $20/month contract-free unlimited data iPhone
Yesterday, I wrote about AT&T's new $20/month unlimited data feature pack. Today, my daughter was home sick from school. Why is that important? Because we gave her a cheap AT&T Pay As You Go phone, which she uses to keep in touch when her bus is late or if she needs to contact us for some reason. Pay As You Go plus idle phone = Data Plan Experimentation! Read on for details...
Rogers set to launch Nokia 5310 on Pay As You Go plan
Rejoice Rogers music lovers, as there she is, the least beautiful -- though, rather affordable -- cell in the world, the XpressMusic Nokia 5310. Mobileincanada has spilled the beans on the upcoming release of this handset on Rogers, and for a purported bargain-basement price of $99 bucks, we're sure it'll find an audience in the chilly north. No word on when we'll see this lining the shelves, though we'll drop some hints as soon as we know more. Oh, and if you're hitting up the source for this, you're better off reading en français -- if you can dig that language -- as the translated site's a bit challenged.
Prepaid Data Packages and the iPhone
I recently had the chance to sit down with my iPhone and a prepaid SIM with a $50 account balance. I really got a chance to see how the iPhone would function with a pay-as-you-go plan and its data plan. What I learned was this: although using iPhone with pay-as-you-go means you can make occasional phone calls when you need to, you'll want to avoid EDGE data and stick to WiFi whenever possible. Here's the complete run-down.
FCC spills beans on Sony Ericsson K205a
Sony Ericsson may be gearing up for a product launch as the FCC spills the beans on a new -- and rather uninteresting -- handset. The K205a (that "a" does stand for Americas) packs a dual-band 850 / 1900 radio, IR for goodie transfer between devices, and we're honestly not sure what else. We doubt that this'll wring your wallet for much more that a nifty, and in turn should prove popular with the pay as you go crowd. We'll have more details on providers and such as we hear 'em.[Via PhoneScoop]
Sagem's stylish my411x for the prepaid crowd
Gone are the days when going with a prepaid account meant sacrificing style or functionality in your choice of handset; actually, we think those days have been gone for a while now in Europe, but at any rate, add the Sagem my411x to the list. The fashion-friendly candybar features a mirrored front, media player with dedicated buttons, Bluetooth, and a VGA cam -- groundbreaking features by no means, but hey, when you consider that it goes for £49.99 (about $100) contract-free, it ain't bad. Look for it now on Orange in the UK.
