While you can share your wireless minutes with others on some phone carriers sharing data is something that's a fairly new concept. Verizon has already talked about putting in such a plan and now its biggest rival, AT&T, has been talking about the same thing.
AllThingsDigital.com reports that at the D9 Conference today, AT&T's Ralph de la Vega seems to hint that such a data sharing plan is pretty much a done deal. de la Vega states, " ... once you have so many devices that you carry, you may want a shared plan." He added, "The more focus groups we do, the more we think that may be the way. We're working on it. It will be soon."
He also talked about other subjects including the current race for getting 4G speeds. It's big rival Verizon has already launched its LTE network and continued to expand while AT&T's LTE network has yet to launch. However de la Vega claims, "I think you will see us be very competitive with LTE." He also dodged a question about what the next iPhone from Apple will look like but did say that the company "has put a lot of processes in place to keep that info secret."
When famed blogger Jason Calacanis asked de la Vega to give him a discount on his "lousy" AT&T service, the response from the executive was somewhat apologetic, saying, "If a customer calls us and there’s a history of problems, our reps are authorized to provide a discount."
Comments (9)
ReplyShared plans? I don't get it and I'm sure it is a new way to gouge us into the moon on prices.
What don't you get?!? If you have an iPhone and iPad why pay for 2 data plans...Have one data plan shared between the two! Or if your on a family plan, like my wife and I. I've always been irritated with having to separate data plans for hers and mine.
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They are definitely the worse carrier out there, gouging your money and buying out the competition so there can be no price competition.
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They are definitely the worse carrier out there, gouging your money and buying out the competition so there can be no price competition.
That would be awesome, I always hated paying $20 each for the wife and I.
I don't see a cell carrier offering something for nothing. They have people by the curls now paying for data on multiple devices in one home...why would they willingly give up that one source of money coming in, unless they will be making it up elsewhere.
2 plans - 1 plan = less money for them... that does not compute. Unless the plans themselves will jump up with a sharing surcharge or other products that will cost a pretty penny.
2 plans - 1 plan = less money for them... that does not compute. Unless the plans themselves will jump up with a sharing surcharge or other products that will cost a pretty penny.
They're starting to lose the customers who don't want to pay for the data plans and see them as extraneous expenses. They go "I can just go online with Wifi and have a normal cellphone," and they're converting back to normal phones. They're trying to get them back by saying "well you can share a single data plan . . ." Good idea, if that's what the customer is holding out for. Personally, I would hold out for unlimited data for two devices at $20 a month. That's my sweet spot.
maybe technology is finally catching up?? i am going to get a ipad2 for bday but i cannot decide which carrier to get (at&t - verizon). i have a t-mobile account and this thing with at&t - t-mobile merging just keeps pulling towards at&t. i am sure that they will throttle users for abusing their plans but i have a family plan with 3000 minutes with the rest unlimited. i would like to see how they will handle this.
If it was me, I would talk to a bunch of people in my area and see how they feel about each carrier. Where you are often determines whether AT&T or Verizon are considered to be a better service. Where I live, Verizon is at the top, whereas in large cities like Detroit (where I moved from several years ago,) AT&T is stronger and better overall.