Once again I have not written anything in a while because
there just hasn’t been all that much new that has really interested me. There is a new Plan from T-Mobile that will
allow truly unlimited data (as in not throttling you after X GB) but you cannot
Tether with this plan. I will talk more
about this when I get more info about it.
What I really want to talk about Today is the fact that
AT&T once again feels like they can just do whatever they want and customers
will just simply take it. Sadly they are
right, people probably WILL take it, but I want to tell you why you may want to reconsider just taking it.
Remember how Verizon had switched their plans to a Share
Everything plan where the only choice was the Share everything plan (if you
were new)? Then remember how AT&T
came out with their Mobile Share plans but they were all like “This is only for
those who want it”? Remember how these plans could save you a
couple of bucks (literally in most cases just $10 to $20) if you were a family
and had a bunch of phones but if you were an individual it was going to cost
you quite a bit more?
For individuals, the AT&T route was nicer because they
were able to continue with their normal plans and not have anything
change.
Now, remember how a few months ago Apple unveiled the new
iPad and talked about iOS 6? One of the
cool new features was going to be FACETIME over Mobile networks. Up till now if you wanted to use the
application you had to be connected to a Wi-Fi network. The idea of being able to use Facetime
anywhere is certainly a pleasing one, especially now that it’s pretty much a
for sure thing that the new iPhone will have 4GLTE.
So now AT&T has decided that they don’t want you to use
Facetime over their network unless you switch to a Mobile Share plan. So in a way they are doing the same thing as
Verizon. While Verizon says “If you want
a new phone without paying full price, you’ll have to switch” AT&T is
saying “You’ll have to switch if you want facetime over our network”.
I also MUST point out that Verizon has been very quiet about
this, so we don’t know exactly what their plan is.
So you may think “Who cares, they are both doing the same
thing!” but that’s where I have a real problem.
They are not. I find what
AT&T is doing a lot more dangerous.
They are saying that Facetime over their network would consume too much
data and therefore only those that are paying quite a bit extra for data should
be able to use it.
So right now it’s Facetime,
what will it be tomorrow? Skype?
You Tube? Netflix? Pandora? This direction is Very scary when you start
thinking about all the things they could decide to charge more for.
