Comment by Ancapistani
2 days ago
Huh - the implications of this time period reach much farther than I would have expected.
I recall switching from a small, regional cellular carrier to Cingular with the launch of the iPhone 3G. It only now occurred to me that I'm still there. I stayed with Cingular when it became AT&T, and still have service through them. For that matter, the service has significantly expanded; I now have tablets, watches, and four phones for family members... some of whom weren't even alive when I switched carriers. My bill is ~$450 / month.
If I assume an average monthly bill of $300 (it started around $100, but has been as high as $550), there have been 196 months that I've paid that bill. $58,800 in revenue from me alone, that would have gone to someone else had Cingular not allowed Apple to launch on their network in 2007.
A bit off the topic, but your bill is bonkers to me. We have unlimited data + unlimited calls for 39€.
Sure, but those are totally different economies, geography, and demographics.
Where I live is quite rural, with my county having a population density of ~35 people/mile^2 (or ~13.5 people/km^2). Median income here is low relative to most of the US, but not compared to Europe.
With both T-Mobile and the MVNOs you can get unlimited data and calls for $40-$50.
I pay $360 a month on T-Mobile. That is for 5 cell phones, 3 iPads, and 2 Watches with unlimited data and 2 phone contracts. Without the 2 phone contracts it would be $300/month
that should all run you sub-$200/month (I have 5 phones, 4 watches, 1 tablet - $178/month (which I think it is still to high and am getting ready to call att to negotiate again or switch))
I really don't think so. I've shopped around several times, and while I could cut it a bit, I'm not getting more than a ~15% reduction overall.
Note that this is not all cellular service; I typically buy contract-subsidized devices. There's really no reason not to, as it's the same cost as buying them elsewhere but paid over two years. The effect of inflation alone on that deferred debt is about the same as what I could save on service by changing carriers.
Also, I and my family use our devices extensively. It's not uncommon for us to hit 1TB of cellular data in a month.
Through who? I'm paying $450 a month for 5 iphones and 4 watches.
wow madness!!! at&t! I did spend a bunch of my time negotiating over the phone but I think even what I pay is too much :)
A good portion of your monthly bill goes toward paying the debt incurred from massively overpaying DirectTV and Time Warner shareholders in the 2010s. I don't understand how the entire ATT board and leadership were not ejected. I think it was something on the order of $100B lost just on those two transactions.
I'm no fan of the company itself, but I've been too pleased with the service to really want to switch.
About a year ago I needed a SIM for an (older) Android phone for my daughter, who didn't need a capable smartphone or anything. They sent me one, but when I activated it over the phone the CS rep made a mistake and it ended up blacklisted. I told them I was activating it because my daughter was going on a trip in a couple of days, and they escalated it. I ended up with an AT&T employee driving 1.5 hours to my house to hand-deliver a new SIM and make sure the phone was activated and working the next day. In addition, they gave me a $500 bill credit without prompting at all.
So... yeah. It's not ideal, but I honestly feel like I'm getting what I'm paying for.