Seems fair enough but there's got to be a way to weasel out of giving El Jobso 25.00 a month and still use an iPhone with one of these sims, no?

For existing AT&T customers, like me, this basically is saying "Continue to buy unlocked phones during your contract every time you want a new one."

Isnt this a good way for unlocked Iphone owners to go legit, without signing a contract with ATT?

@ BY MICKEYMOO
There is: unlock your iPhone and use it with your old AT&T sim/rate plan. Works for me.

@SCATPACK
Right now the only way for and iPhone owner to go legit is to enter into a contract with AT&T and sign up for an iPhone plan. That's the whole point of Apple's carrier exclusivity initiates. "Legit" in the eyes of AT&T/Apple means signing up to give Apple its kick-back.

That said, I'm happy not being legit. I need my phone for extended international travel and I won't be paying AT&T's roaming rates while out of the country.

This is something that Sprint, and most likely Verizon, do currently.
Any of the companies that let you change your plan without re-upping your contract would be in the same boat. In the long run it is cheaper for customers to pay for their phone outright and not have a contract, over time it will save them money.
Many carriers "held" the best plans for folks on a two year contract but that is not the case anymore. Customers should change as much as they would like, why pay massive overage when you can just change your plan and make it "in plan" usage.
With Sprint today you may have to "fake" the system out but it is very simple. You buy the phone at full price with no contract and you get a not so nice plan. Once you are done setting your contract free phone up, you just have the rep change your plan to one that would require a 2 year contract and no contract required. I hear this will be all automated in the near term but for now it is a very valid workaround.

Is this really that big of a deal? Say you save $200 on a new phone when you sign up. Early cancellation of a contract is $175 or so.

Big whoop.

I just wish *all* cell providers would get rid of the ridiculous "committments" ... and and compete with each other on features, service and price instead.

Hasnt this been a practice for 400 years now?

Yes, they've been doing this at least since March of 2006 when I worked as an agent for them. You don't get the mobile to mobile promotion but the rest of the plans are the same.

T-mobile has had no commitment plans available since August of 2007. You can choose from any plan they offer, with any of their features.

Cingular / AT&T has been doing this since 2001. T-Mobile also does this, and it has kept me out of contract for some time. I guess they are wlling to tell consumers about it now.

@shaniac: Funny thing is, I'm currently under contract with T-Mobile, and when I started going over the plan minutes, they had no problem with me changing to a plan with more minutes. They were even able to do it retroactively to the beginning of the month I ran over. Unfortunately, doing this did extend my contract an extra month, but I think I'm OK with that; I've gotten pretty good service from them, and their coverage is great in my area, so I'll probably stay with them even when my contract is up.

Of course, I always like to keep my options open, so what I'm wondering with AT&T is this: will they extend this plan to people who bring their own phones?

This has pretty much been policy for a long time now on GSM providers. If your sim card is active, just shove it into any compatible phone you want.

The real news is that iPhone customers are getting raped by both Apple and AT&T and this plan makes that even more obvious. Which is why they haven't advertised it.

Irate Customer: "What do you mean I have to have a contract? I paid in full for my phone?! How is using the iPhone any different than the other phones you sell?"

AT&T Drone: "It just is, Sir."

At&t/Cingular and t-mob, have been doing this since the ice age... Why is this news again?..... Slow week?... You guys running out of HDDVD and MACBOOK AIR stories?...

BTW in regards to the iPhone: this argument has been made a billion times before. AT&t subsidizes phones in exchange for a contract. But in this case the kickbacks to apple are so much that they would loose money on each iPhone contract if they were to offer rebates on the phones (or so they say... IMHO opinion Apple shoulda sold the phones at $600 unlocked and AT&t shoulda sold them for the $400 they go for now, with a contract....)

either way... data plans (in addition to the phone plan) are so expensive on other carriers that it almost makes it a good deal that AT&T offers an iPhone plan of like $60 a month. The entire US mobile industry is raping us on data plans. European data plans are about $15 add-ons for unlimited 3G. Here, they are $30-$100+ for add-ons.

very similar to T-Mobile's flexpay right? Without the spying on you thing, though.

Okay, I have a phone. I don't want your "free" new one. So where's my discount?

Where's my discount to offset the monthly subsidy for the initial phone purchase that is built into all the rate plans?

Seriously, all USA plans have a $8-15 phone cost subsidy built in. How else is the phone free every 2 years?

Perhaps once one major cellular carrier offers true a-la carte' pricing, all others will need to follow suit for competitive reasons. If Verizon was $10 less a month than AT&T (but bring own phone), I think they'd make a huge market share gain.

So, what the letter is saying is that you can take a contract which comes with a phone but you have a minimum term which you can only get out of by cancelling.
Or you can just buy a phone and get yourself a SIM-only, rolling contract to go with it.

And this is news how?

@docvb: You get no discount. Those are for people that want to commit for a specific period of time. If you want to bring over an unlocked phone and don't want a contract, use the go phone plan. No contract and no subsidy.

i think what people are missing on this is not that existing customers could avoid a contract, thats pretty much been the case for years, but new customers can jump to ATT and avoid the initial contract. In the past, you couldn't, for example, start a new line of service with ATT without signing a 2 year. The above memo seems to indicate that you can do that now.

@jayuup: Thanks, you just answered my question.

I have been out of my current contract since August but am staying with USCC for the time being. If I wanted to bring, say, a Nokia 6288 to ATT I could do that...but...

Would they charge me the $5 for the SIM?
Would they charge to port the number?
I'm assuming the activation fee would stand.
Is there a minimum length to stay and not lose my number if ported?
Isn't there a 30-day trial period before they port your number?
-and-
Would this still stand?
How often can you change your rate plan?

Sorry for all the Q's, but this is just what I'm looking for. USCC kicks ass, but they don't have Nokias anymore to satisfy my fetish :( My 6255 is getting tiresome :(

And I'm not in the mood to sign a 2 year contract in case I have to move...again...

I called AT&T and they said this internal memo is fake and they want me to sign a 2 year contract for adding a line.

Shenanigans to that "internal memo" or to "AT&T"!

@ry_ry:

Ok dude, seriously..... >:-( Since I work for AT&T, lemme lay down some facts. But before I do, a disclaimer:

I have been an AT&T/ Cingular customer since 1998. I work for the company now because of the great service I received as a customer. I have also worked for Sprint (as a tech support agent) and have friends who worked for T-mobile & Verizon. So, I know some stuff about this field.

1. AT&T *CAN* charge $25 for a new SIM. Hhowever, it is normally company policy not to charge this. That bieng said, 3rd party companys (Cellular World, Red Skye, etc) *do* get charged for SIM cards, thus they pass the fee onto customers. If YOU are charged for 1, you are most likely at a 3rd party store. Remember, on older signage, 3rd parties were not required to display their true company names, so it is often hard to spot a 3rd party store from a corporate 1

2. Porting: it's called WLNP. That means Wireless Local Number Portability. It means that you may transfer your number from carrier to carrier. However, if you are out of market, more often than not, carriers will advise you to get a local number (eg, moved from CA to NY, wanna move ur CA # from T-mobile to AT&T). There are several reasons: First, it's long distance for anyone local to call you, second, billing systems, even within the same company, are different in different regions, and do not all work the same. Some have difficulties pulling up info from other Markets. 3rd, is roaming. Technically, they may have to activate your number in a roaming location(if for instance, you activate a local only plan, etc), and carriers hate roaming, because if you roam off network on a competitor's network, they pay for those charges.

3. WLNP is a federally mandated initiative enacted by the FCC. This means that you cannot be charged for it. I dunno where you heard something about bieng charged for it, but that's pure crap. Besides, we *love* porting #s over. There's nothing better than stealing a customer from the competition, and the issue of porting used to be the #1 problem. ;-) Infact, carriers used to own numbers, specifically for this reason; if a customer wanted to change services, they lost there phone #. Think of how much pain that would put a business person in if they had to print all new cards, re-do a webite, update phone listings, etc.

4. Of COURSE the activation fee would stand; are you not ACTIVATING Service on AT&T (or T-mob, or where ever else)?! That said, sometimes we run promotions, like "free activation weekends" for multiple lines, etc. And Customer service is usually happy to credit it back. We (sales reps) get nothing from the activation fees, we don't charge them or anything. They are auto-generated by the system when you activate.We cannot change this.

5. 30 day trial period *before* your number is ported??? What's that all about?!? What number would you use?? A temporary one?? For 30 days?? I don't think so! A number port takes about 3 hours. In some cases, it can take longer (longest I have seen personally was 7 days) due to incorrect info being processed (social #, billing address, etc not matching what your old carrier has recorded). Also, if you have a password that you need to give when you call in to CS, make sure you tell the AT&T rep when you port, otherwise the port will not complete until that password is given.

6. AT&T gives you a 30 day trial period of the service. What this means is: You have a 30 day period in which you may cancel your contract, return your phone, etc without any penalties (such as the $175 early contract termination fee). You will of course pay for the service for the time that you used it. Eg, if you used the service for 5 days, you are responsible for 5 days worth of charges.

7. On AT&T, you can change your minutes rate plan at anytime, with no re-signing of your contract.

8. If you are providing your own phone and would like to activate service on a normal rate plan (the Nation plans or Family Talk plans) you are required to sign a 1yr. commitment. As best as i can tell, this is due to the fact that AT&T is providing service at a rate discounted from the normal pre-paid plans, and as such AT&T is entitled to require a 1 yr contract on that to recoup money that would have otherwise been generated from the higher-cost no contract plans.

9. That being said, the pre-paid plans called "Pick Your Plan" are nearly identical to the 2yr plans, but w/o contract or deposit. All they require is an auto-draft to work. They have nights and weekends, buckets of minutes, unlimited mobile to mobile, and even the rollover! Also, they now include the option to get unlimited text or media net usage (phone internet, not PDA or laptop card internet).

Yes, it you could of done that for years. But here is a catch. After your spend 2 years under no contract, customers that has signed a contract will get an special upgrade price. While after you spend the same ammount of money during the two years non contract subsription won't get anything from At&t.