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nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

Xenomorph posted:

"This app is incompatible with all of your devices."

Why would AT&T make something like this but then only allow it to be installed by a few phones?

Great question.

If you're looking for a better voicemail solution, check out Google Voice.

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nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

Thermopyle posted:

I think you mean "a voicemail solution with a different set of compromises".

In my experience it works great as a voicemail solution. Once you go beyond that, there are compromises.

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

Xenomorph posted:

I had been using Google Voice for my home phone for a long time (with an Obihai VoIP box, or something), but then I read that Google was shutting down Google Voice. I'm guessing that it is still up, but I don't want to rely on something that could disappear at any time.

They're not shutting it down. What you probably read was that they're cutting off unauthorized third party access to the service.

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

Three Olives posted:

So I kind of feel like I am in a spot, my phone (LG G3) works-ish now but it has issues and I don't think it will make it another year. Since everyone is now timing their smartphones for summer I'm thinking I need to go ahead and upgrade now to stay in cycle with the upgrades.

Is there a good reason to not get a new phone now (Probably the S6 or Note 5) on Next 12 with the full intention of upgrading in 12 months to probably the iPhone 7? I understand that it is basically a lease and the trade in will be less than stellar but realistically I'm not going to private party sell the phone and I do want to upgrade next cycle, it seems like everyone has embraced the Apple tick tock summer launch.

I can't see any reason why you shouldn't do this. Next 12 seems tailor made for your current desires.

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

nwin posted:

I also asked, that my current monthly charge (I'm in the last month of my old 2-year contract) is 87/month. She said my monthly bill would go up by 24.97 a month...so that doesn't make any sense. I'm currently paying 87/month, and that's with a 2-year contract. I would expect, if I went to month to month after this (keeping my 5s), that my bill might go down a bit, but she didn't say it would.

Any ideas what my options here are?

Your bill on the unlimited plan doesn't go down after you finish your 2 year contract. There's no discount for month to month unless you switch to a mobile share plan.

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

smackfu posted:

Once you go off the contract, your monthly prices goes down. So many people seem to ignore that in their math and get confused.

This is true for mobile share plans but for anyone on older plans it doesn't work this way.

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

nwin posted:

Second question is regarding Next contracts. Next24 says I pay 30 payments but can be eligible for a phone after 24 months. What happens to those extra 6 payments if I upgrade to a phone at month 24?

Those extra 6 payments are only if you don't want to upgrade after 24 months. You pay them and the phone is yours forever, or you trade in for a new one and make payments on the new phone.

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

FunOne posted:

Suddenly on my Nexus6 I'm having severe issues downloading MMS messages. MAYBE one will come through in an hour, the rest just get stuck downloading or failure to download. I'm not rooted, the most "aggressive" thing I do is download GPS updates when they're put out on APK Mirror. I've reset the phone, reset APNs, force closed Messenger, and still nothing.

What else can I try?

A different texting app, perhaps.

Textra is nice.

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

beejay posted:

I hate to be the millionth person to ask about this but I feel like I'm missing something. Right now my wife and I have iPhone 5S's and are in a 2 year contract that ends in January. We have the 5 gigs of data plan and unlimited talk and text. Our bill is roughly $110. We have an 18% FAN discount through my job. For whatever reason we are getting the $15 off per line even though we're in contract. We are eligible for upgrade now if we use Next.

It looks to me like if we go with Next 12 and 64GB iPhone 6S's and keep the same plan, our bill is just going to go up by $75 a month ($37.50 or so per phone per month). I feel like I'm missing something because that's a big increase. Is that really just the cost of doing Next? I can't figure out what a new 2 year contract would do either, I used the calculator thing and it is almost as much as the Next plan per month. Are we just going to be paying a lot more than we do now regardless? Did prices increase?

That's just how Next works. The cost of the phones is no longer built into the phone service plan -- instead you pay an extra monthly fee until the phones are paid off.

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

beejay posted:

Yeah... I guess I thought the plan would go down since the price of the phone wouldn't be built into the monthly cost of the plan anymore. But it sounds like they just raised all the costs and people just have to deal. Welp.

It just means that they aren't going to subsidize your expensive iPhones anymore. You want it, you gotta pay for it.

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

Sergiu64 posted:

Hi guys, sorry if this is a common question:

My contract is coming to a close on Nov 20th. I'm planning to buy a new unlocked phone on my own and stay with AT&T, will they lower my bill by $15 automatically when I deactivate the current phone and activate the new one since I'm going off a subsidised phone? How does the process work?

Are you on a mobile share plan?

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

Sergiu64 posted:

Yes Mobile Share Value 1GB with Rollover Data.

The extra $15 charge should drop off automatically after your contract is fulfilled. You can always call to make sure.

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

KingKapalone posted:

I want to get a Nexus 6P now but my contract doesn't end until 2/11. Should I see about canceling the contract to stop paying that $15 or will it certainly cost more than $45?

Here's the info on how much it would cost to terminate your contract.

http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/articles-resources/early-term-fees.jsp

Basically it's $325 minus $10 for each contract month you've completed.

Also that per-line discount only applied to people in 2-year contracts when they rolled out the mobile share plans. I think the cutoff date was in Feb/March 2014. So if you start a new contract you'd pay the full $40 per line.

edit: According to the Rate Plan Calculator, the cutoff date for 5GB plans was 3/9/14 and the cutoff for >=15GB was 2/2/14.
http://myattrpc.com/

nimper fucked around with this message at 15:58 on Nov 12, 2015

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

KingKapalone posted:

So would I not save any money on my plan by adding an unlocked phone and not renewing the contract like you said to the other guy? Basically am I looking at $500 for a Nexus with same plan or $200 for 6S Plus with same plan? I'd probably just have to go iPhone then.

If any of my family renews a 2 year contract they will lose their discount?

If anyone renews their contract they will lose the discount and pay $40/line instead of $15 or $25.

Also you would absolutely save money with $500 up front for a Nexus and a discounted line access fee versus an iPhone 6S+ on contract.

You can use http://attcalc.com/next/ to look at your scenario and see the total cost of ownership for that iPhone.

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

KingKapalone posted:

So on Feb 11th when my two years is up my bill should go down based on what I've outlined here? Adding a Nexus would keep it that way and if I decide to buy a subsidized iPhone from them under contract it would go back to $40?

That's correct.

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

Mr_Angry posted:

I'm staying in a hotel (Extended Stay America) for up to two months while I start my new job and look for a place to buy. While my hotel has the basics the wireless internet sucks; the transfer speed is horrible and while I can put up with it for a few nights for two months I want Skype to actually work and my Xbox One to be able to play games.

I have an AT&T plan with my iPhone right now but with many devices that would want faster internet I'd be interested in a 4G modem and router combo with a monthly pay as you go option. Is such a thing available with AT&T? I am fine paying 100 dollars or more a month and figure I need 20-30 GB of data per month. Is a 4G modem the way to go?

Relying on wireless providers for internet is always going to be a bad deal. Get out of that hotel ASAP.

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

Maneki Neko posted:

So, new Mobile Share Advantage plans:

http://about.att.com/story/att_introduces_mobile_share_advantage.html

I'm not really seeing a downside to these, I'm on the 15GB plan now and for $10 less I can get another gig plus no more overage fees?

Looks like the line access fee is $20 across the board for the new plans if you're not on contract, so it would only be a $5 savings.

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

Duckman2008 posted:

ATT will gladly sell him unlimited data if you buy Direct TV

or uverse TV

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

Femur posted:

So does uverse work? I got that, but thought unlimited is only direct tv

https://www.att.com/shop/wireless/unlimited-plan.html

How do I get the new AT&T Unlimited Plan?
• Customers who have both AT&T wireless and DIRECTV or U-verse TV residential service can sign up for this plan by logging into their account and changing their rate plan.

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

thebushcommander posted:

So even if all installments are paid on the phone in 2 months it will continue to charge me the installment fee for 2 additional months? that makes no sense

It depends on when you started the Next 18 plan. Prior to June 2014 it is a 26 month installment plan. After June 2014 it's only 24 months.

https://www.att.com/esupport/article.html#!/wireless/KM1162406

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den
I would imagine you'll see a response to Verizon's unlimited plan from the other three big carriers by the end of the week.

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den
AT&T does have an unlimited plan available now; you just have to have Uverse TV or DirecTV service to buy it.

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

Jose Oquendo posted:

So ATT answered back. Unlimited data (throttle after 22GB). $180 for 4 lines. Does anyone know how much it is per line after 4 if you can even add more?

Appears that it doesn't include hotspot data. Verizon still wins on this if you want to pay extra versus TMobile and Sprint for better coverage.

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den
edit:

never mind, I was looking at info on the new deals regarding combined DirecTV/unlimited data.

nimper fucked around with this message at 15:58 on Feb 27, 2017

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den
Do you have home internet? Newer AT&T phones support wifi calling. They will steer you toward that option before giving you a microcell.

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den
Check the fine print. Is BB selling the S8 at that price fully unlocked with no obligation to buy service?

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

pzy posted:

I was told sometime last year that if I switched to an "Unlimited" plan from my current bucket (25GB) plan, I would lose my FAN discount.
This is true. User-hostile, but true.

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

Duckman2008 posted:

No way you’re getting that unlocked without the original owner submitting the request.

For a dumbphone from 2004? That's ridiculous. Pretty sure that was the Cingular era wasn't it?

nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

pzy posted:

Blows my mind they want an extra $120/yr to use your watch

Yes, to use it on cellular data.

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nimper
Jun 19, 2003

livin' in a hopium den

Anti-Hero posted:

This is a really stupid question, and I likely know the answer. When I’m on WiFi my streaming speed is limited through that connection, not what my ATT plan is?

Yeah, that's how it's supposed to work.

quote:

I recently switched to the new 3mbps unlimited plan. My expectations are met when streaming off cellular data at about 480P. It seems when I’m on my home WiFi connection the quality doesn’t improve, at least on YouTube which is the only service I use on my phone. I’m not being throttled somehow at the hardware level by my streaming plan, correct? That can’t be right.

Have you tried changing the video quality through the Youtube app?

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