Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Kendo

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Apr 4, 2011
2,362
912
Is there no point in going for the iPhone 12 if you aren't ready yet to switch your plan? I heard AT&T is keeping all grandfathered unlimited plan users strictly to 4G. If that is the case, perhaps we can all switch our lines to T-Mobile or Verizon and take advantage of new account sign ups?
 
Is there no point in going for the iPhone 12 if you aren't ready yet to switch your plan? I heard AT&T is keeping all grandfathered unlimited plan users strictly to 4G. If that is the case, perhaps we can all switch our lines to T-Mobile or Verizon and take advantage of new account sign ups?
I would be interested to hear. For now our area is not a major urban area, no 5G likely for a year or more. Signal for majors bad at our house anyway so I guess 5G maybe long time in coming. But of more interest is the Qualcomm model better than my intel.?? If so I might get to get better LTE and a slight camera improvement since I am on upgrade program. I am on the grandfathered AT&T which keeps going up each year and they might one day loose me to competitors like Verizon and T-Mobil as well
 
  • Like
Reactions: CVUSA and 5105973
The old AT&T “grandfather” plan is no longer the best deal around. I did a comparison recently and found I could do better with one of the new unlimited plans from either AT&T or Verizon. Verizon was a bit cheaper, so I switched to them and got the new account bonus as well.
DEFINITELY check into the new plans. I have the ATT Unlimited elite on all 4 phones as of yesterday, and my bill will be about $40 cheaper per month. And that includes more "Hotspot" time and far more GB before they scale it back.
 
The old AT&T “grandfather” plan is no longer the best deal around. I did a comparison recently and found I could do better with one of the new unlimited plans from either AT&T or Verizon. Verizon was a bit cheaper, so I switched to them and got the new account bonus as well.
I found the stuff AT&T tried to sell me to replace had a monthly fee that was still higher by a few 10s of dollars, but their plans are confusing sometimes. My wife is on different plan because she has different phone number so that is another variable I have to juggle. Do you happen to have the info you found for switching plans and AT&T vs verizon.
 
DEFINITELY check into the new plans. I have the ATT Unlimited elite on all 4 phones as of yesterday, and my bill will be about $40 cheaper per month. And that includes more "Hotspot" time and far more GB before they scale it back.
At moment i have my iPhone Pro Max on a grandfathered for $100 a month. My wife who wanted different number and thus required a different account she uses the low end iphone models that work fine for her. I find it hard to figure out if we can have a single plan, different phone numbers and also save monthly fees. She is about $60 right now.
 
DEFINITELY check into the new plans. I have the ATT Unlimited elite on all 4 phones as of yesterday, and my bill will be about $40 cheaper per month. And that includes more "Hotspot" time and far more GB before they scale it back.

I made the exact same change to the AT&T Elite plan earlier this week for our family plan (5 lines), and also will see about a $40/month savings over my previous unlimited plan. I had given up my old AT&T "grandfathered" unlimited plan for one of the newer unlimited plans several years back.
 
I made the exact same change to the AT&T Elite plan earlier this week for our family plan (5 lines), and also will see about a $40/month savings over my previous unlimited plan. I had given up my old AT&T "grandfathered" unlimited plan for one of the newer unlimited plans several years back.
One problem we only have two lines for me and wife. This requires 5 lines at $45 a month each. That’s $225 a month. Right now i pay $100 for my grandfathered line and $69 for wife’s. Still $50 cheaper than this plan requiring 5 lines. Most of plans good only if you’re in larger groups
 
  • Like
Reactions: CVUSA
One problem we only have two lines for me and wife. This requires 5 lines at $45 a month each. That’s $225 a month. Right now i pay $100 for my grandfathered line and $69 for wife’s. Still $50 cheaper than this plan requiring 5 lines. Most of plans good only if you’re in larger groups

No, it doesn’t require five lines. That’s what the website shows by default, but there’s a pop-up that allows you to adjust the number of lines. (It’s not that obvious. The site is poorly designed.)
 
No, it doesn’t require five lines. That’s what the website shows by default, but there’s a pop-up that allows you to adjust the number of lines. (It’s not that obvious. The site is poorly designed.)
Yeah hard to find, I do not want to start a change only button I see seems like you have to give it your info (two accounts kind of weird) and start the process I would rather see a place to show it for two lines, ect than start the process?

I found this on one page is the current cost for 2 lines below? Not much of a savings to change for us if I want to use the middle or high end plan the lower level one seems pretty limited...

9E1BBB7E-8A02-4764-9E96-C98EB79E182B.jpeg
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: CVUSA
No, it doesn’t require five lines. That’s what the website shows by default, but there’s a pop-up that allows you to adjust the number of lines. (It’s not that obvious. The site is poorly designed.)
Ah found the one with slider that works shows same as the above. Problem is that I need really the highes end my wife does not need, almost could use lowest. I do not like the starter and the middle extra one is almost less than what i have I do not like the plans that do not allow me to mix and match what me and my wife use with iphone. She does little on her iPhone 5 I just got and does not need more than starter. I use a lot closer to elite almost. So yeah we can save $30 on middle plan that does not work best for me, or save only $20 on the higher plan I need so not much of a savings in our case. My wife has plan close to the starter plan as I mentioned but if we were do use it would be the elite and such. Question I assume a 5G phone is not required I got her a iphone 5SE from walmart that was cheap to replace her 7 with failing battery and she is fine we would not be upgrading her phone I am just on upgrade for my 11 Pro Max for a 12 Pro Max if I do the upgrade this year.

5778000C-3B9F-4066-A58A-5AFA574E7645.png
 
Last edited:
Ah found the one with slider that works shows same as the above. Problem is that I need really the highes end my wife does not need, almost could use lowest. I do not like the starter and the middle extra one is almost less than what i have I do not like the plans that do not allow me to mix and match what me and my wife use with iphone. She does little on her iPhone 5 I just got and does not need more than starter. I use a lot closer to elite almost. So yeah we can save $30 on middle plan or $20 on the higher plan I need so not much of a savings in our case since hybrid of lines is what would work best for us and why I am still on two separate lines for each other
AT&T has something new called “Unlimited Your Way” which lets you do exactly what you’re looking to do. You can mix and match different plans on the same account. It lets you do it right on the website. I was playing around with it last night. I like having hotspot and my wife hardly uses it, so I considered going with Unlimited Extra for me and Starter for her, but then talked to her about it today and we decided she’d be better off with the feature just in case. But for those who absolutely don’t need hotspot, they could go with Starter, while other members on the account can choose a higher tiered plan for their line(s).
 
I dont know how they can keep you from accessing 5G no matter what plan you have. I have an old 6GB shared plan (we dont use much data), and I dont want to spend more to get the unlimited plan. if I have a 5G phone with a 5G sim card, it shouldnt matter what plan I am on. I wouldnt think they could keep me from accessing it. right? It was $55 more per month for me to upgrade to unlimited and I dont want to do that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ladybug
Yeah hard to find, I do not want to start a change only button I see seems like you have to give it your info (two accounts kind of weird) and start the process I would rather see a place to show it for two lines, ect than start the process?

I found this on one page is the current cost for 2 lines below? Not much of a savings to change for us if I want to use the middle or high end plan the lower level one seems pretty limited...

View attachment 966677
The usual symantics. Says unlimited but only for 100GB then throttle. :confused:
 
I dont know how they can keep you from accessing 5G no matter what plan you have. I have an old 6GB shared plan (we dont use much data), and I dont want to spend more to get the unlimited plan. if I have a 5G phone with a 5G sim card, it shouldnt matter what plan I am on. I wouldnt think they could keep me from accessing it. right? It was $55 more per month for me to upgrade to unlimited and I dont want to do that.
Yes, in theory, they should not be able to prevent you from accessing 5G on a grandfathered plan, but apparently AT&T believes that 5G is a privilege not a right, so only the current unlimited plans have access to their 5G network.
 
AT&T has something new called “Unlimited Your Way” which lets you do exactly what you’re looking to do. You can mix and match different plans on the same account. It lets you do it right on the website. I was playing around with it last night. I like having hotspot and my wife hardly uses it, so I considered going with Unlimited Extra for me and Starter for her, but then talked to her about it today and we decided she’d be better off with the feature just in case. But for those who absolutely don’t need hotspot, they could go with Starter, while other members on the account can choose a higher tiered plan for their line(s).
Interesting haven’t found that option will look for it.
 
I won't get 5G for a long time as I have not intention of letting go of my current Mobile Share Value plan at AT&T as it is significantly cheaper than any of the current plans.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ladybug and CarolG
I won't get 5G for a long time as I have not intention of letting go of my current Mobile Share Value plan at AT&T as it is significantly cheaper than any of the current plans.
Yes, I am on a 6GB shared plan and the diferrence between that and an unlimited plan for my wife and I would be about $55month. So, I wont get it either if they can truly block it. 3 diggerent AT&T people told me I would be able to access it anyway, that the plan didnt really matter, it was the device that matters. I dont have 5g in my town anyway, but in Dallas not far from me, they do. So, I guess time will tell if I actually can access it or not. They did say that you had to have a 5G phone with a NEW sim card. That the old sim cards were not 5G sim cards. So I went back to ordering the att carrier phone instead of the sim free phone.
 
  • Like
Reactions: CarolG
AT&T has something new called “Unlimited Your Way” which lets you do exactly what you’re looking to do. You can mix and match different plans on the same account. It lets you do it right on the website. I was playing around with it last night. I like having hotspot and my wife hardly uses it, so I considered going with Unlimited Extra for me and Starter for her, but then talked to her about it today and we decided she’d be better off with the feature just in case. But for those who absolutely don’t need hotspot, they could go with Starter, while other members on the account can choose a higher tiered plan for their line(s).


Ah ok I see how it works I guess, move the slider to two lines and it gives you prices for each option. We would save $25 a month if I took high elite option and my wife got the starter.

99473ED9-D822-455F-887B-A0F21875AD53.png
 
  • Like
Reactions: Crow_Servo
Didn’t think they could ever throttle those unless crazy huge abuser. Sued?
I am not sure it got fuzzy after they tried to get us off our old plans that were a discounted plan as well because of my employer the University of Illinois. They have raised the rates slowly by now $35 a month. And then made some claim that they could I have never really noticed a problem but it was not clear
 
For everyone who says that you want have 5G for a long time you might be shocked to find out that you already have low band 5G . What blows my mind is that prepaid gets 5G before some postpaid accounts .
 
The old AT&T “grandfather” plan is no longer the best deal around. I did a comparison recently and found I could do better with one of the new unlimited plans from either AT&T or Verizon. Verizon was a bit cheaper, so I switched to them and got the new account bonus as well.
The old grandfathered UDP plans have been terrible for 3 or 4 years now.
I dont know how they can keep you from accessing 5G no matter what plan you have. I have an old 6GB shared plan (we dont use much data), and I dont want to spend more to get the unlimited plan. if I have a 5G phone with a 5G sim card, it shouldnt matter what plan I am on. I wouldnt think they could keep me from accessing it. right? It was $55 more per month for me to upgrade to unlimited and I dont want to do that.
ATT will be able to block you from using 5G, easily at that. They're not going to activate a 5G SIM for a phone on 4G plans.
One problem we only have two lines for me and wife. This requires 5 lines at $45 a month each. That’s $225 a month. Right now i pay $100 for my grandfathered line and $69 for wife’s. Still $50 cheaper than this plan requiring 5 lines. Most of plans good only if you’re in larger groups
My plan is $130 for two lines on Unlimited Elite. If you have a FAN or Signature discount, you save $10 per line. California tax brings my total bill to $140. Plus you get free HBO.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: phillytim
Is there no point in going for the iPhone 12 if you aren't ready yet to switch your plan? I heard AT&T is keeping all grandfathered unlimited plan users strictly to 4G. If that is the case, perhaps we can all switch our lines to T-Mobile or Verizon and take advantage of new account sign ups?

Do you have a link to an article that confirms this? I’m curious as well as I’m still on the grandfathered plan
 
  • Like
Reactions: CVUSA
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.