AT&T’s Next Ridiculous Move
It has been announced recently that AT&T intend to add extra fees to certain services. The news is not going to go down well as these additional charges are aimed at iPhone users and will charge them extra for FaceTime video chats over 3G and 4G networks.
The change is due to be made when Apple’s new OS (iOS 6) is launched later in the year. FaceTime will only be available over cellular networksto those who have the iPhone 4S and the iPad 3 for the time being although Apple are likely to release a new iPhone at the same time as the OS. Questions are being asked and apparently the answers so far have been evasive with no one willing to expand on the rumour about price increased.
AT&T is a leader in the industry with millions of customers and this is not the first time that profits have been publicly a priority over customer satisfaction. Although it was Verizon who was the first to introduce ‘data plans’ and limits; AT&T were the company who dived in and made sure their plans were in place as well so customers could not benefit from unlimited data and ultimately ensuring that they made more money. Sprint is a smaller company in the industry who offers unlimited data plans and if they were able to grow, they would certainly give AT&T a run for their money and probably find customers jumping ships in every direction.
AT&T is the biggest in America and there doesn’t look to be any changes to that fact any time soon. Their popularity at this time is a mystery and, regardless of the charges, users and businesses are choosing their services over the competition.
Current costs for iPad users for 250MB of data a month is $14.99 and 3GB of data is $39 a month. If users want up to 5GB of data a month it will cost $50.
A lot of users will already know that 5GB doesn’t last very long. Especially when choosing to use services such as Hulu and Netflix; the monthly costs are going to end up extreme.
Jailbroken iPhones can apparently use FaceTime and make a call up to 5 minutes and use less than 15MB of their data. This is surprising and, if true, then users won’t have to worry so much about data usage and FaceTime. This might be the reason behind the potential additional charges though. AT&T will not benefit or make any more from the new feature if customers are not exceeding their data limits and so the rumour came about that instead they will make their profit by charging for the service itself to ensure they benefit.
Users are outraged that they may be charged extra to use the new feature and see the possible decision as unfair. If a customer buys data they should be able to use it as they please, including on FaceTime. It might be a better option for consumers who are outraged to just go with another service provider who will offer a better service; there’s a few SIM only deals websites, one of the main ones is actually.
There is another downside to AT&T’s data plans and that is that if you want to use your phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot itself, then you have to pay the $50 for 5GB data in order to get this function. Users are literally being told they will use more data, and if they don’t, it’s not rolled overto the next month so the data is lost and the customer has paid for something they haven’t used.
To add insult to injury, if you then do go over your data allowance you will be charged $10 for each GB.
The facts don’t seem very fair, but then customers are still turning to AT&T for their data and phone services so they must be doing something else right instead.
Good news for the consumer is that Verizon are not taking the same route as AT&T. They don’t make you pay extra for your phone to be a hotspot and they will happily let you use any data you pay for in any way you like, and on any device as well. The control is something that will appeal to those unimpressed by AT&Ts ideas.
The news of additional charges just to use the new feature FaceTime is causing customers to be outraged. There is one thought behind the introduction of these charges and that is profit for AT&T which leads to more expense for the consumer.
The Above article is written by Rosette Summers, who is associated with many technology related sites and communities. She excels in writing articles related to broadband and mobile applications.For more information on this matter, you can visit her latest article:Â http://www.simonly-
