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AT & T offers an unlimited data plan for $15.00 a month, but you cannot tether the phone to your laptop.
I found that out after signing up for that plan. I should have spoken with their agent sooner.
Now I have two options
1) Buy an improved phone, since the N75 Nokia I have is not good at browsing.
2) Upgrade to the data tethering plan which is $ 60.00 per month and limited by 5 gb of data.
:confused:
The third option is to pay $15.00 to AT & T every month and do nothing.
Of course you can tether it to your laptop. I haven't even heard of tethering plans before, so I don't know what you're on about, but I can simply make it a modem, plug in, off I go.
Or am I missing something?
This is an AT & T network locked phone.Quote:
Originally Posted by mendhak
I tried to use the USB modem feature, but it just won't connect.
It wont work. The data plan you have is through a phone only APN. Vodafone do it with there live.vodafone.com apn.
Really? That's ridiculous. Alright, next obvious question - why don't you unlock it? Will that affect your contract? I'm sure you have the right to unlock it.Quote:
Originally Posted by abhijit
I suppose, just to rub it in your face, I'm posting this from a tethered laptop :p
And I was ignored. The lock on the phone does not matter, if you tether you will be charged mad money!
Generally you can't unlock until your contract term is up but it depends on your plan!Quote:
Originally Posted by mendhak
I did call an AT & T rep to unlock the phone, but that wasn't helpful. Unlocking the phone is not breaking the contract. Nowhere in the contract does it state that.Quote:
Originally Posted by mendhak
Yup, there's mad money clauses. I browsed AT & T forums and found that people have been charged close to $700 in a month for such shenanigans.Quote:
Originally Posted by DeanMc
Here's part of the boring legal stuff from the agreement.
Quote:
Originally Posted by at&t
i also hate AT&T but not the phone service. I dont have a data plan (apart from unlimited SMS). But i hate their UVERSE TV/Phone/Internet. The Internet is ok, and i dont use the home phone, but the TV sucks. Between the hours of 1am - 630am the connection sucks. It is always freezing... gah!
do you guys not have 3g dongles that attach to your keys? Like this:
https://www.vodafone.ie/mobilebroadband/
What's the difference between mobile tethered browsing and using one of those dongles? I'm with vodafone Pay Monthly as well so you can go into details, much to abhijit's chagrin.
Ya, srs question!
I know Sprint has them. They are called wireless data cards.Quote:
Originally Posted by DeanMc
The dongle is a second phone.Quote:
Originally Posted by mendhak
So for example - I am paying 39.99 on my SIM card connection.
I would have to pay another 39.99 on the dongle. Maybe slightly less.
What kind of plan are you on with vodafone?
How much do you have to pay for unlimited SMS? I pay $5.00 for 200 messages, which seem to suffice.Quote:
Originally Posted by dclamp
I have no idea about their land-lines.
I subscribe to a cable service from COMCAST and don't get me started on COMCAST. :mad:
Vodafone, x texts per month, x calls per month (dunno, I don't use those features), plus 5GBP per month for 'unlimited' data access on my phone. Total - 15 GBP.
Now you are putting me into doubt whether this allows me to tether it or not. I can tether and am tethering right now, just don't know the implications of this.
If your data usage exceeds a certain limit, someone's bound to notice and turn that off for you.Quote:
Originally Posted by mendhak
15 GBP including data plan. That's a sweet deal. Also in UK, the incoming calls are free, unlike the US, where incoming calls add up to your minute usage.
Verizon Wireless has similar stuff here in the US... the crappy browsers that come in their phones have unlimited access for somewhere around 15 bucks a month, but no tethering without a much more expensive data plan.
AT&Ts data network sucks though... Verizon's is much better I will give them that, but still not good enough for me to pay the prices they ask for it, when my super high speed home cable is half that price. If you really need internet in an emergency, go to an apt complex, and steal someones wifi, usually about half the routers in any given apt complex are not secured.
VZW is supposed to be rolling out a 4G data network next year too.
Yes. Their other network is not as good as verizon either. Earlier when I was on t-mobile, I found at & t to be better. Now that I am on AT & T, I find verizon to be better.Quote:
Originally Posted by kleinma
More bars in more places is a joke.
Verizon > At&t > Sprint > TMobile > Boost
Also, it is $10 a month for unlimited sms for the whole family, which is 4 phones. Another $10 per month for picture messaging, which i currently dont have, and dont need.
I disagree. I have more service than most of my friends. I also have service in the mountains as well as in the middle of the desert on the way to Vegas.Quote:
Originally Posted by abhijit
I used to work at VZW as a developer for internal call center apps up until about 5 years ago, and I can tell you they have had, and still have the best overall network.
What they have in network though, they lack in hardware...
It seems sprint, AT&T, and even t-mobile tend to get the best new hardware, and verizon gets a bunch of crappy, feature lacking phones.
They claim it is because they put them through better quality testing, and many phones sent to them from mfgrs are returned with issues and the mfgr just never fixes them, so they never get approved for sale on VZW. I don't know how true that is because I have had some really crappy phones from them.
They also nickel and dime you horribly.. but that is another story.
There's a wolf preserve in North Jersey, where you won't get access on an AT & T phone, but a verizon works well. Ditto with Sunfish pond near the Delaware water gap.Quote:
Originally Posted by dclamp
You will notice AT&T has to bill themselves as the "largest coverage area worldwide" which most people in the US could care less about, since most people in the US don't leave the US. This is generally because AT&T uses GSM technology, as does most of the rest of the world.
Only sprint, verizon, and a small handful of smaller players (like alltel, which is VZW now anyway) use CDMA technology, which is not compatible (hence why you can't take an unlocked iphone and put it on verizon) Also I believe Japan (or at least some carriers) use CDMA there as well. I am pretty sure just about everywhere else in the world uses GSM.
This is why AT&T can claim this type of coverage, but in reality, they just have roaming aggrements with other foreign carriers. Verizon can not do this easily, due to the phone issues.
If they were to make a hybrid GSM/CDMA phone (they may exist, I don't know) then that would close the gap, but cost more of course.
One thing I am still waiting for is dual line phones. I am sick of carrying around 2 cell phones, it is 2009, where the hell are the dual line cell phones???
They used to have dual nam phones, which allowed for this, but only 1 line could be active at any 1 given time, and I have heard that it has since been removed, and even illegal to use dual nam now...
Everyone I talk to on an AT&T cell phone sounds like they are talking in a tin can.... I don't know if it is an issue with Verizon calling AT&T phones, or what (since I don't use a landline) but when I call someone, I can tell they have AT&T just by the hollow tin can sound I get (even when the phone is just ringing)Quote:
Originally Posted by abhijit
There's some CDMA players in India (Tata Indicom & Reliance Mobile) too. One feature of a CDMA over the GSM, (atleast in India) is that their plans are all half-priced, when compared with GSM providers like vodafone or hutch. I have no idea how they manage that. :ehh:Quote:
Originally Posted by kleinma
Are you referring to these phones, when you mean DUAL line?
Yes that is what I mean, but as far as I know, you can not get anything like that in the US, or at least not on Verizon service.
Perhaps it could have something to do with the fact that VZW doesn't use SIM cards (GSM spec requires it, but CDMA does not) and handsets are linked to phone numbers via the ESN (electronic serial number) of the phones.
I get service just about everywhere, except in lenscrafters... idk why...
SIM cards are the best, in my opinion. It allows you to switch phones easily, when you buy a new one, you dont have to go through the ATT store to activate it or anything. Unlike VZW where if you buy a phone online, they ship it to you and then you have to go in, wait, and get it activated.
It used to be the same way for AT&T, when they were still on TDMA (which is similar to GSM)
I think the Verizon reasoning for the way they do things is again more of their nickel and diming tactics.
I may have worked there, but that doesn't mean I think the company does no wrong.
The really funny thing about all this stuff is that they are able to charge you one price for visiting website A and another price for website B. The punchline is that none of the networks seem to know which protocols and packets they include in the tariffs.
Oh how I laughed.
Ha ha VZW is just Vodafone is disguse. It is true that the vodafone op co's tend to have better signal and a poor range of handsets but this tends to fit with there vision of allow them to use any unit anywhere (good signal) and worry about the choice of units second. While it may be a strange perspective for a company to take it has allowed Vodafone Global to be the second biggest network in the world, second to only China Mobile.
Mendhak, I would imagine that your plan allows for tethering but the costs coould be quite high. Could you link me the plan from the website and I will confirm. It is true that you will get an abundance of mins/text in the UK as these services are considered dead in the mobile world in terms of revenue streams there, data is the new defacto for making money.
The advantage of stick modem's over tethering is of course improved speed via a dedicated device and better bundle rates. I have been looking over the vUK rates and I would need to know how much you use your laptop while out to advise the best plan. Actually im sure you could deduce which one yourself.
They may seem more expensive than the Irish plans, which is strange given a much smaller customer base. The reason for this is our main provider (Eircom) dragged its heels with rolling out broadband for years and the mobile networks used this as a way to provide a solution that would sell. This is why our per GB charge on mobile broadband is much lower.
To be honest if you only use it out and about every so often use the £15 per GB pay as you use plan as it is hard to hit a gig while surfing in a cafe but tends to be better value than the price of tethering.
Actually Menhak!!
It turns out that thethering is pretty popular in the UK since the BB sticks did not take off as well as over here. So, you can get a better deal thetering. See below.
Quote:
Mobile broadband via your phone
Feel the freedom. Use the internet your way – with full access to VoIP services like Skype™, and peer to peer services like file sharing.
With Mobile broadband via your phone, you get a whopping 5GB each month. Simply use your phone as normal – and if you have a 3G phone, connect it to your laptop to turn your phone into a broadband modem.
Before you get started, you might need to make a few changes to your phone’s settings – your user manual will have all the details.
Add Mobile broadband via your phone – for £20 a month
* 5GB a month – ideal for big downloads
* VoIP and peer to peer services – get full access to Skype™, file sharing and lots more
* One plan for everything – you don’t need a separate USB modem device. Just use your phone instead
How do I get it?
If you’re a Pay monthly customer you can add Mobile broadband via your phone to your price plan. Simply call 191 or pop into your nearest Vodafone store
@ Wossname, lets be honest neither the customer (mostly) or the networks tend to have a clue what they are doing. Mobile networks push data like crazy to consumers but fail to notice applications like eBuddy which would generate even more revenue if preinstalled.
Nah, they only own 45%, Verizon Communications (Verizon Landline) owns the market share. That at least gives them majority control of the company.
For the moment...
Cool reference, though the place is a bit overused.:thumb:Quote:
Originally Posted by abhijit
People out here all went for Verizon because they heard they would get more bars. Boy were they disappointed when they found out what that meant.
The operators know about those things all too well, they just don't care very much.Quote:
Originally Posted by DeanMc
Watch this space though ;)
IMHO, the time to go to sunfish pond is in the winter. Nobody around for miles.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker
LOL@ Bars!
I'm about 20 minutes or so from the DWG, Shaggy, you are in Idaho? Did you used to live over here on the easy coast?
I was born in CT, moved to NH before I turned 1, and didn't leave there until grad school. Most of my relatives are still in NH. I've also hiked the AT 1.5 times, so I'e been up and down the east coast on foot (and past Sunfish Pond twice on the AT).
I am about 2 hours from the place. Do you go there at all? I have found that people who stay close to the place usually tend to appreciate it less. For instance, i have never been to Elephanta Islands in Mumbai.Quote:
Originally Posted by kleinma
I drive through it when I go skiiing in PA :)