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Or to check your contract status without going to the AT&T website, type in *639# into your phone's dialer. AT&T will send you a reply saying when your contract ends.

I look forward to listening to everyone whine about how slow the Verizon Network is and about dropped calls.

I will be happily staying with ATT. Maybe the competition will drive the price down. That would be nice.

I hope to never have Verizon Wireless again.

unfortunately, AT&T's pricing structure is slightly lower than Verizon's already, so don't hold your breath.

What about if NOT already using an iPhone or data with ATT but want to switch to VZ iPhone? I still have a 8 months left and I want to to switch to VZ iPhone. What would be the calculation for my cancellation fee?

I been waiting for this day and now it came. I want VZ's excellent service. I have had my days with extremely bad customer service of ATT. They are sometimes rude and really awefull.

Thanks,

tfrogh, on 11 January 2011 - 12:30 PM, said:

Re: whining, Lol!

I know some folks, especially in cities such as SF, have had reason to complain about AT&T. Honestly I've had little trouble with my iPhones and AT&T, so I'll be staying with them too, probably. Otoh, we have Verizon for the landline, as well as FiOS Internet and Television. FiOS rocks.

The Verizon customer service has alientated me from that horror, I have no problem with ATT and they treat me with respect.

tfrogh, on 11 January 2011 - 12:30 PM, said:

I don't care how "slow" it is. AT$T may be faster, but in most cases we can't get enough of a signal if one at all to have any speed benefit. As a matter of fact we hook our iPhone to a VZW MiFi for data access, because AT$T plain old sucks. So maybe VZW is "slower", at least it will work in the places we frequent, as in: where the AT$T iPhone is already one, two, three hours out of range. We carry CDMA backup phones because we can't rely on AT$T.

Note that I'm not saying any practices, customer service or prices by any wireless carrier are better than any other, but as far as coverage I think VZW has the edge.

what we won't see is why i really think this is non-news for the consumer. For three phones, one an iPhone the other two "vanilla", unlimited texting for my daughter and our home phone I pay 190 a month. Add Comcast TV and Internet and you can add another 100.00. So I spend almost 300 a MONTH for the ability to use a phone, watch TV and post on MacWorld.
This is NUTZ.
I am a fool in the company of countless others, and am considering downsizing drastically.

leskern, on 11 January 2011 - 06:21 PM, said:

I have 2 iPhones (each 2GB plan) and 1 "vanilla" phone with unlimited Family Text. My AT&T bill is about $172 per month (450 mins and we rarely use them all). I have my cable providers highest internet speed only at $60/month (my own modem saves $5/month), Apple TV 2 with Netflix ($10/month) and a MagicJack for home phone ($20/YEAR) until I get a NetTalk Duo ($30/YEAR). I'm down about as low as one can get, other than dropping down internet speed. If/when Hulu Plus comes to Apple TV, I might consider that.

Overall, I guess I get a good bit of bang for my buck. I can't complain much.

redgeminipa, on 12 January 2011 - 08:32 AM, said:

I know this is somewhat off topic from the original article, but I think it's relevant for most readers of this article so I'll pile on:

My family has 2 iphones with the grandfathered unlimited data plan for ~$190/month. We pay $40/month for Time Warner RoadRunner internet service ("up to 10 Mbps", but actual measurements on speedtest.net put it at 13-18 Mbps, great for use with Apple TV2). We pay $17/month for our landline (need it for the building's buzz-in function), which we rarely use but it's nice to have. And we have Netflix with the Blu-ray option for $13/month.

Others might find useful: We used to pay $68/month for DISH Network's America's top 200 pack and renting a dual-tuner DVR (non-HD). I spent the time to figure out what we actually watched, and decided we could drop down to Dish's lowest tier plan (the "Welcome Pack", which is not advertised at all. . . it's only mentioned when you call Dish and ask them what the lowest possible plan they have is. They use it to hold on to customers who might leave otherwise.) Cost for Dish's Welcome pack: $15/month, plus the $5/month DVR rental. So I went from paying $68/month to ~$22/month (with taxes/fees) for satellite TV. The Welcome pack has most of the channels we watch (Comedy Central, all our locals and the big networks, TBS, MSNBC, Food Network, AMC). The few shows my wife watches that are on channels we don't have will be easily bought/rented via iTunes and watched via Apple TV. The extra cost of buying/renting those shows (often, what, 12 episodes per year at $1 or $2 an episode) is far outweighed by the cost savings from dropping down. I'd encourage other Dish customers to seek out the Welcome pack (google it), and call Dish.

So, in total, I guess I'm at ($190 + $40 + $17 +$13 + $22 = ) $282/month for connectivity/internet/TV.

We are too addicted to our iphones to cut those down, although it's been 6 months since they introduced the 2GB limited data plan and so far the most data I've used in a month has been 1 GB, so I could probably drop those down and save $10/month on our two phones. Need the high speed internet. Need the landline and that's as low as it will get. Won't give up netflix and we are enjoying the blu-rays on our HDTV without having to buy them. I guess the only other thing I'd consider would be getting rid of Dish entirely and just relying on the internet and iTunes/Netflix for our TV. But we are so used to the one-handed convenience of a DVR that I think that would be hard for us.

icerabbit, on 11 January 2011 - 05:04 PM, said:

I do the same thing with my iPhone 4 now. Looking at selling it to a friend of mine who can take over my contract so I can jump to the Verizon iPhone.

I think you meant though AT&T has the EDGE. :-)

I recommend switching. I've been with ATT forever...I was even grandfathered in with an "unlimited" data plan....HAAAA! Unlimited my AR$%^. Apparently, ATT has your iphone send diagnostic info to them, which uses your data. They send your iphone frequent updates, which uses your data...Then, you wonder why you get a nasty gram email from them telling you, youv'e exceeded your allotted data limit and are now in the 5 percent group of users who actually use their "smart phone". I watch one movie online and 900mb shows to be used....How am I in this small 5% group if one movie uses half of the 2GB i'm allotted before my speeds are "throttled down" to "NILL". I cannot even watch a video! So much for this state of the art smart phone. Apparently, ATT now has a class-action against them and has created a new Dept. to handle complaints dealing with data usage. I spoke to a very rude woman, her ID# is DW397W, who explained that ATT is allowed to use all the data they want, regardless of which data plan I have. In theory, I could pay a monthly fee for X amount of data. ATT can do their diagnostics of my iphone remotely, and update it with software they think i need and use all of my data allotted causing me to have an overage, then bill me for that overage? Excuse me, that sounds like theft. I pay for something and ATT uses it....Hmmmmmm,,,,,If your interested in speaking to the ATT Dept. responsible for your Data Overage that they cause which is causing you to pay even more, She can be reached at 1-866-344-7584....I cannot wait for the lawsuit to be finalized....