AT&T begins offering prepaid packages starting at $50

You had a good idea, even though it's more than say, Boost or Virgin Mobile. You went astray when you said "If you own a smartphone, you can select the unlimited talk and text for $50, but then you must add a tiered data plan starting at $5." As examples, Boost and Virgin both offer android phone (not top line) at a reasonable price, with talk, text and web INCLUDED with their packages. Personally, I use Virgin, and it's been the best of any carrier I've used before.

Ah, another unlimited offering. But also not really, with data costing a lot - not that I really care about the data, but it's nice to see ATT starting to take prepaid a little more seriously. Next, I'm seriously hoping that they'll take seniors a little more seriously. So far it's only tracfone's senior value cellphone, that's offering anything decent on prepaid for pensioners. What would it take for the big guns to start seeing the value in small profit margins, as opposed to no margins at all?

I don't know, 'starting' at $50... the only value to the thing is you can run away if you don't like the cards you're being dealt. I still have a feeling there are going to be a field full of caveats that aren't going to be clear upon purchasing a plan and the phone. It's simply food for fodder in this time and age.

Originally posted by urgrandfather:

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Ah, another unlimited offering. But also not really, with data costing a lot - not that I really care about the data, but it's nice to see ATT starting to take prepaid a little more seriously. Next, I'm seriously hoping that they'll take seniors a little more seriously. So far it's only tracfone's senior value cellphone, that's offering anything decent on prepaid for pensioners. What would it take for the big guns to start seeing the value in small profit margins, as opposed to no margins at all?

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I don't see why you are complaining...they already offer one reduced rate phone for people simply because of their age. It isn't like you can claim you have less money than others or anything; unemployment is higher now than during most of the great depression and many people who do have jobs are working harder to earn less, just scraping by.

[rant]
I WISH I could sit back and enjoy a pension...it is never going to happen for my generation; we are paying for social security against our will, and it will be gone by the time we are old enough to use it...401Ks and mutual funds lose money faster than money in a bank, company pensions get reset by bankruptcy every 10 years, and in 30 days we won't even be allowed to purchase precious metals.
[/rant]

This will probably be better for many than AT&Ts previous prepaid plans. With those you had a $1 a day access fee, so if you used your phone every day you had to pay $30 + the per minute charge. Verizon had similar terms. We ended up going with T-Mobile where you only paid for the minutes used - $100 would buy me over 1000 minutes that do not expire for a year, and that usually lasts me the entire year.

The biggest advantage of prepaid is not being stuck in a contract for a couple years.

Originally posted by Xian:

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This will probably be better for many than AT&Ts previous prepaid plans. With those you had a $1 a day access fee, so if you used your phone every day you had to pay $30 + the per minute charge. Verizon had similar terms. We ended up going with T-Mobile where you only paid for the minutes used - $100 would buy me over 1000 minutes that do not expire for a year, and that usually lasts me the entire year.

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The best deal I have found is Virgin Mobile. They have a $25 plan with 300 mins, unlimited text and data. The next is $40 with 1200 mins, unlimited text and data. Then there's a $60 plan with unlimited everything.

Originally posted by Xian:

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The biggest advantage of prepaid is not being stuck in a contract for a couple years.

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That is the biggest advantage, the next is the price. If I get phones for my kids they will be prepaid, mostly for that reason. One of the major differences between a prepaid and contract is the selection of phones. Fortunately, more smart phones are showing up in the prepaid market. They may not be top of the line, but they are still good phones.

Um...you do realize that it isn't just prepaid or contract, don't you? You can also go month-to-month on a normal plan and with a quality phone...the phone just isn't free that way.

Originally posted by urgrandfather:

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Ah, another unlimited offering. But also not really, with data costing a lot - not that I really care about the data, but it's nice to see ATT starting to take prepaid a little more seriously. Next, I'm seriously hoping that they'll take seniors a little more seriously. So far it's only tracfone's senior value cellphone, that's offering anything decent on prepaid for pensioners. What would it take for the big guns to start seeing the value in small profit margins, as opposed to no margins at all?

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Truth be told AT&T already are doing exactly what you're accusing them of not doing - that SVC tracfone you speak of runs almost exclusively on AT&T's network, which AT&T sells to tracfone, at yes wait for it - a marginal profit. Alternatively, AT&T do have a designated senior phone, but granted it's not as cheap, and it's not prepaid.