Filed under: iPod Family, iPhone
AT&T signals an abrupt end for some prepaid iPhone plans (updated)
Update 4: I am working with an AT&T spokesperson to try to detangle the contradictory information discussed below. No results as yet, but will update when that becomes possible.Update 5: The prepaid crackdown for iPhone applies to only some prepaid plans. PayAsYouGo GoPhone customers will be affected but not PickYourPlan GoPhone customers, who will be safe from service degradation. Brad Mays of AT&T tells TUAW that they are briefing their reps to better convey the distinction to customers.
Similar carrier restrictions are apparently not limited to the United States. TUAW reader Robin forwarded a screenshot from the UK, which directs customers to this O2 information page. Customers are being urged to change from normal prepaid plans to an authorized O2 iPhone tariff.
Update 6: Brad Mays emphasizes that PAYG customers do not have an official iPhone Data Plan and that PickYourPlan data "is necessary to make the 3.0 software work properly with their device". PAYG customers are directed to this page for more information. He added, "[O]ur reps are now fully aligned around this information."
TUAW reader Daniel B. called AT&T today and writes that he was offered a prepaid PYP option with a $30 iPhone data plan. This is the first we've heard of PYP prepaid accounts being offered, believing AT&T would no longer provide this option. I have, once again, contacted Mays to see what's going on.
Original Post
I just spent the last half hour on the phone with AT&T, and I can't quite believe what I heard.
I am an AT&T customer, and have been so since the weekend that the iPhone debuted. I am on an official iPhone GoPhone plan. I have paid monthly for two years and am up to date on said payments. After two years, AT&T now tells me that I will either begin a new contract on my existing equipment, or lose access to a reliable data plan.
My jaw is dragging the floor.
When TUAW reader Daniel Burkholder tipped us off this afternoon, I thought he was somehow misled by the text message that appeared on his iPhone. It reads:
AT&T Free MSG: A new software upgrade for iPhone will be available on 6/17. This upgrade may affect your data service. Please visit att.com/iphone or call 800-901-9878 for a representative. If you download the software and are not on an approved iPhone data plan, your data service will be interrupted.
So I called, despite the fact that I am on an approved data plan. Sure, my account is grandfathered in, and new iPhone 3G purchasers can no longer get GoPhone activation (click the "New to AT&T" link to see the relevant section), but it's never been an issue.
I was told that AT&T was asking customers to move to a contract plan as they no longer plan to support prepaid data. "This is a recommendation," the technical support person told me. "If you decide not to go, it's okay but we're informing customers that service will not be up to par."
I asked if they were deliberately cutting out GoPhone customers from full Internet access (and mind you, I asked this in several ways, at least three or four times), and was told 'Yes.' "This will affect logging onto the Internet and using your data services."
I pushed further, asking whether I could move to a postpaid plan without invoking a two-year contract as I already fully owned my equipment and had been a customer for two years on my current plan. "You will have to enter a new contract as this service change is not compatible with the iPhone prepaid. You cannot enter a postpaid contract without a two year commitment."
The technician pointed out that "the iPhone has drastically cut prices" on recent models. I responded that my 2G iPhone was working fine. He pointed out that this was an official AT&T policy and that they have decided that "all prepaid customers should transfer into a contract plan for the iPhone."
I asked him to point me to an official policy statement but he said at this time only the text messages going out are available as official communications with customers. "This is an official iPhone advisory. We are informing customers by text messages."
So this is how AT&T rewards me for two years of customer loyalty: I either have to start paying up another $20+ per month and commit to two years of additional service (without any further breaks on equipment or contract terms, if I don't choose to buy a 3G S right now), or accept that I'm going to be paying good money each month for a plan with substandard data service. Based on the fact that the data pinching will happen deliberately on AT&T's end, I'd call it a strongarm approach and a rotten way to treat customers.
It's one thing, if you're going to make a change in the terms of service for an admittedly legacy (but still perfectly usable) service plan, to clearly communicate customer options well ahead of the transition date, and to work with loyal users to find accommodations that satisfy. It's quite another thing to lower the boom with two days warning: upgrade or suffer.
Update Official statement here, which does not yet shed any further light on the matter. Developing.
Update 2 Three different AT&T reps checked my *specific* plan using my account information, which is the original iPhone GoPhone plan and said that yes, I would be affected and that no, this didn't just affect people who stuck SIMs into iPhones
Update 3 We have a query into AT&T PR that has not yet been replied to, asking why service reps are giving information that seems out of line with the statement
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 9)
antiorario said 5:05PM on 6-15-2009
So this is not affecting Pay As You Go, right? Only auto-refilling GoPhone?
Reply
Colin said 5:33PM on 6-15-2009
It affects all prepaid customers. AT&T's yanking the rug out from almost anyone who isn't on a postpaid plan.
If you're on PAYG, you will lose your service, period.
If you're on Pick Your Plan, you'll either be fine (Original iPhone) or will lose your service (iPhone 3G).
You can read the full statement here: http://tinyurl.com/attprepay
antiorario said 5:36PM on 6-15-2009
Well, tough. I'm not in the US right now, I'll deal with it the next time I'm there. If they don't want my business, I won't give it to them. But if they cancel my current PAYG credit I'll kick their behinds.
JAQ said 7:17PM on 6-15-2009
Standard Pick Your Plan accounts with unlimited data are not affected. That is the standard pre-paid account offered to iPhone 2G buyers who didn't pass the credit check, so most of those alarmed by this article (like I was before I read AT&T's policy statement) will not be affected. The rest of the people upset about this have been taking advantage of AT&T's poor oversight to use unapproved plans. Yeah, AT&T's plans suck, etc. etc. but if you've been playing by the rules, you're OK.
JAQ said 7:31PM on 6-15-2009
"UPDATE .... which does not yet shed any further light on the matter."
What the hell is wrong with you? Are you illiterate? It's in 7th-grade level English.
Folks, stop listening to the troll with an blogging account, and read the AT&T statement yourself.
To the management: TUAW just came off my bookmarks list.
Jared said 8:25PM on 6-15-2009
"Folks, stop listening to the troll with an blogging account, and read the AT&T statement yourself."
You're one to talk about English.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/591/01/
That's an elementary school concept, by the way.
JAQ said 9:12PM on 6-15-2009
Jared caught a typo, how very clever of him!
(This level of research and reading skill apparently now qualifies him to blog for TUAW.)
oliver hart said 10:05PM on 6-15-2009
hey JAQ
STFU
stick to writing your phone number on bathroom walls.
bookmark removed welcomed
Adrian said 5:07PM on 6-15-2009
This comes as no surprise. Damned fascists. They are the only reason I do not own an iPhone.
Reply
TexRob said 8:50AM on 6-16-2009
haha, you people are so dumb. If you pay Ferrari $1000 a month for 10 years, never missing a payment, for a Ferrari Enzo, it still doesn't change the fact that they are LOSING MONEY ON YOU. I know everyone thinks it's so evil for a company to "gasp" be profitable or at least break even. That is what is so funny about the people who say they hate iPhone, or the above poster who calls them facists. Oh the irony. Are they money grubbing or are they facists?
dbsmith1 said 5:36AM on 6-18-2009
You are correct about someone here being "dumb".
Suggest you study the concept of marginal cost. Your Enzo comparison is completely irrelevant.
Dumb.
Look said 5:08PM on 6-15-2009
Erica, Don't get so excited...AT&T are just squeezing the last bit of the exclusive with Apple. In 2010 will see the iphone on the big 3! (i got a pretty good source!).
Anyway, iPhone users are not stupid and hopefully they'll move to a "generous" carrier.
Reply
Alex said 6:05PM on 6-15-2009
Dear AT&T,
Please take as long to roll-out your upcoming LTE coverage as you are currently taking with 3G coverage.
Also, please continue to treat your customers in the exact same way you do now.
I ask this to assure that you will have no leverage whatsoever while in negotiation with Apple for continued exclusivity.
AT&T Business Model:
1.) Remove gun from holster.
2.) Aim at own foot.
3.) Pull Trigger.
AT&T, in case no one has ever told you, customer service is the ONLY thing you are really selling. I can get a phone at a convenience store for $20.
waiownsyou said 5:13PM on 6-15-2009
may the monopoly that is AT&T and Apple continue
Reply
Zelly said 5:09PM on 6-15-2009
This hardly seems legal. I'm on a GoPhone plan, but I only have a 2G iPhone. I mean, I get WHY they want to tie people into contracts but they get my money upfront every month. I shouldn't be treated like a second class customer because I don't want to be tied down. Especially in this day and age, it seems silly to even insist on a contract.
Reply
Charles Martin said 8:09PM on 6-15-2009
There's no such thing as "the GoPhone plan". There's the PickYourPlan plan which has always been legit with the original iPhone and still will be. And there's the PayAsYouGo plan which has never been supported for any iPhone. If you've jumped thru some hoops to get a PAYG account working on an iPhone (probably the article author's situation) your luck just ran out. Anyone else can calm down, because the official policy makes it very clear that prepaid original iPhones are NOT being cut off or forced to sign up for a contract.
dbsmith1 said 5:36AM on 6-18-2009
Well, I had pay as you go and I didn't "jump through hoops" to get it -- I called ATT and they offered it to me.
I have a $280 credit balance on a payg account. ATT says I can either (a) convert to pick a plan (with minimum $55 per month charge), (b) go to an ATT store and convert to post paid -- monthly billing, similar minimum or (c) lose my credit.
So, tell me again, how am I not being cut off or forced to pay more???
I'll use up the credit with voice only and, when it's gone, I'm gone. No more iPhone/ATT.
Jamus said 5:11PM on 6-15-2009
For the good of the longevity of the device, Apple needs to get it off ATT exclusivity as soon as they can. Until they do ATT will keep going at it.
Reply
Duane said 5:18PM on 6-15-2009
I think no matter which carrier the iPhone is with, people are gonna get screwed.....
the data costs more because you simply use more data on an iPhone than on a phone with that cheap WAP mobile interface that just loads little links.
I had a Blackjack before the iPhone came out, and I BARELY used my data while paying $20 a month for unlimited.
With my iPhone i have tracked my usage and use WAY more.
While I agree that AT&T is pretty expensive, the other carriers are gonna get ahold of the phone and will change their tactics as well.
moo083 said 5:42PM on 6-15-2009
Duane: or because all the carriers have the iPhone, it'll increase competition and lower the price. Could be?