Unlimited wireless internet for $20 a month w/o contract

[Caleb Kimbrough]

I didn't see a post on this, so I figured I'd say something.

At&t now offers the option of having unlimited pay as you go wireless internet for $20 a month with no contract. You can use a wireless broadband card or a phone as a modem, they'll both work. There's no contract, you just have to pay in at the beginning of the month and pay $20 to have unlimited data for the next month. Of course, this is perfect for chasing...since you'll only use it less than half the year...

Looking at the coverage map might discourage some though. There's decent data coverage in OK but it gets more spotty heading north, although up here in KC it's blazing fast ;)

Check out this article for more: http://www.phonenews.com/att-gophone-prepaid-adds-data-only-option-3381/

I signed up for it and am awaiting a phone and cable, but I'll let you guys know how it works...

[J Kinkaid]

I am going to drop my $60 plan and go with this. Thanks for the post :)

note there is a 5 gig soft limit cap that they don't enforce

[Tim Shriver]

Is there a link someone can provide to this on the ATT website?

Thanks,
Tim

[J Kinkaid]

Is there a link someone can provide to this on the ATT website?

Thanks,
Tim

http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/services/services-list.jsp?catId=cat1510011&LOSGId=&catName=Prepaid

[tommywinning]

I'm confused, is this in addition to a preexisting AT&T plan, or can anybody get this service only? I don't use AT&T, but for a Jackson a month I would use it for unlimited data.

[Tim Shriver]

From reading this on ATTs website it sound close to what US Cellular has
with EasyEdge. The website doesn't say anything about tethering a phone
or using a card with it. It refers to using it "on the phone"

Or am I in the wrong spot?

Tim

[J Kinkaid]

ATT is like other cell phone companys they are not going to mention tethering but it can be done and you can also take your sim card and use it in a laptop card

[Tim Shriver]

I see, so it is like EasyEdge in some ways. I can tether from my phone to the laptop
but if I go nuts with downloading or start sending video upstream they could lower
the boom on me....

Tim

[J Kinkaid]

I am a frequent poster on the howard forums and nobody has gotten the boot for going over the limit or received a letter from ATT. I use on average 10 gigs a month with ATT and I have had usage like that for almost 2 years and never been warned or booted :)

[Brandon Sullivan]

Im interested but confused.. Do you need to have an existing plan?

[Tim Shriver]

Looks like you can do just the data plan from what I see. But concerned about
doing any large amount of downloading or uploading with it and using a card instead of a phone. Would have to see the fine print on this before jumping.. Its not the same
as the regular ATT Wirless broad band plans.

Tim

[Caleb Kimbrough]

Hey guys...

So, you don't need to have an existing plan with at&t to use this. It is part of their pay as you go plan. You're not required to used any sort of voice plan either, it can be data only.

Here's a quote from an article I found on the plan:

"ATT's terms of service prohibit tethering and "downloading movies using P2P file sharing services" but seem to allow all normal browsing and phone applications including legal streaming."

Here's the article, it'll help you guys out a lot: http://wapreview.com/blog/?p=546

[Dan Cook]

What sort of data cards can you use with this?

[J Kinkaid]

What sort of data cards can you use with this?


Any data card that you want to use . I would get one off ebay and put my sim card in it once it arrives

[John Erwin]

If this is a true "Pay as you Go" plan it might be very attractive for visitors coming to the plains that don't want to use expensive roaming options...

[Dan Cook]

Caleb how did this work out?

[Mike Hardiman]

Hmmm... this sounds almost too good to be true.

So you get a data card, sign it up as a "pay-as-you-go" phone with data, and its just $20 a month, since obviously you can't make regular voice calls with a data card (but they are assigned phone numbers like a regular phone).

I would think this thread would be 10 pages long with everyone ditching Alltel, etc. Alltel is a "no-go" for me since I do not want to have a voice plan with them. Verizon is still incredibly expensive for data, but everyone I know and their brother is on Verizon, which is nice for the phone bill.

Anyone out there signed up for this "from scratch" who can report on the process and experiences so far? This would be great even for regular travel.

Thanks!
-Mike

[J Kinkaid]

Mike you can go with Alltell no contract on say the $39 plan and use it just for data. The data mins would come out of your 500 pool in the day time and be free at night and on the weekeneds. If you felt you were going to go over you could add unlimited phone as modem option for $24.99 and the best part is you can add this feature when needed and remove it from your online account. I have both Alltel and ATT and will try to help you with any questions that you may have

[David Mikulec]

I've been using the AT&T "pay as you go" data service for over a year now and I really don't have any complaints. I ordered an elcheapo $29 Samsung phone when I ordered the service then took it's 3G sim card and slid it into my trusty LG CU500v where I use the Bluetooth to connect to the laptop with AT&T's connection software. I've never tried streaming but for data (GRLevel3) on the road, it does the job.

[Mike Hardiman]

Mike you can go with Alltell no contract on say the $39 plan and use it just for data. The data mins would come out of your 500 pool in the day time and be free at night and on the weekeneds. If you felt you were going to go over you could add unlimited phone as modem option for $24.99 and the best part is you can add this feature when needed and remove it from your online account. I have both Alltel and ATT and will try to help you with any questions that you may have

Either plan sounds interesting...although I'm inclined to test AT&T first, though Alltel supposedly has better coverage.

For Alltel - do I need a dialup ISP to use the phone as a modem? When you say "Alltel no contract" does that mean I can cancel the phone at any time, or are you referring to the $25 unlimited phone-as-modem add-on? (I was under the impression from Alltel's site that canceling any voice plan incurred a penalty).

For AT&T, I'm still not sure how the process to start up works. Do I need to sign up and get a cheapo phone, with some prepaid balance, or can I purchase any GSM aircard I want and activate that with the plan? I'm going out to run errands this afternoon, so I'll print out the article from WAP Review and stop by an AT&T cellular place... but I get the feeling this is one of those not-heavily advertised things that is inherently difficult to get any info about from websites or pushy cell phone salesmen!

Thanks for your help!

[Andrew Herron]

Heads up! Verizon is set to acquire Alltel.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/05/verizon-gets-official-with-28-billion-alltel-acquisition/

[David Mikulec]

Mike,

I did everything from their website (I chose "Pick Your Plan") and had the phone 2 days later. Don't know if you need to purchase a phone to get the sim but I didn't want to take any chances.

http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/go-phones/

Would be more than happy to answer any other ??? about the service or the AT&T connection software.

[Mike Hardiman]

Then just pop the SIM card from the phone into the aircard and you're good... or do you tether to the phone?

[quote=David Mikulec;181862]
I did everything from their website (I chose "Pick Your Plan") and had the phone 2 days later. Don't know if you need to purchase a phone to get the sim but I didn't want to take any chances.

[David Mikulec]

Mike, My setup is a bluetooth wireless tether from my LG cell phone to my laptop (WinXP). I've never used an aircard tho.

[J Kinkaid]

It would better to use a direct usb connection than bluetooth if you plan to stream and want faster speeds

[David Mikulec]

It would better to use a direct usb connection than bluetooth if you plan to stream and want faster speeds

Which leads to a question I've been waiting to ask -will the phone charge while it's on a USB tether? One of the big reasons I use Bluetooth is so that I can keep the car charger plugged in while in use (on the LG they utilize the same connector).

[J Kinkaid]

Answers to some of your questions

Either plan sounds interesting...although I'm inclined to test AT&T first, though Alltel supposedly has better coverage.

For Alltel - do I need a dialup ISP to use the phone as a modem? When you say "Alltel no contract" does that mean I can cancel the phone at any time, or are you referring to the $25 unlimited phone-as-modem add-on? (I was under the impression from Alltel's site that canceling any voice plan incurred a penalty).

[COLOR="Red"][B]You do not need a dial up isp to use the phone as modem. No contract means buy a phone off ebay or Alltell prepaid then put that on a month to month plan. If you do that you will not have a contract and can cancel at anytime. The $24.99 phone as modem feature allows you to use the internet as much as you want and it doesn't come out of your plan minutes.[COLOR="Red"][B]

For AT&T, I'm still not sure how the process to start up works. Do I need to sign up and get a cheapo phone, with some prepaid balance, or can I purchase any GSM aircard I want and activate that with the plan? I'm going out to run errands this afternoon, so I'll print out the article from WAP Review and stop by an AT&T cellular place... but I get the feeling this is one of those not-heavily advertised things that is inherently difficult to get any info about from websites or pushy cell phone salesmen!

Buy a cheap prepaid phone on the ATT site and add the unlimited internet feature to it on the site or when you get the phone from the Fexex driver take the sim card out and put it in a datacard and you will have unlimited internet for $20.


Thanks for your help!

[Mike Hardiman]

OK, so while I was out today, I stopped by an AT&T wireless store (this was before reading J Kincaid's most recent reply).

The guy there insisted that the $20 pay-as-you-go data feature was only for phone browser apps, and that I could not sign up an aircard with that plan, or put a cheaper phone's SIM card into an aircard, or tether to the pay-as-you-go phone. He then told me the only way to get data not via an in-phone browser was to sign up for one of the $60/mo plans.

No big surprise there, but I don't actually believe him. This hasn't been a very publicized feature.

However, while there I noticed that the "Pay as you Go" coverage area is much smaller than AT&T's "normal" voice coverage area, and of course, much smaller than their "normal" data coverage area.

Pay as you Go (voice) coverage:
http://www.wireless.att.com/support_static_files/images/maps/payasyougo.gif

"Normal" Data Coverage:
http://www.wireless.att.com/coverageviewer/images/data_coverage.gif

"Normal" Voice Coverage:
http://www.wireless.att.com/support_static_files/images/maps/nat_gsm.gif

The "Normal" data coverage doesn't look too bad, a little sparse in parts of Kansas, but it matches the "Normal" voice coverage. The Pay-as-you-Go coverage, however, is terrible... with Kansas almost left in the dark, and big gaps in the TX Panhandle and much of New Mexico and Arizona.

So... does the "Pay-as-you-Go" data coverage match the "Pay-as-you-Go" voice coverage? Or, does it match the better "Normal" data coverage" area?

I would hate to find out the hard way even with a modest investment, since AT&T GSM equipment will not work on CDMA Alltel.

Sorry if I seem slow in figuring this stuff out... I used to be a big tech geek until I started having bills to pay, but now those bills are slowly going away, and an impending move will allow me to chase again. The last time I knew anything about ceullar internet, it was with a "no-contract" Earthlink dialup plan, a King-of-Hearts modem, and my old Motorola Startac with Verizon...and it just ate up minutes out of my usual
allowance...free on weekends. So, its been awhile and I'm just now getting back up to speed! :confused:

I certainly do appreciate the help and advice, even if the questions are a bit basic. (I didn't even know what a SIM card was until a few days ago).

[J Kinkaid]

Which leads to a question I've been waiting to ask -will the phone charge while it's on a USB tether? One of the big reasons I use Bluetooth is so that I can keep the car charger plugged in while in use (on the LG they utilize the same connector).

Really depends on what phone you have. Most of the newer phones will charge by USB.

[J Kinkaid]

Here is a thread that talks more about this feature

http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?p=11161009#post11161009

[jason kissam]

bought a att go phone a few months back. i tried the data portion of it for 4.99 a month and it was used up in two log ons. the service rep told me the 19.99 plan works the best. if you dont get a plan it comes out of the balance at like 8 cents a gig. i asked about the laptop card and was told they dont carry those. i bought a refurbished phone for 20.00 vs the same one brand new for 180.00 and have a 70.00 month plan for unlimited nights and weekends. works good on the weather app they have too but that charges ya from the remaining balance.

on the tethering the phone to a laptop where is the best place to get those cables?

[David Mikulec]

Phone tether: depends on if the phone can be used as a modem, don't think they all can. I got mine (for my LG CU500V) off eBay.

[David Mikulec]

Here is a thread that talks more about this feature

http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?p=11161009#post11161009

Thanks for the info sir. :)

[J Kinkaid]

As far as the coverage maps prepaid vs post paid they should be the same. They used to be different back before when there was Cingular Orange vs ATT Blue before the merger.

[David Mikulec]

My son worked for AT&T for a while in Marketing. He made it pretty clear that the different coverage maps were kept for use by sales, to more or less scare folks into signing up for AT&T's regular two year contracts.