My current carrier is Google Fi, and where I'm at for college I have terrible reception. Why do I stay with them when ATT has almost the same rates, you may ask?
Simple.
ATT isn't fair. They want $120/year if you have a freakin smartwatch.
While charging a connection fee is not too bad (I don't pay any on Google Fi), the fact that they charge MORE for laptops than tablets is ridiculous.
If I go out and buy a Windows 10 tablet, I pay $10/month to hook it up.
But if I want to go out and buy a Windows 10 Laptop, suddenly, ATT somehow needs another $10 from my wallet every month! The internet usage is virtually the same. I'd argue tablets should be charged more if they're going to do different prices; tablets are more likely to be used for continuous bandwidth usage (streaming) whereas a notebook will be more likely to do intermittent web page requests.
There's really no logical reason for this. Having a keyboard in no way affects your internet usage. I asked how they enforce this, and they said they use the IMEI numbers from the transceivers, which sounds odd but I'm no expert in how they allocate IMEI numbers.
Here's the zinger: let's say I did switch to ATT. My laptop is actually a tablet convertible. So what do they charge me, $15? I could always remove my keyboard when I go to the store and save $5!
In short, I have a 4g tablet and a 4g laptop and I like having the ability to connect to the web directly (though I seldom actually do, but it's a nice feature to have), and I don't see the point of paying $360 a year. Three hundred and sixty dollars a year(!) in access fees alone for my two devices just to access the internet once every few months on them. There's honestly no argument that it somehow costs them $360/year, even if 50% of it was profit, to connect my device to their tower.
And it's not only that, but the pricing scheme! With Fi I only pay for what I use. After I arrived on campus, my bills dropped to just the unlimited talk/text rates with literally pennies charged in data usage at $10/GB. What makes more sense, paying $100+ to get my 3 devices online with data I will seldom access per month, or paying $30 and having all 3 online at the same time, plus data usage costs?
If Google's Project Fi can stay afloat charging me very little, there's virtually no argument as to why ATT needs rates more than double what I'm paying now. And ATT doesn't even let their store employees negotiate slightly better rates! You may as well have a darn kiosk system in their stores to manage your plans. Yes Fi has less coverage, which means they should be able to charge less, but they have infinitesimally better customer support.
The only reason ATT gets away with of this nonsense and absurd pricing schemes is because they have very good coverage of remote areas, and anyone operating in the middle of nowhere knows that there is effectively no other choice, aside from a VHF radio or a satphone. Perhaps ATT will fall one day, but given their monopoly on coverage, it probably won't be for a while.
Simple.
ATT isn't fair. They want $120/year if you have a freakin smartwatch.
While charging a connection fee is not too bad (I don't pay any on Google Fi), the fact that they charge MORE for laptops than tablets is ridiculous.
If I go out and buy a Windows 10 tablet, I pay $10/month to hook it up.
But if I want to go out and buy a Windows 10 Laptop, suddenly, ATT somehow needs another $10 from my wallet every month! The internet usage is virtually the same. I'd argue tablets should be charged more if they're going to do different prices; tablets are more likely to be used for continuous bandwidth usage (streaming) whereas a notebook will be more likely to do intermittent web page requests.
There's really no logical reason for this. Having a keyboard in no way affects your internet usage. I asked how they enforce this, and they said they use the IMEI numbers from the transceivers, which sounds odd but I'm no expert in how they allocate IMEI numbers.
Here's the zinger: let's say I did switch to ATT. My laptop is actually a tablet convertible. So what do they charge me, $15? I could always remove my keyboard when I go to the store and save $5!
In short, I have a 4g tablet and a 4g laptop and I like having the ability to connect to the web directly (though I seldom actually do, but it's a nice feature to have), and I don't see the point of paying $360 a year. Three hundred and sixty dollars a year(!) in access fees alone for my two devices just to access the internet once every few months on them. There's honestly no argument that it somehow costs them $360/year, even if 50% of it was profit, to connect my device to their tower.
And it's not only that, but the pricing scheme! With Fi I only pay for what I use. After I arrived on campus, my bills dropped to just the unlimited talk/text rates with literally pennies charged in data usage at $10/GB. What makes more sense, paying $100+ to get my 3 devices online with data I will seldom access per month, or paying $30 and having all 3 online at the same time, plus data usage costs?
If Google's Project Fi can stay afloat charging me very little, there's virtually no argument as to why ATT needs rates more than double what I'm paying now. And ATT doesn't even let their store employees negotiate slightly better rates! You may as well have a darn kiosk system in their stores to manage your plans. Yes Fi has less coverage, which means they should be able to charge less, but they have infinitesimally better customer support.
The only reason ATT gets away with of this nonsense and absurd pricing schemes is because they have very good coverage of remote areas, and anyone operating in the middle of nowhere knows that there is effectively no other choice, aside from a VHF radio or a satphone. Perhaps ATT will fall one day, but given their monopoly on coverage, it probably won't be for a while.