AT&T Broadband Prices & Plans (2009)
For the most recent info, check out the 2010 AT&T Wireless Broadband Plans Review
Previously, we covered how AT&T Broadband Prices & Plans were marketed as unlimited when they actually weren't.
Thankfully, that changed in 2008 and it seems with the recession in full swing, more and more companies are starting to see that their customers want transparency. Maybe it's just me but I get the feeling that we always wanted transparency.
Nevertheless, while their are multiple AT&T broadband prices & plans, there's really only one that we're concerned with. If you hop over to AT&T's site, you'll see that they divide their 3G mobile broadband plans into 3 categories:
1. Blackberry Devices
2. PDA & Smartphones
3. Laptop Cards (AirCards & Broadband Cards)
While all of these devices do get 3G speeds from 'the nation's fastest network' (we're going to dispute that title soon enough), AT&T charges additional fees for connecting your laptop to the internet through Blackberries, PDA & Smartphones (known as tethering). While this is definitely legitimate way to hop online, we'll cover that in full detail alongside other 'tethering' options here.
Looking solely at their service for Laptop Cards (marketed as DataConnect or Data Connect), you'll see that for $60.00 a month, you get 5 Gigabytes. There is also a lower tier plan for 200 MB per month for $40. Most people will end up with the $60 plan as it's pretty easy to blaze through 200 MB with the large amount of multimedia on the web today.
Perhaps the most interesting is the statement "DataConnect is not an unlimited plan. Learn more about data usage". They must be getting tired of the lawsuits levied against them. Most recently, a lady bought a netbook with built-in AT&T mobile broadband from Radioshack. No mention of the cap was made and so she blew past the 5 GB limit to end up with a $5,000 bill.
How in the world could something like that happen? Easy. It's all in...
The Fine Print
If you look closely at AT&T broadband prices & plans, you'll see this:
Additional data - $0.00048/KB
International data - $0.0195/KB
Now, I don't know about you, but last time I checked, nobody thought about things in terms of KBs. Heck, if you walked up to a regular person on the street and asked "what's a KB?", they'd probably look at you all funny. I only know because of physics class my sophomore year in college.
What's all this stuff about KB, MB & GB?
For the 'base 2' uninitiated, KB stands for Kilobyte (not to be confused with kilobit, kb). 1024 Kilobytes makes 1 Megabyte. 1024 Megabytes make 1 Gigabyte. Now, while most of us don't think in terms of Kilobytes and Megabytes, a Gigabyte is something that we can get a grasp on (it even sounds bigger).
So, to get a better grasp on how much that additional data will really hoodwink us for, let's convert that to Gigabytes.$0.00048/KB works out to be $0.49 cents per MB or...wait for it...
$503.31 for every extra Gigabyte you use.
How amazing is that? $60 for the first 5 Gigabytes, then $503.31 for every Gigabyte after that. Technically, you're paying $12 for each of the first 5 Gigabytes. An increase from $12/GB to $503.31/GB is almost a 4200% increase in price. Now, this might not strike you. Perhaps you're a visual person like myself.
Hypothetically, here's how that lady could've gotten a $5,000 bill:
How amazing is that? $60 for the first 5 Gigabytes, then $503.31 for every Gigabyte after that. Technically, you're paying $12 for each of the first 5 Gigabytes. An increase from $12/GB to $503.31/GB is almost a 4200% increase in price.
See now why they quote it in an teeny tiny number nobody relates to?
To add to the hilarity of this, I use somewhere between 50-60 Gigabytes per month. At my current usage, I'd be paying...
$25,156 in overages...
...per month
Before you run and throw your broadband card out the window into the street to be mauled to pieces by interstate traffic, consider this:
Not everyone uses more than 5 Gigabytes per month. As a matter of fact, the statistics show that many people can do a whole lot of 'interneting' before hitting the cap.
For the full details on how much you can download with 5 GB and if AT&T broadband prices are worth it, check out 'Lesson 3: The Infamous 5GB Cap' of Mobile Broadband Buyer's Guide.
For now, let's tackle that claim that being chimed across the national airwaves. Does AT&T really have the fastest 3G network?
