Database Develop

My Complaint Against AT&T

So I wrote this letter to the Analysts, HR, and Regional Information Guy of AT&T because I couldn't find answers elsewhere and the CSR and their supervisors were jerks and could not give me a straight rational answer.
My coworker said that he's been on Tmobile for 8 years and he finally called the CSR and asked if Tmobile could do anything for them regarding lowering their bill and such. Out of loyalty, they gave him the new plan Tmobile has released.
I called AT&T and got a straighforward I could care less if you've stayed with us for 5 years+ and even pushed me to transferring to a cancellation agent. FYI she was a real pain, she kept cutting me off.
Dear Andy Morgan, Marty Richter and AT&T Analysts
I'm writing you this email in regards to recent conversations and changes made to ATT wireless.
First off, I'd like to say that I've been a long time customer of ATT Wireless for over 5 years and I would like to continue to be one however I am not pleased with the way the Customer Service answer their customers and how difficult it is to get straightforward and legitimate answers based on real research and not some opinionated or textbook based answer.
I'm a customer who has a family plan with 4 lines, which on average pays $180/month including regulatory fees for 700minutes, an unlimited data plan, an unlimited family data plan with mobile to mobile. I'm happy with these features however, I feel that the pricing on them is too high, especially with less features.
Competitors such as T-mobile, which has recently been acquired by AT&T offers the same features with more for less. A coworker of mine recently told me that he's on a family plan with unlimited everything for 4 lines at 2x49.99 +2x15= $130 before regulatory fees and roughly $160 after rounding up.
A CSR told me that because we are getting 30$/month unlimited texting with mobile to mobile, it's better than competitors. but if Tmobile offers unlimited talk, it shouldn't matter.
The $20 difference in my bill compared to my coworkers and the features that are offered really doesn't sound fair does it? AT&T Supervisor and CSR response "We don't price match and we do things our way"
I asked about data pricing, and their response was that it was tailored to their customers. I agree that not many people need more than 2GB/month of data, but the pricing for it is $25/month. Tmobile offers unlimited with a 2GB soft cap(reduced speeds post 2GB) for $20 a month, and with they unlimited everything plan, it would be far less. I understand that data is getting expensive especially because of the growing trends of smartphones however with all these supposed "network hauls" shouldn't the pricing lower? According to the NY Times article from a year ago, cellphone data is being used more than minutes and with that, shouldn't these data plans have a fair variety that can compete with competitors rather than charging $15 for 200MB, which isn't enough for most users and $25 for 2GB, which is more than competitors.
Unlimited Family Plan (first two lines):
The first two lines are $49.99/mo. each line, totaling $99.98 per month. Each of the first two lines includes:
Unlimited data: Up to 2 GB of high-speed data (for capable devices), then reduced speeds after that. If you use up your high-speed data, we will automatically reduce your speeds for the rest of your billing cycle—so you can still connect without overages.
Unlimited talk minutes
Unlimited text
New two-year agreement
Need more lines?
Add up to 3 lines.
Get unlimited data and text, plus 500 talk minutes and unlimited nights and weekends (up to 2 GB of full-speed data per line). All this for just $15/mo. per line.
Now, on with Text messaging, according to Engadget, AT&T will be ending the $10 for 1000 text message deal. This was confirmed by an AT&T agent. How is it that you guys could end this messaging plan especially leaving customers to get the unlimited plan? According to a wireless network analysts, the consumers send an average of 664 text messages a month. With that, the average American Teen sends an average of 3339 text messages a month. Shouldn't there be variety? Not everybody text messages, and if the new implementations and pricing are tailored.
I understand that AT&T has more resources as well as more funding and is working on their HSPA+ network and LTE coming this year Q4 and because of that, require more funding to get these networks up. But, how is it that Tmobile, a smaller company can increase the coverage of their HSPA+ network to over 40 locations nationwide already, when our HSPA+ only goes up to half of what Tmobile has. I understand the backhaul as well as the need for capital to expand the network, however the ratio of benefits to price isn't exactly one to one on AT&Ts network. In 2010, a filing by AT&T regarding its SEC filing "On a reported basis, our fourth-quarter 2010 revenues were $31.4 billion, up $653 million from the fourth-quarter 2009 and full-year 2010 revenues were $124.3 billion", $31.8 billion from AT&T Mobility generated roughly 25% of the revenue AT&T made in 2010/ and how much of that revenue is being used to expand the network? Tmobile, a smaller company in the US, generated a revenue of $21.347billion and has yet been able to offer better pricing as well as stronger data networks than AT&T
Verizon, another competitor that has similar pricing to your own is able to get their LTE network to more than half of the nation's population already. The crazy thing is LTE is a GSM based technology and they're on a CDMA based network.
To my understanding, with more money, you could do more things and it'll cost a lot more, but how is it that Tmobile, the smaller company has done more things for its customer with a smaller client base than AT&T and Verizon with a larger client base do more for its customers than AT&T. It doesn't make sense to me.
AT&T supervisors and CSRs have told me that the plans that AT&T offers is tailored to customers and yet they choose to take away choices. One Supervisor said "we can't please everybody" and that's true because you can't, but it's much better to have variety than have no choices at all. Every area has a different need, such as New York vs Montana. The demand for data is higher in one area than the other and the demographics are different.
Rather than catering to a biased statistic with outliers, try to cater to a smaller demographic and you'll see more results.
AT&T CSRs are horrible too as I asked these questions and expected straightforward answers, my previous CSR told me "AT&T can charge whatever we want" and that was most arrogant and honest answer I received all day. This CSR was more than happy to get rid of me and transfer me to a Cancellation rep. So much for mutualistic loyalty and customer care.
The fact that AT&T has bought T-Mobile and decided to do away with customer support exemplifies the need for two separate GSM companies. You guys have no competition and therefore can implement unfair business to your customers.
Give me some answers as to why the prices are so high and why there is less to be offered to the customers. Cater to the customers needs and work with them to benefit their needs, not push a plan hope and hope the majority will do nothing and go along with it. Without the customers, there is no AT&T.
Sincerely, ********, an Angry Customer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not a grammatically correct nor is it a formal letter, but I was too busy being mad and linking citations.
I feel like I should contact the BBB or the FCC. AT&T will further neglect its customers and create plans that are aimed to make money and not to fit the general consumer. They think it tailors to the general consumer, but if they want to tailor to the majority of people, variety should be kept and they should give people the choice to choose what kind of plans that fit them.
I called the company Steel in the Air today to inquire about pricing of towers but they have yet to get back to me.
http://www.steelintheair.com/Municipalities-Building-Your-Own-Cell-Tower.html
According to their website, it costs generally 100-150k to build a tower. And I know there's much more that goes into this, but I don't know how much because AT&T CSR don't have this information in their manuals.
I hope I don't offend any AT&T lovers or AT&T employees but what that CSR said to me today really pisses me off, especially the way the supervisor who said they tailor to the customer.
I'm posting this on XDA because I wanna share with the members my experience with AT&T and reasons why we should boycott them, report them, and overall just dislike them.
I'm stuck on a two year contract with 4 lines, 3 upgradeable and 1 nonupgradeable lines and currently looking for a clause in my contract that will help me get out, because clearly AT&T doesn't care about pleasing their customers.

Um.. your kind of going to be screwed - TMobile is going to be swallowed by AT&T
I'd suggest just switching your provider as soon as your contract is up.
But.. please keep us updated if you get a positive response.

That sucks man. Keep us posted.

File with the FCC. It's the ONLY WAY you will get an answer.
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA Premium App

Babydoll25 said:
File with the FCC. It's the ONLY WAY you will get an answer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1. (There is a ten char limit, so a simple +1 wont do it seems!)

What??? that seems stupid!!! In the UK the networks will normally price match. Have you tried asking for the PAC code?

Data Caps - It's Only Going to Get Worse

For all you folks complaining about AT&T capping your download speeds, it appears it's only going to get worse. The federal government so far has not made any progress toward getting additional spectrum available, forcing carriers to make do with what they've got. As the article in the link below notes, "Ultimately, carriers will have to get more creative about how they use their existing spectrum, which will likely result in stricter caps on usage. Consumers who use more data will likely be charged higher prices for that data."
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-57379526-266/how-politics-inflame-the-spectrum-crisis/?tag=nl.e404
In the short run, you might jump to another carrier, but in the long run, it could get worse for everyone. Lightsquare has been effectively stopped (for now) from building a new wireless network because of the potential for interfering with GPS signals. AT&T has been stopped from acquiring T-Mobile which would have given AT&T more spectrum.
So, as bad as things seem now, this may be the best that they will be.
PS: Also see this article:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57...-suffer/?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

The FCC really needs to figure out how they are going to auction off the spectrum. Also, the whole ATT/T-mobile merger should have gone through. ATT is the only company that is compatible with T-mobile's equipment and can afford them.

rft3ch said:
The FCC really needs to figure out how they are going to auction off the spectrum. Also, the whole ATT/T-mobile merger should have gone through. ATT is the only company that is compatible with T-mobile's equipment and can afford them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it was cited that the decrees in competition would hurt every one and the loss of high paying jobs was to great

Aww that's bull does the fed gov have contract with Verizon or somethin? Coz a merger like that would surely put them out of commission
Sent from my HTC Raider X710e using xda premium

Cingular. Aka ma bell was broken up before for having a monopoly. Monopolies are bad for consumers, if any of you have graduated high school you should know this. Cingular has thus bought all tel, at&t, and now wants t-mobile. Creating another monopoly would not net us any better prices.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk

Verizon bought alltel

So your saying Verizon is At&ts only competition ??? Lol
Sent from my HTC Raider X710e using xda premium

colonel187 said:
Cingular. Aka ma bell was broken up before for having a monopoly. Monopolies are bad for consumers, if any of you have graduated high school you should know this. Cingular has thus bought all tel, at&t, and now wants t-mobile. Creating another monopoly would not net us any better prices.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cingular was not Ma Bell, it was a seperate company that purchased the failing wireless portion of At&t. Which was then purchased back by att, which wad really a rebranded SBC
Also Verizon purchased Alltel.
Good story though.
Sent from my HTC Raider X710e using xda premium

How does the merger or buy out of T-Mobile from AT&T help the consumer in any sense? Less companies out there competing, the higher your prices are gonna be, simple as that. If verizon goes, all those consumers have to go somewhere....

PakAttack1994 said:
How does the merger or buy out of T-Mobile from AT&T help the consumer in any sense? Less companies out there competing, the higher your prices are gonna be, simple as that. If verizon goes, all those consumers have to go somewhere....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One reason AT&T wanted to buy T-Mobile was to use its network to more rapidly expand its LTE network. Also, the two systems are compatible in some ways, making a transition easier.
As to competition as a way hold down prices, the major carriers (AT&T and Versizon) already control most of the market with T-Mobile and Sprint dividing a much smaller portion. Price comparisons I've seen usuaally show Verizon higher than AT&T for similar plans.
The main point I was making in the original post was that prices are likely to rise for all carriers in the long run as demand increases faster than the ability of the government and the carriers to provide adequate spectrum. The main concern should not be how many carriers there are, but whether the carriers (2 or 20) can meet the growing demand for high-speed services.

You got me about all tel, its another company I can't quite get off the tip of my tongue. Anyway.
Yes Verizon is the only real completion at&t has, tmo and sprint are too small. AT&T wireless was formed by by AT&T
AT&T wireless was doing so well they split into their own company. Sbc acquired Cingular which. At&t & Cingular were the two major companies in competition with Verizon but norther had the customer base alone to match Verizon.
Cingular bought at&t wireless and sbc bought at&t landline. Owning the rights to the name now Cingular and sbc changed their name to at&t thus gaining the same or a little more customers over Verizon. Sbc and at&t came to be when ma bell was forced to split due to monopoly.
Gobbling up the missing prices of ma bell and some small stragglers is creating another monopoly.
Just like the cable companies in many areas. There is only one and they raise there prices almost every other month. Only competition its satellite that forces you to sign contacts.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk

This is why I'm glad the Tmobile merger was stopped or else things would've only gotten worse. The Government actually needs to break up Verizon and AT&T now since they are too big as it is and doing price fixing with each other.

NIKKG said:
This is why I'm glad the Tmobile merger was stopped or else things would've only gotten worse. The Government actually needs to break up Verizon and AT&T now since they are too big as it is and doing price fixing with each other.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
However, that does not really address the basic issue here -- as data usage grows with more people using more wireless devices, the available spectrum/band-width (as it exists now) probably will not be able to keep up with the demand.
Economics 101: when demand exceeds supply, prices go up. Increasing the number of companies selling wireless service will not necessarily increase the amount of bandwidth available.
My point, is that the government, which ultimately controls wireless frequencies, has not acted in a timely manner to address the issue (with the exception of stopping a company that wanted to add more bandwidth).

..

Very interesting article

Australia is just as bad with a lazy government. This NBN (National Broadband Network) appears to be nothing more than a spin from the Labor government, which can be an example of people who use lots of data suffering at the hands of lazy morons who really have no excuse for it.
---------- Post added at 02:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:31 PM ----------
I feel sorry for those on AT&T's old unlimited plan who are getting throttled.
Capping plans appears to only benefit the carrier as they make millions off those who go over the capped amount.
I used 2GB in a two days on Telstra's 4G network.

So AT&T tries to buy T-mobile for $35 BILLION, but cant afford to upgrade their network. What a bunch of ****.
How can I see if Im getting throttled? I can do a speed test and get a good speed, but browsing is slow.

Telstra is looking to shaping customer when they go over their limit in a couple of months. This was announced last year. As per existing solution it will Text you when you are near the cap. I beleive that once you are capped you can purchase once off topups.
So examples are:
$49 Plan gives 1G for month, with $450 for Voice SMS
$59 gives 1.5G with $550 for Voice (free SMS /MMS)
etc
Once the shapping solution is deployed you can:
1. Not spend any more and manage to how much data you have for the month.
2. Purchase a once off data top up .
$10 = 1 Gig
$20 = 2 Gig
etc
3. Move to a offer that provide more data each month
Once implemented there will no longer be bill shock. You can then choose eactly how much you spend on data.

so when will they do this for home internet.. haha

In Australia Fixed broadband for Telstra has been capped for several years for consumer plans. So no bill shock possible on Fixed data.
As per previous post need to wait a couple more months until this capping is available for Mobiles. Then bill shock will be removed for fixed.
I don't beleive any smart long term techo believes Bill shock generates revenue it just drives loyal customers away, that might choose to use them for the next 30 years.

[ Off topic ] unlocking your phone - illegal

Here is news that no mobile phone owner will want to hear.
From tomorrow (Jan 26) unlocking your phone will become illegal , in USA ofc..where else...LOL , thanks to the Library of Congress's DMCA and could actually result in jail time!
In fact, this shiny new restriction extends to tablets as well where they can use SIM cards. There has been next to no press coverage that this was coming either, which is strange for something big like this, because digital liberty groups like the EFF normally shout loud about it in order to help promote a pushback. It seems like their efforts didn't pay off in this case, however.
The law was no doubt changed at the behest of the large mobile carriers in order to squeeze every last penny out of their subscribers, while restricting the value those subscribers get from their services, since they're stuck with the service provider that they bought their phone from
edit : i am rly sorry for people who leave in USA . your government is so wrong...so,so evil...

How true is this?
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

well.. believe it or not... in USA is everything possible but only a normal thing is impossible... unfortunately
here is link...
http://www.legitreviews.com/news/15028/

Honestly, how the hell would they be able to detect it even if it was illegal?
Are they going to start checking the credit card info of every customer who paid $8 to cellunlocker.net? Are they going to track down everyone who reads a page on how to do a software based unlock for the few phones that support it?
Last time I checked the carriers aren't able to remotely detect if you've SIM unlocked your phone. And even if they could, what's the big deal? People still have to use the carrier service and pay the monthly fee. If they want to switch providers and are on a contract, SIM unlocking won't magically erase the contract - you still have to pay the exorbitant cancellation fee regardless.
The only "loss" to the carriers would be the roaming fees for traveling abroad since unlocked phones can just use local SIMs, but given that a huge cut of the roaming fee goes to the foreign carrier, I doubt that's much of a loss either. Plus, most of the people I know who roam while traveling abroad would still take careful measures to avoid calling and texting, and try to connect to Wifi where possible to use alternatives like Skype and Whatsapp. For example, I cross the US border at least a few times a year, and since it's just a day trip I just roam on my phone even though it's unlocked. I simply connect to the public wifi at the shopping mall, and ignore any incoming calls or SMS - usually people I'm close to would be aware I'm out of the country anyways. Thus, zero roaming charge.
There's honestly no net benefit to the carrier to lock the phones they subsidize. Except for maybe the roaming part, I fail to see what financial losses a carrier would face from people unlocking their subsidized phones.
Whoever proposed this law must be a luddite or just some moron with abysmal knowledge of technology. Fact is, passing the law will do jack s**t. They might as well make it illegal to uninstall bloatware from a laptop you buy off the shelf. That's how superfluous it is.
The only "solution" I could see to the "problem" of unlocked phones, is for carriers to go all-out to disable the hidden menu in smartphones that allows you to enter an unlock code once you insert a non-accepted SIM. But then I'm sure hackers would find a way around that. And I'll bet that if the carriers decide to aggressively look for people to unlock their subsidized phones, the cost of employing the resources to do so would far outweigh any potential extra revenue.
I saw on another site that this "law" might be meant to hurt the sale of used phones - but in America, that's irrelevant. There are only two GSM carriers and they use different 3G frequencies, so most AT&T phones will only work in 2G mode on TMo, and vice versa, unless they're quad or pentaband. Thus most Americans really have only one choice of carrier if they choose to buy a used GSM phone, even unlocked.
icyeye said:
well.. believe it or not... in USA is everything possible but only a normal thing is impossible... unfortunately
here is link...
http://www.legitreviews.com/news/15028/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The American government is full of luddites and computer idiots (remember who proposed SOPA?). But then again, so are most governments. Nothing to fear though as long as the people aren't half as dumb and provide sufficient opposition.

Hmm... I guess the only logic behind this would be those people that buy a phone with a contract and just ditch the country altogether... Can you imagine "giving" an S3 for 100 usd with a contract... to someone that just unlocks the phone and goes away? Must be painful...
Anyways, it's been a long way since I bought a phone with a contract.

LarsPT said:
Hmm... I guess the only logic behind this would be those people that buy a phone with a contract and just ditch the country altogether... Can you imagine "giving" an S3 for 100 usd with a contract... to someone that just unlocks the phone and goes away? Must be painful...
Anyways, it's been a long way since I bought a phone with a contract.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But if those people perform the unlocking in the new country they live in, they haven't broken any laws and can't be prosecuted Also anyone who has any long-term plans to return to america after moving out would be foolish to do something like this, since the unpaid bill could be considered a crime!
I think maybe the carriers want to charge a high price to do the unlocking for you, in order to kill "competition" from small businesses like cellunlocker.net.

Hello everyone,
the moderating team assigned to your forum has decided to no longer allow any offtopic threads whether those were previously sanctioned by moderators or not.
We have come to this decision due to the fact that those threads offer absolutely nothing to the device specific forum or to development in general.
After all the name of the site is xda-developers.
If you feel the urge to engage in any offtopic discussion, the offtopic forum is always at your disposal.
As such, this thread is now closed.
Please understand that this decision was made only to streamline the forums and to enhance the user experience.
Thanks for your understanding and cooperation,
Tom
Moderator for the Sony/Motorola/LG devices

Answering the Call on Cell Phone Unlocking

Answering the Call on Cell Phone Unlocking
By Gene Sperling, Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director of the National Economic Council
Last March, after hearing from over 114,000 of you on our We the People platform, the Obama Administration called to restore the basic consumer freedom of cell phone unlocking -- to allow you to use your mobile devices on any compatible network you choose -- and provided a roadmap for the Federal Communications Commission, industry, and Congress to solve this for the American people. Today, with the support of FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler (.pdf), the nation's largest wireless carriers announced they will abide by a new series of voluntary "unlocking principles" to help bring some relief to consumers in the next few months.
Today's announcement is an important step forward for consumers. First and foremost, the voluntary agreement will help to ensure carriers unlock phones in a manner that is reliable, transparent, and timely. We also understand this commitment by the wireless carriers will allow our deployed military personnel to have their phones unlocked before heading abroad, an admirable service for our troops.
This issue is about the simple freedom to take your business where you please, and to find the wireless plan that suits your needs -- provided you have paid for your mobile device.
The FCC and carriers are doing their part. Now it is time for Congress to step up and finish the job by passing the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act, which was voted out of the House Judiciary Committee this summer, and its companion in the Senate. We know this is an important issue to many of you. The Administration will continue to watch it closely in the coming months.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2567335
Sent from my SM-N900V using xda app-developers app

Stoked to join a solid developer community :)

Greetings and thank you for letting me join.
My name is James (FreaquentJ) and have a side business fixing android devices, I am so happy that there is a community offers support for free, see I live in South Africa where there are ONLY 3 major network providers and as a result of certain national laws here that allow juristic enterprises to hold exclusive distribution rights over a product or services resulting in these network providers locking their devices so the consumer cannot upgrade os or modify.
As there ways around anything, people like me exist that offer service support that doesnt cost an arm and a leg apposed to the ridiculous service fee the providers normally charge.