Verizon iPhone: 2/10/10

[ISiddiqui]

You can't sell your old smartphone - as it says the offer is only if you return your existing phone.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

You can't sell your old smartphone - as it says the offer is only if you return your existing phone.

Woops, my bad, missed that part somehow. Well kind of expensive, but I guess anything is better than nothing

[albionmoonlight]

Mrs. A and I got each other Droids for Christmas. We would have waited had we known. But, really, our Android phones are actually pretty sweet. An iPhone would be cooler, but it isn't like we are using tin cans with strings coming out of them for the next two years.

[Alan T]

AT&T evidently is trying to shoot themselves in the foot. Despite what some people here were claiming, the moves by Verizon to end some programs recently was a small advantage back for AT&T. Well they decided they liked Verizon plans instead of trying to win back customers.

AT&T tweaking messaging plans, killing some upgrade discounts, raising fees and MicroCell pricing -- Engadget

Basically AT&T is also getting rid of their own version of the "New Every two" plan and won't be offering the extra $50-$100 benefit on top of the subsidized pricing similar to the changes Verizon is making. AT&T took it a step further though by increasing the rates on several other things too.

[lordscarlet]

Originally Posted by Alan T

AT&T evidently is trying to shoot themselves in the foot. Despite what some people here were claiming, the moves by Verizon to end some programs recently was a small advantage back for AT&T. Well they decided they liked Verizon plans instead of trying to win back customers.

AT&T tweaking messaging plans, killing some upgrade discounts, raising fees and MicroCell pricing -- Engadget

Basically AT&T is also getting rid of their own version of the "New Every two" plan and won't be offering the extra $50-$100 benefit on top of the subsidized pricing similar to the changes Verizon is making. AT&T took it a step further though by increasing the rates on several other things too.

Huh. "$50 and $100 discounts on top of subsidized pricing for upgrading customers -- similar to Verizon's recently-killed New Every Two program -- are going away. If you're currently eligible, you'll still be eligible to take advantage through July 23rd of this year." I've never gotten that. I've just gotten the subsidized price. On an iPhone at least.

I am very glad for the $10/1,000 text message plan. I'm paying $15/mo now to send like 300-400 messages, because the only other level is $5/200

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by lordscarlet

I am very glad for the $10/1,000 text message plan. I'm paying $15/mo now to send like 300-400 messages, because the only other level is $5/200

We ended up just getting the family text plan because my oldest daughter is to the age we're letting her have limited texting. (She can only text people on the approved list ie: family members right now though). We figured spending $25 for unlimited texting for everyone in the family was better than having multiple $5 or $15 plans. (My wife was $15 and I was $5). I think AT&T realizes most people don't text enough to go up to the $15 plan, so they can get away with the $10 plan to make more money then they will lose from old $15 plan people dropping down.

[stevew]

Originally Posted by lordscarlet

Huh. "$50 and $100 discounts on top of subsidized pricing for upgrading customers -- similar to Verizon's recently-killed New Every Two program -- are going away. If you're currently eligible, you'll still be eligible to take advantage through July 23rd of this year." I've never gotten that. I've just gotten the subsidized price. On an iPhone at least.

I am very glad for the $10/1,000 text message plan. I'm paying $15/mo now to send like 300-400 messages, because the only other level is $5/200

Probably means the new iPhone will come out July 24th.

[Alan T]

Verizon has unofficially confirmed that at least for the start, there will be an unlimited data plan available for iphone users ($30 a month)

Verizon iPhone: $30 Unlimited Data (for Now) - Digits - WSJ

From various things that I've read, it sounds like Verizon is following AT&T's plans regarding pricing once it starts rolling out more LTE capable phones later this year though. It appears once LTE is in the picture, there will be no unlimited LTE data plans, those will be 3g only.

[wade moore]

So, ordered my wife an iPhone at 3:00 AM this morning (I won't be getting mine until August unfortunately).

Something that I didn't see posted anywhere.

The tethering is $20/mth. So, not the amazing thing it seemed to be at first imo - I know I won't be getting it.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by wade moore

So, ordered my wife an iPhone at 3:00 AM this morning (I won't be getting mine until August unfortunately).

Something that I didn't see posted anywhere.

The tethering is $20/mth. So, not the amazing thing it seemed to be at first imo - I know I won't be getting it.

That is the same price AT&T is going to be offering iphone tethering for as well. The price doesn't really make sense, but people are going to pay it so I guess they figure every little penny helps

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by Alan T

That is the same price AT&T is going to be offering iphone tethering for as well. The price doesn't really make sense, but people are going to pay it so I guess they figure every little penny helps

Yeah. I guess they have an image of people tethering laptops for hours on end, but I have to imagine that's a pretty small customer base doing that.

If I were to use tethering, it would be very infrequent and for short periods of time for the most part. In fact, I can't really think of when I'd use it except for when on travel.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by wade moore

Yeah. I guess they have an image of people tethering laptops for hours on end, but I have to imagine that's a pretty small customer base doing that.

If I were to use tethering, it would be very infrequent and for short periods of time for the most part. In fact, I can't really think of when I'd use it except for when on travel.

I used to use it years ago when I would travel or be out on the road. The truth is now directly from my iphone, I can now connect to my work network via VPN, I can ssh to routers or other network devices I manage, I can do it in an emergency directly from my phone. Most hotels, airports or other places I travel to also generally have wi-fi or other form of hi speed connectivity as well.

There really is less of a need now for tethering, so makes no sense to me to spend the money on it.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by Alan T

I used to use it years ago when I would travel or be out on the road. The truth is now directly from my iphone, I can now connect to my work network via VPN, I can ssh to routers or other network devices I manage, I can do it in an emergency directly from my phone. Most hotels, airports or other places I travel to also generally have wi-fi or other form of hi speed connectivity as well.

There really is less of a need now for tethering, so makes no sense to me to spend the money on it.

My thoughts exactly. I would imagine the market here is very heavy business travelers who figure they can spend the $15 that some hotels/airports charge each week, or just use this and super-techies that just need to have it.

Seems like a small market, but I could be missing something.

[Alan T]

Some of the early verizon iphone reviews are coming out and they are almost exactly what I had previously predicted:

http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/02/v...iphone-review/


Voice calls on verizon are far better, far fewer dropped calls, far fewer voice problems than AT&T. They did note in areas of poor coverage, Verizon still had problems with voice calls. They also noted that this could possibly change if a huge amount of new users switch to verizon, but neither are things that can be predicted, so they give a clear edge to Verizon.

Data connectivity on AT&T is far better. Verizon data peaked at around what AT&T average throughput is. AT&T clearly was overall superior on the data side.

I previously had mentioned in this thread that I have both AT&T and Verizon smart phone service myself and this report pretty much mirrors what I have experienced. Perhaps not quite to these extremes though. I don't have too many dropped AT&T calls and my data service with verizon isn't normally -that- bad as they reported.

[JediKooter]

Couldn't order mine. Every time I tried to get to the ordering page, I would get an error message that would say 'Try again later'.

Oh well. Haven't had one for 3 years or so, waiting a little extra longer won't kill me.

[gstelmack]

Picked one up for my wife today. No line at the BJ's kiosk around 4PM, but it took a while because we were converting from pre-paid, and they apparently went to a new system today with the iPhone, so it was a bit of finagling the system on their part to make sure her unused balance got properly transferred. She has it but is waiting for the number transfer to happen to activate, either tonight or tomorrow.

[Passacaglia]

Hard to believe this has been out a year now -- feels like it's just been one day.

[wade moore]

Wife has had hears for a day and a half now. She loves it. The very limited 3G I've used seems fine, but I'll have to use it a bit more for a final verdict.

[Comey]

Originally Posted by Passacaglia

Hard to believe this has been out a year now -- feels like it's just been one day.

I don't follow.

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by Passacaglia

Hard to believe this has been out a year now -- feels like it's just been one day.

Good stuff.

[Passacaglia]

Originally Posted by Comey

I don't follow.

According to YOUR thread title, it's been out since February 10, 2010 -- which was a year and a day ago. There's been a few slight references to it throughout this thread making fun of you for it.