|
|
Home | Switchboard | Unix Administration | Red Hat | TCP/IP Networks | Neoliberalism | Toxic Managers |
| (slightly skeptical) Educational society promoting "Back to basics" movement against IT overcomplexity and bastardization of classic Unix | |||||||
|
|
|
|
It looks like AT&T tries to hide the details of the plan from the public. In reality lower variants of this plan are OK mostly for voice calls. You can use is with smartphones only if you have dial SIM phone and buy a separate "data_only" SIM.
The lowest Gophone plan is 10c per minute (1000 minutes if you buy one year plan for $100 -- less then Tracfone).
But data will cost you 1c for 5KB ($2 per megabyte, that a tremendous rip off!!!) plan. You should never even try it if you do not have a second SIM and a data plan as modest monthly usage is around 50M. Especially if you plan to browse Internet or check email. Here are details:
It is clear that AT&T try to prevent using this plan with smartphones.
The plan is nothing, but a blatant rip off outside of pure voice calls usage. But even with them Tracfone is a better deal. What is hidden and what is important to understand is that AT&T GoPhone plan has a hidden monthly fee for connectivity ($10 a month or $100 for one year service). So the minimum you should pay is $100 per year. Only with $100 per year minutes are transferable like in Tracfone.
It is possible to use this plan with unlocked smartphones bought outside of AT&T. But it does not make any sense. You should never try to use this plan with smartphones, unless you block Web access in them (set zero quote for Internet traffic on Android phones), or you will royally fleeced.
AT&T actually states that it can be used only with AT&T basic phones or with unlocked GSM smartphones that you bought elsewhere. AT&T Lumia 520 ($70) is not qualified for this plan, but you can try to unlock it after purchase and use with this plan only for voice calls (if limiting Internet traffic quota is possible on Windows 8 phones) using Internet strictly over WiFi.
You can change the plan anytime
The charge for changing to another GoPhone rate plan- AT&T GoPhone® Support
GoPhone subscribers may change plans at any time. The first rate plan change request will be processed at no charge. However, after the first change, you may be charged a $10 fee for each subsequent rate plan change.
Here are several chats in which I tried to get details
Q: I am wondering if I can you use Nokia 520 Gophone with 10c per minute 5c 1K of data Gophone plan
A: I'm sorry, but the $2 plan is only for basic phones. The most cost effect plan we have for that Nokia is $25 per month
Q: Now if I buy my own smartphone, can I use it with this plan?
A: Yes, you can, as long as the smartphone is unlocked.
Q: Will Walmart Gophone SIM card work with such an unlocked phone, say Sony Expria E
A: Yes, it will.
Q: If I buy Nokia 520 phone from AT&T can I unlock it for the difference with unlocked price ?
A: If you purchase the phone, all you have to do is go in to the store to have it unlocked! We do not sell unlocked phones.
Q: Which store ? At&T store?
A: That is correct
Q: And how much it will cost me?
A: Free to unlock.
Q: If I unlock the phone, can I then use 10c a minute GOphone plan with it?
A: you don't have to unlock it to use that plan.
A: If it is an AT&T phone.
Q: That's not my understanding. I think only non-smartphones can use this plan with regular AT&T SIM card
A: Ah, I see what you are saying now. You want to use a smartphone for a non smartphone plan.
Q: AT&T prohibit smartphones on 10c a minute plans, right? I think the only way to bypass this restriction is to use unlocked phone
A: No that is not correct, you can have a smartphone on that plan!
Q: Can you provide any reference -- because if not I will be forced to return Lumia 520
A: Yes, my reference is my manager standing next to me.
Q: This is the key question and I am now puzzled as AT&T Web site say different things
A: So what problem are you having exactly ?You can buy the phone online, choose whichever plan.
Q: I want to buy Lumia 520 and use it with "non-smartphone" in AT&T terminology 10c a minute plan as an emergency phone. Today I almost bought one at Wall Mart but read the fine print and it said, no --$25 a month is minimum
A: All you have to do is call in to customer care, and they will switch it to that plan you want
Welcome to AT&T online Sales support. How may I help you with placing your order today?
Q: If I buy Nokia 520 from At&T can I switch to 10c a minute plan or $25 a month is minimum?
A: The $25 month is the minimum because this is considered a smartphone.
Q: It does not show 10c plan in the cart, but formally I am eligible to one free switch, right? What if I call immediately and ask to switch me?
A: You can speak with Customer Care and see if they will switch it for you but typically for Smartphones, the $25 a month plan is the minimum.
Q: Also if I buy, say unlocked Lumia 520 on Amazon for, say $150, I can use this plan. Why I can't just pay At&t $50 and enjoy the ride ?
A: If you chose the $50 a month plan, then sure you can enjoy the ride. As long as the Lumia 520 is unlocked, then yes you can use it.
Q: No I mean the difference in price between AT&T locked and unlocked Lumia 520 is just $50. But with unlocked phones AT&T allow to use 10c a minute plan. I just need it for emergency as I have AT&T Samsung phone already. So it does not make sense for me to pay $25 a month
A: What you can do is request for the phone to be unlocked and that way you can use the plan. You would submit the request to AT&T.
Q: How to do this?
A: I will send you the request form in a link.
Q: I think there is 6 month waiting period for this, right?
A: Not with a Prepaid phone. Hold just one moment and I can get that to you.
FAQCraig Hamilton "Craig Hamilton" (Sandwich, MA) - See all my reviewsAll activation instructions are included in the box. You can select your 10cent plan when you activate the phone. Be sure to purchase $25 or more worth of minutes if you want the unused minutes to rollover every 90 days. AT&T does indeed have a 10cent per minute plan but you will be charged additional fees for texting, etc. which can use up your airtime very fast. If you text alot you can add on additional feature by dialing 611 from your wireless phone. This is also the easiest way to add airtime if you have a credit/debit card or checking account.
Laura answered on January 21, 2013
Comment (1) | 3 of 3 found this helpful. Do you?Yes No |Report abuse
ADon't know of any just 10 cent a minute plan. T-mobile has 30 minutes for 90 days for $10. In my area you can use this phone for T-mobile. The provider you go with will help you.
Eric S. answered on January 5, 2013 $25.00 lasts for 90 days.( with taxes it comes to $27 and change) The money that is not used does remain available for use . You are given an expiration date of 90 days and a cancellation date about 30 days later. The cancellation date signifies when the service is no longer available to your phone number. So, you will want to add money to your account in order to maintain service prior to the expiration date. It is wise not to wait until the cancellation date.Amazon.com Questions and Answers Samsung a157 Prepaid GoPhone (AT&T) forum
how long do prepaid minutes last? 12 days ago Depends on the $ amount. $100 last a year.is this phone a blue tooth 22 days ago No, it does not have Bluetooth. You can read more about the specs here http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB413889&cv=820#fbid=qSKP_2XpJKN
Can I transfer GoPhone credit from my old phone to this one? Can I keep my old phone number? 26 days ago Yes to both questions...BUT, it doesn't happen automatically. You'll have to call AT&T with your new phone's serial number so that they can transfer your credit from your old phone to your new phone. 26 days ago by Trooper
JR (PA) - See all my reviewsUnbeatable Price - Go For This Phone!,
August 18, 2012 This review is from: Samsung a157 GoPhone (AT&T) (Wireless Phone Accessory)
This phone is totally awesome. It is excellent for text based internet, like Facebook. I totally love the T9Eab function, such that I find it more useful and quicker to use once (once you get used to it). So for, cell phones that have a keyboard, generally I feel that once you get used to T9Eab, you will never want to go back. Additionally, as a bonus with this function, you can add words to the T9Eab vocabulary.It does have a small screen. That can either be a bonus or a bane. For me, personally, it's a bonus.
The A157 is also perfect for checking one's email. I use Gmail, and here and there during most days, I use this phone to read my email.
Be warned though, there are some features of websites that this phone can't handle, such as buying at amazon.com. If you use Amazon, then I recommend connecting with a computer with a larger screen. Thus, though this phone can't buy via Amazon.com, it would probably not be good enough as a computer to use Amazon's functions anyway, and that is neither plus nor negative. The reason being, size. If you want a small phone, that is well constructed, and has some internet function capabilities, go for this phone!
I personally use my phone as an emergency phone, usually paying just $15. I spend $5 for internet, and roughly $9 in emergency calls. That is unbeatable!
The one thing I feel that is actually lacking with respect to the A157, is that it can't interface with say a laptop or a desktop to be a source of internet capability. Yet, for $20, I still feel that you really can't beat the price of this phone for the functionality of it. 5.0 out of 5 stars
handy50322 - See all my reviewsGreat phone for cheap prepaid carriers,
October 1, 2013 Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Samsung a157 GoPhone (AT&T) (Wireless Phone Accessory)I purchased this phone to use with Airvoice's $10 per month plan and have no problems or complaints after a few months of use. You can use this on AT&T's prepaid plan or use any other prepaid carrier that uses AT&T's network (Airvoice and H2O Wireless for example).
Brandon Bykowski "Fozz1001" (WI USA) - See all my reviewsSamsung a157 GoPhone,
September 21, 2013 Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Samsung a157 GoPhone (AT&T) (Wireless Phone Accessory)It arrived exactly as was stated, a throw away phone, It does it's job as I wanted it to. Has a variety of ringers and charges quickly. It has very good sound and must say for the money, a very advanced phone, many more features than what I bought for 3 times the money just a few years back. Would recommend this phone to anyone that does need all the Bells and Whistles that come with Smarter phones, it's phone .
A. Smith (Ohio, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)5.0 out of 5 stars nice phone!,
March 29, 2013 Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Samsung a157 GoPhone (AT&T) (Wireless Phone Accessory)Great cheap phone. We were looking to get rid of our land line and decided to get this cheapie cell phone to serve as the house emergency phone since our kids dont have cells. Super price, delivered quick and includes wall charger and ATT gophone SIM card. Will purchase a $100 card (which is my understanding will keep the phone active for a year). Sure beats a monthly phone bill!
(REAL NAME)Not a good emergency only phone.,
December 30, 2012 Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Samsung a157 GoPhone (AT&T) (Wireless Phone Accessory)I activated the phone about 1 month ago, but did not put funds on it right away & went on vacation. Came back and tried to finish the activation process, only to receive network errors. Called AT&T Customer Service & they would not let me re-activate the phone b/c they said I needed to buy a new SIM card b/c I did not put funds on the phone 1 month ago. Kind of a random experience that most other customers probably will not encounter.
Still, I hate it when companies find sleazy ways to get you to spend more cash for a problem that would likely be very easy to resolve on their end with the flick of a switch. Further, while the plans are very reasonably priced, I found out you have to continually put more money on the phone, otherwise your minutes expire (even for the $2/day "only when used" plan). I am told you need to add a minimum of $10 each month, so your prior minutes roll over.I was disappointed upon finding this out b/c I would have liked to have just put a small balance on this phone & leave it in my car to use for emergencies only, or for when I am traveling out of town, & not having to worry about the minutes expiring.
|
|
Switchboard | ||||
| Latest | |||||
| Past week | |||||
| Past month | |||||
 |
 |
 |
Nice basic but flexible android phone By Tom on December 10, 2014
Color Name: White Verified PurchaseIt has everything I need:
- Dual sim work with AT&T voice and data plan sim (regular, go-phone and tablet sims all work).
- Tethering works fine
- Stocked Android upgraded to 4.4
- Easy setup (need a google account)
- Nice solid phone that does not feel cheapIt's a good phone for calling, text, email, navigation, quick voice web-search. It has only around 1.2G available after all basic Android apps installed so you can't load too many extra apps. However, you can move some of apps to SD cards (not all apps support this feature). Google music and other media apps can save and use media from SD card so that also help conserve memory. The camera is very basic, no front facing, so it's only good for simple photo - no selfie!
Setting has plenty of things for a geeky person to play with like data control for each sim, data usage monitoring by apps, battery and storage usage monitoring and more. It does have light sensor to auto dim/bright the display and only support simple, basic android gestures. The phone itself is small and easy to pocket so I don't mind the size. Note that for data access, you have to add APN in sim setup but it's easy to do using available info on the web.
Overall, a nice android phone with the latest basic android amenities.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Exactly What I Expected - It's GreatBy watsizname on December 12, 2014
Color Name: Black Verified PurchaseShipping was a little slow but since I elected to use FREE shipping, I can't complain.
Setup was going to be really difficult for me since I don't read or speak Spanish. The phone did it's first boot in Spanish. I fumbled around for a bit looking for a way to bypass the initialization screens so I didn't make too many wrong choices. I remembered reading a few days ago about holding the POWER and VOLUME UP buttons at the same time when turning the phone on. I did that and the 'Choose A Language' option appeared. After selecting 'English, United States' setup was a breeze.
I had to go online to search for the procedure to import my Contacts from one of my SIM cards. It was easy to do once I found the procedure. The phone did a great job of connecting to my POP3 server with minimal input from me. Gmail was even easier.
I've been using it for about a week now and it works great. I put my primary SIM in slot1 and my less used secondary SIM in slot2. After a few days I realized slot2 almost always had a better signal (more bars) than slot1. I wanted my primary to have the best chance of working in low signal areas (I live in rural Arkansas) so I swapped SIM cards and am happy now.
I've been using dual SIM phones for several years. Until now I've had to settle for a 'cheap china' Samsung clone that worked but the radio was marginal. Not only is the radio better in this phone (able to connect in areas the clone can't) but the screen and camera are much nicer and the touch response is much smoother. The ability to have my twelve year old cell number and my more than thirty year old (used to be) landline home phone number in the same phone and have it work the way I want is wonderful.
This phone was a bargain to me. I had paid around one hundred for the clone so an extra forty to get a genuine Motorola was worth every penny.
If I lost or broke this one, I'd buy another one just like it immediately. I'm that happy with it.
Society
Groupthink : Two Party System as Polyarchy : Corruption of Regulators : Bureaucracies : Understanding Micromanagers and Control Freaks : Toxic Managers : Harvard Mafia : Diplomatic Communication : Surviving a Bad Performance Review : Insufficient Retirement Funds as Immanent Problem of Neoliberal Regime : PseudoScience : Who Rules America : Neoliberalism : The Iron Law of Oligarchy : Libertarian Philosophy
Quotes
War and Peace : Skeptical Finance : John Kenneth Galbraith :Talleyrand : Oscar Wilde : Otto Von Bismarck : Keynes : George Carlin : Skeptics : Propaganda : SE quotes : Language Design and Programming Quotes : Random IT-related quotes : Somerset Maugham : Marcus Aurelius : Kurt Vonnegut : Eric Hoffer : Winston Churchill : Napoleon Bonaparte : Ambrose Bierce : Bernard Shaw : Mark Twain Quotes
Bulletin:
Vol 25, No.12 (December, 2013) Rational Fools vs. Efficient Crooks The efficient markets hypothesis : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2013 : Unemployment Bulletin, 2010 : Vol 23, No.10 (October, 2011) An observation about corporate security departments : Slightly Skeptical Euromaydan Chronicles, June 2014 : Greenspan legacy bulletin, 2008 : Vol 25, No.10 (October, 2013) Cryptolocker Trojan (Win32/Crilock.A) : Vol 25, No.08 (August, 2013) Cloud providers as intelligence collection hubs : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : Inequality Bulletin, 2009 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Copyleft Problems Bulletin, 2004 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Energy Bulletin, 2010 : Malware Protection Bulletin, 2010 : Vol 26, No.1 (January, 2013) Object-Oriented Cult : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2011 : Vol 23, No.11 (November, 2011) Softpanorama classification of sysadmin horror stories : Vol 25, No.05 (May, 2013) Corporate bullshit as a communication method : Vol 25, No.06 (June, 2013) A Note on the Relationship of Brooks Law and Conway Law
History:
Fifty glorious years (1950-2000): the triumph of the US computer engineering : Donald Knuth : TAoCP and its Influence of Computer Science : Richard Stallman : Linus Torvalds : Larry Wall : John K. Ousterhout : CTSS : Multix OS Unix History : Unix shell history : VI editor : History of pipes concept : Solaris : MS DOS : Programming Languages History : PL/1 : Simula 67 : C : History of GCC development : Scripting Languages : Perl history : OS History : Mail : DNS : SSH : CPU Instruction Sets : SPARC systems 1987-2006 : Norton Commander : Norton Utilities : Norton Ghost : Frontpage history : Malware Defense History : GNU Screen : OSS early history
Classic books:
The Peter Principle : Parkinson Law : 1984 : The Mythical Man-Month : How to Solve It by George Polya : The Art of Computer Programming : The Elements of Programming Style : The Unix Hater’s Handbook : The Jargon file : The True Believer : Programming Pearls : The Good Soldier Svejk : The Power Elite
Most popular humor pages:
Manifest of the Softpanorama IT Slacker Society : Ten Commandments of the IT Slackers Society : Computer Humor Collection : BSD Logo Story : The Cuckoo's Egg : IT Slang : C++ Humor : ARE YOU A BBS ADDICT? : The Perl Purity Test : Object oriented programmers of all nations : Financial Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : The Most Comprehensive Collection of Editor-related Humor : Programming Language Humor : Goldman Sachs related humor : Greenspan humor : C Humor : Scripting Humor : Real Programmers Humor : Web Humor : GPL-related Humor : OFM Humor : Politically Incorrect Humor : IDS Humor : "Linux Sucks" Humor : Russian Musical Humor : Best Russian Programmer Humor : Microsoft plans to buy Catholic Church : Richard Stallman Related Humor : Admin Humor : Perl-related Humor : Linus Torvalds Related humor : PseudoScience Related Humor : Networking Humor : Shell Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2012 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2013 : Java Humor : Software Engineering Humor : Sun Solaris Related Humor : Education Humor : IBM Humor : Assembler-related Humor : VIM Humor : Computer Viruses Humor : Bright tomorrow is rescheduled to a day after tomorrow : Classic Computer Humor
The Last but not Least Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand ~Archibald Putt. Ph.D
Copyright © 1996-2021 by Softpanorama Society. www.softpanorama.org was initially created as a service to the (now defunct) UN Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP) without any remuneration. This document is an industrial compilation designed and created exclusively for educational use and is distributed under the Softpanorama Content License. Original materials copyright belong to respective owners. Quotes are made for educational purposes only in compliance with the fair use doctrine.
FAIR USE NOTICE This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to advance understanding of computer science, IT technology, economic, scientific, and social issues. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided by section 107 of the US Copyright Law according to which such material can be distributed without profit exclusively for research and educational purposes.
This is a Spartan WHYFF (We Help You For Free) site written by people for whom English is not a native language. Grammar and spelling errors should be expected. The site contain some broken links as it develops like a living tree...
|
|
You can use PayPal to to buy a cup of coffee for authors of this site |
Disclaimer:
The statements, views and opinions presented on this web page are those of the author (or referenced source) and are not endorsed by, nor do they necessarily reflect, the opinions of the Softpanorama society. We do not warrant the correctness of the information provided or its fitness for any purpose. The site uses AdSense so you need to be aware of Google privacy policy. You you do not want to be tracked by Google please disable Javascript for this site. This site is perfectly usable without Javascript.
Last modified: March, 12, 2019
