AT&T forcing smartphones (even unlocked ones) onto smartphone data plans? (updated)
By Chris Ziegler 
posted February 11th 2010 1:57PM
posted February 11th 2010 1:57PM
We've been hearing a few scattered reports over the last week or so that AT&T customers are getting nastygrams for failing to have a smartphone-approved data plan associated with their account while using a smartphone. Of course, if you've bought a subsidized smartphone (using AT&T's definition, which is a little vague and off-kilter but generally involves a smartphone operating system and a QWERTY keyboard) from the carrier directly, this is totally par for the course -- you should expect such a warning. Thing is, one of the long-vaunted advantages of buying an unsubsidized, unlocked phone and bringing it to the network is that you've got plan freedom -- the carrier typically doesn't really know (or care) what kind of phone you're using, so you can sign up for a cheaper data plan designed for feature phones. Well, we've got tipsters telling us now that they're receiving these notices on their unlocked handsets, and that "as a courtesy, [they've] added the minimum Smartphone data plan" automatically. A courtesy, indeed.It'd seem unusual (if it's even possible) for AT&T to maintain a comprehensive database of IMEIs that are outside its sphere of influence, so we're thinking that this could be as simple as a situation where the carrier's last known record of the user's phone was a subsidized smartphone, but regardless, this is a pretty big deal -- for many users it means paying $30 instead of $15 for unlimited data, all the while paying significantly more for the handset upfront (at a savings to AT&T, no less). We're going to follow up with AT&T to figure out what's what here, but in the meanwhile, watch out for that email and / or text message of doom, folks. Follow the break for the full text of AT&T's communique.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Update: AT&T tells us that this policy has been in place since last September; folks who haven't changed phones since then are still grandfathered. Unsurprisingly, the company says that users with unlocked phones are more likely to be heavy data users, and that "the unlimited data plan protects them from sticker-shock bills." In other words, this policy is here to stay, which means one very, very important reason for buying unsubsidized has been taken away.
Dear Valued Customer,
We hope you are enjoying your Smartphone! We appreciate and value your business and want to be sure you are aware of a change we've made to your account to ensure you have the best possible experience with unlimited data usage in the United States.
Smartphones are made for data consumption-surfing the web, social networking, email and more. That's why we require a Smartphone data plan in conjunction with our Smartphones. This ensures that customers with data intensive devices are not unpleasantly surprised with high data pay-per-use charges-just one low, predictable, flat rate for unlimited use each month.
For whatever reason, our records indicate your Smartphone does not have the correct data plan. As a courtesy, we've added the minimum Smartphone data plan for you.
If you would like to select another data plan or have questions, please call 1-800-331-0500 (or 611 from your wireless phone) or visit att.com/smartphoneplans.
Thank you for being an AT&T customer. We look forward to continuing to provide you with a great Smartphone experience.
Sincerely,
AT&T
This e-mail was auto generated. Please do not respond.
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wow AT&T is so screwed up.. "We have added this as a courtesy."... yea my ass.. They add it so they can get an extra 30 bucks out of your pocket. bastards.
@deepen03
I'm with you on this, its screwed up!
@deepen03
I second that...
it's quite comical how these carriers as expensive as they already are (i.e. VzW & AT&T) not only mandate a data-plan with your "smartphone," which is already a known as well as accepted in the wireless industry, but they each require data plans for the small wimpy phones. and now on top of it all they're looking for more ways to get money out of your pocket.
1. with prices like theirs I'd expect them to offer more high end phones for free with select plans (like European Carriers do)
2. what's more offensive is they go and say that the price adjustments and mandated additional services are all in the "best interest" of the consumer.
SAVING is the best interest of the CONSUMER. not to mention the cheapest Individual Plan for a Smartphone with Unlimited Text/Data and 450 Minutes will only run you a whopping $95.00 (est.)!
This is a bunch of crap! If you bought an unlocked phone, you should not be required to add a data plan. Nor should they automatically add it on unless its one of their locked, branded smartphones. What next?
@(Unverified)
Anytime you pay full-price for a phone, locked or unlocked, you should NEVER be required to have a data plan.
I don't know what worse, their reputation or their 3g coverage.?
It happened to me. The fundamental question is:
If you offer an unlimited plan, do you really have the right to argue about consumption (it is UNLIMITED !!!!) ? AT&T is completely wrong here, the $ 30/Mo for data plan is intended to cover subsidies, period. If a phone is not subsidezed, they don't have the right to claim the 15 bucks difference. This thing has to be reviewed by regulatros since it is an outragious abuse on consumers. Plus, the way they are doing it is insulting !!!!
So much for buying an unsubsidized phone and only using wifi for internet...
I'm all for newer technology, but why are prices continually going up, when the newer stuff is supposed to be smaller, faster and cheaper.
I guess Moore's Law does not work for the cell phone industry.
And my friends told me I was being paranoid for changing the IMEI of my iphone to the one of my broken razr.
I work for T-Mobile and I can tell you that if you are using an unlocked phone, we know which one it is. So I wouldn't doubt that AT&T has something like that either to read the IMEI and see what phone is it.
Slightly off there, Ziegler.
@KingDroid Since you work for T-Mobile, about my reply to the post below, why can I use my Blackberry data plan with iPhone, WinMo, etc., but I need a different rate plan to use Android? It's the same cost.
@MBN
All that sounds pretty odd since most folk I know that have an unlocked iPhone on T-Mobile use T-Mobile's "Smartphone Data Plan" not the Blackberry Data Plan.
WinMo devices also pertain to the Smartphone Data Plan, since Blackberry and Android Data Plans are solely to each of its own. Only because Blackberries and Android handsets have special and unique features that consist of different plans that revolve around both it's needs. Same would go for the iPhone if ever T-Mobile were to have it.
@KingDroid
I just checked with T-Mobile tech support and they said that they don't necessarily "know" which phone you are using always. They said that no matter what type of phone it is (iphone or nokia bar phone), if it is not sold by T-Mobile you automatically pay the smartphone data prices. I asked if that meant even if I had only a basic Nokia 3120 type phone that I would pay that and he confirmed that it was true. WTF
bad precedence, although tmo's been doing this on a smaller scale--if you got an android--tmo branded or not--you have to sign up for the android data plan
@jobber99 That's what has kept me from Android. I like to switch phones from day-to-day. I have an unlimited Blackberry plan which works great for my Blackberry, iPhone, or WinMo phones (IP access) I put my SIM in to. I bought a G1 and couldn't do crap with it.
What's the difference? I'm paying the same amount for data, why can't I have my choice?
@jobber99
I don't see people talking about how T Mobile does this?
Why is it always against AT&T?
@jobber99
Not strictly true.
If you want to change the sim back and forth between different types of phones, just tell T-mo that you want the smartphone plan and NOT the android plan. That is what I have done and it works fine. I can take the T-mo sim out of the Nexus and put it in my N97 and there is no problem. Of course, the T-mo sim will not allow the N97 to talk to ATT 3G signals, even when there is no T-mo signal around.
This is a good time for AT&T customers to start demanding that AT&T provide a new plan tier for people that buy unlocked/unsubsidized phones, just as T-mobile has done. T-mobile charges less for their plans where they don't subsidize the phones for customers. AT&T is taking advantage of its customers even when it's not subsidizing a phone for them...it still charges the same. Seems like robbery to me.
@uansari1 It doesn't seem like customer demand goes very far with AT&T. We speak with our checkbook, as they say...
I took my SIM card out of a Nokia 6085 and placed it in a MOTORAZR2 V9x and that change was almost instantly reflected on AT&T's Online Account Management system. The icon for my phone changed from a picture of my old Nokia to a picture of a V9x. OLAM recognizes the phone your SIM card is in based on the IMEI. The IMEI is broken down into 4 different parts: reporting body identifier, type allocation code, serial sequence for the model, and either a Luhn check digit or the software version number. They don't need to have a database of *all* IMEIs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMEI
Charging "subsidized-phone" plans for folks with unsubsidized/unlocked phones? So much for "open network": http://mobile.engadget.com/2007/12/06/atandt-claims-completely-open-network-too-the-most-open-eve/
Sounds to me like a solid case for a lawsuit.
And yet this is all the dumb customers fault. If you have another alternative to att why don't you go for it. Why do customers feel the need or feel loyal to companies such as att when all they do is try to suck out evey single penny from their customers. The results prove it here we have a company with shitty 3g coverage, voice quality problems (many dropped calls) such high prices, and constantly data outages and yet somehow they keep adding customers.
On the other hand we have sprint a company with great voice quality, better 3g coverage than att, cheapest plans on the industry and yet they are lossing customers like crazy. If people started leaving att we would see a drop in their prices and a change on their policies until then att will behave like is the big shit and just worry about finding a way to try to get more money out from their customers, while customers accept those rules they will continue to do it until they see a change for example customers leaving in droves
@periks19 can you figure out the problem... Iphones... and you Iphone lovers, you guys are the main reason why AT&T is so arrogant and still in business with their terrible network. With worst service in US (maybe in the world), AT&T still racks up revenues like no other... Iphones... Iphones.. Just leave AT&T for couple of years, if they lose lots of customers and revenues due to this, they will change it back.. but yeah, i do miss my unlocked phones...
@periks19
As already stated, there are some phones that only have 3G on AT&T. More importantly, many of us have been locked into a contract and thus have no choice for the time being. Imagine that you go into the contract expecting to pay $15 per month, and then in the middle they just up it to $30 and you still can't leave without paying a hefty ETF.
But I do agree, I'm going to switch to T Mobile or Sprint as soon as it's up. Most likely T Mobile since I live in a big city so their coverage is fine, and it's the cheapest as far as I know.
this happened to my gf (we have a shared plan) last week, without our knowledge.
She called AT&T and went off on them for this, they then proceeded to remove it from our plan (she has no use for data). Case closed.
It's a requirement for all known smartphone introduced on the network since September 2009. Most European phones are not in the database so they won't catch the plan. If it's an unlocked BB that we normally sell but was branded tmo our systems will understand the imei number.
I've setup dozens of N series and input the imei in our system and it populated the 15 dollar plan time after time.
They need the money for the extra back-hauling there doing over the next couple of years, everyone complains about ATT but the amount of work they put into my area so i no longer have to suffer with missed calls is tremendous. I dont remember the last time i had a problem and I used to never been able to finish a call
@noob4u BS, they've been lining their pockets with money instead of building out the backhaul as their quarterly statements have explicitly described
How about void of contract!?
@Abc123crb
That's what I'm hoping for. Even though I should be grandfathered in, since I've had my BJII since long before data plans were required, I still wouldn't mind if they changed it on me and allowed me out of my contract.
@periks19,
While I'd like to use Sprint, the fact that they use CDMA technology (and thus, the notion of using unlocked handsets in the first place is impossible) is a show stopper.
Moreover, T-Mobile has had this practice for years now -- any IMEI that's seen on their network, not specifically associated with their own dumbphones, automatically disables Internet access along with a message that the subscriber needs to use a smartphone data plan.
Still bad -- but this only brings AT&T "in line" with what the other carriers are already doing.
It happened to me. The fundamental question is:
If you offer an unlimited plan, do you really have the right to argue about consumption (it is UNLIMITED !!!!) ? AT&T is completely wrong here, the $ 30/Mo for data plan is intended to cover subsidies, period. If a phone is not subsidized, they don't have the right to claim the 15 bucks difference. This thing has to be reviewed by regulatros since it is an outragious abuse on consumers. Plus, the way they are doing it is insulting !!!!
@luisforero
Yup. If you're not in a contract and have an unsubsidized smartphone, you should be able to sign up for whatever data/voice plan you want. It's no cost to AT&T so why the hell they're forcing this new bulls*** tos.
This is the last straw with ATT. If I'm able to get out of my contract I'm off to Verizon. At least my $30 a month there will get me reliable and fast network.
I can see lots of people moving to T-Mobile if they enforce this.
@josesxi
I'm off to T-Mobile when my contract is up, no matter what. I'm done with the games of the cell phone industry. I'm buying an unlocked, unsubsidized Dell Mini 5 when it comes out, and I'm bringing it to a non-contract data/voice/text plan on T-Mobile. If T-Mobile starts pissing me off, I'll just drop their service and go somewhere else.
Big deal, every carrier does this. Why would you have a smartphone with no data? Also Att only does this when you use data si you will not rack up a huge bill. so surprise bill or $1 a day for data?
@jdtx1 What you're missing is that people paying $15/mo for unlimited data will be forced to pay $30 when ATT catch wind you have a smartphone, and not that old flip phone you got subsidized 3 years ago.
@jdtx1
When you get a subsidy for a smartphone, then it makes sense that they would require a data plan. The data plan allows them to make up for their subsidy. If you pay full price for a phone (meaning they did not pay for any cost of that phone), why should a carrier be allowed to charge a premium for the data plan considering they have a perfectly capable data plan at half the price? It makes no sense.
This happened to me, except I wasn't even using a smartphone! I spent almost 2 hours on the phone with their customer service (before porting my lines to T-Mobile) and every AT&T rep I spoke to was able to confirm that the phone I was using was NOT a smartphone according to their definition.
I wasn't going to switch, but when I kept getting handed off, hung up on, and no one would call back when they said they would, I decided I was done. The customer "resolutions" rep did little more than assure it wouldn't happen again on my account and only offered a $15 credit on my next bill for the inconvenience. I'd rather give my money to a company that at least pretends they're interested in my business.
If they try to charge me any ETF's, the next call they get will be from the BBB.
Unfortunately, I don't think this is different for many carriers either. This a huge problem with unsubsidized, unlocked phones in the U.S. This basically makes it where there is no reason to go unsubsidized unless you really, really like a phone, and no carriers have it (or if they gimp it horribly ala Nokia E71x).
@DJ It's every reason to go unsubsidized ... Freedom to choose our own hardware. Or did people forget the pre-Carterphone days when AT&T only leased phones out and didn't allow any "alien" phones onto the network?
(Unverified): "If they try to charge me any ETF, the next call they will get will be from the BBB"
Hmm... they put you on a smartphone plan, so no you'll reward them by getting a BlackBerry Bold? :*O
KIDDING! Of course I know you meant the Business Brownnose Bureau...
I'm just glad that the term "SmartPhone" is now reserved for phones without certain capabilities (e.g. iPhone, Palm Pre, Android, BlackBerry). This means that my Nokia N97 (which has such capabilities, e.g. browsable filesystem unlike iPhone, J2ME unlike iPhone/Pre/Android, multitasking unlike iPhone, full-fledged web browser (also 3rd party ones) unlike BlackBerry, CPU-native application environment unlike Android and Palm Pre, Universal TV-out and wireless keyboard support unlike all of the above, free global turn by turn navigation unlike all of the above, better camera than all the above, etc) is still *NOT* a SmartPhone in AT&T parlance, and thus still at $15/month. :)
@Hlorri
...you don't have a capacitive touchscreen. that stinks.
@resealablepouch
Actually I used to think so too, after the 5800 fiasco, but have come to a different take since. The N97 (particularly after the V20 firmware) is very light to the touch -- it's almost better to lightly tap the screen than to put a lot of pressure on it. Capacitive screens, on the other hand, have always given me trouble with precision (for instance, typing on the iPhone virtual keypad) -- I expect the push to register where I first touch the screen, whether by fingernail or not.
The obvious stylus thing may be important to some, too. (Though I never use one).
'Course resistive screens are more limited with regards to registering multiple touches (some is technically possible, but it will be limited). To me, that is not as important -- certainly nowhere as important as a physical keypad (and a UI that facilitates navigating by this keypad and/or by an external wireless keyboard)...
@Hlorri Palm Pre has native apps too now, not just JavaScript ones, and Android has had free global navigation since shortly before Nokia introduced it. The rest is funny though, apparently AT&T doesn't consider a full-fledged smartphone like the N97 a smartphone. :-)
You're really asking to get torn apart with a comment like that. The article's about AT&T's poor business practices, not how you think every other platform is inferior to your N97. Besides, you're not fooling anyone. The N97 is a POS, even with the newest firmware. Troll harder.
this is an abomination.
i was hoping to acquire an HD2 when tmobile gets it and move it over to my account in ATT.
ATT = fail
This should be illegal. My girlfriend finally broke her old-school RAZR, so I let her use my previous phone (HTC Fuze) and the same thing happened to her even though I had the data connection completely disabled. If they want to pull that when you sign a contract, fine. At least people know what they're getting into when they sign it. However, adding extra, unrequested services onto someone's bill is insane. What's to stop them from deciding for you that you need an unlimited minutes or texting package too? Don't we have regulations in place so that carriers can't force subscribers into services they don't want or need?