Still AT&T’s biggest dick move is still not offering text plans besides 20 cents per text and unlimited, basically forcing me to keep unlimited text messaging even though most of my texting is iMessaging now. Verizon still offers these text plans, so I am tempted to switch.

AT&T Press Release:

AT&T today announced new data plans for smartphone and tablet customers that will launch this Sunday, January 22. The plans give customers more data and value.

The new smartphone plans include:

• AT&T Data Plus 300MB: $20 for 300MB
• AT&T Data Pro 3GB: $30 for 3GB
• AT&T Data Pro 5GB: $50 for 5GB, with mobile hotspot / tethering

Smartphone customers needing additional data can pay $10 per additional gigabyte on the AT&T Data Pro 3GB and Data Pro 5GB plans; AT&T Data Plus users will receive an extra 300MB for $20.

The new tablet plans* include:

• AT&T DataConnect 3GB: $30 for 3GB
• AT&T DataConnect 5GB: $50 for 5GB

Existing smartphone and tablet customers will have the choice of keeping their current plans or choosing one of these new plans, and the current $14.99 for 250MB plan for tablet customers will remain available.

(via Android Central)

(via @mrgan)

Read this for more info on why your at&t upgrade eligibility date is different than your neighbors.

4:04 AM EST…  Still trying to order. Twice got very close, but both times got a error message.

Some have got through, so keep trying like I am.

Looks like an AT&T issue, keep seeing the following screen

When logging in to my account today I was presented the following screen right after logging in, before bring brought to the normal account page.

Clicking “Check Now” brought me to the next page below, where it clearly lets you know if you are eligible

Clicking continue here then brings you to the store page to shop for new phones.

UPDATE @1:52PM EST Looks like AT&T is coming back online, it’s now working again for me with 3G data and phone calls without garbled audio.

UPDATE AT&T is responding to some tweets now and has released an official statement claming another “equipment issue” is to blame.  They also suggest turning off 3G, which did the trick a couple months ago, but is not working for anyone I know this time (see my results below).

@ATT:

@szeliu Yes – due to an equipment issue, but it’s only affecting 3G service. Switching to 2G should help as a temporary solution.

Official Statement (via Miami Herald)

Some AT&T wireless customers from mid-Broward County south to Key West may not be able to make mobile-to-mobile calls or receive calls to their mobile from a landline due to an equipment issue. Only mobile broadband/3G service is impacted; 2G service is not. Network technicians are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. We apologize for the service interruption.

It was just about 2 months ago when most of the South Florida area lost service with AT&T. Well now there is a new outage, which started sometime around 11:30 AM EST today.  Switching to Edge only on the iPhone doesn’t seem to be working the same magic as before. At one point I seemed to be showing “No Service” or “Searching…”, but after switching to Edge only I got 5 bars of signal, but with no indication of network (0, E, or 3G), just the bars.

I was able to get a call out, to Time and Temp, but the recording was so garbled I couldn’t understand what they were saying. Data doesn’t seem to be working on either 3G or Edge.

Even though I can’t call out on 3G and the phone shows “Searching”, the icon for 3G does shows up and I am able to use data…very strange.

I seem to be bouncing back and forth, on either Edge or 3G, between showing just signal bars and no indication of data connection and showing no bars, searching, and a 3G or E data icon. When showing bars only, I can make garbled phone calls. When showing searching for signal, but with the 3G or E symbol I can use data, but no phone calls.

AT&T evidently discontinued the $5-for-200-messages plan—cheapest is now $10 for 1000. <headshake> iMessage can’t come soon enough.

Just checked it out, and sure enough the $5 plan is gone. At first I thought it was a response to the iMessage announcement, but then thinking cleary I knew AT&T couldn’t react that fast…even though it is in line with their normal dick moves. I did a little more research and it turns out the $5 for 200 and $15 for 1500 plans were killed in mid January of this year.

Further examination of my texting reveals I send about 2,000 a month, most (~70%) of which are to my girlfriend. The others are a mix of Twitter text (which I have now turned off), iOS users, and others.  Taking out all the people that will be on iMessages leaves me with about 150 – 200 text a month. Right now I’m paying $30 for shared text between my and Chiyin’s iPhone, so $15 per phone for unlimited messaging. Now let’s look at my text plan options.

Pay per text

This is really expensive, at 20 cents per text. So if I send 175 text a month on average it will cost $35 / month.

$5 – 200 Text Plan (no longer exist)

This plan would be perfect, $5 a month vs $15, too bad it’s been killed. If I was on a normal $20 unlimited plan, this would be an even bigger savings.

$10 – 1000 Text Plan (UPDATE: This plan no longer exist now, it’s all or none deal now. Shame on you AT&T, shame!!!)

Looks like this will be my only option. I won’t send anywhere near 1000 text a month, but price wise it’s the same to buy 1000 messages in a package or send 50 without.

So if both Chiyin and I switch to this plan, we’ll be saving $10 a month. Saving anything is nice, but I still feel like AT&T is winning. Text message is the biggest rip off in the wireless industry! Even though they are getting $10 less than before out of their cash cow, that $20 they are still getting is like printing money.  I can send 500 hundred emails without putting a dent in my 2GB data plan, but send 500 text and it will cost you at least $10. I know I’m picking on AT&T in this post, but it really applies to all wireless carriers.

With push notification and iMessage, traditional texting’s days are numbered, but until there is a mainstream ubiquitous system in place that works across iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Phone, traditional texting won’t disappear. I doubt iMessage will go open source, but there are other apps out there that are already filling this role, it’s just a matter of getting all your friends to use them. I’m now using WhatsApp [Website / iTunes], which works with iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Nokia. It’s only a buck and works great!

UPDATE 2 BGR got their hands on the internal memo with the details:

Looks like AT&T is getting a bit more nervous about losing its precious iPhone subscribers, with their above average monthly bills, to Verizon.

Loop Insight:

According to AT&T, unlimited calling to any mobile number is available to customers with an unlimited messaging plan and a qualifying voice plan. You’ll have to check to see if your current voice plan is supported for the new feature.

You can check if qualify for this new plan starting tomorrow on AT&T website: http://www.att.com/anymobile

The App Store review office at 1 Infinite Loop has officially frozen over: we’ve gotten word that the official Google Voice application is on its way to the iPhone in the next few weeks. In fact, we’ve heard from a source close to Google that it’s already been approved — Google just needs to revamp the application to work with the iPhone 4 and iOS’s multitasking capabilities.

You remember the shit storm surrounding the official and third party Google Voice app rejections, with the FCC questioning all the players; Apple, AT&T, and Google. It seemed like all hope was lost…that was until Apple recently changed the app store rules and the third party GV apps started to appear in the app store again. Since then we’ve all been waiting to see when/if the official Google Voice app would be approved, and now it looks like it has!

(via iPhoneInCanada)

I’ve been using the Speedtest.net app a lot over the last few days to test the iPhone 4 signal issue. Checking whether the signal was actually degraded or if it was just a display issue. That’s a post for another time, but most of the time the signal was actually degraded.

During this testing I’ve discovered that when I have a good signal, my upload speeds have gone from an average of about 0.25 Mbps to 1.21 Mbps last night. I’ve also hit new 3G speed record for download, 4.6 Mbps. I was never able to hit speeds faster than about 2.5 Mbps with my 3GS even though it was capable of using the 7.2 Mbps network AT&T supposedly finished installing in Miami earlier this year.

The real test will be when I travel to New York City in a few weeks!