AT&T wireless forced me to have an Internet "data plan" (is that legal)?

Elmo · 2010-01-25T15:11:52+00:00

I tried to drop my expensive data plan on my year-old AT&T blackberry boldbut AT&T told me that since September of 2009, they now are "enforcing"that you must keep the Internet wireless data plan (if you have a smartphone).The say I must keep the data plan until next January when the 2 years areup or pay $125 cancellation fee.What I don't understand is that I can move the AT&T SIM card to any(unlocked) phone and it will still work, so, what does the cell phone haveto do with the Internet data plan?

Jan 25, 2010 24 Replies

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Gordon Burditt 16 years ago

All carriers don't do it on all plans (or even all postpaid plans).

T-Mobile has two sets of plans, "Even More Plus" (no contract, no phone subsidy) and "Even More" (2-year contract, $20/month more, phone subsidy of up to about $250). Maybe this will start a trend among carriers.

Don't like contracts and ETFs? Try buying a used smartphone on eBay or Craigslist (or you can buy the phone from T-Mobile at an unsubsidized price) and get one of the Even More Plus plans. (Of course, it needs to be compatible (GSM and on the T-Mobile frequency bands))

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Scott in SoCal 16 years ago

I sure hope so!

It's wrong to charge customers the jacked-up "hardware subsidy recovery" price for a service plan if that customer paid full price for his phone and never actually received a hardware subsidy.

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Elmo 16 years ago

Just to report back, the cell phone is working just fine. Of course, if AT&T wanted to, they could just shut down the service to my cellphone but they apparently don't want to.

If they did, I would just switch the SIM card to one of the other unlocked cell phones I have lying around so it wouldn't be a problem.

I don't think AT&T uses the IMEI number for anything at all (except maybe warranty repairs which I have no intention of doing).

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