AT&T Brings back Unlimited Data but...

The major carrier that was first to do away with their UNLIMITED Smartphone data plans just brought them back. Unfortunately, there is a slight catch. If you missed it, AT&T spent a boatload of money to buy Direct TV. Now they need to figure out how to recoup this money. AT&T's solution to solving this problem was to create a Bundle. Sign a contract for AT&T U-Verse, or Direct TV and AT&T will give you Unlimited data on your Smartphone. I'm told that they reserve the right to throttle speeds after 22GB.

There are a few exceptions (Time Warner Business Class offerings), but for the most part, bundling can be very dangerous to the end user for the following reasons...

1) Putting all your eggs in the same basket can be dangerous for a number of reasons. If your service goes down, there's a good chance everything but the cell service goes down too (internet, cable TV, voIP telephone). If you have a beef with the provider, you have far less recourse.

2) Aside from losing the redundancy of multiple companies, many of these bundle deals have short term promotions that expire, sometimes years before the contract expires. That means that after that great promotion is over, you are stuck.

3) These companies offering bundles may be strong in some areas but not in others. I personally have a Time Warner  bundle at home with Internet and Cable TV. While their voIP deal was fair, I decided to go with Vonage because it was $10 per month less and added 60 countries we can call for FREE. As my wife speaks to her Mother daily, we now pa zero long distance toll charges. 

When something looks too good to be true, it generally is. For those who already have these services and are happy with them, go for it if you want the UNLIMITED data. Remember, both T-Mobile and Sprint still offer UNLIMITED data plans without having to "sell your soul" to the devil. In T-Mobile's case, they also offer Unlimited DATA (2G) in 140 countries with FREE Unlimited texting and $0.20 per minute voice roaming.