This is my review of AT&T
Arguably the second most popular carrier in the United States behind Verizon
Most people actually reported using AT&T for their personal provider in 2018
They had the second highest number of smartphone users in q1
2018 and they have the second highest brand preference in most places across the u.s
I think it's fair to say AT&T is pretty popular
So I signed up for their AT&T unlimited and more premium plan to see what they're all about
Of course naturally as I'm finishing up this review
ATT goes ahead and announces new unlimited plans
thankfully the experience using the AT&T network will remain largely the same with the only differences being the pricing and
Included benefits. So in this review, I'll be talking about my experience using the AT&T network
What features are supported an overview of a TTS three new unlimited plans and the best cheap?
alternative plans if you're looking to save some money on service because yes a TNT's unlimited plans are
Expensive there are new plans start at $65 per month for unlimited data. And if you want hotspot support, you'll be paying at least
$75 per month the $80 unlimited and more premium plan
I signed up for came to 96 dollars and 26 cents after all taxes and fees
AT&T does have a $10 auto-pay discount which you should
Definitely take advantage of but I was trying their network for such a short time that I left it off
Still over 12 months the added taxes and fees
Basically add up to an additional month of service with these high prices. You would expect premium service and in my opinion
AT&T delivers
I was testing their network on my iPhone 10s and iPhone 11 Pro using Isom and the experience was great
They support visual voicemail
Wi-Fi calling voice over LTE and if you pay for it 15 gigs of hotspot data when you do hit your
Hotspot limit your hotspot speeds will be slowed to 128 kilobits per second
I felt this was basically unusable when I tried streaming a song on Spotify it took over
57 seconds for the first song to even start playing something else to note is about voice over LTE
Which AT&T calls HD Voice on iPhone with iOS 13 or later?
It is enabled by default
as a result some users or at least this one user who made a post about it have
Reported dropped calls when their phone switches from LTE to 4G data for coverage for most people
This isn't going to be an issue
But if you do notice more frequent dropped calls
Then you can try turning off cellular data before placing your phone call speaking of data
The speeds were consistently fast for me on the AT&T network
I averaged probably about 30 megabits per second down and 15 megabits per second up and sometimes even getting way faster speeds
Att's network is strong with reasonably robust coverage across the United States
Network strength and performance
Do vary a lot by location so you can use a site like route metrics to compare network coverage in your area in the Boston
Area where I live I felt I had consistently fast speeds with good performance
Now you may have noticed the 5ge icon on the top of my phone this stands for 5g evolution
Which AT&T is calling their quote first step on the road to 5g?
This is not true 5g but rather improvements ATT is making to their existing LTE network
They advertise up to two times faster performance
AT&T is improving their speeds with carrier aggregation
4x4 MIMO and 256 qualm
QAM qualm anyway, this is LTE. Not 5g
In fact according to Digital Trends Sprint is suing AT&T saying the misleading
branding is damaging to other carriers because consumers don't know the difference between
5g and v GE Sprint issued a survey where
54% of respondents believe v GE was at least as good as 5g when in fact
It's not and 43 percent thought AT&T phones bought today would be 5g compatible when again Mo's are not
Despite AT&T being somewhat misleading with 5ge to their credit you CLA's
2019 speed test report indicates. Their network speed has increased forty five point one percent in q1 to q2
2019 compared with q1 q2
2018 and they also got the fastest speed score on the latest flagship devices from Samsung and Apple
however
Open signal still has a t towards the bottom of the pack in terms of 4G availability in their
2019 report from my experience 5g II didn't make a difference
I actually got faster speeds at work on LTE than I did at home with 5ge
Regardless of the icon I still felt the network was overall strong. And again, I had good performance something else
I thought was strong was the AT&T application. So this is what the application looks like
I really like how I can see my account number
Twelve days left and how much data I've used right up top
If I tap on my wireless, I can see what I'm expected to use about thirty point seven gigs
We'll see about that
You can see all your usage and track the individual usage of each line
International usage how I use my data I can tap on that
AT&T will give you a breakdown of your data usage. You can kind of see a theme of the application here
And that is that it's a little slow. It takes some loading. I will not be providing feedback. I will submit again
We have a little live chat that just popped up on there almost there promise you guys oh, oh my gosh
There we go, so we're updating this info right now so you may not see all your recent data usage, that's fine
But yeah, it kind of shows you your breakdown of your cellular data
It's cool that AT&T provides that provides some features and allows you to
Kind of see what you're using your data on you can also manage your data plan. And this is really cool
So in the app, you can see how much data you're using and then you could potentially switch plans based on that usage
I'm currently signed up for the unlimited and more premium plan $90 a month
I can see nineteen point five five gigs this month
My four month average is five point three five gigs and AT&T gives me the option to switch plans
I can drop down to the unlimited more plan
Go to a nine gig plan for $70 a month or even drop all the way down to a three gig plan for
$60 a month
Another thing I want to mention is if you're looking at your data usage
You can go to manage my data usage and here you'll actually find the option when it loads again
To you enable data
so you could actually
disable data
If you want to turn that off and you have the option to turn off a stream saver and what this does is it limits?
video quality to stream at 480p
I think this is on to save data which doesn't really make sense because you're on an unlimited plan
But also to save AT&T network so they don't have to buffer and load all that extra data for high quality content
So overall, I think the AT&T app you can also purchase phones and deals and all that jazz
Overall, I think it's functional. It's a little bit slower
and it's basically their website formatted into
some kind of application it's decent it gets the job done and it provides a pretty good overview of your account and I do love
Their data management system where you can see how much data you've used now. Let's talk about AT&T s new unlimited plans
previously AT&T offered to unlimited plans
unlimited and more for $70 and unlimited and more premium for
$80 per month both plans also included live TV with over 35 channels and
Unlimited talk and text to Canada and Mexico the difference between the plans was that the $70 plan had a standard definition
video streaming limit and no support for the hotspot for
$10 extra the $80 plan gave you HD video streaming and
15 gigs of hotspot data now starting today, November 3rd
AT&T is offering three new plans. The $70 plan is dropping to
$65 per month being renamed to AT&T unlimited starter and
Losing the 22 gigs of priority data instead
Your data will always Beadie prioritized the $80 plan is dropping to $75 per month being renamed to AT&T
unlimited extra
Increasing to 50 gigs of priority data and keeping that same 15 gigs of hotspot data, unfortunately
this plan is losing HD video streaming and the premium entertainment options and
Both plans lose the previously included live TV with over 35 channels instead
AT&T is introducing a third option the AT&T unlimited elite plan
This plan includes a hundred gigs of priority data 30 gigs of hotspot data
HD video streaming and the premium entertainment options
This plan will also include a free subscription to HBO and HBO max when it's rolled out in May
2020 also still available will be eighties
ridiculous amount of add-ons these basically match the silly add-ons from Verizon even down to the
Navigation application people Google Maps is a thing
Definitely check that out for navigation. Anyway like Verizon
I don't think these add-ons are worth it and should be avoided thankfully
They are tucked away in your online account. The overall online account experience was pretty good, too
You get a nice overview of your account and your usage and like the app you can see your data usage
Manage your data usage and even switch between the new postpaid plans available
the new plans are better, but they are still expensive the truth is I think
AT&T postpaid is only worth signing up for if you're able to take advantage of that group discount which brings the price down to
$40 per month per person for AT&T
unlimited extra
Otherwise, there are a lot of great alternative plans out there that are just calling to be tried out
I even think a tnt's prepaid plans are far better
$30 for one gig $40 for eight gigs
$45 for unlimited handset data and
$55 for unlimited data with hotspot Cricut is another popular choice with some great plans on the AT&T network
they do have some data speed caps on their plans ranging from three to eight megabits per second and
most plans don't support the hot spot but
Their cricket more plan got some upgrades. They removed the speed cap and
included 15 gigs of hot spot data
combined with crickets insane family discount this brings the total cost down to just
32 dollars per month per person for unlimited data
Including all taxes and fees. This makes cricket a
Significantly better value than AT&T pure talk USA
Also just updated their plans with more data making them now cheaper than cricket and AT&T prepaid for individuals
I haven't tried them personally, but their new plans and prices seem like a pretty good deal another carrier
I want to bring to your attention is wing what makes wing great is there is no data speedcap
So all plans are at full speed and all plans support the personal hotspot
I think they have reasonable prices for individuals the same $90 unlimited plan I signed up for is just
$55 per month from wing with the exact same features and service as a matter of fact
I was curious about wing and how their plan compared
So I decided to sign up I signed up for this very unlimited plan and so far
It seems to be the same as AT&T, but at a much lower price
Which I think is a great summary of AT&T
They have a strong network with great features good coverage and fast data speeds in my area
But why sign up for AT&T if you can get the same network experience for less?
Maybe they are worth it
If you value being able to go to a physical store if you have an issue
Or perhaps you can get a group of people together for that family discount. But really I think you're better off looking elsewhere
That wraps up this video. Please click thumbs up
If you found it helpful, you can find links to all the plans
I mentioned in this video down in the video description and also consider visiting my website best phone plans net to easily compare plans
Prices and features. I'm Stetson. Thank you for watching and I'll see you next time