After hearing about today's AT&T data plan pricing changes, I had a pretty bad gut reaction. After thinking more about the new options, I don't quite not what to think...
The new data plans are as follows:
Data Plus - 200 MB of data for $15/month. Additional 200MB for another $15. DataPro - 2GB of data for $25/month. Additional 1 GB of data for $10. Tethering - Additional $20/month for DataPro customers.
I logged into the 'myAccount' section of AT&T's mobile website, and looked up my usage stats (there's a link to view past data usage stats), and they were relatively surprising:
It seems like I have never even come close to 2 GB, so I would be okay on the $25/month plan. However, to ask an additional $20/month to simply tether my iPhone to a single Mac or PC is ridiculous. I would be willing to pay $5, maybe $10 extra per month. But for now, I think I'll stick with jailbreaking my iPhone and using MyWi to share the iPhone's data plan with my Mac and iPad at the same time :)
Note: My fiancée, who is a relatively light Internet user, had, on average, 110 MB/month usage. I think I might bump her down to the $15/month plan :)
I was recently in Chicago, lamenting the fact that, to use the Boingo WiFi at the airport for a mere half hour, I'd need to pay $6.95; rather than pay this outrageous amount (since I already have an iPhone with Internet access, and the WiFi would be a convenience, I looked to Google for some help.
It is well documented that you can simply change your browser's "User-Agent" to use the 'Mobile Safari - iPhone' profile, and trick certain hotspot locations into giving you free access (this will work for any AT&T Wireless location, such as Starbucks, as long as you also have a valid iPhone number).
Get Cheaper Access on Boingo
To get an almost half-off discount on Boingo WiFi hotspots, you simply need to do three things:
In Safari (or in FireFox using the plugin linked to below), enable the 'Develop' menu (in Safari's preferences > advanced section), and then select "Mobile Safari 3.0 - iPhone" from the Develop > User Agent menu. (See graphic below for Safari).
Try accessing a web page, and you'll be redirected to Boingo's mobile login, which is considerably cheaper ($3.95 for an hour, rather than $6.95!).
Enter your account information and credit card, and set up your account.
Once you do these things, you might be warned by Boingo that you need to download their app from the App store; ignore this, close your browser window, and open a new window. Set the User Agent back to Mobile Safari 3.0, and login using the account information you just entered for Boingo. Now you can enjoy WiFi from your Mac laptop!
For Windows PCs, the process is similar, but you'll need to use FireFox or Safari for Windows if you want to more easily change the user-agent. Here's the FireFox plugin for changing the User Agent string.
Get Free Access on AT&T WiFi
You can use the same instructions as above to access the Internet through an AT&T WiFi Hotspot:
In Safari (or in FireFox using a plugin), enable the 'Develop' menu (in Safari's preferences > advanced section), and then select "Mobile Safari 3.0 - iPhone" from the Develop > User Agent menu. (See graphic below for Safari).
Try accessing a web page, and you'll be redirected to AT&T's iPhone login.
Enter your iPhone's mobile number, and enjoy the free WiFi!
These methods are subject to change over time, as WiFi providers are notoriously stingy about allowing free or cheap access to their networks... but I figure AT&T makes more than double what they should from me each month; plus, I paid for their home DSL for over a year and had intermittent service; the few hours I use their WiFi Hotspots make up for that time of not having a connection ;-)
In late 2009, I spent about two and a half weeks in Rome, Italy, which is far removed from my hometown of St. Louis, MO. Italy, France, Asia, etc. – all these countries are outside of AT&T's nationwide coverage plans, and since I wasn't going to be traveling for many weeks, I decided to not sign up for AT&T's extremely expensive worldwide plans, but rather did the following, which allowed me to stay in touch with friends and family worldwide, with different tradeoffs for each:
SkypeOut for phone calls to friends and family.
This allowed me to talk to anyone from St. Louis, Rome, etc, for a very low price of only a couple cents per minute. Downside: You must be near a WiFi hotspot or network connection. (I actually used my MacBook Pro as a hotspot for my iPhone to connect and make calls over the Internet). Phone call quality is excellent, and you can video chat and Skype for free with others using Skype.
AT&T World Traveler plan (month to month).
A week before I left, I called AT&T and asked them to add the $5.99/month 'world traveler' calling plan to my account. While nothing huge, this shaves $0.30/minute off phone calls, and keeps incoming text messages free. (Normal rate is $1.29/minute, new rate is $0.99/minute). Downside: Costs a ton of money to make anything resembling a long phone call... only good for emergencies/planning Skype sessions.
AT&T Worldwide Data plan (month to month).
AT&T gives a few options for data while traveling abroad - I chose the $24.99/month 20 MB data plan - I get to have 20 MB of bandwidth using 3G networks in Rome. Not a horrid deal, when you consider that 1 MB = ~$5 without the plan. (Save 1/4 the money). Downside: Still costs a ton of money for data, and you need to carefully meter your bandwidth usage. Also, turn off push, visual voicemail, etc., to make sure tons of data isn't loaded in the background.
A combination of all these tools is what worked best for me. I typically stuck with Skype (I had it running on my Mac at all times, and then on my iPhone when I wanted to make a phone call to the 'States), but when roaming around the city, I kept my iPhone on, and set it to 'data roaming OFF' whenever I wasn't using the 3G/internet.
I was recently in Chicago, lamenting the fact that, to use the Boingo WiFi at the airport for a mere half hour, I'd need to pay $6.95; rather than pay this outrageous amount (since I already have an iPhone with Internet access, and the WiFi would be a convenience, I looked to Google for some help.
