Wouldn't it be better to consider opting out of AT&T altogether? I can understand that for some folks it's the only game in town, but others are staying for some perceived benefit "grandfathered unlimited data" or the shackles of the 2 year contract.

Combined with their adding hidden fees recently, and their general friendliness with the NSA and snooping, I don't see major benefits to staying there as opposed to Verizon (more coverage) or Tmobile (cheaper by far).

As someone who pretty much never leaves the city, I'm very happy with T-Mobile. Unlimited everything for $70 a month. And there's no contract; I walked into the store, said "may I have a SIM and the unlimited everything plan", gave them a 4 digit number to use as a PIN, and walked out. I could hardly believe that this was happening to me in the United States, but hey.

Verizon may have slightly faster speeds and better coverage, but T-Mobile's user experience cannot be beat.

I'm on an "actually unlimited" data plan with contract from T-Mobile now, but it's $10/mo more than that. Do you know offhand if this "contractless" way has similar terms for data usage?

Yes, take a look here: http://deals.t-mobile.com/unlimited-4g-data-no-contract

It's $50 for the first line (unlim text/talk/2G web), then $10/month for 2.5GB 4G, or $20/month for unlimited 4G.

Can you pay with cash? What personal details do you have to provide? I find burner SIMs handy to avoid marketing efforts, every time I get hassled I let it expire and pop in a fresh one. But I'm outside the US currently.

I believe the poster above was talking about postpaid which I believe includes a soft pull on your credit. It is $70 a month but you still pay it at the end of the month (I assume your monthly bill could go higher if you call premium services or dial international numbers).

No, I got a prepaid plan. They wanted my name, date of birth, a PIN, and $87. I used a credit card.

Thank you for the reply. Very interesting. Did they verify your date of birth (such as driving license)? Or just took your word for it?

They just took my word for it.

I routinely buy T-Mobile SIMs (for mobile testing, nothing nefarious) with cash without giving a name, or by giving them a not-real name. It sometimes require some real minor social engineering.

Did the same thing - very happy with Tmobile. Coverage is a bit spotty in the country, but the cities are great & it's been getting better in the short time I've had it (3 months).

AT&T is the only company to provide data and voice at the same time on iPhones. And it's the best choice for quality in many markets such as Boston.

One way I found I could speak out: I just downgraded my SMS from unlimited to pay to go ($0.20 per SMS). With iMessage, my texts are down to 30-50 a month so I'll save about $10 a month on average (down to $82/month). Before doing so just check your monthly usage beforehand to be sure your average is less than about 100 texts.

This is untrue; T-Mobile uses GSM, and can therefore also do data+voice.

Once Verizon switches to VoLTE, and drops it's CDMA/EVDO network (a few years at best) it will also be able to do voice+data.

even if it's not the only game in town, sometimes you don't have Verizon reception in your house/apartment (ex: Marco Arment).

(That being said I have only used Verizon and T mobile. Our land line is AT&T though :( )

Verizon has a femtocell you can install in your home: http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/store/accessory?&action=g...

Doesn't Verizon also have a data-sharing program that it's too late to opt out of?

Remember, Verizon Wireless is doing this too and you need to opt-out if you don't want it: http://www.vzw.com/myprivacy

That's a really bad way of implementing an opt-out. No account-wide opt-out preventing your data from not leaving AT&T's servers. Instead, cookies set up by a (probably) sleazy brand management company.

If my ISP did this I'd switch in an instant.

Thanks for the links! Griping about them, not you: The second one, for "AdWorks" says:

  > 3. This opt-out only applies to this device and this
  browser. You can opt-out on other devices and/or browsers
  by accessing this page from those devices.

i.e. Must do this repeatedly. Sigh.

You must do it repeatedly ad infinitum:

> 5. Cookies are used to opt-out of these ads, if you delete those cookies, you will need to opt-out again.

Thanks for posting the links.

Everything that is "bad" like tracking should be opt-in... but everyone here probably know this. I would support organ donors being opt-out for example (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_donation#Opt-in_vs._opt-...)

Can someone explain the difference between the two programs?

I'm thinking AdWorks is some Phorm / NebuAd style of deep packet inspection... or is that the first program? I'm having difficulty finding information on how each program collects its data along with what data is collected.