How does a 2 year data plan work?

[gabrielorie]

Hi there, my grandma just told me yesterday that if there's any phone i want on AT@T she'll buy it for me. There's 2 i want, a Galaxy Note (White) but it's a bit big so i might go with the Skyrocket (White). Anyway the reason i posted this thread is because i don't know how a 2 year plan works, due to me living in the caribbean and we don't have verizon or anything. After the 2 years are finished, do they take back the phone? Or do you have to just keep paying for the plan and keep the phone. Also, if she has an AT@T phone already and is alreadying paying her monthly plan, will she have to pay an additional cost for my phone? Thanks in advance

 

[danaj]

After the 2 years is up, you keep the phone, and just keep paying for the service. Yes, your grandma will have to pay an additional cost for your phone.

 

[gabrielorie]

Thanks for the reply, i know she'll have to pay the $200 for the phone but i mean the monthly cost, she already has a phone on that carrier and i think she pays $80 or so, will she have to pay an extra $80 or whatever the montly cost is for my phone also?

 

[persim]

You need to find out 2 things about your grandmothers cell plan. Does her cell plan include a data plan and is she currently eligible for an upgrade on her plan.

If the answer is yes to both of those questions then this is a fairly easy process. She would buy you a Note ($299) or a Skyrocket($199) using her upgrade. This allows her to pay a reduced price for the phone (Note normally $650, Skyrocket normally $550). The trade off for the reduced price of the phone is that she has to sign a 2 yr agreement for her cell plan. The phone is then owned by her. She can do what she wants with it, in this case sends it to you. Just remember she will not be eligible for another reduced price phone for 2 more yrs.

If the answer is no to any of the earlier questions then its probably not worth it for her to get you a phone. You would be better off buying it from somewhere else.

You should also find out if the ATT GSM bands are the same ones you use in the Caribbean. If they aren't you may end up with a pretty expensive phone that only does 2G speeds.

Edit: Forgot to mention that ATT carrier locks their phones so only their SIM cards work. You would have to find a service that unlocks the phone so that you can use a local SIM card.

 

[gabrielorie]

Tommorow i'll ask her, but i know that she got a new phone this year so i doubt she'll be able to get another phone I remember watching a movie (Or a series) and the parents were in a contract for a phone and with that same monthly play they paid for the phone alone the whole family got one and they just paid one bill. So i'm hoping that this is possible on AT@T, owning 2 phones at the same time cause i'll feel really bad if i get a phone and my grandma doesn't... And unlocking isn't a problem, there's lots of people who do it here, and it's fairly cheap and for the data plan the highest here is only 3G, and thats an additional $50 USD per month...

EDIT: If she can't have 2 phones at the same time i can easily buy it at the normal price because i have the money, it'll just be really hard to spend that much money on a phone.