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Postpaid vs prepaid

E

eng3

Lurker
I am looking at AT&T. I usually only use approx 1.5GB/mo but have gone a little over 2gb on occasion.

I noticed the mobile share plan for 2GB is $55 ($30+25).
Howevcer, when I look at the prepaid plans, I can get 4GB for $55 ($60-$5).

Why does the prepaid offer so much more data vs the post-paid plan? If I understand correctly, neither is on contract. Is their ability to hold your money for a month worth that much to them?

Is there something I'm missing?
 
I prefer post paid because there are times I might go over my usual and I can call AT&T to get additional data if needed. Also like the rollover plan.
 
You get rollover with prepaid as well. And of course with double the data you're even less likely to go over.
 
Maybe, I was really trying to understand why most people get postpaid if the prepaid offers everything the postpaid offers and more data.
 
It didn't used to be that way. AT&T and Verizon (at least, when I compared way back when) charged more for pre-paid than contract/post-paid (for less data). I'm not sure when they changed the pricing/plans but pre-paid is certainly a lot better now. They had to do something to compete with Cricket/ST etc.
 
I would think that before, they had a contract. but then you would think prepaid should cost even more.

I actually get a company discount on post-paid and not prepaid so its $47.50. Since I only use like 1.5gb, I will prob still stick with post-paid. I was just curious why there was such a large difference for essentially the same product.
 
Thanks this is exactly what I was looking for.

However, do you know which apply specifically to AT&T?

I believe the coverage should be the same. However as the post states, priority may be given to postpaid customers. I don't know to what extent this would be true (ie. how often would you get throttled down or dropped due to congestion)

I have google voice so conditional call forwarding is built in.

I assume all customer service I get will be "b team" so I suppose that doesnt really matter so much.
 
eng3 said:
...do you know which apply specifically to AT&T?
Click to expand...
I assume you mean AT&T prepaid vs AT&T postpaid. I do not know the specifics. You'll just have to check their website or contact AT&T for details.

I believe the coverage should be the same.
Click to expand...
Voice and data coverage areas may or may not be the same, depending on several factors. There's a pecking order, about like this:
Are you postpaid, a prepaid customer of the network you're using, a prepaid customer of a wholly-owned MVNO, like Cricket is to AT&T, or a prepaid customer of an independent MVNO like Straight Talk?

The farther down the pecking order your provider is, the more likely your coverage area may be reduced due to roaming agreements not applicable to your service or other restrictions placed on your service provider by the network operator. IOW, a MVNO often purchases the rights to use only part of a network to reduce costs, offer regional service, concentrate network buys in high population areas, stuff like that.

However as the post states, priority may be given to postpaid customers. I don't know to what extent this would be true (ie. how often would you get throttled down or dropped due to congestion)
Click to expand...
Just to be clear, here we're talking about priority access for data service. Voice is not prioritized, other than coverage area restrictions, if any.

As for when or how much throttling is done, of course it varies by network conditions and the level of access you - through your service provider - are paying for. Network operators offer MVNOs contract packages of various access levels. Again, you should contact your service provider for more information. Lotsa luck with that.

I have google voice so conditional call forwarding is built in.
Click to expand...
Conditional call forwarding is NOT part of Google Voice. Conditional call forwarding is provided by your carrier.

I assume all customer service I get will be "b team" so I suppose that doesnt really matter so much.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, a lotta companies don't seem to have an 'A Team' for customer support.
 
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I did ask AT&T and they told me it was the same. (Obviously got the B team). I will have to look more carefully on the site. Is this something they actually need to disclose?

My call comes into my google voice number. Then (I thought), I could forward to whichever number I want. I've never actually needed to do this before so I'm not 100% sure.
 
Asked AT&T about what? Coverage area? If you asked about coverage as a prepaid AT&T customer, I would say it's very likely coverage would be the same as for postpaid. For Cricket customers too, since AT&T owns Cricket.

You CAN forward calls to your Google Voice number to your cellphone. That's how GV works. You can even forward calls to several different phone numbers.

Login to GV online, click Settings, then the Phones tab and enter the phone number(s) you want to ring when your GV number is called.

GV is really handy, does a lot of cool stuff.
 
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