Will you be ordering the new iPhoneS or C ?

Apologies if I am jumping to a wrong conclusion, but it sounds like you are trying to shoehorn your use into a limited company perk.

If my guess is right, you would be better off rolling your own off-contract plan if your company would just add to your salary the money it is spending on the perk. Perhaps something to think about in two years when your current (new) phone contract lapses.

 

I switched my unlocked iPhone 4 to T-Mobile a few months ago, and I'm paying $30 a month with automatic refills (inclusive of taxes and fees) for 2GB data, unlimited texts, 100 minutes voice.

I could buy a new unlocked iPhone 5s for $700, amortize it over 24 months at $30 per month, have no contract and no obligation, and still be paying at least $20 per month less than an AT&T contract phone with similar service. And I could then sell the iPhone 4 for about $200 on eBay.

There are similar deals with Straight Talk and Net10, bring your own device, as high-tech as you like.

 

Not sure how for a new iPhone 5s your $199 plus $62 per month is less than my $60 per month, but as you say, everyone's needs are different.

 

The only thing I'd say here, as an eBay user from day 1, is that you likely reduce your chances of winning the auction with this method, because even if YOU don't up your bid, you are effectively showing your hand early and giving the other bidders the opportunity to rethink their maximum bids in order to outbid you. I'm confident that the best deal is generally gotten when everyone snipes and is forced to play their hand once with no chance to go back and re-think it.

 

The contract is OK as long as you get a new phone every two years, but with a paid-off unlocked phone my cost is only $30 per month for as long as I stay with that phone.

There's a plan for everyone these days! I remember when all you could get was a fixed contract, no options.

 

I agree; I've been on eBay since it was started as AuctionWeb in late 1995, and I've always placed my bids that way, even before it was called sniping. Before the advent of sniping programs, I used to sit with two browser windows open on the same auction, watching the time tick down - one with a bid ready to go and the other constantly refreshing to check the current status and time left. It was a real pain when the auction ended at some inconvenient hour.

One time I got an angry email from the underbidder (in the days when everyone's email was visible). I had outbid him with just a few seconds to go, and he accused me of cheating by not giving him enough time to place another bid!

 

I got some of those same messages in the early days!!

 

I think we have set up the comparo so that in either case the owner can sell their phone after two years and buy a new one.

LTE used to be a difference between contract and non-contract, but at least in the case of AT&T, that data speed is available for either plan nowadays.

JMD, your contract plan that costs $62/month sounds reasonable, but casual readers should understand that

1. You have the most limited plan available (450 minutes/300 MB/?? messages; and
2. The price includes a 15% corporate discount

I think a somewhat comparable non-contract plan using the AT&T network is about $30 a month, but I would have to double check to be sure. I posted earlier the price difference of contract and non-contract between 'unlimited' cadillac plans which is pretty outrageous, but even comparing limited use plans, the $30 a month savings pays off the difference in iPhone cost in under 15 months, implying that JMD is paying about $285 more over 24 months for equivalent service.

 

While it's true that your maximum bid is a personal matter, not a logical calculation, the alternative to making up your mind ahead of time is to get sucked into the emotion of bidding, and end up paying more than you want to for an item. IMHO, you have not "won" when you pay more than something is worth to you. And in any auction, you have no way of knowing when the other guy will stop bidding. Any time you drop out with only one other person bidding you will be left wondering if you could have gotten the item with just one more bid. But that fear of just barely missing out is why auctions often favor the seller. The only way to avoid paying more than you will be happy with is to decide ahead of time what that amount will be, and discipline yourself to stop bidding at that figure. I had never heard of sniping or sniping programs. I gather they are like eBay's maximum bid option except that they wait until the auction is nearly over, in order to get an item for less when the other bidder is bidding manually. Whatever method you use, including going to live auctions, you will have better results (i.e. results you are happy with) if you decide your top bid before the bidding starts, and drop out when it goes over that.

Live auctions have one advantage: There's no set end time: the auction ends when the auctioneer decides that nobody is going to bid higher. But you still don't know if one more bid would have gotten you the item.

 

JMD,
Nice picture (of the calculator)

The discrepancy in our calculations comes from the iPhone purchase. You have included the total cost of the iPhone in the off-contract choice, but have omitted the $199 purchase price of the iPhone in the contract choice.

I am not sure, but the $199 cost may also be taxable.

----
I had earlier posted the iPhone 5s price as $700 to include taxes a little over 6%. That is still reasonable, but I realized the other day that it is easy for me to buy the phone in OR and avoid sales tax. Avoiding sales tax on a contract with AT&T is considerably more complicated if at all possible.

To address your other comments:

Call Quality

• Same AT&T network, same quality

Phone

• I'm reasonably sure that an iPhone 5s can be used on either ST or the Net10 plans. The distinction here is that ST or Net10 will not sell you the latest and greatest, but you can bring your own. I can provide proof in a month or two after my wife buys her 5s and we transfer her current ST plan to the new phone.*

Social Stigma

• I don't really know how to answer this, except to say that I feel no stigma in saving money. Ymmv

* I purchased a gold iPhone 5s the day they became available on the Apple store, but ended up selling it on Ebay for a nice profit. My wife was not in any particular rush to have the new phone.

Please understand JMD -- your money, your choices. It is not my business how you decide to spend it. My only desire is in describing non-contract choices for anyone interested in saving money for equivalent service and phone choice.

 

SageBrush,

It is *kind* of the same AT&T network, but not exactly. It differs in a few important ways.

First, you have no access to the roaming agreements that you get on a contracted line. This may or may not be noticeable to you depending on where you live, but the big companies all have contracts that allow roaming to some extent in coverage areas where it is possible or in cases of congestion. If you go look at AT&T's service maps you can see they have different ones for pre-paid and post-paid. You also can't roam internationally with an MVNO.

Second, I think it's naive to think you won't be classified as lower priority traffic. Again, this may not be noticeable very often, it is definitely going to happen. These are first and foremost traffic management companies. MVNO's allow them to make extra money on their excess capacity, but when you hit a congested cell, who do you think is going to be prioritized? It is absolutely trivial to tag traffic with priority, and virtually un-noticeable to anyone not at the highest level within the company. Comcast shaped traffic HEAVILY for years before anyone could prove it, and this would be extremely subtle in comparison.

Third, IF you get access to the highest tier data connection they offer (this usually comes late in the game), you will typically be throttled on your unlimited plan after somewhere around 100MB/day or 1.5-2GB/month.

Fourth, when you have an issue, you have a much lower level of customer service competence available to help you. I know this sounds laughable given the state of most customer service in this business today, but having managed business lines for years, I've dealt with the higher level AT&T support a number of times. At least it is there when you need it.

For MOST people, an MVNO is probably fine, but don't say that it's the same service. It isn't.

 

Zhenya,
Thanks for the comments.

I'll first say that I was remarking on the network quality and phone, not the other service considerations you raise.

So differences in customer support and roaming agreements can certainly vary. Can anything be worse than AT&T for regular customer "support" ? ST and Net10 are currently selling 2.5 GB of HS data a month. A person who routinely consumes more than that would not be well served by an off-contract plan today.

Now, the question of MVNO discrimination (aka traffic 'shaping.): It is illegal, it is not in the MVNO contract a customer signs; and as it stands no proof exists that it is happening. Moreover, I could argue that if it is so subtle I cannot detect it, then how much do I want to pay to avoid it ? LOL.

 

I agree, and that's kind of why I think for a lot of folks, an MVNO is a good alternative.

I actually deal with AT&T support somewhat regularly, and find it to be better than average for customer technical support. YMMV.

Traffic shaping happens WAY beyond the level of a consumer contract. In many cases it is never acknowledged (see Comcast above - and shaping still happens across ALL networks today) and very difficult to prove. The way it would happen is that you hit a congested cell and your data speed slows down a bit relative to a higher tier. It would have to be an extremely congested cell for you to get no connection at all, but it could happen. Typically they would delay low-priority, non-realtime data traffic rather than a call of any sort. The latency of your data connection may increase. How do you ever prove that though? Your traffic is already tagged - that is how they throttle you when you exceed your daily allowance, for example. They are certainly going to use that to prioritize certain traffic above others. That's just how networks work.

You can read more about how Sandvine does this for LTE networks here. https://www.sandvine.com/downloads/general/whitepapers/quality-of-service-in-lte-long-form.pdf

 

Every time I have called pagepluscellular (my Verizon MVNO) the customer support has been fine.

<<shrug>>


Anecdotes are just ... anecdotes. Heck, even AT&T can pleasantly surprise here and there
I will not be at all surprised though to hear than MVNO customer support quality declines as they become more popular. Competent customer support employees are just not that common, and MVNOs have benefited so far from a customer base that tends to be a bit more DIY and web oriented than an average American. E.g. a customer has to change APN settings on their phone to use MMS. ST is very clear on their webpage that the change is required and they provide clear instructions. Yet it is a customer step, unlike AT&T who does it for you.