I've been with AT&T for 14 years and they treated me well for a long time. The last 2 years or so have been different though, they are unapologetic and pulled several billing and pricing shenanigans on me. Whenever I call support or billing I always seem to get get double talk and half truths.
Basically I am fed up with whatever this company has become or whoever is in charge now.
My contract with AT&T is up next month. I have a feeling I will be treated the same at all the Big Four by they way people talk of them (ATT, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile).
So what are my other options, what do other people currently use? I haven't shopped mobile plans in almost 15 years.
Currently my plan is 850 shared minutes between a dumb phone and 2 smartphones. One smart phone is Unlimited data (but they throttle it past 5gb) and the Second smartphone is on a 3gb plan.
I currently pay $142.00 a month for the services on these 3 lines.
I recently switched to t-Mobile and enjoying unthrottled unlimited data. If you can get good coverage with t-mobile I would just stay with at&t. Verizon is evil and sprint is worse than trash.
I'm off contract with T-mobile and am happy with it. I will never sign a carrier contract again. t-mobile also has wifi calling which is pretty cool and will send you a free ASUS wireless AC router if you request it.
I will have to take a look at T-mobile. I had not even considered them.
I should add I get a 20% discount with ATT from work, 17% with verizon and 15% with Sprint and T-Mobile.
Also, I am only keeping the two smartphones. I only kept the regular phone for my father who passed away recently.
Locally we have Cricket mobile and I did not like the pricing on their plans. Straight Talk looked good on paper but I don't know if they live up to what they promise.
I use on average about 6gigs per month on my smartphone, My wife rarely uses more than 1 gig.
Oh boy, my luck with phones has been terrible lately.
I ran into a strange issue getting my phones ready for a carrier switch. I went to att.com/deviceunlock and entered my info and received "We do not have a record of the IMEI you entered. Please verify the IMEI entered is correct by dialing *#06# on your device." So when I enter *#06# my phone says "IMEI 0" and it says the same thing in about phone settings.
ATT said they could give me the unlock code but it will have to be processed manually and take up to Two weeks (Thanks again ATT!) . But that still leaves me with the problem of why my Phone thinks its IMEI is Zero. ATT was tech support could not figure it out, nor LG or Google support. None of them can even explain how the phone is capable of Making Phone calls, texts or connecting to the LTE network. However when I try to OTA Update the phone (tech support had me do a factory reset) It will no longer update to the newest android version say "This device is not registered".
Has anybody ever heard of anything like this or how to repair it? None of the Tech support services were any help and LG doesn't want to replace the phone since it 18 months old (6 months past the warranty).
Phone is an LG Optimus G Pro (E980)
On a good note my Wife's Nexus 4 has lollipop 5.0 and has been working flawlessly.
I was fearing that might be the answer. I've never flashed a ROM to a phone before as I'm deathly afraid of bricking it, considering the cost of high end phones.
I wish LG or AT&T would provide a non OTA file of the update you could download in install :(
What is a well supported ROM that is pretty close to stock android
http://www.cyanogenmod.org/ a good place to start?
The chance of a hard brick is very low. There is a chance of soft brick but you can easily fix those. Lucky for you unlocking your boot loader is easy. But first you need root. If your on KitKat this should work (https://towelroot.com/tr.apk) make sure you don't download that with chrome. Android will complain that the app is not safe but it is. I have used it many times. After that works (if your phone reboots then it failed) install this (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.chainfire.supersu&hl=en&referrer=utm_source%3Dgoogle%26utm_medium%3Dorganic%26utm_term%3Dsupersu&pcampaignid=APPU_ToyHVIm4MYqKyATa_IL4Bg). Next your going to want to install this (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=stericson.busybox&hl=en&referrer=utm_source%3Dgoogle%26utm_medium%3Dorganic%26utm_term%3Dbusy+box&pcampaignid=APPU_lYuHVNWMFde2yASFrYHoBw) and then finally the boot loader unlocking tool this (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=edu.shell.freegee_free&hl=en&referrer=utm_source%3Dgoogle%26utm_medium%3Dorganic%26utm_term%3Dfreegee&pcampaignid=APPU_CYmHVPjsKs6MyAT-k4GwAQ).
Run the apps in this order:
Towel root
Super su
Busybox
Freegee
Follow the instructions in the apps and it should unlock your boot loader and install twrp recovery.
Notice: I don't own your device and I have not tested these instructions. I am not responsible if you break your phone. (Very low risk of bricking but anything can happen).
The boot loader tells the phone what can and can't boot. If you unlock the boot loader you can boot into any rom. The cyanogen guide is not very good. Twrp is a recovery that can flash roms and other things unlike your stock recovery. Since your on 4.1.2 just google how to root for 4.1.2 and follow my guide from the busybox part.
I followed the SIM unlocking instruction AT&T sent me and it said the the unlock code was incorrect so I tried to enter it again and it said:
"This phone is permanently locked and can not be unlocked"
Then I happened to notice the "unlock code" AT&T sent was the same number as the IMEI.
AT&T Incompetence is really starting to get to me, isn't it illegal for them to not provide me the unlock code after the contract is complete and I now own the phone. Plus they sent the sent me the wrong code argh and the phone won't let me enter a code anymore!!!!
Well, I called AT&T back and they gave me a "correct" unlock code. I don't really know as the phone will not let me enter it.
So I explain this AT&T, they review the case and go back into their records and say "oh that phone line still has 6 months left of the 24 month contract, we erroneously sent you that INCORRECT code". Call us back in six months when this line is eligible for an unlock or pay the ETF now to make this device unlock eligible. Sorry your phone is now permanently locked to our network only.