ATT Family Plan Review

The ATT family plan has three flexible family cellular phone plans: mLife Shared Plan (local), GSM America Local and GSM America National plan. These three family plans differ slightly to meet your needs. All three plans have similar features such as having tons of anytime minutes, mobile-to-mobile minutes and unlimited Night and Weekend minutes for all phones.

The difference among the 3 groups of family plans lies in the digital network and the long distance features, which will be later explained.

Mobile-to-mobile minutes can be used to call other ATT phone users, even if they are not registered on your phone plan. Therefore if most of your family and friends use the ATT Family Plan, this would be a great plan to choose.

The mLife Shared Plan includes 2 lines in their monthly fee and uses the TDMA digital network while the Local and National GSM America plans use the GSM network. What’s the difference? Basically, through a GSM network you will receive stronger reception and have a greater coverage area. All their shared plans now includes long distance within the corresponding network but for local plans an additional $0.69 per minute is charged for roaming.

For busy travelers and businesses the GSM America National plan offers no extra roaming charges for all calls placed anywhere on the ATT network. That comes with a slightly higher cost per minute for the lower end plans but cost the same as the local GSM plan for higher end plans. On the other hand with the Family Local plan, no charge long distance calls are only valid only if placed in your home service area.

These ATT Family Plans are perfect for businesses as they can capitalize on the no charge long distance savings and the extensive coverage area. They recently changed back the additional line cost to $20 each (as of August 2004, it was at the $10 rate a few months ago), they are offering unlimited mobile to mobile with 2 year contracts to make up for it. Overall, this plan is suitable for both family and small businesses, which complement the flexibility of ATT's Family plan.

The down side of their service is the frequent complaints of inadequate customer service and bad call quality in certain areas. So before committing to any long term contracts it is better to find out how's the coverage in your area. Asking someone who's currently using ATT Wireless would be best, as they can give you a good idea if there are any problems in your area.

Recently, ATT has merged with the wireless provider Cingular; the idea of the deal is to combine both wireless networks. This resulted in increased calling area and lower roaming fees. It would probably be near the end of the year (2004) before they sort everything out but it will be interesting to see how this actually works. ATT family plans are offered at a very competitive price. They also have the most attractive promotions, so if you were interested in a phone plan with the best deals, ATT would be the first place you should look.

Overall Rating for this plan: 4/5

To find out more about ATT Family Plans and check availability, click here.

Here is a summary of their plans...

*As of August 2004, additional lines are $10 for $59.99 plans and above, and $20 for lower plans. Current promotion is unlimited mobile-to-mobile with 2 year contracts.

AT&T mLife Shared Plan

*The only AT&T plan with the first 2 lines included

Provider

Monthly Fee
for 2

Anytime Minutes

Night/Weekend Minutes

Mobile to Mobile Minutes

$59.99	500	Unlimited	1000
$89.99	1000	Unlimited	1500
$119.99	1500	Unlimited	2000

AT&T Shareable GSM America Local

If your considering the $74.99 or $99.99 plans, we would recommend the national GSM plans instead. It would cost the exact same monthly charge while you don't have to pay roaming fees for the national plans.

Provider

Monthly Fee

Anytime Minutes

Night/Weekend Minutes

Mobile to Mobile Minutes