[Nexus 4 General] dan in la:
Update: It's official. http://www.aiowireless.com/shop/plans.html

Not quite as good as initially promised. Unlimited voice and text on all plans. You get 250 MB for $40, 2 GB for $55, or 7GB for $70. Also, 250 MB of tablet data for $15. On all the phone plans, you get unlimited throttled data after going over your high-speed allotment.

The fine print says maximum data speed of 4 Mbps, which is lower than the 7Mbps I can often get on AT&T's network, but still not bad.

They do have a bring your own phone program. They ask for your IMEI. I put mine in and went ahead as if I were going to check out, and they seemed okay with me using a Nexus 4.

When you go to the website, it may ask for your zip code before you can view plans. This is presumably because it's being test-marketed in certain parts of the country. The earlier reports were that test markets would be Florida and Texas. I entered a random Florida zip code (34105) and it let me in to view plans. I haven't tried signing up, but I think there's a pretty good chance you could sign up and enter your real Zip code.

My take on this now is that $55 is a little too high for what they're offering. I'll stick with Net10, with 1.5GB of high-speed data guaranteed for $42.50 with a discounted SIM. But if you regularly use more data, this could be a worthwhile offering. The $70 for 7GB of high speed data is pretty much unheard of for prepaid, so if you use that much per month, I'd jump on that.

Original post:

A website called Fierce Wireless has reported that AT&T will start offering a new prepaid option starting as early as June. The plan will include unlimited voice and texts, plus 2GB of HSPA data, for $50 per month. Once you go over 2GB, you'd be throttled back to 2G. The Fierce Wireless report doesn't clarify if it's HSPA or HSPA+ (in other words, is it 3G or 3.5/4G?). They may offer a plan with 5GB of high-speed data for $70, though that's undecided.

You can read the entire article here: http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/att-planning-june-launch-all-one-prepaid-brand/2013-05-02

I've never heard of Fierce Wireless, so I don't know if they have a good reputation, but the report is very specific, talks about things happening in the very near future, and is about a subject most trolls would find too boring to make up a whole fake thing about. Also, The Verge, which I consider a reputable source, published a story about the Fierce Wireless piece without doubting its truth.

Even so, this sounds a little too good to be true. In comparison, here are the other deals you can get right now with AT&T prepaid or MVNO:

PureTalk USA: $44 unlimited voice and text, 1GB data, $10 per extra 100 MB overage

Straight Talk: $45 unlimited voice and text, ambiguous amount of high-speed data.

Net10: $50 unlimited voice and text, 1.5GB hard data cap

AT&T GoPhone: $50 250 minutes, unlimited text, 1 GB data

Red Pocket: $60 unlimited voice and text, 2GB hard data cap

Black Wireless: same as Red Pocket

H2O Wireless: same as Red Pocket

AT&T GoPhone: $65 unlimited voice and text, 1GB data

Every one of these plans has a severe disadvantage vs. the new rumored AT&T plan. It's no longer possible to buy Straight Talk SIM cards from their website, and many customers (including me) have been throttled at much lower data levels than ever recently. PureTalk looks like a good deal but has insanely expensive overage charges. The others are either the same price or more expensive than the rumored AT&T prepaid plan, and you have to pay for more data if you go over, rather than simply being throttled down to 2G. Note also that most MVNOs are known for having atrocious customer service.

The comparison is especially stark if you compare it to AT&T's postpaid plans:

450 minutes, unlimited texts, 3GB data: $90

unlimited minutes and texts, 3GB data: $120

That's a lot of money to pay for LTE data, more coverage in unpopulated areas, and a subsidized phone every two years.

If AT&T really does come out with the rumored data plan, and they do give you full speed HSPA+ data, it could put a lot of their MVNOs out of business. And I suspect it will start to cannibalize their lucrative postpaid business.

So my guess is, AT&T will hobble this plan somehow. Either your data will be throttled to 1Mb down, or you'll only get 500 MB or 1 GB of high speed, or the price will be higher. Nothing about the way their MVNOs have behaved recently tells me AT&T wants to make its prepaid offerings more attractive. But I hope I'm wrong with that prediction.