About Me
I will begin by stating that I am not an AT&T rep. I am a simple country-boy who loves fast LSX cars, an IT professional, and an avid lover of technology and good deals. With that said, the information here on in is from my research and reading. If a few pieces contain a few errors, I apologize, however most of it should be accurate.
Where This All Begins
On many AT&T Wireless customers' recent bills, wireless customers received a notice on their cellular bill which the News You Can Use section under the sub-heading:
NOTICE OF DEVICE ELIGIBILITY
NOTICE OF DEVICE ELIGIBILITY Please note that as of 12/05/2017, AT&T Wireless Home Phone & Internet and dedicated mobile hotspot devices will no longer be eligible devices for the AT&T Unlimited Plus or AT&T Unlimited Choice plan.
According to other verifiable sources this notification was sent in error to only 'select' customers.
Rate Plans
Devices that access an AT&T Unlimited Plan have corresponding rate plans specific to the device type. On an AT&T Unlimited Plus plan, the rate plan is referred to under your Monthly Charges and has the $20 device access fee attached to it. For example:
* iPhones are referred to as Access for iPhone 4G LTE v/ VVM
* Tablets (Android) are referred to as Access for Tablet 4G LTE
* Smartphones (Android) are referred to as Access for Smartphone 4G LTE w/ VVM
* Wireless Home Phone & Internet (WHPI) are referred to as Access for Wireless Home Phone and Internet 4G LTE
* Laptop AirCards, MiFis and Hotspots are referred to as Access for LaptopConnect 4G LTE
Keep this in mind, this is 1/2 of the equation.
What is Changing
There are two important dates.
* October 28, 2017 - If you DO NOT have an AT&T Unlimited plan, you have until this date to sign up and at that present time (or until the future date) add any combination of a WHPI, Laptop AirCard, MiFi or Hotspot to a line and receive Unlimited Data with a 22GB de-priortization soft cap.
* January 3, 2018 - If you DO have (and have had prior to October 28, 2017) an AT&T Unlimited plan, you have until this date to add any combination of a WHPI, Laptop AirCard, MiFi or Hotspot to a line and receive Unlimited Data with a 22GB de-priortization soft cap.; or change your rate plan.
After these dates, depending upon what scenario you fall under, you will not be able to add a WHPI, Laptop AirCard, MiFi or Hotspot to an Unlimited Data plan. There is speculation that there will be new tiers of data plans for these potentially high data consumption devices, however, that is not clear at this time. Besides the Unlimited Choice or Plus plans ineligibility, customers can still add Laptop AirCards, MiFis or Hotspots to Mobile Share Advantage plans or WHPIs to the 250/500GB rural plans (depending upon zip code and locale).
What is Grandfathered
To put it into its simplest customers of AT&T Unlimited Choice and Plus that new customers before October 28, 2017 or existing customer before January 3, 2018 will have their Laptop AirCards, MiFis, Hotspots and WHPIs grandfathered on Unlimited Data.
However, here is the catch, and the 2nd half of the equation. You will remain grandfathered until you choose to either:
* (1) cancel service or
* (2) move your device to a different rate plan.
Now us folks who are satisfied with the performance and value of the service would be very reluctant to cancel service. However, there are a few scenarios in which you may change your rate plan. In the aforementioned paragraph, I touched upon how different devices on AT&T Unlimited plans interact with the plan via their different rate plans... see where I'm going with this.
For example, if you had a WHPI and say you wanted to grab a hotspot to take for the weekend. If you change that device, since a Hotspot and WHPI are different rate plans, you would effectively be changing your rate plan, thus loosing your grandfathered Unlimited Data. The IMEI of your device dictates the rate plan, AT&T does have a clue as to what AT&T certified devices are connected. Even if (and I don't think a WHPI SIM will work in a hotspot) you moved your SIM, a different device type can prompt an IMEI mismatch and prompt a rate plan change. Thus ending your Unlimited Data.
Recommendations
Using a WHPI for Home Internet? (I DO IT!!!). Migrate that line to a $59 AT&T Pre-paid Velocity Hotspot. You can find them at Best Buy or Walmart and don't have to purchase a pre-paid plan at time of purchase. Pull the GoPhone/Pre-paid SIM and visit an AT&T Corporate Store. Ask them to do an equipment swap on your WHPI line. If they give you a hard time, act reluctant to make the change or say you can't -- tell them, YES you can. My representative kept saying I couldn't swap equipment as I was under contact with my WHPI (which I was). In that scenario, only the line is under contract... you can swap the equipment to as much as you want. They will scan the IMEI of the device and activate a new SIM for that device.
...And you guessed it, them scanning in an AT&T Velocity Hotspot IMEI will prompt a (for $300, Alex?) rate plan change. This will change the rate-plan for that line to an "Access for LaptopConnect 4G LTE". Run this device for a day or two, pump some data through it.
Purchase a Netgear LB1120 4G LTE modem. The device has ethernet and is actually well built. You can also put the device in router(NAT) or bridge mode. It performs flawlessly in bridge mode as helps to reduce the majority of NAT issues if you're an avoid video game player. The Netgear 4G LTE modem is not an AT&T Certified Device, so the stores typically are a bit reluctant to activate the device. It is however classified as a LaptopConnect device. You can swap your SIM and whenever the IMEI is finally shown on AT&T's side, it will NOT prompt a rate plan change.
It is very important to make sure your lines are LaptopConnect lines before these grandfathering dates. Hotspots will only get bigger and better (3x3 CA, Cat12 LTE devices, Band 30) with time -- and they should continue to be LaptopConnect devices theoretically never prompting a rate plan change. The WHPI is an out-of-date device to begin with and what's to say they will continue making better WHPIs that support the newer LTE technologies.
AT&T: Whoops... its 2019, your WHPI is slow and we don't make it anymore...sorry 'bout that -- Hey, want a hotspot and a rate plan change? Uhhhh shit.
I hope this clears up some of the confusion. Please correct me where and if I'm wrong (I'll try to make edits). Also, thank you to a lot of members on here, the collective gathering of information is what compiled this. I'm just some jack-of-all trades who knows how to type.