AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) recent plans of expanding the GigaPower service to the Kansas City have been in the news since Monday after the company first announced it. Nevertheless, what attracted the attention of the media was the company’s ISP plan that demands disclosure of their privacy to Ma Bell to avail a discount of $29 per month. However, there is more to the claims that the company is making. Analysts from the Wall Street Journal, Ars Technica, and Gigacom have produced detailed interpretation of the plan.
According to the article, AT&T’s plan is controversial and misleading. Superficially, the public may be led into believing that they can secure their privacy at a cost of $29 per month. But this is not true. If the plans offered by AT&T are studied carefully, people will know that they need to sacrifice a hearty $44 or $66 per month if they do not want to risk leaking their privacy.
An analyst from Gigacom explained the hidden costs in detail by comparing the Internet Preference Plan (IPP), which allows sharing of private data, with the Standard Plan for gigabit service (GS), as well as gigabit service plus TV (GSTV). Although the monthly cost for GS is $99, it has additional costs of $7 as monthly model rental and $99 as one-time activation charge.
In all, the net monthly cost for the plan comes to $114. If a user opts for IPP, the additional charges are waived off, leaving the customer to pay $70 per month. Hence, if the user chooses the privacy-preserving option, he still has to pay at least $44 per month.
In the $ 149 monthly GSTV plan, the one-time activation charge is reduced to $49, but there is still the $7 to be paid. In addition, the HD TV service comes at an additional $10 per month and another $16 for HBO Go. The last two are already inclusive of the total cost in IPP. So the comparable plans totals at $186 per month, leaving users to still pay $66 more than the $120 they would pay if they shared their privacy.
