I'm having trouble getting a solid answer on this from the web. For instance, this page offers contradictory answers. Some saying it will be fine, some saying that AT&T does not grandfather when upgrading to a 6.

I've had an AT&T plan with unlimited data for years. Each time I get a new model of iPhone, I have been grandfathered into the unlimited data plan each time. For instance, my last upgrade was to an iPhone 4s, and it still has the unlimited data plan.

Normally I would expect this not to change, but the 6s will be different from my current 4s in one important aspect: The 6s will use LTE. I would think that might change the landscape slightly? Maybe I would need a different plan if I want to use LTE, and thus lose my grandfathering? Not sure.

Does anyone know?

Hm. This page has an AT&T rep saying "yes you should be just fine", but then a chorus of users responding to say, "no, it was not fine, I lost the plan, despite what you said".

Do you have plans to stick to AT&T? The grandfathered unlimited plan will still stay with you if you keep your current rate, and they recently redefined unlimited from meaning 5GB to now meaning 22GB. LTE or 3G (mislabeled 4G) or Edge doesn't matter at this point for their data plans.

Getting an iPhone 6s is going to lock you to AT&T for another two years, and keep you on a plan meant to subsidize the phone. That 4s has now been paid for twice over, as I'm assuming your AT&T bill didn't go down after 2 years with it.

You could consider switching to T-Mobile with this change as well. Their coverage here in Seattle has been pretty solid, and the 6s will be better with LTE band 12 support. It's running at 700mhz so it will have building penetration, and T-Mobile supports Voice over LTE. WiFi calling should cover the rest of your coverage needs. With your occasional travel including out of the country, T-Mobile may also be more useful for you. In Canada and Mexico, there is no difference then being in the US plan wise. No roaming fees, no per minute fees, and no texting/data fees. Outside those 3 countries, you get service in most of the rest of the world.

You also get a carrier that will lower your bill when the phone is paid off, instead of pocketing the extra money. And one that allows tethering, which could come in handy for your road trips and the songbook setup.



Also, congrats on your upcoming 30,000 post

Thanks for that information! So it looks like could be OK with the 6s.

I also saw that article today about them upping their throttling threshold to 22GB. Interesting.

My intent is to stick with AT&T for the time being, so the 2 year contract doesn't bother me in this case. I was with T-Mobile when I first arrived in Seattle and had coverage problems which were solved when I switched to AT&T, so I'm happy to stick with them for now. Though I'm aware that T-Mobile has improved their coverage recently and that might not apply any more.

I've never had problems when traveling out of the country with AT&T, I always call ahead of the trip and get a temporary roaming thingy set up, and so I'm pretty happy in those cases.

T-Mobile should have considered a name change, it is a shame their older bad network is still dragging them down in reputation now. They are doing what they can to reverse that reputation with solid network upgrades, and offering to pay back monthly service if one finds their coverage not to their needs. http://www.t-mobile.com/coverage.html

It's been nice having good coverage (including free roaming to AT&T up on US 2 past Stevens Pass), near 100mbit internet speeds in places around downtown, roaming to Canada without calling ahead, tethering, and a ~$32 a month bill.

In the past 10 years I've had phones on all the carriers at least twice (I'm even including Nextel).

The only carrier I've been pleased with both times I've used them has been T-Mobile. I like their customer service, I LOVE the innovative stuff they're doing now, and their CEO is a lovable crackpot.

In the DC area, all the carriers have nearly identical coverage. There were a couple years where I had TMo and my wife had Verizon, and we matched signal almost everywhere.

The customer support is amazing. Though I don't trust their stores, still populated by some slimy sales people that try to slip on extras. Had one add Jump to my plan without asking, and my friend had a similar incident in another location. Phone customer service corrected the issue right away though and did followup with the store. Thankfully this year I can just go back to the Apple store to buy my 6s, they have full integration with T-Mobile's system now.

They were also good in helping to troubleshoot issues at a family members place. They were 20 miles from the tower, and would lose native T-Mobile signal in the summer. The phone would then find some obscure rural carrier to roam to that won't go above 50MB a month. The upgrade to band 12 is going to help, as it's going to push the signal just a little farther and should work summer or winter.

You guys have got me investigating T-mobile.

If I switched, do you think that my backup of my phone's configuration, data, apps, and passwords (make wired via iTunes, encrypted), be able to transfer over to the new phone on the new network?

All of that backed-up stuff should be at Apple, so nothing to do with the carrier or which wifi AP you use. Right?

Yep, everything will move over fine, it doesn't care what carrier it's on. You could even restore that backup to an iPod Touch or iPad if you wanted. The only requirement is the new device has to be running the same or a newer iOS version then the backup came from.

And yep, by using the iTunes encrypted backup, all data comes over including passwords.

I'm going to be curious about your upgrade impressions with the 4 year leap you are making. I have a hard time remembering back to the 4s being new, that was 3 states and 5 addresses ago.

If you do want to hold off till next Friday on making the decision, I'll have my 6s then. Could do coverage testing. I'm really curious to see how band 12 helps. It just lit up here in Seattle about a month or two ago, and the 6s is the first iPhone to support it.

Seems this change was not out of the kindness of AT&Ts heart (hah), but instead as a result of the FCC fining them $100,000,000 as a result of an FTC lawsuit. This after AT&T was already fined $105,000,000 over bill cramming last year. (Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile were also hit with fines and forced into refunds over cramming too).

Ended up with a 6s from the T-Mobile store near the Apple Store. Seems the portal T-Mobile built to let Apple use was problematic Friday morning.

Still had to deal with the manager of the T-Mobile store trying her best to trick me into getting Jump, after flatly stating the reason I didn't want to buy the phone there was due to Jump being added without my consent in the past.

The new phone is working great so far, and previous minority inconvenient dead spots are now seeing service due to the LTE band 12 capability. Definitely recommend anyone on T-Mobile to look into an upgrade to a band 12 capable device no matter what phone platform religion you are a part of.