Weekend Cellular Roundup – AT&T Double Data, Verizon UDPs and Millenicom

This past week has been waiting to see how the major cellular news in RVing world might resolve. Here's a quick wrap-up.

AT&T Double Data Deals - End Today

Today is November 15, the day AT&T last announced they had extended their double data deals until. We're seeing no evidence of them issuing a second extension as of this morning. So if you're going to claim double data on their larger tiered plans (15GB and above), today's the day to complete that transaction.

Once you claim the double data, you can keep the increased data bucket as long as you like. But if you ever want to switch data levels, you'll only be able to switch to 'then current' pricing.

You can claim the promotion right online if you're an existing customer, on the phone or in person at an AT&T store.

Verizon UDP Transfers have Left the Building

We had caught whiff of Verizon making a policy change regarding transfers of Unlimited Data Plans (UDP) to new owners. If true, it was to go into effect on 11/13 - but we had no idea if that meant before or after close of business.

This past week we started hearing of more and more resistance when folks attempted an AOL (Assumption of Liability). On Thursday the 13th, some transactions were still going through, but many were met with resistance. As of yesterday, we heard of very few, if any, transfers being successfully completed.

As best we can tell, Verizon implemented this as a policy change and it's not yet hard coded into their systems. So seems there's still an occasional Verizon representative who will sneak a transfer through. But by and large the opportunity to snag an unlimited data plan via the AOL process has left the building.

We have moved our guide to doing so to the archives, and we advise extreme caution should you decide to take over some of the lingering UDP plans from eBay sellers who seem to have not gotten the memo. If we hear of any other ways to snag an UDP, we'll update.

For those wanting a deal on Verizon, they've announced some upcoming surprises around Thanksgiving, and have named November 26 as 'Connection Day'. Apparently the first surprise is that all More Everything customers will also get an extra 1GB for that billing period.

Millenicom Accounts Still Ticking

Late this week Verizon sent out a second round of TXT messages and e-mails to former Millenicom customers who had not switched to a direct Verizon account yet - reminding them that they need to call in to avoid service disruption.

The originally announced deadline was November 8, but even the most recent announcement simply says "Due to overwhelming response into our call center, for a limited time we are extending the deadline to replace your current Millenicom plan with one from Verizon Wireless."

We suspect that once call center volume decreases, the Millenicom lights will go out. We continue to check in on our Millenicom SIM card daily to catch the moment and say a final goodbye to a good friend.

The special call center number remains 800-233-8974, and they are open M-F from 8a - 8pm EST. Customers seem to still be offered $99.99/month for 20GB of data with $8/GB overage, and we have heard of some customers being offered More Everything plans with 30GB of data for $130/month plus device fees (on par with last month's double data deals.)

For those who took the Millenicom deal and reported billing and data tracking problems - Verizon has acknowledged the problem to several customers, and says everything will be straightened out in the next billing cycle. In the meantime, those not getting reliable data tracking will supposedly not be held accountable for overages this month.