I'm moving to a new house soon that will have AT&T gigabit internet, so I've decided to drop DIRECTV and go streaming to save some money. I was originally leaning towards Sling, as it has most of the channels we want at the best price. Then I heard about the new AT&T unlimited plan that has the $25 credit towards DIRECTV Now, which made it a better deal than Sling because it would be more channels at a lower price. Now I've read that many people have spoken with AT&T and found that FAN discounts don't apply to the new plans, and I've also looked at my account online which shows no FAN discount on the new plans if I start to make the switch (it shows the FAN on every other plan). This doesn't surprise me since Verizon is not allowing an employer discount on their new unlimited plan. We have four lines (myself, my other half, and both our mothers).
We currently have the old unlimited plan that required DIRECTV service (and which was later made available to everyone). Right now we're paying $169.80 for unlimited on the 4 lines. This is after my FAN discount. Also paying $127.98 for DIRECTV. That price includes a $10 discount for combined bill. Total now is $297.78, not including taxes and fees. It's ~$310 with taxes/fees.
If I switch us to the new Unlimited Plus plan our wireless would go up to $185 if I do autopay, and DIRECTV Now would cost $35 - for a total of $220, not including taxes/fees. That would be ~$77/month savings.
If I switch us to the new Unlimited Choice plan our wireless would go down to $155, but data speeds are restricted to 3Mbps - a noticeable drop. Also not able to turn off Stream Saver. Also no tethering, but that's no biggie since I never really used it when I had it before. No DIRECTV Now discount, so I went with Sling at $40 - for a total of $195, not including fees/taxes. That would be ~$100/month savings.
I also looked into Cricket, which is AT&T. Cricket has recently reworked their plans also. Cricket restricts data speeds to 8Mbps, not quite as bad a drop as the AT&T Unlimited Choice plan. Cricket has "Stream More" (their version of Stream Saver), which can be turned on/off at will. I looked at Unlimited for both myself and my other half at $60 each (was previously $70), plus 3GB plans for each mom (which is way more than enough for them) at $40 each. Cricket gives a $60 group discount on 4 lines, making the 4 lines $140/month including taxes/fees. Go with Sling at $40, which makes the total $180/month (plus I'm assuming a few bucks for taxes on Sling) - well over $100/month savings.
I don't really know much about Cricket, other than that it's owned/operated by AT&T and uses AT&T towers. I've never really seen/heard many comments from actual users of the service. I ordered one SIM for Cricket off of Amazon so I could give it a whirl before making a complete switch over to it. It was only $2.99 on there, but I got it for free with the points I had on my Amazon Visa. We've been with AT&T for our cell phones for 19 years, and every time I've tried another service the other service has sucked and right back to AT&T. Maybe it won't be that way with Cricket since it's AT&T.