AT&T is discontinuing its A-List program two weeks after removing lower cost texting plans from its service offerings.
Individual customers could use the A-List plans to place unlimited calls to up to five numbers, and customers on family plans could add up to 10 numbers. Calls to and from any of the A-List numbers were not charged against customers’ rate plan, mobile to mobile minutes or rollover minutes.
Customers currently on the A-List plans will be allowed to keep them, but new subscribers will not be able to sign up for the service.
AT&T tied the change to its shift to $20 unlimited texting plans, the only plans now available to new individual customers who don’t want to pay on a per-text basis.
“With automatic addition at no-cost of AT&T’s Mobile to Any Mobile offer for our wireless customers with an unlimited messaging plan, AT&T A-List is being discontinued for new users,” an AT&T spokesman said in an e-mailed statement. “We have seen a very enthusiastic response to the value Mobile to Any Mobile which lets users with an unlimited messaging plan call any mobile number in America, regardless of the wireless provider.”
The changes to AT&T’s wireless plans come as operators are searching for ways to offset surging data use and competition from third-party services like Facebook Messenger and Skype. AT&T stopped offering its unlimited data plan in June 2010, and Verizon Wireless switched to tiered plans in July of this year.
Filed Under: Carriers
