AT&T and Verizon must be sharing the same playbook.
AT&T on Wednesday unveiled a new revamp of its plan structure that includes higher prices but more data on its Mobile Share Advantage options. The move follows a similar plan restructuring from Verizon last month in which the carrier upped costs, added more data and a rollover feature and ended overages.
On the low end, the new AT&T plans offer customers 1 GB, 3 GB or 6 GB of data for $30, $40 and $60, respectively, for a price increase of $10 per plan. Prices, however, are dropping for heavy data users, tumbling from $175 to $110 for a 25 GB plan and from $225 to $135 for a 30 GB plan
The carrier is also offering mid-range plans of 10 GB and 16 GB for $80 and $90, respectively. AT&T said additional plan options are available through 200 GB of data.
AT&T said the data on the plans is shareable across devices. Each consumer phone that is not on an annual contract – i.e. devices on AT&T Next or another installment agreement – will be charged an access fee of $20 per month in addition to the data charges, the carrier said. That means two lines can share 6 GB of data for $100 per month or a family of four could share 25 GB of data for $190 per month.
Businesses can also use the plans to share data, but will only face an access fee of $15 per device.
All plan tiers will come with unlimited domestic talk and text and unlimited text from the United States to more than 120 countries. Each of the plans will also come with Rollover Data – a feature that was similarly introduced by Verizon in its own plan refresh last month. Plans of 10 GB and above will also include unlimited talk and text to Mexico and Canada with usage in Mexico with no roaming charges, AT&T said.
Like Verizon, AT&T has also done away with data overage charges, opting instead to slow user data to 2G speeds of 128 kbps past their high-speed allowance. AT&T said the change would allow customers to continue checking their email and loading web pages, but would likely impact their ability to stream video, send picture and video messages and use other apps past their high-speed limit. Unlike Verizon, which offers the same services at a cost of $5 per month for subscribers one smaller plans, AT&T is not charging for this protection against overages.
AT&T’s decision to implement plans changes similar to those offered by Verizon follows the latter’s declarations that it has seen record uptake of its new offerings. In the first day alone, Verizon said the new plan pulled in the highest customer migrations the carrier has ever seen on a first day offering.
Unveiled in July, Verizon’s updated plans offer customers data options in 2 GB, 4 GB, 8 GB, 16 GB and 24 GB options with prices ranging from $35 per month on the low end to $110 on the high end. The new plans also include carryover data and a safety mode feature that slows customer data speeds once they reach their high-speed data limit.
The pair’s elimination of overage charges in their new plans comes after a more than two-year campaign from T-Mobile CEO John Legere aimed at getting the competition to do just that. The Un-carrier challenged AT&T, Verizon and Sprint to follow its lead when it abolished overage charges in April 2014.
