AT&T Changes International Data Plans to Be Competitive With Verizon

AT&T is changing its international data plans, making them cheaper and more in line with Verizon’s recent changes.

The new AT&T international data plans start on June 1 and give users an option of three tiers starting at $30 a month. The lowest tier offers 120MB per month for $30, the middle tier offers 300MB per month for $60, and the highest tier offers 800MB in a month for $120.

If users go over the data limit on any of the packages, they are automatically charged $30 for another 120MB of data.

Those international data plans are available for any device on AT&T including smartphones, tablets, and laptops. Unlike Verizon and Sprint, all AT&T devices are international devices. AT&T boasts that its subscribers can use their phones for data in 130 countries and (expensive) calling in 225 countries worldwide.

The new plans are fairly similar to Verizon’s recently updated international data plans. Verizon, however, only offers one tier that stacks as users need more data. Verizon offers 100MB of international data for $25 a month. Verizon’s plans are cheaper at first, but become more expensive when users get over 200MB of data.

Like Verizon, users only need to pay for international data on AT&T when they need it. AT&T adds the fees on a month-by-month basis as the user needs the international data.

The prices for international data are still quite high (the base plan on AT&T costs the same as the 3GB per month option for domestic use), so users will want to keep a close eye on how much data they use. For short trips the base plan will likely be enough for users who don’t use the data all the time, but heavy data users will want to find WiFi hotspots.