AT&T
AT&T Axing Traditional Data Plans for Mobile Share Plans
AT&T has officially announced that it will be making changes to its bevy of data plans starting later this month. The carrier will be getting rid of its traditional data plans and will be focused solely on offering its Mobile Share data plans for all new customers starting on October 25.
AT&T’s Mobile Share plans are similar to Verizon’s Share Everything plans, where multiple household members share a pool of data that’s set at a certain amount each month, depending on how much subscribers want to pay. They’ll get unlimited minutes and text messages, but depending on how much they want to spend each month, they’ll get a certain amount of data to use amongst all of the people on the account.
For instance, 300MB of shared data costs $20 per month, and goes up from there the more data you want. Then, on top of that, you pay a monthly access fee of sorts for the smartphone. That monthly fee decreases the more you pay for data. So a 2GB Mobile Share data plan will cost $50 per month, plus $45 per month for each smartphone you add to the plan.
Previously, AT&T had both individual plans and family plans that you could choose from, on top of the Mobile Share plans that were available as well. For now on, though, any new customers will have to get a Mobile Share plan. There’s no word on whether or not AT&T will keep prepaid plans around, but seeing as how Verizon still offers them, we wouldn’t be surprised if AT&T let them stick around.
If they do keep prepaid plans, it can be a lot cheaper than a Mobile Share plan, depending on how many people are on your plan and how much data you plan to use. For example, prepaid would be significantly cheaper for an individual, where they’d only pay $60 per month as opposed to $95 per month with a Mobile Shared plan (2GB of data for both plans). Even for two people, it can be cheaper to go prepaid, where you’ll be paying $120 per month for both people, while a Mobile Share plan would cost $150 per month. Plus, each person would get their own 2GB, as opposed to having to share 2GB together.
However, AT&T will still keep a basic plan around that will cost $40 per month and comes with 450 minutes, and doesn’t require texting or data. This is also similar to a secret plan that Verizon keeps around, where you can get 450 minutes, unlimited texting and 2GB of data for $70 per month. The carrier doesn’t advertise it on its website, so you’ll have to ask nicely for it.
jenni
10/11/2013 at 2:30 pm
Lucy. if you, thought Jeffrey`s bl0g is impressive… yesterday I bought themselves a GMC since getting a check for $9747 thiss month and more than 10-k last munth. this is actually the most financially rewarding Ive ever had. I actually started seven months/ago and pretty much straight away started to bring in over $74 p/h. important link ……. https://pollsdb.com/77n
JT
10/12/2013 at 12:05 pm
Well we all knew this was coming. It sucks for individuals and is super expensive. I was thinking of switching to ATT but they just lost me (just like Verizon did last year). I was going to get a $75 individual plan with 3gb of data and the 450 rollover minutes. I was planning to switch to an iPhone so figured I didnt need a texting plan. Most people I know have iPhones so was going to do free iMessage and I already use Viber to text people who are in other countries (as well as calling them). When you think that Tmobile offers unlimited data for $90 (including the $20 phone payment), thats a big price difference — as ATT will now offer 2gb for $95 plus fees. (verizon offers only 1gb for $90) Cell phone prices in the US have gone haywire. I read Straight Talk is now offering ATT LTE. If thats true you could get 2gb for about $45…Youd have to do the math to figure out if thats worth it although some people cant fork over $650 at once. But when you figure out that youd be saving more than $50 a month (Straight Talk has none of those pesky contract fees that can add 20% to your bill)..and most phones cost you $200 anyway…You would break even and start saving in less than a year.
Alathorne
10/12/2013 at 7:06 pm
I don’t get 4G at home, so eschewing Verizon and ATT in favor of Virgin Mobile was a no brainer. $35/month for 300 minutes voice, unlimited text and data (data is throttled at 2.5 GB).