AT&T Next in Line to Adjust Its Data Plans

AT&T has decided to join the club and change up the way it handles its data plans in an effort to keep up with the now rapidly changing wireless industry.

Introducing New Data Plans

On Friday AT&T announced a new set of Mobile Share Value plans which went into effect on Aug. 15. A lot of the changes are mostly positive. The company is giving more data for the same amount customers were paying before, and it’s adding free calling and texting to our neighbors on our borders (Canada and Mexico), but only for customers who are on higher tiered plans.

Details on the New Plans

AT&T’s new data plans aren’t quite as big a change as some of the other carrier’s. The best deal seems to be the $100 package: originally this offered 10GB of data, but now AT&T is offering 15GB of data for the same price. The $70 (6GB)plan has been nixed and a new $50(5GB) tier has replaced it. The last two changes are for power users or business owners. The 20GB data plan received a $10 price cut, so it now only costs $140, and a new 25GB tier has been introduced that will run $170. Here is a full rundown of all their plans:

$20 – 300MB
$30 – 2GB
$50 – 5GB
$100 – 15GB
$140 – 20GB
$170 – 25GB

For T-Mobile users, these prices might still seem a bit much, but AT&T has slightly undercut Verizon on just about every tier level they now offer.

Why AT&T is Changing Their Data Plans

Now these changes don’t really come as any surprise since it seems like every other mobile carrier has recently made major changes to their data plans, but there may be more here than meets the eye.

Previously AT&T offered 1GB and 3GB plans, so its 2GB plan is new. According to a report by analytics firm Mobidia, most users only use about 1.8GB of data. Now, that’s on average, so there are certainly times when a user may go over that amount, and for $20 more, AT&T is allowing users to purchase 150% more data, which seems like a great deal for the consumer, even if they never hit that amount. They’re purchasing a safety net, but AT&T is making that extra $20 off potentially millions of customers.

What AT&T has done is simply instilled a safety net feature into all of its plans that tries to convince users to upgrade to the next highest tier because it’s only that much more. Family plans also have a tendency to be difficult to move away from because they can be complicated since there are so many moving parts.

Either way you cut it, AT&T’s new plans are a good change for consumers.