Now that Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint have all done something in the unlimited data plan industry this week, AT&T didn’t want to be left out. Starting tomorrow, they will expand availability of their unlimited data offering to all customers. Previously, AT&T’s unlimited data plan was only available to those with DirecTV accounts, but come February 17, all AT&T postpaid customers can get in on the action.
The expansion goes live tomorrow and includes unlimited talk, text, and data. Customers looking for 4 lines can get into a package that costs $180. Assuming this unlimited plan is just like the previous plan, only without the DirecTV requirement, that would mean $100 for the first smartphone, followed by $40 per line thereafter. While that brings the bill to $220 for 4 lines, AT&T says that after 2 billing cycles, they will credit you back $40 each month, dropping the price to $180.
Tethering was not included in the previous plan and AT&T is not specifying here if it is or not now. We’ve reached out to AT&T for clarification on that. EDIT: AT&T confirms to us that tethering is not included in this plan.
In terms of throttling, AT&T sets a per line limit at around 22GB. Should a line hit that number, they could throttle you for the remainder of a billing cycle, should you attach to a congested network. Also, AT&T doesn’t throttle video, but customers can choose a “Stream Saver” feature that drops quality to conserve data.
And that’s the newish AT&T unlimited plan, which really isn’t new, it just doesn’t require that you get a DirecTV subscription.
DOA – no tethering.
The timing of all of this screams collusion to me.
Ugh. I was hoping to do the unlimited plan once they brought it out but $220 for 4 lines and you have to wait 2 months for account credit is freaking dumb. I’ll hang onto our 20 GB with roll over for $160, we don’t even use more than 20 GB on a monthly basis anyways. We normally roll over 8 GB each month.
At&t has had an unlimited data plan for quite sometime now without having to add Direct TV. That also includes using a hotspot. The 10,16 higher Gigabyte Data plans will slow down to 2G speeds after the 10 Gigs of high speed data is used. I upgraded to this plan yesterday. Under this plan there is no $15 charge for going over the limit. There is nothing in this upgrade option about having to be a new subscriber to Direct TV when upgrading. 10 Gigs is the minimum Data plan that is unlimited. The 6 Gigabyte plan will have the $15 charge cor exceeding the the 6 Gigabyte limit.
10 gigs to 2 g is not unlimited. or even close 2g makes data usage pretty much useless. well ave to see about the throtteling at 22 gigs on all of these unlimited but 3g is not bad, but 2g is unusable, use to get throttled on tmobile and it was useless couldnt even bring up a website.
What makes unlimited plan unlimited is all Carriers are throttling to 2G speeds and not charging fees for each Gig over the data plan. So sorry but 10 Gigs with throttling is unlimited. They are not charging fees for going over.
keep drinking the koolaid. ive experienced 2g its worthless its stopping from actually using data for anything over 22 gigs..if they indeed drop you down. if you have a rent a car that has unlimited mileage but after 1500 miles it drop’s to only go 5 miles an hour and you have 2000 to drive do you feel you have unlimited mileage By letter of the law yeah you can say its unlimited, truthfully it is not unlimited. People like you who continue to argue for these misleading crooks are the problem. Theres an old andy griffith episode where barney says we just say the stock went up and act happy about it but thats not lying. andy says yeah maybe not but you cant get much closer to it.
Thank you baby Jesus at&t. I was tired of hold on to DirecTV
This is basically for the existing customers who don’t want DirectTV.
Like me.
No point in me changing plans if tethering is not included. Give it a couple of days and they will add the tethering in or start losing more customers.
More expensive on a single line than Verizon AND no tethering?! https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eadd8d96cfe1c7a11856aa9ef3ba5e1a30fdce38699c440e875e6351cafc06ba.gif
Id use data saver if. Ideo was at least 720p
Just left Verizon August 2016 for This deal, giving up my udp with unlimited mobile hotspot. Now jumping this sinking ship for Verizon. I had been with Verizon almost 20 years when I left, so glad to be back to great signal again.
No tether = fail plan. Period.
Damn Verizon making Waves.
No, really they don’t. They sit back and go with the status quo until there’s a change in their bottom line. T-Mobile is affecting their bottom line as is Sprint. So it was time for a half-assed “unlimited” plan accompanied with a ridiculous media blizz of no doubt millions of $$$ thrown at the collective TV viewer. AT&T just does what they always do which follow whatever Verizon does…
Trying to figure out how much 6 lines would be and if taxes and fees are included. Also, does anyone know what their government discount is.. 15%?
There needs to be a poll to see which unlimited data plan everyone will be seeking now that we have all the carriers offering one.
2 months until a credit to make them the same price as the competition and no tethering? AT&T unlimited seeking customers might as well head over to Verizon.
I thought of this exactly. Fingers crossed that Verizon doesn’t flip and decide they don’t want to offer 10 GB a month in tethering data…
If anyone needed proof that the wireless service providers are part of an oligopoly, the last two weeks have proven it pretty well.
I’m glad we’ve finally caught up with 2008 or so.
Conspiracy theories are fun!
Not necessarily there is a major restriction to what your not reading here. One must subscribe to auto pay to have an unlimited data plan on the other carrier networks. There is no mention if one can choose the autopay date or is the billing date.
> One must subscribe to auto pay to have an unlimited data plan on the other carrier networks.
That’s false. Verizon will give you a $5/$10 discount if you have autopay and paperless billing but it is not required.
> There is no mention if one can choose the autopay date or is the billing date.
Well you are wrong again. With Verizon, you can chose your billing cycle end date and your payment due date is 5 days before that. The autopay should be a day before the PDD.
I am going by with wedsites showing price comparisons from all carriers. And not anything on Verizon. But it also shows that one must have autopay for these new unlimited plan. A person like me that gets paid twice a month pay check to paycheck can be a bit annoying to have autopay set up.
Meh? You have to pay it either way, they’re offering a discount for a better guarantee that you will pay without having to hassle you, send it to collections, etc.
Of all the restrictions, the autopay is the least of my worries.
Any idea if they’re dropping corporate/employee discounts for this plan like Verizon did?
AT&T is still honoring discounts.
Thanks. If they didn’t bail on tethering that would make this a winner… at least for those of us with that discount. 🙂
Yeah, now I’m just hoping VZW decides to honor discounts again. Seems like the big two want to get close but always do one dumb thing to screw it up.
Alll that was said is At&t didn’t mention tehering not that At&t isn’t doing it. Go AT&T website. Under mobile share you will see what’s included in each plan.
No I have AT&T unlimited now and that still includes my employee discount. There is nothing really new here because all AT&T is doing is throttling instead of charging the $15 for 1 Gig.
Next frontier throttling after 50GB and 50GB of Hotspot. Keep competing.
Competition is a beautiful thing.
Still no tethering… non-starter for me. 🙁
You must subscribe to AT&T a mobile Data Share Plan because under where data share tethering is allowed.
AND no tethering ?… Are they trying to give away customers?
Heh…
I was very excited for this news until that revelation – maybe I’ll take my 8 lines elsewhere….
Indeed, I took my service to Verizon as I needed the better coverage over T-Mobile. Perhaps one day T-Mobile will be good enough and that will be a bit cheaper.
Go to AT&T website. AT&T sells moblie hotspots they do this so so thier customers on mobile data share plans can tether. Tethering is allowed however on slower 2G speed it isn’t going to stream video or show images.
I’m not sure I follow. The mobile share plans allow hotspot (tethering/whatever) without an actual “hotspot” device, and it’s at full LTE speeds. I haven’t seen tethering allowed on the new unlimited plans at all.
This new unlimited plan from AT&T will not allow tethering but on Mobile Share plans tethering is allowed. This new plan is different that it’s a single plan.
I’m glad the competition is finally hitting the bigger cell companies. I’ve been with Verizon and paid a premium for years because I travel to remote places.
love competition.
consumer wins
Thanks, capitalism!
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Imagine if ISPs had competition…
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What about Individual Lines? Since I’m my own man and all.
$100 a line! At least that’s my understanding.
That’ll be strange. $20 more than Verizon? They better clear that up quickly lol.
cricket wireless for $70 all inclusive… att is actually slower here in Dallas than cricket.. sad
How so? AT&T owns Cricket, they run off AT&T towers and are limited to 8mbps (correct me if I’m off base on the #). I’d be very interested if you’ve first hand tested the two personally.
actually have tested with coworkers…… I was surprised too… latency wasn’t close though
What’s the latency like with a cricket? I’m in Collin County mostly so I was curious.
Might want to read my comment above regarding my 2 year experience with Cricket. TL;DR – if you’re not in a large metro area you’re probably fine. Other than that, Cricket for me would crawl when in large metro areas.
They use the same towers but different servers. Some spots for att are not very fast.
They’re slower than their own network? Cricket is At&t
That makes no sense because the both use GSM. & Cricket is owned by At&t.
It shouldn’t be. AT&T owns Cricket. Cricket customers are capped at 8 mbps down and up. When in the DFW area Cricket users seem to be de-prioritized with speeds screeching to a halt. How do I know this? I was a Cricket customer for 2 years. Just about every time I went to a metro area my data speed would crawl. AT&T is not going to give a better experience to their pre-paid base than their post-paid base.
Get a few more of your own men/women? 😉 (sorry, couldn’t resist)
can you get unlimited internet for your home now? most of these service providers offer wireless isp. my brother in law can’t get anything better than dsl.
Google PDAnet+
They really didn’t have much of a choice but to fall in line with the others. Interesting that they charge such a higher price to start with (for 4 lines anyway).
Nice Avi!! THWG
Thanks, yours is nice too! 🙂
And 1 line