AT&T Fleeces Unlimited Data Customers Again With $5 Price Hike
Would you like unlimited data? If you are an AT&T customer, start searching for pennies in between the sofa cushions. The telecommunications company recently confirmed that it will be increasing the price of unlimited data legacy plans by $5. The public announcement followed email notifications to AT&T unlimited plan customers.
A spokesperson for AT&T remarked, “Our Mobile Share Advantage plans and our AT&T Unlimited Plan provide several benefits that our legacy unlimited plan doesn’t. If you have a legacy unlimited data plan, you can keep it; however, beginning in March 2017, it will increase by $5 per month.”
This comes after AT&T increased its unlimited data legacy plans by $5 in February 2016. The corporation hopes that the increased fees will encourage customers to embrace metered plans. The Mobile Share Advantage plan offers unlimited talk and text and up to 30GB of data for $135. If a customer exceeds their data limit, all data usage is slowed to a max of 128 Kbps (2G speed) for the rest of the bill cycle. The Unlimited Data plans cost $100 for the first smartphone and $10-$40 for subsequent devices. It is restricted, however, to wireless subscribers who also switch to DirecTV for pay TV service.
Despite the price hike, the unlimited data plan is still less expensive than the other plans AT&T is trying to push on their customers. Those who have held onto their Unlimited Data Legacy plans pay roughly $90 a month for data, talking, and texting. Unlimited Data Legacy customers, however, are denied access to FaceTime over LTE and do not reap any additional benefits.
AT&T at one point throttled unlimited data customers after they had consumed between 3GB to 5GB of data. AT&T now usually only throttles Unlimited Data Legacy customers if they are connected to a busy cell tower. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has argued continuously the past few years with telecommunications companies over the legality of such practices.
A spokesperson for AT&T remarked, “Our Mobile Share Advantage plans and our AT&T Unlimited Plan provide several benefits that our legacy unlimited plan doesn’t. If you have a legacy unlimited data plan, you can keep it; however, beginning in March 2017, it will increase by $5 per month.”
This comes after AT&T increased its unlimited data legacy plans by $5 in February 2016. The corporation hopes that the increased fees will encourage customers to embrace metered plans. The Mobile Share Advantage plan offers unlimited talk and text and up to 30GB of data for $135. If a customer exceeds their data limit, all data usage is slowed to a max of 128 Kbps (2G speed) for the rest of the bill cycle. The Unlimited Data plans cost $100 for the first smartphone and $10-$40 for subsequent devices. It is restricted, however, to wireless subscribers who also switch to DirecTV for pay TV service.
Despite the price hike, the unlimited data plan is still less expensive than the other plans AT&T is trying to push on their customers. Those who have held onto their Unlimited Data Legacy plans pay roughly $90 a month for data, talking, and texting. Unlimited Data Legacy customers, however, are denied access to FaceTime over LTE and do not reap any additional benefits.
AT&T at one point throttled unlimited data customers after they had consumed between 3GB to 5GB of data. AT&T now usually only throttles Unlimited Data Legacy customers if they are connected to a busy cell tower. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has argued continuously the past few years with telecommunications companies over the legality of such practices.
