AT&T's new mobile service plans eliminate data overages

[Shawn Knight]

AT&T on Wednesday announced a new set of wireless service plans that effectively do away with surprise data overage charges.

Up to this point, running out of data in a given month would automatically trigger an additional 1GB of data added to your account at $15 a pop. For those not paying close attention to their monthly data consumption (maybe you forgot to hop on Wi-Fi when binge watching a new show on Netflix), this could easily add up to a significant amount of money in overages.

With AT&T’s new Mobile Share Advantage plans, you’re data connection will instead be cut down to 128kbps once you’ve exceeded your monthly allotment. You’ll still have the option to add more high-speed data to your account – it will just no longer be an automatic surprise.

AT&T makes it clear that this feature comes free of charge, a clear shot at Verizon which charges customers on lower tiers $5 a month for the service.

Overages aside, the new plans are structured a bit differently than before. An entry-level Mobile Share Value plan, for example, currently affords 2GB of high-speed data for $30 per month. That’ll be cut down to just 1GB under the new plans for the same price. On some of the higher tier plans, however, the opposite is true meaning you’ll get more data for the same price (and in some cases, for less money).

The new Mobile Share Advantage plans go into effect starting August 21.

Image courtesy Jonathan Weiss, Shutterstock

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/66006-att-new-mobile-service-plans-eliminate-data-overages.html

 

[sridoodla]

I'm on the Google Fi network and I like that there are no surprises.

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

TMobile did this year's ago didn't they? The whole overages thing is extremely aggravating I can't believe anyone still deals with that crap.

 

[psycros]

The way forward is inevitable: unlimited data WILL be a reality on every carrier within the next three to four years. There's simply no alternative when kids are growing up being used to Internet everywhere. The volume of data consumed is only going up. I actually had an AT&T rep tell me that once 5g becomes the norm their hoping to deliver DirectTV primarily over home Internet and cellular. It kinda makes sense - satellite is such a huge investment that maintaining those record profits really demands a cheaper delivery medium. But nobody is going to tolerate having their TV shut off because they hit a data cap. The cable companies introduced caps with no technical excuse to do so and got hammered for it, and they weren't even counting regular cable channels as data. Now their bringing back unlimited Internet as a premium offering (which is still sleazy but better than nothing). I doubt AT&T has data caps on their fiber service..I certainly would HOPE not, anyway, because that would insult the intelligence of their customers. 5g can theoretically deliver the kind of speeds that were common on cable as recently as five years ago and a single tower can service dozens of simultaneous connections without reducing anyone's throughput. That will be a game-changer if the technology lives up to its promise - particularly for those people stuck on the "last mile" where terrestrial broadband will never be available.

 

[GeforcerFX]

The way forward is inevitable: unlimited data WILL be a reality on every carrier within the next three to four years. There's simply no alternative when kids are growing up being used to Internet everywhere. The volume of data consumed is only going up. I actually had an AT&T rep tell me that once 5g becomes the norm their hoping to deliver DirectTV primarily over home Internet and cellular. It kinda makes sense - satellite is such a huge investment that maintaining those record profits really demands a cheaper delivery medium. But nobody is going to tolerate having their TV shut off because they hit a data cap. The cable companies introduced caps with no technical excuse to do so and got hammered for it, and they weren't even counting regular cable channels as data. Now their bringing back unlimited Internet as a premium offering (which is still sleazy but better than nothing). I doubt AT&T has data caps on their fiber service..I certainly would HOPE not, anyway, because that would insult the intelligence of their customers. 5g can theoretically deliver the kind of speeds that were common on cable as recently as five years ago and a single tower can service dozens of simultaneous connections without reducing anyone's throughput. That will be a game-changer if the technology lives up to its promise - particularly for those people stuck on the "last mile" where terrestrial broadband will never be available.

Well cable 5 years ago was getting me 15 or 30mbps, my 4g Verizon phone speed tests at 22-30mbps right now. A high demand 4g LTE tower should be able to deliver 10mbps to 500 user at any given time, 5g is suppose to be 50mbps to 1000 at one time. It's still up to the provider how much bandwidth actually goes to the tower, like it is now.

 

[Revolution 11]

Have to agree with GeforcerFX here. There is no way that all the cable companies won't under-provision their data plans. Expect the normal tepid "improvement" in broadband in any market without significant competition (95% basically).

I say we skip the decades of heming and hawing over lack of price gouging and piss-poor service and just break the cable and telco companies into smaller pieces like we did with AT&T. It bought us 20 years of competition, good improvements in broadband, and low prices, no reason why it wouldn't work again.

That or nationalize the ISPs. I think my way will work better.

 

[mbrowne5061]

Have to agree with GeforcerFX here. There is no way that all the cable companies won't under-provision their data plans. Expect the normal tepid "improvement" in broadband in any market without significant competition (95% basically).

I say we skip the decades of heming and hawing over lack of price gouging and piss-poor service and just break the cable and telco companies into smaller pieces like we did with AT&T. It bought us 20 years of competition, good improvements in broadband, and low prices, no reason why it wouldn't work again.

That or nationalize the ISPs. I think my way will work better.

I think the better option would be to set up a fund from which municipalities could draw fund to set up their own local fiber/broadband internet services. Just want a basic broadband - plugin, and go? Just go with your local town's hookup. Want something fancier, go with ever offerings the local private ISP is offering to get people to join.

It would help establish a base line for broadband, that no private ISP could afford to fall under, and help to establish an additional revenue stream for the municipalities.