AT&T’s New Mobile Share Advantage Plans Include Throttling Without Ridiculous Upcharges

On August 21, AT&T customers will be able to choose from new Mobile Share Advantage plans that aim to get you more data per buck in some situations, while including throttled data at no extra cost once you hit your data limit. The new plans also make the device access charges a flat $20 per month on all plans instead of varying depending on your bucket size. 

With these new plans, AT&T says you will still get Rollover Data, the unlimited domestic talk and text, sharable data between lines, mobile hotspot, etc. However, they are adding on throttled data once you hit your data limit, a feature that Verizon recently added and T-Mobile has had for years. AT&T isn’t charging you extra for it like Verizon is, though, and will include it in all of these new plans at no extra charge. Verizon, at least for their S-M-L plans, charges $5 per month.

As a reminder, throttled data just means that if you have a 6GB plan and use up 6GB, you’ll still be able to use an AT&T data connection for the rest of the billing cycle, only the connection will be slowed to 128Kbps (2G speed). Good luck ever doing anything meaningful with that kind of speed. But hey, at least you aren’t just cut off.

The other big bit of news here is the device access charge I mentioned in the opening. With Mobile Share Advantage, device access charges are a flat $20 for all lines. Previously, these varied depending on the data bucket you selected and could mean you pay either $25 per month for a device or $15. With 2-year contracts, the device access charge is $40.

The new plans look like this:

• 1GB: $30
• 3GB: $40
• 6GB: $60
• 10GB: $80
• 16GB: $90
• 25GB: $110
• 30GB: $135

You’ll notice that the $30 plan seems to have dropped from 2GB to 1GB per month and the 5GB and 15GB plans are gone. But, the 16GB plan is now cheaper than the old 15GB plan and you have 6GB and 10GB options.

The new plans go live on August 21. If you are a current Mobile Share Value customer, you can keep your current plan.

NOTE: AT&T has confirmed to us that the old Mobile Share Value plans will be retired, but as I mentioned, you can keep your plan if you are currently on one. For new customers, the new Mobile Share Advantage plans will be your only option.

Via:  AT&T