AT&T Blames Having to Pay Employees, Inflation for Older Wireless Plan Price Hikes

Blooomberg reports this week that AT&T customers using older single line and family line wireless accounts will soon see a monthly price increase, later confirmed by statements from the company. The increase is expected to be up to an additional $6/month for single line users and $12/month for families.

In a recent earnings call, CEO John Stankey gave a hint that price increases could happen due to rising wages and inflation adding roughly $1 billion to the company’s overhead this year. Stankey is quoted to say, “Running this business and not sitting here and evaluating where we have options to move on pricing and be successful, I wouldn’t be doing my job properly.”

For those not looking to pay an increased monthly rate, AT&T says that you are more than welcome to switch to one of its newer Unlimited plans.

“We are encouraging our customers to explore our newer plans which offer many additional features, more flexibility for each line on their account and, in many cases, a lower monthly cost.”

It’s unsurprising to have a company with a market cap of $141,000,000,000 finger point wage growth as a reason for raising prices. It’s not like AT&T has a history of squandering money for years and letting go of good, working folks.

These pricing changes appear to be effective immediately.

Update: AT&T states that the price increases will go into effect this June.

// Bloomberg