To the delight of customers, AT&T is finally dropping overage fees, as the carrier unveiled a revised lineup of mobile data plans known as the Mobile Share Advantage plans.
Under the new data plans, instead of customers paying overage charges of $15 per 1 GB of data upon exceeding their monthly allotment, data speed will instead be slowed down to 128 Kbps for the remainder of the customer's billing cycle.
Customers will still be able to use their data for basic uses, such as checking email and accessing web pages. The data speed slowdown, however, will impact functions such as video and audio streaming, video and picture messaging and other apps that heavily utilize a data connection.
With this scheme, AT&T subscribers will no longer experience unexpected bill shocks. Customers still have the option to pay additional fees for their monthly plans in order to access more high-speed data, but AT&T will no longer assume that this is what subscribers want to do each month that they exceed their allocations.
AT&T's dropping of overages shows the creeping influence of T-Mobile, which removed overage fees from its data plans back in 2014. Verizon also recently introduced Safety Mode, which is a feature that safeguarded subscribers from overages.
However, AT&T noted that is it not going to charge customers with an additional fee in order for them to gain access to the data speed slowdown instead of being charged overages. This is different from Verizon's Safety Mode, which charges subscribers who would like to gain access to the feature if they are signed up for the lower-tier plans of the carrier.
The new Mobile Share Advantage plans, according to AT&T, include more data at a lower per-MB cost compared with some of the data plans that the company is currently offering.
Under the new plans, a 1 GB monthly data plan will cost $30 per month, a 3 GB plan will cost $40 per month, a 6 GB plan will cost $60 per month, a 10 GB plan will cost $80 per month, a 16 GB plan will cost $90 per month, a 25 GB plan will cost $110 per month and a 30 GB plan will cost $135 per month.
Subscribers can also choose to sign up for a 25 GB plan for four lines for $190 per month, which previously cost $235 per month, or a 30 GB plan for four lines for $215 per month, which previously cost $285 per month.
AT&T is also offering plans that come with monthly data allocations of up to 100 GB. Businesses can also take advantage of the Mobile Share Advantage for Business plans, which have data allocations of up to 200 GB per month and can accommodate up to 25 lines.
The Mobile Share Advantage plans will be available to customers beginning on Aug. 21. They will all come with the same perks of the old Mobile Share Value plans of AT&T, including unlimited domestic text and calls, shareable data and rollover data, while plans with data of at least 10 GB will also be able to enjoy unlimited text and calls to Mexico and Canada.
