AT&T has dropped the prices for the family version of its MobileShare wireless plans. The company made the announcement on Saturday, February 1, and the move seems a response to the increasing rivalry between carriers and competitive plans offered by them.
Q4 2013 saw both AT&T and Verizon post slow growth, whereby T-Mobile comparatively had a dramatic turnaround from Q4 2012.
In 2013, T-Mobile dropped its pricing, offered unlimited data and segregated the cost of the handset from the data plan. Moreover, the carrier even offered to pay the early termination fee to customers who wanted to swap to its plan from other carriers, but were under contract.
Aggressive marketing by T-Mobile seems to have been the catalyst and with the new price plans and discounts on board, AT&T seems poised to steal T-Mobile customers as well.
"AT&T's change in pricing bucks the recent trend in the mobile industry by offering the best deal to existing customers," says Jan Dawson, an industry analyst with Jackdaw Research. "With all the effort currently going into getting customers to switch, AT&T's moves seem to be geared towards keeping existing customers first and foremost. This is clearly a response to the aggressive price moves from competitors, especially T-Mobile, over the last several months."
Earlier, AT&T customers paid $100 for 10GB of data, as well as unlimited voice and text messages. They also had to pay an additional fee on top for a smartphone. A contract customer on AT&T with a subsidized phone paid $40 per month, whereas an off-contract customer paid $25.
Now under the carrier's new plans, a family of four will pay $160 per month as a flat fee for 10GB of data. Families with two lines will pay $130, three lines will pay $145 and five lines need to shell out $175. Additional lines will be available for $15.
"These new plans give customers what they want -- our best-ever prices on a best-in-class network," said David Christopher, chief marketing officer, AT&T Mobility. "We're making it easy for families who want it all -- great service, great value and big bucket of data to share."
The new pricing will be available for both existing and new AT&T customers. However, new customers will be required to either get their own phone or buy a new one using AT&T's Next pricing plan or pay the full amount for a non-subsidized handset on AT&T.
Existing customers on AT&T can swap even if they are already in the middle of a contract and will not be required to sign a new contract. Those who are on a 10GB plan will not need to do anything as the new price plan will take effect automatically.
It will be interesting to see if the carrier can lure customers away from T-Mobile and other carriers in the near term.
