AT&T Mobility GoPhone plans gain more data, Mexico calling
AT&T Mobility continues to tweak its prepaid portfolio, announcing updates to its GoPhone brand in an attempt to make it more competitive in the market.
The carrier said it plans to increase the included unthrottled data allotment for the $45 and $60 GoPhone plans, with the $45 plan moving from 1 gigabyte to 1.5 GB per month and the $60 plan from 2.5 GB to 4 GB per month. Both plans have data speeds cut to 128 kilobits per second once the monthly allotment is hit.
AT&T Mobility is also adding unlimited calling to Mexico on the $60 plan, with both plans also including unlimited text messaging to Mexico. The unlimited calling option is limited to calls from the U.S., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The GoPhone product currently offers calls priced at 1-cent per minute to Mexico and Canada on a $55 per month rate plan.
The GoPhone updates will be made automatically to both the $45 and $60 plans.
The unlimited calling to Mexico offer follows AT&T’s acquisitions in that country, including the purchase of Iusacell and the pending acquisition of NII Holdings’ Nextel Mexico operations. In announcing those deals, AT&T touted plans to offer up what it called the first-ever North American mobile service area, with the combined networks covering more than 400 million potential customers.
AT&T Mobility’s prepaid operations continue to struggle following the carrier’s acquisition and relaunch last year of Leap Wireless’ Cricket brand. The carrier reported that its prepaid segment lost 180,000 connections in 2014 compared with a loss of 32,000 customers in 2013. The Cricket brand consumed AT&T Mobility’s previous Aio Wireless offering, but the legacy GoPhone brand, which was part of the previous Cingular Wireless operations, remained.
Even with the GoPhone update, there still seems to be some competition with the Cricket-branded service. Cricket plans with data begin at $35 per month for unlimited domestic calling, text messaging and 2.5 GB of unthrottled data. For $45 per month, Cricket customers receive 5 GB of data and unlimited calling and messaging to Mexico. A $55 per month plan increases the data bucket to 10 GB, with a limited-time offer providing LTE-equipped devices with 20 GB of data per month.
The latest AT&T Mobility prepaid move follows T-Mobile US’ action last month that included a brand name change from Simple Choice to Simply Prepaid, with a corresponding $10 price cut on three rate plans. The former $50 plan, which includes unlimited voice calling, messaging and 1 GB of high-speed data, will be $40; the $60 plan that has up to 3 GB of high-speed data will be $50; and the $70 plan that offers up to 5 GB of high-speed data will be re-priced to $60. The carrier’s current $80 plan that includes unlimited high-speed data access will be dropped.
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