AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless continued to woo consumers with larger data buckets over the weekend, with both operators adding additional gigabytes to various bucket plans.
AT&T Mobility’s moves included the addition of data to a pair of rate plans, increasing the $40 per month Mobile Share Value plan from 2 gigabytes of shared data to 3 GB, and the $70 per month plans from 4 GB to 6 GB. Both plans continue to offer unlimited domestic voice calling and unlimited domestic and international text messaging. Each smartphone accessing a bucket of data costs $25 if signed up for AT&T Mobility’s Next device financing plan or $40 per device for a traditional subsidized model with a two-year contract.
AT&T Mobility also extended the availability of its previously launched “double the data” offer to Nov. 15 from its original end date of Oct. 31. That offer, which was announced in late September, doubled the amount of shared data on rate plans beginning at 15 GB. Both Sprint and Verizon Wireless countered that offer with increased data buckets of their own.
Verizon Wireless counters
Speaking of Verizon Wireless, the carrier countered AT&T Mobility’s latest move by increasing the amount of shared data on a pair of plans. The carrier’s $80 per month plan will see its data bucket increase from 6 GB to 10 GB, while the $100 per month plan will grow from 10 GB to 15 GB.
Verizon Wireless is also offering a $150 per-line credit to customers porting their number from a rival and signing up for a two-year contract or the carrier’s Edge device financing option.
Sprint and T-Mobile US have so far not participated in the latest moves, though Sprint could be tempted to move as it has been touting its “double the data” tagline in relation to its data packages compared with what AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless are offering.
Analysts have noted that these moves should not have a long-term impact on carrier earnings as the plans are only being offered for a limited time and thus limiting the number of customers making the moves. The changes at the lower end are also small enough where the additional data usage is not expected to impact network operation, while the bigger moves at the higher end are being offset by the still significant price points.
AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless recently posted robust third-quarter customer growth, with AT&T Mobility claiming more than 2 million net connection additions for the quarter, while Verizon Wireless reported just over 1.5 million direct net new connections. Smaller rival T-Mobile US reported 2.3 million net connection additions to its network during the latest quarter.
Sprint is scheduled to release its latest quarterly results later today.
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