AT&T Mobility is going all in with its Mobile Share rate plans, announcing that beginning Oct. 25 all new customers will be required to sign up for rate plans that include data services that can be shared across multiple devices.
In a statement posted late Friday on its “consumer blog,” the carrier explained how popular its Mobile Share plans have been since launched in August 2012, and that due to that popularity all customers would now be required to select one of those plans when starting a new line of service. To bolster its popularity claim, AT&T Mobility claimed that “our postpaid customers have connected more than 13 million devices via Mobile Share plans.” AT&T did note that at the end of the second quarter approximately 90% of its postpaid customer base were on either a legacy FamilyTalk, Mobile Share or business-related plan.
As for the new requirement, AT&T Mobility’s new entry-level price point for a basic phone will jump from $40 per month to $50 per month. However, with the increased price customers will now be bumped from 450 anytime calling minutes and 5,000 night and weekend calling minutes to unlimited voice calling, messaging and 300 megabytes of data. Smartphone customers will also see their entry point increase from $60 per month to $70 per month, though again that will include a forced inclusion unlimited voice calling and messaging.
Customers will then be able to add more lines of service to their plans that can share the bucket of data as well as each having access to unlimited voice and messaging services. The price to add a device will continue to run $30 per basic/messaging phone; $20 per laptop or mobile hotspot; $10 per tablet or gaming device; and $20 per month for AT&T’s wireless home phone service. Smartphone pricing begins at $50 per month if the basic 300 MB plan is selected, slowly falling to $30 per device with a minimum of 10 GB of data selected.
For enterprise customers, AT&T Mobility will allow accounts to have up to 10 devices share 20 gigabytes of data; 15 devices share up to 30 GB of data; 20 devices share up to 40 GB of data; and up to 25 devices share up to 50 GB of data.
AT&T Mobility rival and doppelganger Verizon Wireless continues to allow customers to begin service with a basic phone and just voice calling for $40 per month. Those customers can then pay for messaging and data services on a per-use basis.
AT&T Mobility’s move should help the carrier to pad its average revenue per user results, which have recently been adjusted to average revenue per account measurements to take into account the growing use of multi-line accounts. As for customers looking to stick with more “basic” plans from AT&T Mobility, the carrier’s multiple no-contract offerings across its Aio Wireless, GoPhone and through its pending acquisition of Leap Wireless seem to the direction the carrier is pointing customers. Of course, these offerings provide for a smaller device subsidy, thus customers will need to fork over more money upfront or bring a compatible device.
GoPhone continues to offer single-line, voice-only service for basic devices priced on a per-minute, per-day and monthly plans at $25 per month. GoPhone customers can also select an unlimited plan for a basic device for $50 per month. For smartphone users, GoPhone plans begin at $25 per month for 250 anytime calling minutes, unlimited messaging and the ability to add 50 MB of data for $5.
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