In an effort to push people toward its newer plans, AT&T is raising the price of some of its older Unlimited and Mobile Share plans. Single-line users will see an increase of up to $6 per month, and those with family plans can be added to their bills up to $12 per month, according to Bloomberg†
In a statement to The edgeAT&T spokesman Seth Bloom said, “We encourage our customers to explore our newer plans that offer many additional features, more flexibility for each line on their account and, in many cases, lower monthly costs.” AT&T also said affected customers found out this week and that the price changes will take effect from June 1.
In 2019, the company increased the prices of its Mobile Share Value data plans by adding a “bonus” of 15 GB of data per month that you couldn’t unsubscribe from, increasing the price of your plan by $10. In 2018, customers with unlimited plans also saw their monthly bill increase from $40 to $45.
Bloom said AT&T will not publish the list of affected plans, but said affected customers will receive “a billing notice and email” from AT&T, which may indicate the customer may be interested in one of our more current plans to save money. on their monthly cost or get additional features each month for a slightly higher cost.”
There is a list of retired plans on its support site, but with the many variants of Unlimited and Mobile Share plans that were discontinued between 2016 and 2020. If you sign up via this link, you can see which subscription you have.
The company’s current Unlimited Starter plan comes with unlimited (of course) talk, text, and data, access to 5G, and 3GB of hotspot data per month, along with a few other perks. It starts at $65 per month for a single line, but drops to $30 per line once you have five lines.
There is also the company recently introduced $50 per month Value Plus plan, which is not listed as an unlimited plan but comes with unlimited calls, texts and data (and includes 5G). However, that plan is only available to single-line customers. The company also offers an “Unlimited Max” subscription for $45 per month through Walmart, which includes 10 GB of hotspot data.
Of course, the word “unlimited” is automatically suspect when carriers use it anyway. In 2011, AT&T ran into trouble for throttling “unlimited” plans. Today, carriers actually charge unlimited as a selling point for one of their few “unlimited” plans.
It’s been a while since people who still had the older Unlimited and Mobile Share plans got a price hike, but now AT&T has something it can easily blame for that: inflation. Last month, in what proved to be a signal that this move was imminent, CEO John Stankey predicted that AT&T would start raising prices “in the coming quarters” thanks to inflation, according to The Wall Street Journal† He also predicted that basically everyone would do the same, inside and outside the telecom industry.