AT&T announced Wednesday afternoon that the company would be adjusting its data plan pricing for smart devices, essentially hiking the rates while also upping the monthly data limit. Existing customers can stick with their current plans, but new customers will have to choose from one of the three plans outlined below (tablet plans remain separate).
The new pricing scheme goes into effect this Sunday, Jan. 22.
For smartphones:
For tablets:
AT&T notes that the current $15, 250MB plan for tablet owners will still be available, also.
AT&T's previous plan cost $15 for 200MB of data per month and $25 for 2 GB of data per month (with an extra $20 for tethering). You can get an extra GB for $10 per month, unless you're one of the lucky ones still on AT&T's $30/month unlimited contract. A caveat to "unlimited," however -- data plan subscribers are subject to throttling if they fall within the top 5 percent of unlimited data users.
To be fair, for the average data user at least one AT&T plan offers more value over competitor Verizon. On Verizon, the nation's largest carrier, $30/month gets you only 2GB of data.
Traditionally, studies have shown that most people use less than 2GB of data per month, which makes 2GB data plans a reasonable data level to subscribe to. So with AT&T's new plan, those who still use less than the allotted 2 monthly GB will be spending $5 more than before. However, those who tend to use about 3GB monthly will be saving a bit of cash with this new option.
In June 2010, the average iPhone user consumed 273MB of data per month, according to a survey from Consumer Reports. Roughly a year later, that number jumped to 435MB monthly. So for the average smartphone user, the 300MB $20 plan is not really a viable option (and if you go over the limit on this plan, AT&T will charge you a whopping $20 -- more than you'd pay on the 3 GB plan).
Confused? So are we. Luckily, AT&T offers a data plan calculator to help you figure out which one would best suit your needs.
