Looking to perform some accounting magic with subscribers grandfathered into certain older mobile data plans, AT&T is moving these customers into new plans that cost them $10 more per month. The carrier is not allowing these customers to continue with their current plans but is throwing in 15GB a month of additional data with the new ones. A support page for AT&T's Mobile Share plans (via The Verge) states, "Enjoy more data. Starting with your October 2019 bill, you’ll get an additional 15GB of data on your Mobile Share plan." But AT&T then puts a price on this act of largesse. "This bonus data comes with a $10 price increase," the support page notes. The new pricing starts with the October 2019 bill which drops this month.

The bottom line (besides the one that AT&T is fattening) is that customers on one of these plans can pay $10 more per month and get 15GB of additional data, switch to an AT&T unlimited plan, or just switch to another carrier. But many subscribers on a tiered data plan are not huge consumers of data and some might not feel like shopping around for a new wireless operator. And while many of these grandfathered subscribers could save money with an unlimited plan, some of them might not even know what their options are; most are older and not mobile-savvy. The notice that AT&T sent affected customers doesn't make it appear that those subscribers have any choices.

Doesn't look like AT&T customers who received this notice have a choice, does it?

Moving subscribers to a new plan without asking if they want to do so and charging $10 a month more for a "bonus" seems unseemly especially after the FTC earlier this week approved a $60 million settlement between the regulatory agency and AT&T; the carrier was accused of throttling the data speeds of unlimited customers who were not told that they had a monthly data cap that when exceeded, allowed AT&T to slow their data speeds by as much as 95%.

The new AT&T Mobile Share plans are as follows:

Old name of data plan
Monthly price prior to October 2019 bill
Amount of data each month
New name of plan
Monthly price
Amount of data
Mobile Share Value plan 30GB
$13030GBMobile Share Value
45GB
$14045GB
Mobile Share Value plan 40GB
$15040GBMobile Share Value
55GB
$16055GB
Mobile Share Value plan
60GB
$22560GBMobile Share Value
75GB
$23575GB
Mobile Share Value
20GB with Rollover Data
$10020GBMobile Share Value
35GB with Rollover Data
$11035GBM
Mobile Share Value
30GB with Rollover Data
$13030GBMobile Share Value
45GB with Rollover Data
$14045GB

On the other hand, AT&T's lowest priced unlimited plan starts at $65 per month for one line (with AutoPay and paperless billing), but ironically it allows the carrier to throttle data speeds whenever the network is busy. For $75 per month for one line (with AutoPay and paperless billing), an AT&T customer can receive unlimited talk, text and data. Once more than 50GB of data is used in a month, the subscriber's data speed can be throttled.

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