AT&T messes with plans in wake of Verizon's moves, slashes unlimited voice pricing
By Chris Ziegler 
posted January 15th 2010 5:16PM
posted January 15th 2010 5:16PM
Sprint's talking about it, but AT&T's straight-up doing something about Verizon's plan adjustments this morning with a series of its own tweaks this afternoon. Starting Monday, January 18 (conveniently the same day that Verizon's changes go live), unlimited talk will run $69.99 on individual plans, a nice little cut of $30 against the $99.99 the carrier charges today; family unlimited, meanwhile, comes in at $119.99. Unlimited talk and text costs another $20 on top of unlimited talk alone -- no change from the current add-on pricing. Similarly, unlimited talk plus smartphone data goes for $99.99, meaning that you're paying $30 for the data package -- exactly the same as you're paying now, so really, this all boils down to a big adjustment in what carriers across the board are charging for voice. The principles of Econ 101 have us believe that voice isn't as popular as it used to be -- we are now sending billions upon billions of texts, after all -- and as we ease off the voice infrastructure, it makes sense that these guys would want to upsell everyone into unlimited plans (remember that we're living in an "all you can eat" kind of nation) while still banking big on precious kilobytes and characters. Well played, AT&T; you too, Verizon. Well played, indeed.
competition makes the world go round
@skyblaze
but t-mo still wins :D
sry guys
@skyblaze
T-MOBILE:
Unlimited Talk 49.99 ($20 lower than ATT)
Unlimited Talk + Text 59.99 ($30 lower than ATT)
Unlimited Talk + Text + Web 79.99 ($20 lower than ATT)
sorry ATT.
@skyblaze
Too bad T-Mobile sucks compared to AT&T's network...
Note that I'm not saying AT&T is perfect. It's NOT. But it's a hell of a lot better than T-Mobile...
@Xtole
You stole my format. Any way. This also means that AT&Ts unlimited talk + text + web == Verizon's 450 minutes + text + web...
@skyblaze: yeah, wins the "worst coverage out of the carriers" award... and now they're getting rid of wifi calling? tmo is utter fail. they need to catch up to the other carriers in term of 3g coverage.... before the others roll out 4g. tmo is always behind.
@Prokanda
They aren't getting rid of "Wifi calling". They are getting rid of their VoIP service (like Vonage). UMA is still there.
@skyblaze
Sure T-mobile wins... where you have coverage.
How about the best prices around, Roaming on VZ included, and the Palm Pre?
Sounds like something i'm already doing, and saving $750 over two years from having gone with the 3GS.(Family plan)
@skyblaze See I see this not as competition helping everything (though it does in this case) but as a 'collusion kills' kind of thing. You're telling me that last week Verizon and AT&T were both content charging $100 a month for unlimited voice, then, through some miraculous change, they can now stand to charge $30 less a month? This is ridiculous.
@skyblaze
@TheRogueFFAngel
thats a moot point. while their coverage may be better than t-mo, general consensus is their network strongly lacks reliability thanks mostly to so many handsets strangling their 3g while they sit around doing hardly anything about it. and thats just from a number of articles here on engadget. push come to shove i figure it mostly comes down to where you live... but hey. who just upgraded to 7.2 mbps internet last week? :)
@TheRogueFFAngel
I'm not sure you should be posting anything promoting how AT&T's network kicks another network's butt. It really makes you look stupid...like Luke Wilson in the AT&T commercials. Actually, Luke is getting paid. I guess that just leaves you and others that would dare to take your position on the matter.
@TheRogueFFAngel
Odd thing: I was in the middle of Manhattan on my AT&T network standing 6 feet away from my friends on T-Mobile network and they could make a call and I could not. Really surprised me!
Another surprise to me: My friend and I took a road trip to the Grand Canyon (in the middle of Nowhere, Arizona) and she just picked up her Verizon phone and chatted with her mother about how cool it was. I could not - despite those lovely "full bars" mocking me. I was so freaking jealous!
@TheRogueFFAngel I think your wrong. T-Mobile is rated Higher in voice quality and customer service in many independent surveys. The 3G footprint is smaller but not for long.
@TheRogueFFAngel
That's not completely correct. If you're in an area where you can get Tmobile, it's a lot better than AT&T.
@credo
Sprint and T-Mo have the low prices because they are dying to get new additions. If they actually had the # of customers of Verizon or AT&T they would charge the same prices. The only reason they have the low prices is to get more customers, after all...it's their only selling points. No great exclusive phones, not a great network...even if you can roam. Hell, Sprint's lost so much money over the past year I'd swear they're getting close to the point of offering free data just to get new customers into contracts...
@Phen but the Pre Plus is going to verizon. And I haven't heard any donors of any new cool phone coming to sprint. Sure the pre's great, but it's last gen. So are the hero and moment. Verizon is getting the pre plus and has the droid, tmobile has the nexus one and the cliq and soon the HD2, and AT&T has the iPhone and is getting the backflip, the mini 3, three other android devices, and two palm devices.
@Netro7
Sounds like the magic number is 3. Maybe Sprint and TMo just need to get it on already. Neither is going to be able to compete separately if they keep having to spread out their infrastructure with no customer base to pay for it.
@iCello Sprint will be getting the Pre II come July.
@skyblaze
Noooooo, you can't get reductions on your mobile plans, its like the only thing which us brits get cheaper, you get cheaper consoes, cheaper electronics, cheaper clothes, cheaper food, we get cheaper mobile contract, don't upset that balance... man
@Netro7
If your logic is correct Netro7 then just stay put with the service provider you have. You see I look at it this way...
I've had five lines with Sprint for well over a decade now. So certainly I should know if Sprint service works for me both in the Metro Milwaukee area and in my travels across the U.S. which it does. I'm also quite happy with the three cutting edge phones I have and the two data cards. The data speeds are great! Finally I am impressed most with price which is much lower than the alternatives.
Enough said.
@skyblaze T-Mo wins what? YMMV.
No T-Mo coverage for me 80% of the places I work & hang out. Hardly any T-Mo 3G coverage, even when compared to the Swiss cheese network that is ATTWS 3G. Nobody I know has T-Mo anymore, so in-network benefits for me - everyone I know that used to have T-Mo moved to ATTWS and VZW, even the real estate agents.
@skyblaze
I'm from Canada. What is this mobile provider competition you talk about? We don't have that in my country.
@DylanUK
Hey, we aren't the ones who made your government adopt socialist economic policies! If a company in Europe wants to cut prices, they probably have to go through a three year government review, to make sure it won't be unfair to the other companies. Personally, I think that's a pretty lousy way of bringing lower prices to the consumer! :P
@Xtole
I would love it if they dropped the prices of the 400 minute plans instead of the unlimited plans. I don't even use the minutes that I have.
@Xtole
Plus no contract required.
@statelypenguin
If they were colluding it would be the worse effort ever to do so and drop the price 30%.
Still more expensive than T-mobile, and you get all the jackassery of Verizon and AT&T to boot.
@Bill Gates
Not sure what's more funny. You using an iPhone or you being scared of Ballmer.
@IndiaTech
You didn't think he got the job because he was a smooth and savvy frontman did you?
Next move is to switch the scale Cut voice prices again and tiered data plans
"ATT: Look at me im still useful! Please? Im useful!!"
cutting cost on the unlimited voice. But they are still gonna drop ur call. @ 30% drop rate.
@paimansli1234 you knew u werent first. And plus why write "first"? So u can get downranked, or become hated or what?
I still think the author of the article should write "first" so that no one else does that.
Um, I would rather have Verizon + the extra $30... I mean, you actually get service with Verizon.
@Yoda
I'll Take Sprint, thanks - cheaper prices, and we roam on VZ :)
@Phen
Lame phones, though.
@Yoda I'd hardly call the Droid pre and nexus one lame.
Wow.. that's so weird. I just called them yesterday and asked why the prices were so high, since I was thinking of switching over.
Definitely going to now :) Just gonna wait and see if there is actually a new iPhone coming out, in so, I'll just get that :)
I live in California, Easy Bay. So, the service around here isn't that bad. Might as well. I'm just sick of caring my iPod Touch and my Blackberry around with me all the time.
@mtnDewFTW Coverage isn't the problem with AT&T. Almost everywhere i go I get coverage, and I live in rural northern California, but I can be in the city(San francisco) and have five bars & 3G and not be able to make a call or load a web page. It's actually better where I live with 2 bars & 2G, but the data is really painfully slow.
Epic concurrence win! :)
Finally all the other big names starting to see that affordable plans are the future. I always said 99.99 for a unlimited plan was just too much.
Eewww who still uses AT&T?
@ashleythehottiest
Right around 90 million people.
@ashleythehottiest
I use Cingular
Yeah... Sprint's been offering the best priced unlimited plans for over a year now? Now that the other carriers are offering it in segmented bits that's big news?
Compared to Sprint and T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T can STFU. They're still stupidly expensive. At least with Verizon you have the knowledge that your network is the best in the U.S. AT&T? LOL.
Good, now let's cut the bullshit and start offering 69.99 unlimited everything for all phones, and 79.99 unlimited everything + unlimited data. And also 89.99 unlimited family, and 109.99 unlimited family data. Chop chop! That means you too verizon!
I'm not sure if it's a matter of voice no longer being as popular as it once was because we text more, etc, but moreso people adapting to the cost prohibitiveness of voice and using it much less.
Count yourselves lucky, with these plans. In Australia we have the "evil empire" of Telstra who have 50 percent of the mobile market and coverage of 98% of the population with 3G and charge like there is no tomorrow. There is no such thing as an unlimited data plan. I think they charge $89.99 per month for 5gb (=$85 USD).
I pay $110 (100USD) per month with a rival for unlimited calls and text but 3gb of data and the iphone is included in the deal which I had to contract to for 24 months. This is a bargain compared to my old plan.
If the voice dips really low you can get your old 1200baud modem and send text over voice.
so can anyone price all Providers here for ALL unlimited plans (voice + text + smartphone data) Tmo, Sprint, ATT and Verizon ?
isn't ATT saying $100 is just for voice + data and no text ?