American telecom service provider AT&T has slashed mobile tariffs for family plans with large amounts of data in a bid to attract customers from Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile.
The new rates are available starting Sunday and apply to plans with at least 10 gigabytes of data shared by two or more phones on a single account.
The cut in mobile tariffs indicates another round of cellular war in America.
In the first week of January, AT&T offered customers of No.4 U.S. mobile provider T-Mobile U.S. $200 credit to switch to its service.
You may read: AT&T offers $200 credit to switch from T-Mobile
The latest offer, which is aimed at adding customers from rivals, is available to any AT&T customer, including small businesses with up to 10 lines, and customers of Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile and other wireless carriers who switch to AT&T.
AT&T, the second-largest mobile operator in the U.S. after Verizon Wireless, said monthly savings start at $10 per phone. A family of four sharing 10 GB will pay $160 a month combined instead of $200 under the most recent rates.
The changes represent AT&T’s latest effort to get customers to pay more overall by upgrading from lower-use plans. In some cases, families will actually pay less if they upgrade. That family of four, for instance, already pays $170 monthly for a 4 GB plan and $180 for 6 GB. If they upgrade, they will pay $160. But for the most part, more data means more revenue for AT&T.
Today, Verizon charges $260 monthly for a comparable plan that’s now $160 from AT&T. A family with four smartphones with unlimited talk and text, and a shared 10GB data, could switch to AT&T from Verizon and save $100 a month. In addition to the monthly savings, the family will get a $400 bill credit for the four smartphone lines of service added.
David Christopher, chief marketing officer for AT&T’s wireless business, said the offer is designed to give families a worry-free experience as they consume more data for video and social networking.
It also could encourage people to add tablets to their accounts, as those consume even more data and would quickly use up allotments in the lower-use plans.
The new rates will also help AT&T wean people off subsidies on new phones. Instead of having people buy phones for $100 or $200 and having the true cost baked in to monthly service fees, AT&T and other carriers have been encouraging customers to pay the full price for phones outright or in installments.
AP reports that many people are already doing that, through programs such as AT&T’s Next, even though in many cases, it’s actually cheaper for people to use the subsidies for high-end phones as long as they keep their phones for two years or longer.
AT&T’s Christopher said many customers prefer the flexibility of being able to upgrade as soon as Apple or Samsung releases a new model. Subsidized plans typically require customers to wait two years.
AT&T will let existing subsidized customers take advantage of the new rates, but when they are eligible for an upgrade, they must pay full price for the phone — outright or in installments — to keep the lower rates. New customers won’t be eligible for subsidies to get these rates.
