Don’t expect to save money on new AT&T shared data plan.
AT&T is following in Verizon’s footsteps as the second major U.S. carrier to offer a single shared data plan across multiple devices. The “Mobile Share” plans, which AT&T announced on Wednesday, essentially work the same way as Verizon’s “Share Everything” plans announced last month.
And like Verizon’s offerings, AT&T’s plans won’t be cheap.
The Mobile Share plans, which AT&T has talked about for months now and will begin offering in late August, offer unlimited minutes for phone calls and unlimited text messages. They work with up to 10 devices, one of which must be a smartphone.
AT&T subscribers who opt for the Mobile Share plans will have to pay a monthly fee for each smartphone they have tied to their bucket of shared data. The larger the data plan, the less expensive the monthly smartphone fee will be. For the base configuration, this means a charge of $45 per smartphone tied to 1GB of data at $40 a month. But if you opt for a 20GB shared data bucket, you’ll pay for $30 per smartphone tied to a $200 monthly data plan.
On top of that, users will have to pay monthly fees for non-smartphone devices tied to the shared plans. This clocks in at $30 for each “basic” non-smartphone handset, $20 per laptop or air card, and $10 per tablet or “gaming device,” such as Sony’s PS Vita.
The larger the data bucket is, the smaller the per-gigabyte price is — 1GB at $40 a month, 4GB at $70 a month, 6GB at $90 a month, 10GB at $120 a month, 15GB at $160 a month and 20GB at $200. AT&T will charge $15 (same price as Verizon) for every gigabyte of data consumed past a monthly allotment on the Mobile Share plans.
So, is this approach any cheaper than what AT&T is already offering? Not necessarily…
For entire story, go to: Wired
