AT&T Brings Back Unlimited Plans. What’s The Catch?bo

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  Years after ditching the unlimited data plans that it used to convince so many consumers to switch from boring old feature phones to the iPhone (and other smartphones), AT&T has announced it is bringing back its “unlimited” offering starting at $100 a month. Oh, but it’s only for DirecTV and U-Verse customers.

  While that does mean that more than 20 million people could be eligible for the plan, it also means that the vast majority of AT&T customers are not able to get the unlimited data offer.

  But for those who do have DirecTV or U-Verse service and want to combine their pay-TV bill with their wireless bill, they can get another $10/month discount.

  In terms of cost, it’s $100/month for a single phone. Each additional phone is $40. For phone-filled families with four phones, AT&T says there will be no monthly charge for that fourth line. That means you could have unlimited data on a quartet of smartphones for $180/month. Of course, that discount doesn’t kick in until the third billing cycle, so you would pay $220/month until then.

  The one big difference between the grandfathered unlimited data plans that AT&T had allowed to continue and the new ones that the company will start tomorrow is that customers can no longer get discounted phones by agreeing to a two-year contract. That’s because AT&T did away with two-year contracts last week. Thus, anyone signing up for this plan will need to purchase their phone outright or through an AT&T Next installment plan, which has the same effect as a contract.

  So is the data really “unlimited”? Nope. As with the grandfathered unlimited offering, AT&T reserves the right to throttle customers’ data, but only after they hit 22GB in a single month. That’s a pretty large amount of data for most consumers, but something to keep in mind if you’re someone who loves to stream HD movies on your device everywhere you go.

  

  
  
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by Chris Morran

via Consumerist