AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is starting off the new year with an offer of unlimited data for new and existing customers at a cost of $100 a month for the first phone and $40 a month for up to two additional lines. AT&T is also offering new and current DirecTV or U-verse TV subscribers $500 in credits to new wireless phone subscribers. AT&T wireless customers who are not subscribers to DirecTV may sign up for a TV package with a starting price of $19.99 a month for the first 12 months of a 24-month contract with a regular monthly price of $49.99.
The plan is similar to, but not identical with, the company’s previous unlimited data plan that was eliminated in 2010. Customers who had the unlimited plan at the time were allowed to keep it, but the subscription price will rise to $35 a month in February.
Unlike the recently announced BingeOn unlimited data service from competitor T-Mobile US Inc. (NASDAQ: TMUS), streaming video is not compressed, but AT&T will throttle data for customers in a data-congested area who have exceeded 22 GBs of data in a month. That much data is equal to 50 hours of streaming video, 250 hours of streamed music and 220 hours of just banging around the Internet.
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Neither Verizon nor Sprint offers an unlimited data plan, though all four major carriers do offer unlimited voice and text plans. Both will be watching subscriber numbers closely, though, and could add their own unlimited data plans if the bleeding is more than a mere trickle.
Enrollment for AT&T’s unlimited data plan opens Tuesday, January 12.
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