Cell phone carriers are great at a couple of things at not much else, usually. First, they are good at having enough towers and bandwidth to (most of the time) let you make a phone call anywhere. Second, they are good at having plans that seem like a good enough price with enough money-for-value in it to be worth it to many customers. And third, they are great at making offers sound like deals, with the former being a limited time thing while the latter is a lasting one. AT&T, however, apparently is being a not-cell phone carrier, by breaking the third one in half, for a limited time.
AT&T is notorious for having a not-so-great set of prices on their data-related plans lately. Being number two in the United States sadly allows them to keep doing it. But as Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T’s mobility and enterprise business, says “Those exploding offers–customers hate them”. So, an ‘exploding offer’ is one that has a benefit, like a doubled amount of allotted data per month, but only for a limited amount of time. T-Mobile has an extra 1.5 GB of data until the onset of 2015. Verizon has a similar ‘deal’ which includes an extra gigabyte of data for two years, then it’s gone. The reasoning behind them is an initial benefit, then during the plan or contract it goes away and the customer is stuck with a sub-par plan. AT&T has plans for its plans, and it includes a data doubling, but it seems to be done right.
AT&T, beginning September 31 and ending October 31, will be offering to permanently (for the life of the contract, to be specific) double the amount of data. The plans included are the 15, 20, 30, 40, and 50 GB Mobile Share Value plans, which range from $130 to $375. What does that mean folks? That means the plans included now cover 30 to 100 GB of mobile data, and that’s not a ‘until this date which is closer than it seems’. That’s 30 to 100 GB of data until they choose to leave the plan they have chosen. So, if you pick the 15-now-30 GB plan, and stay with it for three or four years, then it will stay at a 30 GB capacity for you to enjoy.
But why would AT&T, who’s not exactly known for having great deals or purposefully benefitting their customers every day, offer such an amazing and permanent deal? Well, it’s because of money, the evil that motivates us. AT&T has the doubled data beginning at $130 for a plan, and ending at their maximum of $375. That’s per month, by the way. The prices incurred on customers, doubled data or not, would help to boost revenue and profits, since that’s what all companies aim to do in some way or another isn’t it?
So, if you have AT&T and are going to be up for plan renewal in the specified window of time, do you plan on looking into this deal (and its fine print, which is always a great idea. copy and paste it into a document and up-size the font and have a read; it always helps to know just what you’re getting into)? If you aren’t an AT&T customer, might this more permanent offer sway you towards them? Do you think that this is a good move for carriers to make, having the offer availability limited instead of the effects of it? Let us know down below.