AT&T is back at it again. The company has shoved bonus data into the face of Mobile Share Value customers. Bonus quite literally means a reward but this one comes at a price. In other words, it seems like the carrier has automatically upgraded customers to a new plan in the name of extra data.
Mobile Share Value Subscribers Will Also Get Additional 15GB Of Data Every Month
Basically, the Mobile Share Value subscribers will now get 15GB of bonus data each month. And that additional data will cost them an extra $10 every month. Sure, that means more than 1GB for a dollar and isn’t necessarily a bad deal.
What’s questionable is that if a customer wants out, there is no way. Simply put, if you don’t want to pay the extra money, you will simply have to consider moving to one of the unlimited plans. And this precisely seems AT&T’s motive.
The changes will apply from the October 2019 bill. According to AT&T, it’s communicating with some subscribers with regard to the changes. The carrier says that customers can reach out to it at any time and they are also free to change their mobile plan.
In short, the original plan is gone for good. This means the Mobile Share Value plans will now begin at $110 for 35GB of data. That’s not too affordable by any means.
The Mobile Share Value plans were launched back in 2013. They are grandfathered plans, which means new customers cannot buy them. Some had their own perks too. For instance, they offered rollover data, allowing subscribers to accumulate gigabytes. Similarly, it was also possible to share data allotments among different members on the same family plan.
It Seems Like Even A Fine Wasn’t Enough To Teach AT&T Anything About Marketing
It seems like AT&T has still not learned anything about being transparent with consumers. The carrier increased the price without any notice. The company is notorious for pulling similar tricks in the past. It was recently fined $60 million for throttling the so-called unlimited plans in 2011.
It might be a better idea for the Mobile Share Value subscribers to choose one of the unlimited plans instead. Sure, they aren’t really unlimited and there are some other issues too. But, they might prove to be more cost-effective.
Then again, the reason why the customers chose the plans they did is that they don’t require a lot of data. However, as is apparent, AT&T doesn’t seem to care. Moreover, since most users on these legacy plans will not necessarily use additional data, the carrier will likely be getting more revenue in return for nothing.
For those considering migrating to something else, the carrier launched two new plans last weekend. For a single line, the Unlimited Starter and Unlimited Extra start at $65 and $75 respectively. Other than that, there is always an option to switch to another network.
On a positive note, 5G is here. And thus, more data might come in handy. Thus, AT&T might be thinking about the customers after all.