AT&T, following T-Mobile's footsteps, plans to hike legacy plan pricing in August
You might remember how panicked T-Mobile was last month just before it announced a price hike for its legacy plans. The nation's second-largest wireless carrier anticipated a negative response from its customers, some of whom were already angry with T-Mobile for making changes related to AutoPay and paying invoices inside a T-Mobile store. When the news finally became official, there was plenty of grumbling from T-Mobile customers.
Now it is AT&T's turn to aggravate its legacy plan subscribers. According to an AT&T support page, "We’re increasing the monthly charge on most of our retired unlimited wireless plans. This change will allow us to provide additional benefits to your plan and continue to deliver the great wireless service you expect." AT&T says that subscribers will see the "relevant price change" on their August bill.
AT&T subscribers will either notice a $10 or $20 per month increase in their monthly bill. As the carrier notes in the support page:
- If you have a single line of service on your plan, your monthly plan charge will increase by $10.
- If you have multiple lines on your plan, your monthly plan charge will increase by a total of $20. This is the total monthly increase, not a per line increase.
Subscribers who decide to stick with their current plan and pay the new, higher bill will get additional high-speed data and hotspot data.
- AT&T Unlimited Choice, Choice II, Choice Enhanced, Unlimited &More, and Unlimited Value plans will now include 75GB of high-speed data and 30GB of hotspot data.
- AT&T Unlimited Plus, Plus Enhanced, Unlimited &More Premium, and AT&T Unlimited (with TV) plans will now include 100GB of high-speed data and 60GB of hotspot data.
Those AT&T subscribers with a connected car plan will keep their current high-speed data benefits and will not be receiving any hotspot data.
If your legacy plan is getting a price hike, you will still have unlimited talk, text, and data in and between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. Your account will still be protected from scammers, fraud, and other security threats by AT&T ActiveArmor mobile security.
AT&T's support page graciously includes the phone number to call if you want to cancel your AT&T service in light of the price hike. That number is 800.331.0500. But don't expect to call without getting a review of your account and a sales pitch for one of the carrier's current unlimited plans.
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