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AT&T Imposes Another $5 Rate Hike On Grandfathered Unlimited Data Plans (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: ATT is raising the price of its grandfathered unlimited data plans by $5 a month, the second such increase in the past year. The price increase affects longtime mobile customers who have held onto unlimited data plans for years after ATT stopped selling them to new subscribers. The latest price increase was reported by DSLReports yesterday, and ATT confirmed the move to Ars. "If you have a legacy unlimited data plan, you can keep it; however, beginning in March 2017, it will increase by $5 per month," ATT said. The unlimited data price had been $30 a month for seven years, until ATT raised it to $35 in February 2016. The price increase this year will bring it up to $40. That amount is just for data: Including voice and texting, the smartphone plans cost around $90 a month. ATT encouraged customers to move to one of its new plans, most of which have data limits, saying the newer packages "provide several benefits that our legacy unlimited plan doesn't." For example, the newer plans support mobile hotspot connections allowing a phone's Internet service to be shared with another device. ATT had stopped selling unlimited smartphone data to new customers and to customers who are switching plans, but last year introduced a new unlimited plan that's available only to people who also subscribe to DirecTV or U-verse TV.
Because Fuck You that's why.
You're wrong. Raising it $5 at a time is probably one the smartest things any company has ever done.
It helps them discover what people are willing to pay for a given amount of bandwidth (hint: they know how much each person is using).
This will help them optimize the prices of future plans for maximum profit.
I was on the grandfathered plan but when you realize that the "Unlimited" plan is really just a 2GB or 3GB plan (they've changed it a couple times), and then throttling down to EDGE speeds the other plans are just cheaper, since this is what their other plans do as well. And "free" unlimited texting (a $20 add-on to the grandfathered plan). And you can hotspot. And unlimited voice. And you can add additional phones for pretty cheap.
There really is no reason to hang on to those grandfathered plans unless you don't text (pretty much at all), or you expect some day the FCC will force AT&T to unthrottle the unlimited plans, and you never need to hotspot.
Oh AT&T, you could've had me as a life long customer. I only use a reasonable amount of data, but the allure of my unlimited plan would have kept me bound to you for life. Instead you are pricing out your most loyal customers. Once the limited data plans becomes more price competitive than than the grandfathered unlimited plan for the amount of data I typically use, I will certainly be evaluating all options open to me.. And I may choose Verizon for better service or TMobile for better international roaming and more/unlimited data.