Leading United States carriers —Verizon Wireless,AT&TandSprint— have responded to the release of Apple’siPhone 6andiPhone 6 Plusin literally the same manner, by doubling the amount ofLTEdata included in shared plans albeit on a temporary basis.
AT&T is doubling cellular data on 15GB and higher Mobile Share Value plans through October 31.
Sprint has responded by changing its 32/40/60GB Family Share Pack buckets to 60/80/120GB ones at no additional charge, also valid through October 31.
Jump past the fold for additional information and the fine print.
AT&T’s offering
As evidenced by the (fuzzy?) image top of post AT&T shared as part of it announcement, allMobile Share Value planswith 15GB or higher have been doubled on a temporary basis.
Specifically, instead of the 15/20/30/40/50GB tiers you get to enjoy 30/40/60/80/100GB of LTE data on your smartphone or tablet through October 31, for the same prices as before: $130/$160/$225/$300/$375 per month.
And business customers can now share 60GB to 100GB of data on up to 25 lines. Prices include monthly access charge of $10 to $40 per month per device.
Mobile Share Value plans include domestic unlimited talk and text, as well as unlimited international messaging from the U.S. to select countries.
Sprint’s offering
Sprint’s own 32GB, 40GB and 60GB Family Share Pack plans have been temporarily doubled to 60GB, 80GB and 120GB at no additional charge. And beginning this coming Friday, October 3, Sprint’s business customers can take advantage of these plans as well, going from 40/60/80/100GB buckets to 80/120/160/200GB of data.
Check out Sprint’s chart outlining the changes below. Needless to say, all pricing excludes taxes and Sprint surcharges.
For those wondering, this Apple-exclusive plan delivers unlimited data while allowing you to rent an iPhone for two years before upgrading to the newest model in exchange for a flat fee of $70 per month, no money down and no tax.
Here’s the math: the $20 per month charge is to lease the handset and $50 per month is for an iPhone-exclusive unlimited talk, text and data service, resulting in a monthly charge of at least $70 for the entry-level iPhone 6 model.
Of course, you’ll need to return your old handset when upgrading to the latest model.
This is basically a leasing program: if you break it you buy it, my friend (at least if you don’t have insurance). iPhone for Life is offered on Sprint’s Family plans as well, with the monthly lease at $80 instead of $20.
Verizon’s offering
Starting tomorrow, Verizon is doubling data on its higher-end shared MORE Everything family plans while increasing (but not doubling) the amount of data included in its lower-priced family plans. For example, the entry-level family plan which costs $110 per month has increased from twelve to fifteen gigabytes of data.
The next family plan which costs $130 per month has gone from sixteen to thirty gigabytes of high-speed LTE data. Verizon’s higher-end $150/$375 shared plans that used to offer 20/50GB have been doubled to 40/100GB for the same price.
Verizon is making its offer available to both new and existing personal accounts, as well as to business accounts on shared plans. A separate access fee applies to each device on the plan, which can cost up to $40 per device.
But what about T-Mobile?
As you may have guessed, the Deutsche Telekom-owned Uncarrier was first out of the gate with the double-data meme.As of September 3, T-Mobile has been offering double tablet data for an extra $10 per month, if you add a new tablet to your smartphone plan.
Moreover, the firm has increased the number of supported family plan lines from five to ten per account, with each device having its own data bucket.
But the carrier didn’t stop there: the company is nowsupporting Wi-Fi Callingon “all new smartphones”, including the recently releasediPhone 6andiPhone 6 Pluswhich support this feature out of the box.
Note: T-Mobile’s chart does not include double-data deals by the other guys.
Here are the highlights from T-Mobile’s Uncarrior 7.0 event.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBRcBSuPks4
What do you think about the aforementioned double-data offerings?
In my personal opinion, John Legere, T-Mobile’s outspoken President and chief executive officer, summed it up best in a blog post.
“I’ve always maintained that shared data plans are a source of customer pain. And, it’s becoming clear now that they are,” he said. “The old carriers’ shared data plans are just another ploy to push customers over their data limits and suck money out of their pockets with overage charges they can’t see coming.”
Do these promotions offer a reasonable value for your money? Or are they just smart baits designed to lock you into another long-term plan that may be inappropriate for your needs?
Don’t be shy, sound off in the comments below.
[AT&T,Verizonand Sprint]
