AT&T today has become the second U.S. carrier to announce shared data plans, wherein multiple devices consume a limited amount of data for a single fee. The plans will be available in late August.
AT&T notes that these plans are not mandatory; it's not moving anyone to them unless they want to. If you have unlimited data now, you'll still have it in August, when shared data becomes available. Same goes for AT&T's current tiered plans.
There can be as many as 10 devices attached to a shared plan, and one of those devices must be a smartphone. The shared plans include tethering and unlimited voice calls and texts. There are six tiers of service, starting at $40 for 1 gigabyte of data and ranging to $200 for 20 gigabytes of data. As each data bucket increases, the cost per device drops, but only for the first three buckets. If you go over your data allotment, each addition gigabyte costs $15.
It's a little confusing, yeah, especially compared to Verizon's shared plans. Let's break it down a little more.
| Amount of data in plan | Cost for data | Cost for each device | Base total |
| 1GB | $40 | $45 | $85 |
| 4GB | $70 | $40 | $110 |
| 6GB | $90 | $35 | $125 |
| 10GB | $120 | $30 | $150 |
| 15GB | $160 | $30 | $190 |
| 20GB | $200 | $30 | $230 |
Basic and "quick messaging" phones each add another $30 to your monthly bill. Laptops and data cards run $20, and tablets add $10 a month.
Verizon in June announced it, too, was adding shared data plans as an option. Data buckets range from $50 for 1 gigabyte of data to 10 gigabytes for $100 a month, with added fees for each smartphone and tablet attached to the plan.
We've got AT&T's complete press release after the break.
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