Verizon’s Unlimited Data Plan Faces Heavy Competition From T-Mobile and Sprint

For customers who don’t need unlimited data, AT&T Mobile Share Advantage plans offer customers a variety of data options with no overage fees. It was the most expensive unlimited option among all major wireless carriers, and it had the worst caveats, as we detailed in a recent comparison post.

AT&T’s new Unlimited Plus plan is more competitive than its previous unlimited plan thanks to the inclusion of 10GB of mobile hotspot and other features. And after 10GB of hotspot use, you’ll be reduced to 3G speeds on that as well.

Two lines will be $145 per month, and each additional line is an extra $20 per month. This means that a plan with four lines will now cost $185 or $46 per line. The announcement comes just days after AT&T first joined the other major United States carriers in offering unlimited data to smartphone customers. T-Mobile’s unlimited plan costs $160 for four lines, and both Verizon and AT&T offer unlimited plans for $180 for four lines.

No matter which plan you have, tablets, wireless home phones, standalone hotspots and wearables all cost more per month.

Finally, signing up for an Unlimited Plus plan will give you a $25 monthly discount on DIRECTV or DIRECTV Now subscriptions.

Observers in the know looking at the wireless market see a shift in the tides, with carriers suddenly competing to provide users with substantially better deals with their mobile plans.

Today’s announcement cut the monthly price from $100 to $90 and renamed the plan “Unlimited Data Plus”. For $60 a month, subscribers get unlimited talk, text, and data up to a maximum speed of 3Mbps – videos stream at standard definition (480p) at a max speed of 1.5Mbps.

For this category, the Unlimited Plus offers HD when available and the Stream Saver turned off. The combined price (assuming you get a discount for AutoPay and paperless biling and after the credit) is $115 a month to start.

AT&T hasn’t given up trying to get consumers to buy cellphone and TV service as a bundled package.

The cheaper option is “Unlimited Choice”. (AT&T still does not count all of those services against your data cap, a controversial practice known as zero-rating.) AT&T says this is a limited-time promotion, and that it’ll start applying the $25 credit after “2-3 billing periods”. Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint’s offerings range from $40 to $45 per line.