Nobody Should Sign Up for AT&T’s 5gb Data Plan

July 1, 2012 in Commentary

AT&T rethink data

It has been quite a while since AT&T stopped offering their unlimited data plan, and changed over to a tiered data offering. 聽What is a bit odd, is the offerings they chose to move to. 聽Currently, AT&T has 3 data packages a customer can choose from. 聽There is a 300mb plan for $20/month, 3gb for $30/month, and 5gb for $50/month. 聽Obviously, for anyone who uses data regularly, the 300mb plan is a horrible option. 聽To put it in perspective, when I set my new phone up, I used 500mb of data just from my previously installed apps downloading themselves to the new phone. 聽As for the other two plans, the 3gb doesn’t seem too bad, but the 5gb plan just flat out make no sense at all. 聽With the way AT&T priced the 5gb data plan, it benefits nobody but AT&T. 聽The 3gb data plan has an overage of $10 per gb, and so does the 5gb plan. 聽In other words, if I’m on the 3gb plan and I use 5gb of data that month, it’s going to cost me an additional $20. 聽This comes out to a total of $50, the same amount as the 5gb plan. 聽So that begs the question, what’s the point of me signing up for the 5gb plan? 聽At least if I sign up for the 3gb plan, and use less than 5gb of data, it still comes out cheaper than if I were on the 5gb plan. 聽If I’m on the 5gb plan and I use 4gb of data, I still have to pay $50 for that month, whereas if I were on the 3gb plan and used 4gb, I’d be paying $40. 聽AT&T’s 5gb plan makes no sense at all. 聽It’s better for anyone on AT&T to sign up for the 3gb plan and not give another thought to the 5gb. 聽The 3gb will cost you the same as the 5gb if you use 5gb or more, but it is cheaper for you if you use less than 5gb.

Be Sociable, Share!

Related posts:

  1. AT&T Throttling All Smartphone Customers During Calls Regardless of Data Plan or Data Use
  2. AT&T’s New Throttling Policy Announced…Won’t Screw You as Badly
  3. AT&T Will Strong-Arm Customers with New Data Plans