AT&T Ditches Overage Charges in Its ‘Mobile Share Advantage’ Plan

When the largest American wireless service providers compete for subscribers, the plans tend to get more attractive. In its latest salvo aimed at rival Verizon, AT&T has announced that it is chucking overage fees for mobile data plans in addition to cranking up the data provided in its new Mobile Share Advantage plan, meaning its customers will no longer be blindsided with outrageous phone bills for data use.

In its press release, AT&T is also touting the fact that the certain tiers of the plan provide more data for less money than before: “If you have 2 smartphone lines on a current Mobile Share Value 5GB plan for $100 per month, you can now get the new Mobile Share Advantage 6GB plan – 1 additional GB of data for the same price, plus no overages. If you need more data, for $20 more a month, you can get 10GB of data.”

Instead, AT&T will throttle your connection speed to 128kbps after the allotted monthly data has been used, leaving you the option of requesting more high-speed connectivity for a fee. This is akin to the plan that T-Mobile has offered for years, whereas Verizon actually charges its customers for the option of having overage data use throttled.

The plan, which launches on August 21, starts as low as $30 a month for 1GB of data and unlimited U.S. talking and texting. The plan comes with all the usual trimmings including mobile hotspots, rollover data, and unlimited international texting.

In the higher price-tiers, you receive more data obviously, but the monthly rates you’re charged for each gigabyte have gone down, meaning more data for less money. If AT&T’s most popular option will likely be the 16GB per month for $90, though you can go as high as 30GB for $135.