T AT&T Inc

By Thomas Gryta 

AT&T Inc. lowered the price of its unlimited data plans less than two weeks after opening them up to all subscribers, and said it would give added discounts to customers who pay for one of its television services.

The unlimited plan for a single phone now costs $90 a month, a drop of $10. AT&T also introduced an unlimited plan that limits connection speeds. It costs $60 for one phone.

Under either plan, subscribers who choose one of the company's DirecTV or U-verse television services will get a $25 monthly bill credit.

Until recently, AT&T only offered unlimited data to customers who also paid for one of its television services. But days after main rival Verizon Communications Inc. began offering unlimited data last month, AT&T opened its offer to all comers.

Smaller rivals T-Mobile US Inc. and Sprint Corp. have been taking market share from the two biggest U.S. carriers by pushing lower prices and plans without data caps.

Sprint sells unlimited data for $60 for one phone and T-Mobile sells unlimited data for $70 for one line, including taxes and fees. Verizon sells its unlimited plans for $80 a month, and is also selling four lines for $180 a month.

AT&T is starting a lower-end plan called "AT&T Unlimited Choice," which is $60 a month for one phone. Data is unlimited but speeds are capped to a maximum of 3 megabits per second. That allows for streaming videos in standard definition instead of high definition.

At A&T, four lines of unlimited is $185 a month. On the cheaper Unlimited Choice plan, four lines costs $155 a month.

AT&T was the first major U.S. carrier to stop offering unlimited data to new customers back in 2010, when it tried to limit congestion on its network and profit from rising data use. Verizon followed the next year.

The shifts at Verizon and AT&T come after years of trying to get customers to pay for data based on usage. The companies argued the surging growth in data traffic required expensive network upgrades, and unlimited plans prevented carriers from collecting more money as usage rose.

Like its rivals, AT&T says it may curb speeds for heaviest data users when there is network congestion. AT&T could impose limits after a subscriber uses more than 22 gigabytes of data in a billing cycle, the same level as Verizon. Sprint could limit speeds after 23 gigabytes; T-Mobile may after 28 gigabytes.

The plans begin Thursday and are open to new and existing customers.

Write to Thomas Gryta at thomas.gryta@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 27, 2017 08:01 ET (13:01 GMT)

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