The telecommunication giant AT&T has been constantly making it to the news headlines with it’s announcements. And again, this huge mobile and residential phone service provider is in the news, but for different reasons.
The subject of this news is the very new unlimited plan recently introduced by the company, for its GoPhone customers. Let’s have a closer look at the matter!
The ‘Truly Unlimited’ Plan
“We’re excited to offer a truly unlimited plan for our AT&T GoPhone customers,” said Bob Bickerstaff the vice president of AT&T wireless voice and prepaid products.
“AT&T GoPhone customers now have even more flexibility to pick the plan that fits their needs as well as the perfect device from a selection of premium smartphones they really want”, he added.
The so-called ‘truly unlimited’ plan introduced by AT&T is specially introduced for the company’s GoPhone customers.
GoPhone is a contract-free postpaid and prepaid phone service provided by AT&T.
The plan will set you back $65 per month and if you sign up using AutoPay, the plan can be purchased for $60 per month – a $5 savings.
With this plan, GoPhone prepaid customers get unlimited calls, texting, and data. The maximum speed of the data is limited to just 3 Mbps, which is where the major problem starts.
The Problem
If you’re using the GoPhone prepaid phone service provided by AT&T and are planning on buying this new unlimited plan, think twice!
After buying the plan, all that you’ll receive is a snail-paced internet with a bungled video quality. Along with the data speed being limited to 3 Mbps, the GoPhone prepaid users have also been prohibited from using the mobile hotspot.
When it comes to watching videos, the data speed slows down even beyond the limit of 3 Mbps and the download speed is capped out to 1.5 Mbps. The plan also restricts the resolution of videos to just 480p, which is a great turn down for the users.
AT&T customers normally enjoy a 4G data speed of up to 13 Mbps which makes the current plan’s speed limitations quite contradictory.
AT&T has been excelling in the telecommunications industry for years, with its mobile and residential phone service. However, with the recent launch of this unlimited plan, the phone service provider has been surrounded by a number of questions and doubts by its GoPhone users.
The AT&T GoPhone customers can opt for another data plan that offers 6GB data per month at $40. However, the customers that are not using AutoPay will have to pay $45/month for the same plan.
This plan doesn’t restrict the data speed and the users can have easy access to HD videos with their prepaid phone service. The data speed is reduced to 128 kbps post the 6GB usage and there is no overage fee, post usage.
Final Thoughts
A similar unlimited plan at $90/month is available for the postpaid GoPhone customers. This plan comes without any speed limitations of the data and allows around 10 GB of high-speed hotspot and tethering. Thus, allowing the postpaid users to access high-speed internet without many limitations.
With the latest unlimited plan for prepaid and a better plan for the postpaid users, AT&T has somewhere shown an intention of inducing its customers to switch to the postpaid services.
Though the repute of the phone service provider has wavered a little with the limitations of the ‘truly unlimited’ plan, customers still have a number of other options to choose from.