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AT&T Shared Data Tiers: Is It Worth the Cost?

By Laura Tucker

If there’s one bill we all dread seeing in our mailbox, it’s our wireless phone bill. It’s not a fun bill to pay, and it just increases and gets more monstrous with every device and/or service we add to it. Family plans are a necessity, especially if you have teenagers. Will anybody be excited to hear AT&T is offering more shared data tiers for several hundred dollars a month?

AT&T announced that they will now be offering shared data tiers in sizes of 30GB, 40GB, and 50GB. That’s a lot of data, considering the largest previous tier was just 20GB. If you’re worried the 20GB isn’t going to always be enough, before you jump in and opt for one of these larger tiers, take a look at the cost. $300 per month for the 30GB, $400 for the 40GB, and $500 for the 50GB.

AT&T-Phone

Pocket change, right? The money doesn’t stop there, either, as you still have to pay a surcharge for every device you add in the amount of $30. You can add up to ten devices on the plan, and considering some people have plans for their tablets or laptops, that can add up. Businesses can add even more devices.

Depending on what a family’s monthly bill and usage is, it may or may not seem worth it to opt for these big plans. I can’t see adding an additional $300 onto my phone bill. It’s bad enough as it is, and that’s with only one teenager using data. Teenagers use their cell phones for everything and most of that involves data. $300 would be better than being billed for all the data that goes over a small limit, but it’s still hard to even fathom.

AT&T-Data

Even for a business, that’s a lot of money to be spending every month, especially considering the economic climate we’re currently living in. It’s hard to imagine any business doing so well that they opt to spend another $300 to $500 every month so that their employees can use even more data on their company phones.

With that large of a price, no one is going to be opting for these large shared data plans “just in case.” If they’re committing to putting out that type of money every month, it’s because they know they are currently spending even more money than that on their data. And that’s just too frightening to even consider. How about you? Are you data bills so high that you will be considering one of these shared data plans from AT&T?

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Laura Tucker Avatar
Laura Tucker
Laura has spent more than 20 years writing news, reviews, and op-eds, with the majority of those years as an editor as well. She has exclusively used Apple products for the past 35 years. In addition to writing and editing at MTE, she also runs the site’s sponsored review program.

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