If you’ve managed to hold onto your grandfathered unlimited data plan on AT&T for all these years, you’ve weathered quite a few storms. Most notably, you weren’t deterred when AT&T aggressively tried to force legacy unlimited data users off of their grandfathered plans by blocking Apple’s FaceTime feature when it launched. As we’re sure AT&T subscribers will recall, only tiered data plan holders were granted access to FaceTime.
Beyond that, you’ve enduring price increases as well, with the most recent one having hit just this past February. Well guess what: AT&T has confirmed that this coming March, just 13 months after the carrier’s last price hike, subscribers on grandfathered unlimited plans will once again see their data plans get more expensive.
Last week, a user on the DSLReports forum posted a note saying that he had received notice from AT&T about an upcoming price hike. According to the notice, a $5 monthly price increase would go into effect beginning in March 2017 for users on legacy unlimited data plans. Price hikes in general are difficult pills to swallow since smartphone plans are already so expensive, but this one would be particularly bitter since AT&T had just increased the cost of grandfathered unlimited data plans last February.
Well, DSLReports has now confirmed the news with AT&T.
“Our Mobile Share Advantage plans and our AT&T Unlimited Plan provide several benefits that our legacy unlimited plan doesn’t,” an AT&T spokesperson told the blog. “If you have a legacy unlimited data plan, you can keep it; however, beginning in March 2017, it will increase by $5 per month.”
AT&T has spent years trying to move grandfathered unlimited data plan holders off of their old plans and onto newer tiered plans. Then, following its DirecTV acquisition, the carrier introduced a new “AT&T Unlimited Plan” that offers unlimited data to wireless subscribers who also switch to DirecTV for pay TV service.
