Bad news, AT&T subscribers: There’s a chance that your bill is about to get more expensive. Bloomberg reports that AT&T is raising the prices of some of its old mobile plans in an effort to make more money and push subscribers into signing up for newer plans. This is the first time that the prices of these plans have increased in three years.
According to Bloomberg, the prices are going up by $6 for single-line customers and $12 for customers on a family plan. AT&T reportedly told employees about the price hikes this week. The employees are now telling customers that they can switch to a new plan or call customer service. Affected customers will receive a bill message and an email. The carrier also told The Verge that the new prices will go into effect on June 1st.
AT&T is raising prices on older mobile plans
AT&T released the following statement on Tuesday: “We are encouraging our customers to explore our newer plans which offer many additional features, more flexibility for each line on their account and, in many cases, a lower monthly cost.”
AT&T’s spokesperson Seth Bloom told The Verge that the carrier doesn’t plan to post a full list of affected plans. That said, the messages that affected customers will receive “may indicate that the customer may be interested in one of our more current plans either to save on their monthly charge or get additional features for a slightly higher cost each month.”
How much does AT&T charge monthly?
At this point, you might be wondering whether or not your plan is getting more expensive. If so, be on the lookout for an email from AT&T. You might also want to start looking into other plans, especially considering that you might end up saving money.
AT&T currently offers three unlimited plans to customers. First is the Unlimited Starter plan, which costs $65 a month for a single line. It includes unlimited talk, text, and data, 5G access, ActiveArmor mobile security, SD streaming, and 3GB of hotspot data.
Next is the Unlimited Extra plan, which starts at $75 a month for one line. Beyond everything in the Starter plan, it offers 50GB of premium data and 15GB of hotspot data. Finally, the $85 Unlimited Elite plan features unlimited premium data and 40GB of hotspot data.
If you are planning to upgrade due to AT&T raising prices, these are the plans you’ll have to choose from. Wondering how AT&T is justifying these price hikes during a period of serious economic turmoil. Why, the answer is inflation, of course!
“You’ll probably start to see [price hikes] over the next several quarters, not just telecom—more broadly in the economy because of the patterns that we’re seeing,” AT&T CEO John Stankey told The Wall Street Journal in an interview last month.
