AT&T announces new Mobile Share Value plans, finally breaks out subsidy fee
Earlier this year T-Mobile launched their Un-Carrier strategy that is saving me a ton of money thanks to them charging just for service and breaking out the phone subsidy to give consumers the most flexibility and control over their wireless carrier plans.
All the other major carriers hide phone subsidies in their monthly fees and continue to charge these subsidies even if you already paid off the phone.
Today, AT&T joins T-Mobile by introducing their new Mobile Share Value plans that can save you $15 per month if you bring your own device, pay for the full price up front, or choose to use AT&T Next.
This is the way all US carriers should work and it is great to see AT&T acknowledging that T-Mobile got it right while becoming more consumer friendly.
These new plan options will be available starting this Sunday, 8 December. You will have the options to choose a new plan, but in most cases you will save money with them. Check out the helpful tables over on BGR that show you the cost savings you can realize, from $15 up to $135.
There may be some people whose fees could go up with these new plan offerings, but this is an elective option so if you are happy with your existing plan then it should continue for the foreseeable future.
I am a huge fan of giving the consumer control over their monthly plan and by breaking out the phone subsidy of $15 per month customers can now bring great low-cost devices like the Nexus 5 or Lumia series to AT&T without having to pay more than twice for the phone.
Will Verizon and Sprint soon get in on the no-subsidy action? Don't forget there are also fantastic options like Republic Wireless where you can save serious money each month and get great devices like the Moto X.
Related stories