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AT&T: Mobile Hotspot Service Costs $20 A Month
Company Raises Maximum Data Cap To 4GB To Allow For Multi-Device Use
AT&T today officially announced that users can now use select phones as hotspots -- if they pay AT&T an additional $20 a month. The company has also shifted their mobile data pricing accordingly, offering more data for those who pony up the cash for AT&T Mobile Hotspot. In addition to the usual tiers of $15 for 200MB and $25 for 2GB a month, AT&T's now offering users who tether and/or use the new hotspot functionality a pool of four gigabytes a month -- with each additional gigabyte still billed out a whopping $10 per gigabyte. The press release contains a very dim admission that a maximum 2GB of usage was an unreasonable limit for multiple device connection in the modern age:
quote:
"Our customers want to connect as many devices as possible to the nation's fastest mobile broadband network, which is getting faster with 4G," said David Christopher, chief marketing officer, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. "We want to extend the benefits of an additional 2GB to smartphone customers on our tethering plan. This delivers more value today for the price they're already paying – and that's what our customers want." Customers will receive a text message from AT&T – as soon as February 13 – once the additional 2GB has been auto-added to their plan.
Granted to get particularly excited about this news you have to ignore the fact that AT&T is charging you a $20 premium simply to use functionality embedded in smartphones by design, pretend that being charged $10 per gigabyte is a great value, and ignore the fact that many users can simply jailbreak their phones to avoid AT&T's "because we can" additional $20 monthly fee (assuming you're not usually exceeding 2GB a month of usage). Still, it's at least good news that AT&T's now offering users an increased total of 4GB a month before smacking you with the per-gig overage hammer.

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criggs
join:2000-07-14
New York, NY

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criggs

Member

AT & T: The Generosity Overwhelms Me

I am seriously awestruck by AT & T's extraordinary and totally unexpected generosity.

I could just s**t.