Bonus 1 GB of LTE Data for AT&T GoPhone Prepaid Customers

AT&T GoPhone prepaid customers are going to receive an extra 1GB of LTE data. It puts AT&T in a better position with its competitors, Verizon and T-Mobile.

Another competitive strategy of AT&T Mobility floated is the data allotment for select GoPhone rate plans.

Starting from May 27, GoPhone customers are going to get extra LTE data access. Customers on the $45 plan are going to get 3 GB and those on the $60 plan are going to get an extra 6 GB per month. The ability to rollover unused data for one month will remain in place. Those with the $60 plan get the privilege of access to their data allotment when traveling in Canada and Mexico. There is no change in the basic $30 per month GoPhone plan.

All the GoPhone plans include unlimited voice calling and text messaging service in the US, Canada and Mexico. Customers who sign up for an automatic payment service are going to get a $5 per month credit for $45 and $60 per month plans.

AT&T witnessed a vigorous prepaid customer growth in the first quarter with 500,000 direct net additions through its Cricket Wireless and GoPhone platforms.

On top of the $45 and $60 per month plans, GoPhone service included unlimited calls to landline phones in the Dominican Republic and 10 cents per minute rates for calls to mobile devices for a $5 per month fee during the earlier part of this year.

The recent GoPhone move seems to be an answer to the latest advancements of competitors Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile US.

Verizon Wireless, a wholly owned subsidiary of Verizon Communications made some recent advancements. Starting from May 15, smartphone-based prepaid plans will include three tiers priced at $30, $45 and $60 per month. The entry level plan will offers unlimited domestic calling, unlimited text messaging across North America and a reliance on Wi-Fi for data. For customers signing up for an Auto Pay service, the $45 per month plan offers three gigabytes of cellular data, or 2 GB without. For $60 per month, data up to 6 GB with Auto Pay, 5 GB without and unlimited calling from the U.S. to Mexico and Canada. Alterations to $45 and $60 per month plans were initially floated just for promotions, but were later made permanent. An offer providing unlimited calling from the U.S. to Mexico and Canada on the $60 plan came as a new addition to the plan.

“We’re really not competitive in that environment for a whole host of reasons,” stated Shammo. “And it’s because we have to make sure that we don’t migrate our high quality postpaid base over to a prepaid product. If you look at the competitive nature, they’re doing it with sub-brands. They’re not really doing it with their brands. And quite honestly we use the TracFone brand as our prepaid product. And TracFone has been extremely successful for us. It’s not something that we disclose any more on reseller. But it continues to increase on the high quality base of TracFone. So that’s really where we use and go after the prepaid market.” 

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T-Mobile US is also not behind in the race. A new multiline promotion was unveiled last month. It includes targeting customers porting their lines in from a rival carrier. The offer includes unlimited domestic voice calling, text messaging and six gigabytes of LTE data per line for $30 per month for up to five lines of service. In order to get 6 GB of data, customers must port their number in from another wireless carrier, otherwise they only receive 3 GB LTE data for the $30 per month price.