AT&T Mobility alters GoPhone pricing

AT&T Mobility (T) is set to re-jigger its no-contract GoPhone offering to make it more competitive in the increasingly competitive prepaid space as well as better align daily and monthly plans.
The nation’s second largest carrier said beginning Oct. 3 it will begin offering unlimited talk and text services for $2 per day, with customers only paying for the service on days they either place a call or send or receive a text message. The carrier’s current per-day GoPhone offering is split between a $1 plan that provides for unlimited on-network calling and charges 10 cents per minute for off-network voice calls; and a $3 per day plan that includes unlimited calling, but not text messaging.
If used every day, the new daily plan will come in at the same price point of its monthly plan that charges $60 per month for unlimited voice calls and text messages. For that plan AT&T Mobility will be adding the ability for customers to add 200 megabytes of data transmission for $15 per month. The rate is similar to what the carrier charges for its recently introduced tiered data service on postpaid plans.
Verizon Wireless earlier this month said it would begin allowing customers to add data packages to their prepaid rate plans beginning Sept. 28. The plans included 25 megabytes of data access for $30 per month on “3G Smartphones” and $10 per month for “3G Multimedia phones.”
Rounding out the GoPhone changes, AT&T Mobility cut its traditional pay-as-you-go calling rate from 25 cents per minute to 10 cents per minute. The new rate better aligns the carrier’s offering with competing services from other nationwide operators.
AT&T Mobility earlier this month unveiled prepaid mobile broadband plans geared toward customers using wireless modem cards or embedded laptops.