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AT&T has announced it will mirror Verizon by introducing shared data plans that cover an entire household. It’s not only copied the pricing concept, but the actual charges are suspiciously similar.

If there’s anyone who was in any doubt about the US cellphone market being an oligopoly, the new Mobile Share plans should settle the question: they are an almost exact mirror of Verizon’s Share Everything.


As with Verizon, AT&T’s new plan has a two-part fee structure: one fee that gives unlimited calls and texts plus a fixed amount of data, to be shared across all handsets on the plan; and then a separate fee for each device. The only real difference is that the per handset fee for smartphones depends on the data deal chosen, unlike Verizon where it’s fixed.

To compare than plans in full:

Tablets are $10 a month on AT&T and $10 a month on Verizon.
Laptops are $20 a month on AT&T and $20 a month on Verizon.
Feature phones are $30 a month on AT&T and $30 a month on Verizon.
Smartphones range from $45 a month (on a 1GB deal) to $30 a month on AT&T and a fixed $40 a month on Verizon.

The data component is $40 for 1GB/$70 for 4GB/$90 for 6GB/$120 for 10GB/$160 for 15GB and $200 for 20GB on AT&T and $50 for 1GB, $60 for 2GB, $70 for 4GB, $80 for 6 GB, $90 for 8GB or $100 for 10GB on Verizon.

To give an example of how that works out, if you’re in a two smartphone household, the 1GB, 4GB and 6GB deals work out as exactly the same overall cost on both networks. In fact for most combinations of devices and data, it’s not until you start to get to the 10GB a month range that choosing one network over the other will make for any significant savings.

As for whether the new shared data deals work out cheaper than existing per-device plans, Wired crunched the numbers and reckons that in some cases they’ll offer better value (in that you can use your phone more if you want to), but it’s hard to see a case where anyone’s bill is going to drop.

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