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    AT&T is making its unlimited plan way more competitive

    AT&T is making its unlimited plan way more competitive

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    AT&T is rolling out a new unlimited plan this week that addresses some of its competitive deficiencies against Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint. A few weeks ago, AT&T joined the unlimited data party with a plan that, to be honest, wasn’t very good. It didn’t include any sort of tethering option and additional lines were pretty pricey.

    But the new one addresses those issues. Here’s the deal, and, as normal, it’s a little confusing: The first unlimited line is $90 per month, two lines are $145 per month, and then each additional line is an extra $20 per month. AT&T wireless customers who also subscribe to an AT&T video product (either DirecTV, DirecTV Now, or U-Verse TV) qualify for a $25 monthly bill credit on their DirecTV or U-Verse bill. It’s worth noting that the credit is not available if you have the introductory DirecTV Now promotion for $35 per month.

    10GB per line of LTE tethering

    The plan includes 10GB per line of tethering (slowed to a paltry 128Kbps after it’s exhausted) and, as before, after 22GB per line of data usage, AT&T may slow the data connection on that line if a particular tower is congested. Other devices, including tablets, mobile hotspots, and cars with Wi-Fi hotspots are $20 per month, while LTE-connected watches are $10 per month. Unlimited users are not required to use the throttled Stream Saver service that limits video streams to 480p.

    There’s also another, more lightweight plan, called Unlimited Choice that offers lower prices with lower speeds. Video is limited to 480p or 1.5Mbps, and overall data connections are maxed out at 3Mbps. Pricing starts at $60 per month for one line and $155 per month for four lines, with no discount for AT&T video subscribers.

    roam to canada and mexico for free

    Customers on both plans can also talk, text, and use data when traveling in Canada and Mexico for no additional charge, and calls to Canada and Mexico are free as well. International texts are free to more than 120 countries.

    The plan ends up pretty similar to the competition, with all the major carriers offering 10GB of LTE tethering and Verizon and AT&T have similar soft caps on data usage depending on how crowded towers are. Though AT&T’s first foray in the great unlimited data war of 2017 was a poor showing, this new offering (less than two weeks later) is much more compelling.

    Both unlimited plans become available to customers on Thursday.

    Update 12:20PM ET: Updated to note that the $25 bill credit is not available with AT&T’s DirecTV Now $35 promotion from last year.