AT&T & Verizon Shared Data Plans Compared

Comparing AT&T & Verizon Buckets of Data for Multiple Devices

AT&T requires customers to have at least one smartphone on a plan. Data bucket pricing is staggered at $40 for 1 gigabyte; $70 for 4 GB; $90 for 6 GB; $120 for 10 GB; $160 for 15 GB; and $200 for 20 GB. Adding a required smartphone runs $45 per device on the 1 GB plan; $40 on the 4 GB plan; $35 on the 6 GB plan; and $30 on the remaining plans. “Basic” and “messaging” devices, or those that are not considered smartphones, runs $30 per device; laptops, mobile hotspots, and wireless modems run $20 per device; and tablets and gaming devices run $10 per device.  AT&T includes access to 30,000 wifi hotspot locations with a plan like this.

In comparison, Verizon Wireless charges $50 per month for 1 GB of data; $60 for 2 GB; $70 for 4 GB; $80 for 6 GB; $90 for 8 GB; and $100 for 10 GB. For customers needing more, the carrier charges $10 for each additional 2 GB. Device pricing is at $40 for each smartphone; $30 for each “basic” phone; $20 for each wireless modem or hotspot device; and $10 per tablet.

Both carriers charge $15 per GB for data usage over the plan.  Both carriers also do not distinguish between 3G and LTE data received.  Slow or fast the pricing is exactly the same.

This still begs the question about why tethering costs are so high?  Tethering is still the easiest option if you have one 4G LTE device and it's very easy to do when you create a wifi hotspot.  This option is still the easiest and cheapest if you have T-Mobile.