NEW YORK, Feb 1 (Reuters) – AT&T; Inc, the No. 2 U.S.
mobile provider, on Saturday announced a price cut for customers
who share large data plans in its latest attempt to regain
ground lost to market leader Verizon Wireless and No. 4 U.S.
operator T-Mobile US.
In what the company called its “best-ever prices,” AT&T; said
a family of four can get unlimited talk and text with 10GB of
shared data for $160 a month. The discounts are available to any
customer, including small businesses with up to 10 lines, and
customers of other carriers who switch to AT&T.;
The cuts follow recent price adjustments at all four U.S.
wireless providers as they attempt to sustain growth in a mature
market built on stealing growth from competitors.
AT&T; and T-Mobile U.S. have been competing fiercely. After
T-Mobile spent several quarters directly marketing to AT&T;
customers, AT&T; recently offered to pay T-Mobile customers to
switch to its service.
As part of its new effort, AT&T;, for a limited time, is
offering new and existing customers a $100 credit for each new
line of service. While it does not have an ad Sunday’s Super
Bowl broadcast, the company plans to run existing advertising
the same day in hopes of generating interest in its plans.
For the fourth quarter, AT&T; reported 566,000 net additional
subscribers, missing Wall Street expectations and trailing
market leader Verizon Wireless, which had 1.6 million additional
subscribers, and T-Mobile U.S., which had 869,000.
