Using an old AT&T wireless plan? You’ll see a hike in your bill going forward.
Joseph Maldonado/CNET
More AT&T customers are about to see a price increase on their wireless phone bills starting this week.
In April, long-term customers hanging onto old phone plans learned they would see mandatory monthly surcharges added to their bills. Now, the pool of affected subscribers has expanded, with the charges coming in August to people who activated plans as recently as November.
On a support page that went live when it announced its revamped “2.0” unlimited phone plans, the carrier revealed that the prices of its “retired” unlimited wireless plans — the ones that customers who haven’t upgraded are still using — would go up by as much as $20 starting in April.
Originally, it applied to plans activated before July 24, 2025. Now, the support page includes a notice that the fees will also apply to plans between July 24 and Nov. 1, 2025. That includes Unlimited Premium PL, Unlimited Extra EL and Value Plus VL plans.
Making sense of the hiked prices
AT&T implemented two price changes. If your account with a “retired” plan has a single line, the price went up $10. If you have two or more lines on an account, the price increase was capped at $20 for the account.
Perhaps to offset the sting, affected plans get an extra 20GB of high-speed hotspot data each month.
However, not everyone is seeing the same deal.
As an AT&T mobile plan subscriber myself, when I signed into my own AT&T account to compare options, I was directed to a different support page that said prices would go up $5 per smartphone line. For hotspot, AT&T added 10GB of extra high-speed data — presumably to each line, but that’s not specified. The page reads, “Starting in August 2026, accounts with wireless lines that didn’t have an increase in April and activated or moved to an affected plan between July 24, 2025 and November 1, 2025 will now see the price change on your bill.”
There’s also a third support article for customers on retired Mobile Share plans. If your plan includes less than 6GB of data, the price increased $5 per month. If it’s a plan with more than 6GB per month, the price increases by $10 per month.
Based on those articles, the following plans are subject to the added fees:
- AT&T Unlimited Plus, AT&T Unlimited Choice, AT&T Unlimited Choice II
- AT&T Unlimited Plus Enhanced, AT&T Unlimited Choice Enhanced
- AT&T Unlimited &More, AT&T Unlimited &More Premium
- AT&T Unlimited Plan (Double Play)
- AT&T Unlimited Starter SL, Unlimited Extra EL, Unlimited Premium PL
- AT&T Unlimited Starter, Unlimited Extra, Unlimited Premium
- AT&T Mobile Share Value, Mobile Share Value – Double Data
- AT&T Mobile Share Plus
- AT&T Mobile Share Advantage
As for why the prices are going up, AT&T’s support pages read, “This change helps us continue providing reliable network service, quality products, and great customer experiences.”
In an earlier statement to CNET, an AT&T spokesperson said, “We recognize that any price increase matters to our customers and their budgets. This increase reflects the real cost of continuing to deliver the speed, reliability and support our customers expect every day.”
AT&T maintains that its new plans are priced competitively with other carriers’ plans and “better aligned with how our customers use our services.”
When the increases were first announced, they applied only to wireless plans activated prior to July 24, 2025, according to the support note posted at the time. That included legacy plans, not just the recently discontinued plans that the 2.0 plans replace.
The increases make it worth comparing prices between holding onto an existing plan and switching to the new plans. For example, the first change makes the Premium 2.0 plan more appealing. When it was announced, the Premium 2.0 plan was more expensive than the older Unlimited Premium PL plan: $90 per month for a single line instead of $86, or $220 per month for four lines instead of $204. With the new price increase, the Unlimited Premium PL plan will cost $96 per month for a single line and $240 per month for four lines.
AT&T isn’t the only one to take actions to encourage subscribers to move up to current plans. T-Mobile took a more drastic approach by automatically forcing thousands of customers on legacy plans onto its latest plans.
And this year has seen a lot of change in pricing among all the carriers. After Verizon replaced its CEO, it dropped prices across the board to be more competitive, and then introduced a new Simplicity plan. T-Mobile introduced a new limited-time Better Value plan priced similarly to its Experience More plan but with more perks intended to appeal to families.
If AT&T’s increases prompt you to shop around, we have recommendations for the best cellphone plan and the best unlimited data plan, as well as a comparison of AT&T and Verizon plans.
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