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AT&T has announced a major upgrade for its top-tier unlimited plan Unlimited Elite at no added cost. The company is removing high-speed data throttling, increasing mobile hotspot allowance, and boosting cellular streaming video resolution.
Starting this week, all AT&T Unlimited Elite customers will get access to unlimited high-speed data. So you’ll always enjoy the same internet speed without any slowdown. Earlier, users were subject to data deprioritization once they hit 100GB of data in the current billing month. To better facilitate the new norm of remote connections, the company is also increasing the mobile hotspot data allowance from 30GB to 40GB.
The AT&T Unlimited Elite plan already comes with HBO Max included. And with the latest upgrade, you can now stream the shows and movies in 4K UHD resolution where available. That’s also a major boost from a maximum of 1080p cellular streaming video resolution it offered earlier. If you don’t already know, AT&T owns HBO Max via its WarnerMedia subsidiary, at least until the latter is spun off and merged with Discovery next year.
Last but not least, the company is also urging users to download the AT&T Mobile Security app, which is available for free in the app stores. The app enables “ActiveArmor advanced security features” like identity monitoring and safe browsing. The AT&T Unlimited Elite plan already comes with “24/7 network security features including automatic fraud call blocking and suspected spam risk alerts.”
All the latest changes will roll out to eligible AT&T subscribers automatically starting this week. Users don’t need to do anything on their side.
These changes are seemingly a response to T-Mobile’s Magenta Max plan
If you recall, T-Mobile announced a new top-tier unlimited plan called Magenta Max in February this year. AT&T is now matching that feature-by-feature with the latest upgrade for its Unlimited Elite plan. Both plans cost $85 per month for a single line, offer unlimited high-speed cellular data, 40GB of hotspot data, and 4K video streaming. Magenta Max comes with Netflix included but the streaming resolution is capped at SD for a single line and HD for two or more lines. So that’s an area where AT&T is winning.
However, T-Mobile’s offering comes slightly cheaper if you subscribe on multiple lines. AT&T Unlimited Elite costs $200 per month on four lines. T-Mobile Magenta Max, meanwhile, costs $170 per month for the same number of lines.
Nonetheless, T-Mobile’s move to remove high-speed data caps has seemingly forced AT&T to do the same. The onus is now on Verizon to match the competition.