AT&T announced a new set of calling plans available Sunday that offer unlimited landline and mobile phone calls to other AT&T subscribers. AT&T's new Unity plans start at $100 a month with unlimited nights and weekends and 900 anytime minutes for mobile as well as unlimited local and long distance for landline service. The 900 mobile minutes are for calls to non-AT&T subscribers. AT&T hopes the new plans will also appeal to SMBs.
AT&T Unity plans do not include Cingular's Rollover service, once a mainstay of the carrier's offerings. Rollover plans allow customers to roll their unused monthly minutes into the next month for up to 12 months. AT&T spokesperson Mark Siegel explained: "With AT&T Unity, you don't get Rollover, but given the size of the calling circle (100 million Cingular Wireless and AT&T wireline customers) you really don't need Rollover." Analysts agree. Technology Business Research's John Byrne: "I never thought that Rollover was that big of a deal for most people, since they usually end up with a bucket of minutes that they're not going to need."
AT&T has already announced the gradual phasing out of the Cingular brand, and by the looks of this new Unity offering, I predict the end of Rollover in June. While AT&T would not confirm this speculation, taking away Rollover may prove to be an effective impetus for former Cingular subscribers to purchase a bundled Unity plan.
For more about AT&T's new Unity plan:
- check out this press release [1]
Links:
[1] http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=5097&cdvn=news&newsarticleid=23318