Reprinted from TidBITS by permission; reuse governed by Creative Commons license BY-NC-ND 3.0. TidBITS has offered years of thoughtful commentary on Apple and Internet topics. For free email subscriptions and access to the entire TidBITS archive, visit http://www.tidbits.com/ AT&T's New Cell Plans Eliminate Data Overage Fees Josh Centers AT&T has announced a set of new wireless plans, called [1]Mobile Share Advantage, that eliminate the $15 per gigabyte data overage fees. Instead, when you reach your data cap, your speed will be reduced to a maximum of 128 Kbps for the rest of your billing cycle. That's painfully slow, but at least you won't have surprise data charges on your bill. It's unclear if those who find the speed reduction problematic will have the option to purchase more data, or if you'll have to jump to the next highest plan temporarily. AT&T will make the plans available on 21 August 2016. Although AT&T hasn't said anything to this effect, generally speaking, you must explicitly switch to one of the new plans to take advantage of it; AT&T doesn't usually switch you automatically. Here's a list of the new data caps and monthly costs: * 1 GB: $30 * 3 GB: $40 * 6 GB: $60 * 10 GB: $80 * 16 GB: $90 * 25 GB: $110 * 30 GB: $135 AT&T will also offer tiers with 40 to 100 GB of data per month, but it didn't specify pricing. All plans include Rollover Data (unused data in one month remains available for the next), support for iOS's Personal Hotspot, unlimited domestic talking and texting, and unlimited texting to 120+ countries. The 10 GB and higher plans also include unlimited talking and texting with Mexico and Canada, as well as free roaming in Mexico. You can add up to 10 devices on one plan. All Mobile Share Advantage plans require a per-device access charge of $10'$40 per month, but AT&T has simplified these fees as well. With Mobile Share Advantage plans, all contract-free smartphones on non-business plans will have a $20-per-month access charge. Smartphones still under 2-year contracts retain the $40-per-month access charge. It's likely that the new Mobile Share Advantage plans will either save you money or provide more data for roughly the same amount that you're paying now. To determine the specific details for your situation, call AT&T or visit an AT&T store. References 1. http://about.att.com/story/att_introduces_mobile_share_advantage.html .