- AT&T debuts Build-A-Plan with a $15 monthly starting price
- New customizable wireless plan lets customers add data and hotspot features as needed
- AT&T is targeting price-conscious new users with this month-to-month offer
AT&T this week unveiled its new Build-A-Plan wireless offer, starting at $15/month, where customers can adjust their mobile and hotspot data to fit their needs on a month-to-month basis.
The plan doesn’t come with all the bells and whistles that many high-end plans offer, which is the point. Not everyone wants the myriad perks associated with premium plans.
According to AT&T, Build-A-Plan is designed to give users more choice, control and value, which is especially important given the price of gas and everything else these days.
The $15 base plan includes unlimited talk, text and 1 GB of data. For an additional $5 a month, customers can add 5 GB of data, or they can spend another $35 for unlimited data with 4K video. Hot spot data of up to 50 GB can be added for an additional $20 a month.
Initially, the single-line plan is for new customers only. An AT&T spokesperson said the goal is to expand it to more customers over time but initially they want to gather insights on how people customize their plans.
Build-A-Plan is available starting May 27. Customers must bring an unlocked, eSIM-capable phone.
AT&T’s plan is similar to MVNOs
On the surface, AT&T’s Build-A-Plan isn’t that unusual, as there are plenty of prepaid MVNOs offering 1 GB of data and unlimited voice/texts for $15/month or less, said Jeff Moore, principal of Wave7 Research.
MobileX, a Verizon MVNO, offers highly customizable plans through its home-grown AI forecasting tool that predicts usage with the goal of charging customers only for what they actually need, Moore said. (MobileX CEO Peter Adderton pointed out on social media that AT&T’s new offer basically copies what his firm has been doing.)
Consumer Cellular, an MVNO that uses AT&T’s network, offers flexible plans that start at $20/month for 1 GB. Its customers tend to be older and have less of a need for mobile data, so it makes sense.
Yet another MVNO with a Build Your Own Plan is Tello Mobile, which uses T-Mobile’s network.
How AT&T’s approach is different
AT&T’s Build-A-Plan is novel in the sense that it’s being brought forward by a facilities-based carrier with a national presence and more than 5,000 retail stores, Moore said.
“I think it is positive for AT&T and it does represent the reality that not everyone needs unlimited data,” he told Fierce.
“Build-A-Plan subsumes the reality that text messaging and voice minutes have long since gone by the wayside as a market reality. This was an issue in 2008, but not today. The customizable elements are mobile data and hotspot data and this is far more in line with market reality in 2026,” Moore said.
The challenge for AT&T is to use Build-A-Plan to win more customers without bringing down ARPU, he noted.
“One thing we at Wave7 Research will be watching for is the execution,” he said. “How strongly will AT&T push this offering via advertising, at retail, and via social media? We will monitor.”