AT&T Wireless Review: Is It Actually Worth the High Prices?

For all our mobile reviews, we give a rating based on four main criteria:

• Dollar value ↓
• Network coverage ↓
• Data performance ↓
• Customer service ↓

Then, we average the scores to make an overall score.

Here’s a quick overview of what you can expect from an AT&T Wireless cell phone plan:

Pros:

• Unlimited high-speed and premium data available
• Hotspot data included on every plan
• Unlimited talk, text, and data in Mexico and Canada on all plans
• Significant multi-line discounts on family plans
• Free phone deals and upgrades

Cons:

• Expensive starting prices for one line
• Deprioritized data on AT&T’s basic and mid-tier plans
• 4K UHD streaming only available on premium plan
• Some international perks only available on premium plan
• Poor customer service reputation

Similarly, Hannah tells me that her family had Verizon and still “struggled with coverage in Vernal, Utah,” a more rural city. Verizon is known to be the best network for those who live in more rural areas, so it made sense for her to switch to a carrier like AT&T when she started living in more urban areas like downtown Salt Lake City. She even says she has experienced less dead zones than when she had Verizon.

You’re paying a handsome monthly price for an AT&T Wireless plan, so it’s a good thing you get unlimited data on all three plans (well, almost unlimited).

AT&T Unlimited Starter (its most basic plan) gives you unlimited data, but it can be deprioritized and slowed down if the network is busy. You also get 5GB of hotspot data per line per month. That’s a decent amount, but it’s skimpy if you depend on your hotspot. Hannah has this plan and says she uses data quite a lot, rarely connecting to Wi-Fi. If you live off of your data too, then this plan seems like a perfectly fine choice.

AT&T’s mid-tier plan, Unlimited Extra, gives you 75GB of premium data before it slows you down. So that’s not truly unlimited. But the hotspot data jumps up to 30GB, which is a solid allotment. Between the premium and hotspot data, you could effortlessly live off your phone.

Finally, AT&T Unlimited Premium plan offers truly unlimited high-speed data that never slows down no matter how much you use—also called premium data (be aware that if there is a data cap on your premium data and you hit it, then you will experience slower speeds). This plan also gives you 60GB of hotspot data, which is double the amount of hotspot data from the previous plan. This premium plan is the only one that offers you 4K UHD streaming, whereas the rest only offer standard streaming. It is also the only plan that offers you unlimited talk, text, and high-speed data in 20 Latin American countries at no extra cost. Plus, if you add five lines to this premium plan, you can save $10 per month ($120 savings per year) per line. If you practically live off your phone (for work or leisure) and never ever want to worry about your data getting slowed down, this plan is the one you want.

As far as customer service goes, the real customers I spoke to didn’t have amazing things to say about AT&T’s customer service. Corey tells me that since she has one of the standard unlimited plans and her husband has the FirstNet plan, it’s so hard to log into their account that she has to go into a physical store every time. However, this could be more of an app issue. Hannah has a more positive outlook but still admits that customer service “hasn’t been able to help during outages.” Since Brianne’s plan is through her family plan, she hasn’t had much need to interact with customer service at all though she says getting her phone set up “was a pain.”

I took some time to scroll through Reddit forums and the headlines on multiple pages confirmed what I heard from real customers. Some of the standout words from the headlines included: Chaos, horrible, poor, and hate. But take heart! Cell phone carrier customer service isn’t usually sunshine and rainbows. It’s quite standard for mobile customer service to fall below expectations when serious problems arise.

On a positive note, when I went on the virtual chat on AT&T’s website, I was connected with an agent immediately. Typically, I’ve seen the other big carriers as well as prepaid carriers take their time connecting me to a real person (one prepaid carrier chat box informed me I was 37th in the virtual line). The AT&T person I spoke to was able to answer my questions about AT&T Wireless quickly and politely. No upsells.

At the very least, with AT&T you do have multiple customer service options: You can contact customer support through their online chat (through the website or your app), call a phone number, or visit an AT&T store in person like Corey.

AT&T Wireless is a formidable cell phone carrier. Everyone I interviewed thinks it’s absolutely worth the price. However, you have more options than you think when it comes to cell phone service.

T-Mobile, AT&T, and some popular prepaid carriers offer plans with less data, but are much more affordable. The truth is that not everyone needs unlimited data. If you connect to the Wi-Fi frequently, you may not even need as much as 10GB per month. See how AT&T compares to these carriers in terms of price and data.