Family Cell Phone Plans > AT&T Family Plan

AT&T Family Plan Reviewed

AT&T family plans offer great flexibility, with three different types of family plans. They offer the mLife Shared Plan, GSM America Local and GSM America National plan. All three AT&T family plan have similar features such as having tons of anytime minutes, mobile-to-mobile minutes and unlimited evening and weekend minutes for all the phones in the plan.

Mobile-to-mobile minutes can be used to call other AT&T phone users, even if they are not registered on your phone plan. Therefore if most of your family and friends use AT&T as their cell phone provider, then your plan members can save lots of minutes.

The mLife Shared Plan is the only plan of the three to includes 2 lines in their monthly fee. It is also the only one that uses the older TDMA digital network while the Local and National GSM America plans use the GSM network. Through a GSM network you will receive stronger reception and have a greater coverage area. If you already have a phone that you are planning to use for your family plan, check to make sure that the phone matches up with the technology. Their family plans includes long distance within the corresponding network but for the two local plans an additional $0.69 per minute is charged for roaming.

For busy travelers and businesses the GSM America National plan offers no extra roaming charges for all calls placed anywhere on the AT&T network. That comes with a slightly higher cost per minute for the lower end plans but cost the same as the local GSM plan for higher end plans. On the other hand with the Family Local plan, free long distance calls are available only if you call within your home service area. Another new thing is that national plans under $50, costs $20 per additional line and the higher plans cost only $10 per extra line. This means that the 600 and 900 anytime minutes plan, both cost $70 per month for 2 lines. To find out what's the best deal for your situation, just use our compare table (click "Plan Name" to sort table).

These AT&T cell phone plans are perfect for businesses as they can capitalize on the no charge long distance savings and the extensive coverage area. Although, they recently changed back the additional line cost to $20 each for the lower plans (as of August 2004, it was at the $10 rate a few months ago). Due to this change, the plans with a base price of $59.99 and up are considerably more attractive. They are also offering unlimited mobile to mobile with 2 year contracts as a bonus. Overall, this plan is suitable for both family and small businesses, which complements the flexibility of AT&T's family plan.

The down side of their service is the frequent complaints of inadequate customer service and bad call quality in certain areas. So before committing to any long term contracts it is always better to find out how's the coverage in your area. Try asking someone who's currently using AT&T Wireless about their experience. This is usually a good indicator of whether there are any problems in your area.

Overall Rating for this plan: 4/5

To check availability and learn more about AT&T's Family Plan click here

Here is a summary of their plans...

*As of August 2004, additional lines are $10 for $59.99 plans and above, and $20 for lower plans. Current promotion is unlimited mobile-to-mobile with 2 year contracts.

AT&T mLife Shared Plan

*The only AT&T plan with the first 2 lines included

Provider

Monthly Fee

Anytime Minutes

Evening/Weekend Minutes

Mobile to Mobile Minutes

$59.99	500	Unlimited	1000
$89.99	1000	Unlimied	1500
$119.99	1500	Unlimited	2000

AT&T Shareable GSM America Local

If your considering the $74.99 or $99.99 plans, we would recommend the national GSM plans instead. It would cost the exact same monthly charge while you don't have to pay roaming fees for the national plans.

Provider

Monthly Fee

Anytime Minutes

Evening/Weekend Minutes

Mobile to Mobile Minutes