How competition from T-Mobile forced bigger carriers to offer “unlimited” data plans again, and how those plans compare
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge :
Context & Ripple Effects
The unlimited-data era ended years ago, but T-Mobile restarted it: its $70 unlimited high-speed plan launched in September 2016, with HD video gated behind a $25 surcharge. Before that, AT&T had only grudgingly restored unlimited for customers who also bought its TV service, via its DirecTV and U-verse bundle offer — a sign the bigger carriers saw unlimited as a retention tool, not a market-wide product.
Verizon's decision to bring back unlimited changed that calculus, and T-Mobile answered within days by adding HD video and 10GB of high-speed tethering to its own plan. This comparison piece matters because it marks the moment all three national carriers were once again selling nominally unlimited data — with the real differences buried in video quality and tethering terms.
First-order effects
- Verizon and AT&T subscribers can now switch to unlimited plans at any of the three major carriers, ending the situation where T-Mobile was the only realistic unlimited option.
- T-Mobile's differentiators — HD video and generous tethering — become the direct comparison points shoppers weigh against Verizon's and AT&T's new plans.
Second-order effects
- T-Mobile was forced into a rapid counter-upgrade within a week of Verizon's move, showing that any unlimited plan without HD video and tethering is now uncompetitive at the top tier.
- Video streaming quality and tethering allowances replace raw data caps as the pricing lever, letting carriers re-introduce tiering inside 'unlimited' plans rather than competing purely on price.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, unlimited becomes table stakes across the US market and carrier competition shifts permanently to feature gates — video resolution, hotspot limits, deprioritization thresholds — which regulators and consumer advocates will have to scrutinize because the restrictions are less visible than a hard cap.
- The episode reinforces T-Mobile's role as the price disruptor whose moves the larger carriers react to, a dynamic that has repeatedly reset industry pricing structure.
The trend: US wireless pricing is cycling back from metered data caps to unlimited plans, with hidden feature tiers like video quality and tethering emerging as the new battleground.