AT&T just announced that it will extend free 5G connectivity to customers with unlimited older plans for free starting this month.
Before today, if you bought a 5G phone – say, a iPhone 12– and you wanted to activate it in AT & T’s 5G network, you had to upgrade to one of the operator’s latest unlimited plans (AT&T Unlimited Starter, Unlimited Extra and Unlimited Elite). These plans include the ability to takeThe advantage of AT&T’s ultra-fast 5G millimeter-wave-based network, which the company points to with a 5G + icon, as opposed to ordinary 5G, which is slower than 5G + and 5G E, which is not 5G at all. It’s good, because you have to change your unlimited plan with another unlimited plan just to get into 5G doesn’t make sense.
Although it’s hard to say exactly when a particular customer will receive the 5G upgrade, AT&T says it will send a text to people notifying them when 5G is added to their plan. That being said, it’s important to remember that people will already need to have a 5G-capable device and be located in the area covered by AT & T’s 5G network.
Following the addition of 5G to older unlimited consumption plans, AT&T will also expand 5G support to older unlimited business plans, starting in April.
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While AT&T adding 5G support to older plans might seem like a small favor to those with older plans, the move seems almost a blow to Verizon, which announced earlier this week that it will exclude customers from its less expensive measured and unlimited plans from accessing mmWave 5G or 5G based on the C-band spectrum recently acquired by Verizon.
It is currently unclear whether AT&T will restrict 5G data after a certain point on those older unlimited plans, as they did not initially include prices for 5G. Gizmodo has contacted AT&T for clarification and we will update the story if we hear back.