AT&T Fiber Increased Prices for Customers for the First Time in Years
AT&T raised their Fiber Internet plan price last November by $5. The price increase, disappointingly, came very quietly. It took me a few months to even notice the change on my bill. There were no alerts or email notifications, to the best of my knowledge (I went back in my email to check). The best I was able to find was this AT&T website article.
Here’s a breakdown of the AT&T Fiber price increases, per plan:
| AT&T Fiber Plan: | Before Recent Price Increase: | After Recent Price Increase: |
|---|---|---|
| Internet 300 | $55/month | $60/month |
| Internet 500 | $65/month | $70/month |
| Internet 1 GIG | $80/month | $85/month |
| Internet 2 GIG | $145/month | $150/month |
| Internet 5 GIG | $245/month | $250/month |
Note: prices listed above are after $10/month Autopay & Paperless bill discounts, with a debit card or bank account as payment. If using a credit card, the price is an added $5/month. Equipment (modem/router) is included in AT&T’s pricing, so there is no ability to reduce/negotiate away the fee there, as you can with some ISPs.
I am personally enrolled in the AT&T Internet 300Mbps Fiber plan, and the monthly plan price (after the $10 autopay and debit card discount) had increased to $60, up from $55 previously. I have been on this plan at that price since early 2022, and this is the first price increase I have seen. One thing I’ve appreciated about AT&T Fiber was the price transparency and consistency, particularly in comparison to Comcast Xfinity, whom I had switched from due to their wild price increases after welcome offers. After AT&T Fiber came to our neighborhood, I made the switch not long after.
One $5 price increase in 3 years? Not horrible, but we don’t take price increases laying down over here.
My AT&T Fiber Price Negotiation & History with Comcast Xfinity
I used to successfully negotiate lower prices with Xfinity and find other ways to lower Comcast bills (including getting rid of the Xfinity modem rental fee by replacing an Xfinity modem with my own after many years of modem rental fee price increases and replacing their TV box fee using my own streaming device). Having a 2nd ISP in our neighborhood was like the clouds parting and the sun shining down for the first time in many years – I no longer had to to cross my fingers and hope that whatever rep I was speaking didn’t have actual data on Xfinity’s competition (or lack thereof) in my neighborhood.
With <gasp> 2 ISPs (I know, a true end-stage capitalistic “luxury”, right?), my plan was to switch to Fiber and should any price increases come my way, switch back to Xfinity for whatever their discounted welcome period was, then switch back again. Wash, rinse, repeat – no need to even kiss the ISP ring and hope for a friendly, empowered CSR negotiation.
Given that this was AT&T’s first price increase in 3 years, however, I decided to give them a chance at redemption (even though I was ticked off at the silent price increase – shame on you, AT&T). And, it succeeded. Here’s my script…
AT&T Fiber Price Negotiation Script
- CSR: Hi – welcome to AT&T, how may I help you today?
- GE: Hi – I noticed my price was increased, I didn’t receive any notification that this would be happening.
- CSR: Yes, prices were increased in November.
- GE: Can you do anything to lower my price?
- CSR: Let me look into this for you… Have you considered switching your mobile phone to AT&T Mobile? That could result in a $20/month bundling discount for you.
- GE: No, I’m happy where I’m at. Anything else you can do to help?
- CSR: No, that is the best offer that I am seeing.
- GE: OK, I will go ahead and cancel my service then.
- CSR: Let me look into if I can do anything further, please hold on… OK, it looks like I am able to give you the price of $55/month. Will that work for you? <GE Note: this was my prior price that I was OK with>
- GE: OK, let’s move forward with that.
Success. Once again, give them a chance to help, then good ole ‘threatening to cancel’ as a strategy pays off. And, yeah, it’s just $5/month savings (roughly 10%), but that adds up over the years. If AT&T tries to increase my price again, I’ll try the same, and if they don’t oblige, it’s back to Plan B (actually canceling and switching service to take advantage of new customer welcome offers).