AT&T cuts price of its unlimited data plans

2 new plans try to undercut rivals, keep customer base.

AT&T’s two new unlimited plans — one, a no-frills option and the other, a more expensive plan — will become available Thursday.

The fight over which cellphone carrier has the best unlimited data offering isn’t over. AT&T announced late Sunday that it is debuting two new unlimited plans this week — one, a no-frills option that tries to undercut its rivals on price; and the other, a more expensive plan with all the bells and whistles.

Both plans will become available Thursday.

The cheaper plan, Unlimited Choice, costs $60 per month for a single line (or $40 a line for a family of four), as long as you have autopay and paperless billing enabled. While that reflects a price cut over AT&T’s current unlimited plan ($100 for a single line or $45 a line for four), it does come with limitations.

Most importantly, the Unlimited Choice plan tops out at a maximum download speed of 3 MB. That’s fast enough for mobile browsing, email and other basic applications, but it means no high-definition video streaming; AT&T says videos will be limited to standard definition. And the plan also lacks the ability to extend your phone’s Internet connection to other devices, such as a PC or a tablet.

In comparison, T-Mobile and Verizon’s plans both offer high-definition streaming and 10 GB of mobile hotspot tethering as standard features in their unlimited plans, whereas AT&T Unlimited Choice does not. Sprint offers 5 GB of tethering data and restricts online video to SD quality, along with a few other limitations.

AT&T’s more expensive unlimited plan, Unlimited Plus, is essentially Unlimited Choice but allows for HD video streaming and includes 10 GB of tethering data. Once you use up the 10 GB of tethering, your speeds will be slowed. This package costs $90 a month for a single line or $46 a month for four. By that measure, AT&T’s price for a single line is still more expensive than that of any of its rivals, though the fourline price is comparable to Verizon’s. AT&T hasn’t given up trying to get consumers to buy cellphone and TV service as a bundled package. The company is dangling a discount of $25 a month on TV service if you sign up for both Unlimited Plus and one of AT&T’s television services.