The move was seen as a way for the wireless carrier to expand its offerings and activities to attract customers in the exceedingly competitive wireless space. AT&T acquired DirecTV last year for $49 billion.

Regardless, unlimited data plans have been on life support for years with no signs of staging a comeback.ĪT&T's decision Monday, therefore, is somewhat surprising, but perhaps illustrates why the company had interest in DirecTV in the first place. Carriers, however, say that heavy data users are just a small fraction of their customer base and the tiered plans do not negatively impact their customers. Like the recent disintegration of two-year contracts, they argue that eliminating unlimited data plans is self-serving and not nearly as beneficial to consumers as the companies argue. Still, the move to limit data usage has come under fire from critics who argue customers should be able to consume as much data as they'd like. Its competitors, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint, have similarly made it far less cost-effective to be an unlimited plan holder, ultimately leading to many switching to cheaper tiered data plans. Indeed, it was AT&T in November that announced it would increase its monthly fee on grandfathered unlimited data plan holders from $30 per month to $35. Meanwhile, carriers have largely abandoned unlimited data and have tried to oust those who are grandfathered in to such plans.

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