AT&T continues to see elevated customer losses in its wireless business, despite recent efforts to reverse this trend. As the carrier navigates rising competition, it is dropping a new phone plan to keep price-sensitive customers from switching wireless providers.
In recent months, AT&T has been switching up its wireless options to gain a leg up on rivals. For example, the company recently doubled down on expanding its bundled phone and internet offers to customers after completing its $5.75 billion acquisition of Lumen’s Mass Markets fiber business in February.
By March, AT&T launched three new phone plans: AT&T Value 2.0, AT&T Extra 2.0 and AT&T Premium 2.0, which offer customers a single line for a starting monthly price of $50, $70, and $90, respectively. The company stated that these new plans offer “real value.”
Later that month, AT&T introduced its OneConnect subscription, offering customers combined wireless and fiber internet service at a starting rate of $90 per month.
After rolling out these changes, AT&T saw its postpaid phone churn, the percentage of customers who ended their service, hit 0.89% in the first quarter of 2026, according to the company’s latest earnings report. This is up from the 0.83% churn it reported for the same quarter in 2025.
More consumers in the wireless market have been switching to carriers that offer more deals and affordable prices as they face high monthly bills. A WhistleOut survey in December found that AT&T risks losing 69.4 million customers due to high phone plan prices.
Given this reality, AT&T’s decision in March to raise prices for “retired unlimited plans” by $10 to $20 (depending on the number of lines) in April may have pushed some customers out the door, contributing to higher churn in the first quarter.
AT&T introduces new phone plan amid customer losses
Amid recent customer losses, AT&T is hoping a new “customizable” phone plan will help curb this trend.
On May 27, AT&T is rolling out its new phone plan, Build-A-Plan, which “gives customers the ability to personalize their wireless plan to match their needs and their budget,” according to a recent press release.
The plan starts at $15 per month and includes unlimited talk and text, plus 1 GB of data. Customers can add more data and hotspot features to the plan for an extra monthly fee.
Related: AT&T CEO hopes new offers will restore customer loyalty
If customers want to add 5GB of data to the plan, it will be an extra $5 a month. For 15 GB, it is an additional $10 a month, while unlimited data with SD is $20, and unlimited data with UHD is $35.
For added hotspot data, 5 GB costs $5 per month, 25 GB costs $15, and 50 GB costs $20.
“Customers want plans that fit their lives,” said Jenifer Robertson, an executive vice president at AT&T, in the press release. “Other carriers offer structured, one-size-fits-all plans bundled with extra services that customers aren’t asking for while calling it ‘savings.’”
“By giving our customers the freedom to tailor their wireless service month to month, we are giving them an affordable way to connect to America’s largest wireless network and still control their budget,” she continued.
AT&T’s latest move reflects growing pressure in the wireless market
The move from AT&T comes after a recent survey from Oxio found that 79% of consumers value affordable pricing the most from a wireless provider, while 23% said the ability to customize their phone plan is the most important.
In a press release, Oxio CEO Nicolas Girard said that consumers are “not passively renewing mobile plans.”
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“They are actively evaluating them, comparing value, scrutinizing pricing, and reassessing providers more frequently,” he said.
AT&T’s decision to focus more on affordable phone plan pricing comes as more wireless carriers have been cutting prices to boost customer loyalty, according to data from Cita in April.
How wireless pricing trends have evolved for U.S. consumers:
- Unlimited wireless service plans declined by more than 10% in 2025, marking a total drop of roughly 35% over the past five years.
- The average wireless bill accounts for 1.7% of total U.S. consumer spending, a share that has fallen by over 15% since 2020.
- Prepaid mobile plans also became cheaper, dropping by 2.6% last year and by over 51% over the last five years.
- The cost per gigabyte of mobile data fell by more than 21% last year.
- According to Consumer Price Index (CPI) data, the real cost of wireless services declined6.6% last year, extending a decade-long decrease of more than 41%.
Source: Ctia
Wireless pricing trends and network investment are being pointed to as evidence of a long-term industry shift, Ctia CEO Ajit Pai said in a statement.
“Wireless is one of the great consumer success stories of our time,” said Pai. “Prices are down, speeds are up, and the value Americans get from their wireless service has never been greater.”
Pai also tied those improvements to market competition and infrastructure spending.
“That’s the result of a competitive market and continued private investment in world-class networks, and it’s exactly why policies that support infrastructure deployment, licensed spectrum access, and competition are so important,” he continued.
Related: T-Mobile customers set to receive a significant network upgrade
