AT&T Cuts Prices for Wireless Data Plan Customers

By Sinead Carew and Julie Steenhuysen

NEW YORK -- AT&T, the No. 2 U.S. mobile provider, has announced a price cut for customers who share large data plans in its latest attempt to regain ground lost to market leader Verizon Wireless and No. 4 U.S. operator T-Mobile US.

In what the company called Saturday its "best-ever prices," AT&T (T) said a family of four can get unlimited talk and text with 10GB of shared data for $160 a month. The discounts are available to any customer, %VIRTUAL-article-sponsoredlinks%including small businesses with up to 10 lines, and customers of other carriers who switch to AT&T.

The cuts follow recent price adjustments at all four U.S. wireless providers as they attempt to sustain growth in a mature market built on stealing growth from competitors.

AT&T and T-Mobile US (TMUS) have been competing fiercely. After T-Mobile spent several quarters directly marketing to AT&T customers, AT&T recently offered to pay T-Mobile customers to switch to its service.

As part of its new effort, AT&T, for a limited time, is offering new and existing customers a $100 credit for each new line of service.

For the fourth quarter, AT&T reported 566,000 net additional subscribers, missing Wall Street expectations and trailing market leader Verizon Wireless (VZ) (VOD), which had 1.6 million additional subscribers, and T-Mobile US, which had 869,000.