It had been rumored for a few weeks, and today it became official. AT&T has announced that it is rebranding it's GoPhone brand to "AT&T Prepaid." The changeover will go live on July 14th.
Despite getting a new name, AT&T will be keeping the same rates for its new Prepaid plans as it had under the GoPhone name.
AT&T's prepaid plans will continue to include the following:
- $35/month ($30 with auto pay) - unlimited talk, text, and data with the first 1 GB at full 4G LTE data speeds.
- $45/month ($40 with auto pay) - unlimited talk, text and data with the first 6 GB at full 4G LTE data speeds. Also includes full service roaming while in Mexico and Canada, and international text messaging.
- $65/month ($60 with auto pay) - unlimited talk, text and LTE data limited to 3 Mbps with video streams limited to 1.5 Mbps. After 22 GB of data gets consumed in a month, speeds may temporarily slowed further during times of network congestion. Also includes full service roaming while in Mexico and Canada as well as international text messaging.
Taxes and fees are not included with any plan, and will cost extra and will vary based on your location.
As part of the rebranding, AT&T is also giving away two months of free service of either the $45 or $65 plan with the caveat that you must stay with the service for a full 12 months. AT&T has structured the promotion such that those with the plan will get account credits on their 3rd and 12th months of service, making those two months free.
Check out AT&T's new prepaid brand
For the time being, with the promotional credits, AT&T's $45 Prepaid plan would look to be one of the better deals around. You can see for yourself by comparing the $45 plan with plans from other prepaid providers that use AT&T's network.
AT&T hasn't stated why it has rebranded its GoPhone line other than to say that "prepaid is becoming the most competitive category in wireless." I surmise having the name AT&T Prepaid as a product makes it more clear to new customers what type of phone service it is as opposed to the non descriptive GoPhone name.