Xfinity Mobile is about to make some adjustments to its mobile phone plan pricing structure according to a leaked document posted on Reddit (Update - the plans went live on 8/1/2019). Xfinity Mobile is calling the new plans "Second Generation" plans while the original plans are referred to as "First Generation." A major change occurring with the Second Generation plans is that customers will be forced to pick a data plan. Currently, Xfinity Mobile offers customers 100MB of free shared data each month and free unlimited talk and text for up to 5 lines. Customers will no longer be offered 100MB of free data under the new plans.
Xfinity Mobile's Second Generation Phone Plans Highlighted And Compared
Xfinity Mobile's By the Gig plans are currently priced such that customers pay $12 per GB of shared data consumed. A $45/line per month "unlimited" data plan is also offered. Xfinity Mobile considers 20GB of LTE data to be unlimited before data throttling kicks in.
The new Second Generation plans will also start at a rate of $12 for a GB of shared data, however, there are some new plan options available. The new By the Gig plan options are as follows:
- 3GB shared data - $30/month
- 10GB shared data - $60/month
The document says additional shared data is billed at a rate of $12/GB. It seems customers will now have to choose a By the Gig data allotment that they'd like to start out with, either 1GB, 3GB, or 10GB. The $12 per additional GB of data is billed on top of those base rates. The $45 Unlimited plan remains mostly the same, however, Xfinity Mobile seems to have made a change to how data speeds are handled for both the By the Gig and Unlimited plan options. Xfinity Mobile is now specifying that during times of heavy network congestion, customers may experience temporarily slower data speeds compared to others. The By the Gig plans will now default to a standard streaming resolution of 720p for phones and 1080p for tablets, while the Unlimited plan will default to a standard resolution of 480p. Previously, under the First Generation plans, video streaming resolution would default to 480p for both the Unlimited and By the Gig options.
If you're a current customer on an existing First Generation plan, and are not happy about the new plan changes you'll be grandfathered in and get to keep your plan. However, if you decide to switch to a Second Generation plan, there is no turning back. You can see a full comparison of all the differences between the First Generation and Second Generation plans via the image below.
Editor's Take
The plan changes continue the recent trend of Verizon MVNOs updating their plans and prices. For most customers, the Second Generation plans should offer improved pricing. The By the Gig options are cheaper than the outgoing plan options. For instance, under the current plans, customers would have to pay $36/month for 3GB of shared data. Under the new plans, the rate is $30/month. Similarly, a 10GB shared data plan would cost $120 under the old structure but only costs $60 under the new plan structure. The only customers to lose out under the Second Generation plans are those that don't need data, they'll now be forced to pick a data allotment.
Customers with more than 2 lines are going to be the ones to enjoy the biggest savings here. Compared to other Verizon based family plans on the market, the new By the Gig options should offer big savings to customers that don't need unlimited plans. As an example, a family of 5 would only pay $60/month for unlimited talk and text and an average of 2GB of data usage per line. That is a pretty good deal, although the more data you need, the higher the likelihood that you'll find better savings with another Verizon MVNO.