AT&T, Verizon Communications and other wireless carriers spent years promoting multiline phone plans, encouraging entire households -- and even frugal friend groups -- to sign up for family packages. Now, they are making it more appealing for consumers to go it alone.
AT&T launched a new Build-A-Plan offer in May, starting at $15 a month for one line, with options to add more data and other features like wireless hotspotting and home internet. A single line from the carrier previously started at $50 a month, with each additional connection getting less expensive.
A month later, Verizon unveiled its Simplicity plan, offering a line with unlimited data at $45 a month for current Verizon customers or $30 for those who switch from another carrier. That is less than the carrier's $55-a-month starting price for a single connection.
The new options offer some customers an opportunity to cut their bill while giving wireless companies a new foothold with individuals whose needs are likely to change as they age, move and add new connected devices.
"This could catalyze some family conversations" as the price differential between single-line and multiline plans shrinks, said David Barden, telecom partner at New Street Research.
Big carriers for years leaned aggressively into family plans in a push to add new wireless connections. Sprint Mobile even marketed its offering as a "Framily" plan, a mashup of "friends and family." ( T-Mobile US completed its acquisition of Sprint in 2020.)
"It was the industry's best retention tool," said Diego Scotti, Verizon's former marketing chief. Those plans made the decision to cancel into "a household decision instead of an individual one, and multiline discounts made leaving expensive," he said.
But the plans didn't engage customers looking for lower-cost, single-line options. Those consumers drifted toward smaller brands that lease and resell the big carriers' networks, like US Mobile and Comcast's Xfinity Mobile, said Kutgun Maral, a managing director at Evercore ISI.
Major carriers' new plans "are a bid to win that cohort back," said Maral.
The companies see simpler plans as a way to appeal to younger adults -- who will eventually also need home internet and other add-on services, or even a new family plan of their own. Carriers are also giving priority to bundled services, like combining phone and home internet, as a new play for customer loyalty.
"When one out of three adults are saying [in customer surveys] they'd leave their parents' plans for an attractive offer, we want them to choose AT&T at that point," said Jenifer Robertson, executive vice president and general manager of AT&T's consumer business.
In the near term, the new plans could help carriers add wireless connections. Over the long run they may help increase per-user revenue.
Verizon said it is aiming to offer flexible services for everyone. "The choice we provide via those plans is designed to grow with them as they grow with us," said a Verizon spokeswoman.
AT&T and Verizon's family plans aren't going away. And representatives for both companies said getting children off their parents' plans wasn't a motivator for the new offerings.
T-Mobile hasn't launched a new option like AT&T and Verizon's; a spokeswoman said the carrier's portfolio already includes competitively priced options for individuals and families. The carrier recently sunsetted some legacy plans and moved those consumers to newer plans. In some cases, customers' bills increased. T-Mobile declined to say how many customers were affected.
Valerie Remy, a 29-year-old who works in advertising, has been on her family's plan since sixth grade. She said she has no intention of leaving, as long as her mother keeps footing the bill. Besides mentioning it during a few arguments, Remy said, her mother hasn't asked her to contribute or threatened to cut her off.
"If it's something my parents are fine with me being on," Remy said, "I'm going to ride it out."
Write to Patience Haggin at patience.haggin@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 15, 2026 09:00 ET (13:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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