AT&T Inc. (T), Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ): The Tangled Web of Mobile Pricing Plans

Verizon Wireless’ Share Everything plan for four smartphones plus 4GB of shareable data, with unlimited talk and text, will cost $230 per month (not including taxes and surcharges).

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)’s Mobile Share plan for the same thing would also cost $230 per month — but, oddly, so would the 2GB and the 6GB plans. If I went for the AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) family plan with the same options, but with 3GB of unshared data per line, it would cost $290 per month. With only 300MB unshared data per line, the cost would be $240.

Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE:S)‘s Unlimited, My Way plan with the same options but with unlimited data for each line would cost $260 per month, and for 1GB per line the cost would be $220.

T MOBILE US INC (NYSE:TMUS) has differentiated itself by only offering month-to-month contracts and not subsidizing their phones in return for a long-term commitment.

The “Un-Carrier,” as T MOBILE US INC (NYSE:TMUS) characterizes itself these days, offers its Family plan with 2GB per line for $140 per month. But the customer will have to pay full price for a smartphone, which, for an iPhone 5, is $648 — or an additional $27 a month for 24 months for each iPhone, adding $108 to the monthly bill.

Of course, the subsidized cost for four iPhone 5s at the other three carriers would be $800. So taking that into consideration, the total cost for two years of iPhone 5 service at AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) and Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) come out to $6,320, compared with $6,000 at Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE:S), and $5,932 at T-Mobile.

I was thinking about changing my plan, but now I’m not too sure. I think I’ll put it off for a while, hopefully until all the carriers will offer the exact same services. But I think that’s not going to happen anytime soon. Keeping the customer off balance is the name of the mobile-carrier game.

The article The Tangled Web of Mobile Pricing Plans originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Dan Radovsky.

Dan Radovsky owns shares of AT&T.;The Motley Fool recommends and owns shares of Apple.

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