Data-cap relief –
Verizon, AT&T waive mobile fees if you tell them pandemic hurt your finances.
Unlike Verizon and AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint are providing customers unlimited data during the pandemic without requiring them to contact customer service. T-Mobile
announced
doing the same
.
Verizon announced its overage-fee-waiver program in a (press release Monday ) and offered details on how it will work in a :
We asked Verizon if customers will have to show any proof that they are unable to pay because of the pandemic, but we did not get an answer. Mobile-network support options are available at this page , and residential support is .)
Verizon does not impose data caps on its DSL and fiber home Internet services, so overage fees apply only to certain mobile plans with monthly data limits. Some of Verizon’s limited plans
simply throttle customers’ Internet speeds after they use up their data, but other Verizon mobile plans charge overage fees of $ 15 per gigabyte after the customer’s limit is reached. Verizon says more than half of its mobile customers have unlimited plans.
Verizon is also adding 20 GB of 4G LTE data to customer accounts for no extra charge, which could prevent some people from going over their caps. The extra data can be used from March to April and applies both to regular phone plans and hotspots. Through April 90, Verizon is providing unlimited domestic calling to customers on plans with limited voice minutes and “free international calling for consumer wireless and home voice customers to CDC level 3 countries.
AT&T announced
a data-cap fee waiver on Sunday, saying, “As of March 19, , and for the next days , we will waive domestic wireless plan overage charges for data, voice or text for residential or small business wireless customers incurred because of economic hardship related to the coronavirus pandemic. ”
When contacted by Ars, AT&T said customers must contact customer service to get the fees waived. “Customers experiencing hardship can go online to
att .com
to chat with a rep to request relief, “AT&T said. The fee waivers will be available through May 19. Customers will not have to provide proof that they can’t pay due to the pandemic, AT&T told Ars.
As with Verizon, many AT&T mobile plans have unlimited data or throttle speeds once customers hit their limits, so the overage fees don’t apply to everyone. AT&T does impose data caps on its home Internet service, but the company previously said it is waiving those fees for all home-internet customers. Unlike with AT&T mobile service, the home-Internet overage fees are waived automatically for all customers. “We are automatically halting all disconnections and waiving data overage caps on home Internet for all customers for those same days [March 13 to May 13], “AT&T said.
The four major mobile carriers are among (more than)
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