AT&T has made it very clear this year that it isn’t afraid to raise prices as it notices a major shift in customer behavior.
In April, the carrier hiked prices for its retired unlimited plans that were active before July 24, 2025. Customers with a single phone line on one of these wireless plans saw their monthly bill increase by $10, while those with multiple lines faced a $20 price hike (not per line).
AT&T later revealed in June that it is raising two fees that customers pay on their monthly bills: its “Administrative & Regulatory Cost Recovery Fee” and “Administrative Fee.” Both will increase by $1 per line on Aug. 5.
AT&T raises prices for some internet customers
Now, AT&T is once again planning to ask its customers to cough up more money, this time affecting those enrolled in some of its internet plans.
According to a recent report from PhoneArena, internal training documents recently sent to AT&T employees reveal that the company is increasing monthly prices for its fiber and copper internet plans established between June 2024 and July 2025 by $5, starting on Aug. 16.
Also, customers enrolled in its Access from AT&T program, which provides low-cost home internet to low-income households, will see their monthly bills increase by $5 if they are on the $15-per-month Copper Plan for speeds up to 50 Mbps, which retired in May 2026.
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Customers impacted by this change should have already received a notification of the price increase in the “News You Can Use” section of their AT&T app or account.
AT&T is instructing employees to tell customers who ask them about the upcoming pricing change that the company is “making a small adjustment” to their monthly internet rate to “keep up with growing demands of the business and continue delivering dependable service.”
The carrier is also telling employees to reinforce the value of AT&T Fiber and suggest autopay and paperless billing discounts to fiber internet customers impacted by the price hike. When speaking with Access from AT&T customers, employees are told to encourage them to switch to newer plans.
This comes after AT&T launched four new fiber internet plans in June that feature “simplified pricing.”
AT&T sees internet demand surge
The move from AT&T comes as it benefits from increased demand for its internet services.
Its latest earnings report revealed that it added 367,000 new fiber internet customers and 279,000 fixed wireless customers in the second quarter of 2026.
The surge in fiber internet customers follows the completion of AT&T’s $5.75 billion acquisition of Lumen’s Mass Markets fiber business in February, making AT&T’s fiber internet service available across 32 states.
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U.S. consumers have also increasingly been joining fixed wireless access (FWA) services due to their lower prices and wider availability in rural and underserved areas compared to traditional wired internet, benefiting AT&T and other wireless carriers that offer this service.
Amid this growing consumer trend, FWA service revenue across the globe is expected to grow 18.8% CAGR between 2023 and 2030, reaching nearly $111 billion, according to global technology intelligence firm ABI Research.
“The deployment of FWA services, specifically 5G FWA services, has continued to grow as operators continue to see strong growth in their respective subscriber bases and, in turn, service revenue growth,” said Larbi Belkhit, a principal analyst at ABI Research, in a press release in October.
During an earnings call on July 22, AT&T CEO John Stankey said the company’s converged internet and wireless offerings, which it will continue to expand, are successfully attracting and retaining customers, especially those that are “value-oriented.”
An example of AT&T’s converged offerings includes its OneConnect subscription, which launched in March. This plan provides customers with combined wireless and fiber internet service for $90 per month.
“When customers consolidate their internet access with us, we see lower churn, outstanding brand affinity, higher lifetime values, we carry the vast majority of their internet traffic over our advanced infrastructure,” said Stankey.
“For those limited circumstances, when the AT&T network is not available to one of our converged customers, we expect to be in a position to solve many of these corner cases as we move into 2027,” he continued.
He also said that at the end of the second quarter, 42.5% of AT&T’s advanced home internet customers now also have a postpaid wireless account with the company.
Additionally, within AT&T’s newly acquired Lumen footprint, its converged rate rose to 45% in June compared to February.
“We’ve spent the past six months standing up operations to support a faster pace of growth and network deployment in customers as we accelerate the branded rollout of AT&T Fiber,” said Stankey. “We’re already utilizing our existing distribution and converged offers to tap into pent-up demand in these under-penetrated areas, which is translating into improved growth.”
As these converged offerings grow in popularity, AT&T gained 432,000 postpaid phone customers during the second quarter.
Also, its postpaid phone churn, the percentage of postpaid phone customers that canceled their service, reached 0.86%, down from the 0.87% it reported for the same quarter in 2025.
“The cross-selling that they’ve been building towards, it’s actually showing up in the numbers right now,” said David Wagner, head of equity at Aptus Capital Advisors, when discussing AT&T’s second-quarter earnings results in a recent Reuters report.
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