AT&T is the first carrier to charge an admin fee for its prepaid plans

• AT&T is adding a new admin/regulatory fee to its prepaid plans, a first for any of the big carriers.
• Starting June 22, AT&T will charge a $2.63 fee, which is still slightly cheaper than the postpaid fee of $3.99.
• If history repeats itself, Verizon and T-Mobile could very likely do the same, but how quickly is anyone’s guess.

Administrative & Regulatory Cost Recovery Fees are a bit of a dirty word when it comes to wireless service in the US. First introduced by Verizon in 2005, every major postpaid carrier now has a vaguely worded fee like this. The prepaid world has been mostly safe from this practice up until now, but, as first reported by GSMarena, it seems AT&T wasn’t content with that arrangement.

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