Thanks Competition: Unlimited Data Adoption Soars

That didn't take long. After increased competition forced AT&T and Verizon to finally bring back unlimited data plans last year, a new report by Open Signal indicates just how popular such plans are. According to the firm's latest analysis of the market, 53.4% of all postpaid (billed month to month, as akin to prepaid) customers now subscribe to an unlimited data plan. That's a fairly incredible spike from the 22.7% of postpaid wireless subscribers who were signed up for an unlimited data plan just three years ago.

Earlier this decade, both AT&T and Verizon eliminated their unlimited data plan in the hopes of driving users to more expensive, metered plans.

While both companies grandfathered some of their unlimited data customers, they also waged a not so subtle war on these users to try and drive them off the plans. But added competition from Sprint and T-Mobile (something AT&T tried to avoid with its blocked T-Mobile merger) ruined these efforts, forcing both AT&T and Verizon to bring back the unlimited data option.

The Open Signal report highlights how this shift resulted in a modest initial slowdown on AT&T and Verizon's networks, though the majority of these problems have abated as AT&T and Verizon network engineers have adjusted to the load. That said, the report also notes that T-Mobile now claims top honors in terms of overall LTE (4G) network speed.

"Sprint and T-Mobile speeds have steadily increased over the same 11-month period," wrote OpenSignal’s Kevin Fitchard of the market changes. "T-Mobile was nearly 3 Mbps ahead of Verizon in our 4G speed metric in November, locking down its lead in the LTE speed race, while Sprint had closed much of the speed gap between itself and AT&T."

Another report by Cowen and Company indicates that, unsurprisingly, the majority of T-Mobile and Sprint customers are signed up for unlimited data plans.

"Similar to our prior survey, Unlimited is still most pervasive (by far) with T-Mobile and Sprint respondents, which is not surprising given these carriers have offered Unlimited the longest and more aggressively, followed by AT&T and lastly Verizon," the analysts at Cowen wrote. "The upward trend in our survey is undoubtedly clear and should continue, driven by the fact that all four carriers have now offered Unlimited since February of 2017."

In other words, despite Verizon executives stating for years that consumers neither needed nor wanted an unlimited data option, consumers continue to indicate otherwise.