Take a survey, get extra data from AT&T

By Lulu Chang October 27, 2015

att thanks program movie tickets concert live nation at amp t — Rob Wilson/Shutterstock

Capitalizing on your desperation for more data, AT&T has introduced a new program called Data Perks, which trades you more megabytes in exchange for your participation in surveys and mobile shopping. It’s a win-win for AT&T really — not only does the firm get to collect more information about consumer behavior (thanks to your oh-so-honest answers), it also eats next to no cost when it gives data-strapped customers a few extra hard earned MBs. Somewhere, T-Mobile is slowly shaking its head.

A downloadable app, AT&T’s new Data Perks program allows you to “earn extra data from your favorite brands” by “taking surveys, shopping, and more.” As explained on the telecommunications company’s website, “Your data is stored within the app and is easily transferred to your AT&T account for use within your current bill period.”

While the service provider’s willingness to give customers a relatively easy way to increase their data access is certainly commendable, it also highlights the absurdities of the overages that companies like AT&T and Verizon charge their customers for making use of a cellphone’s purpose — staying connected. Recently, T-Mobile took out their frustrations with their competitor’s policies, with T-Mobile flying a plane over Verizon’s headquarters that left an “Abolish Overages” message in the skies.

Verizon, of course, shot back with accusations of T-Mobile’s spotty coverage, which frequently seems to be the trade-off for decent pricing.

So just how much free data are you eligible to receive through data perks? Not that much, if we’re being honest. If you read the fine print, you’ll find that you can earn up to 1,000 megabytes of data over the course of one billing period, or around one gigabyte. Furthermore, you have to have a post-paid AT&T account — as it turns out, prepaid account holders aren’t eligible for this particular promotion. So even if getting this extra data is as easy as watching a full 10 minute video, whether or not it’s worth it is still up for debate.

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