Tech & Science

"an traditional family shared or individual plans with added-on data packages. Shared data plans provide various amounts of communal data across multiple devices. All phones, tablets, gaming consoles, hot spots and laptops included in the plan share a bucket of data for one monthly fee - which, in theory, is meant to cut costs. AT&T's Mobile Share and Verizon's Share Everything plans offer customers unlimited talk and text along with several levels of data for up to 10 devices. T-Mobile and Sprint also offer data shares - even unlimited data packages - but they only cover up to five devices and their coverage networks aren't as extensive as AT&T and Verizon's. The Big Question Still, the big question is: Are these shared data plans really cheaper? And are they better than the unlimited plans offered by Sprint (S) and T-Mobile (DTE.DE)? The answer: it's complicated (and likely made purposely so by the carriers). Whether it makes financial sense to switch to a Verizon or AT&T shared data plan depends on your data and device nee"