AT&T is the latest US operator to announce a new type of tariff that enables a family to share a single data allocation across up to ten devices. In the first instance, consumers will share the data among smartphones and tablets but in the future AT&T hopes such plans will encourage the usage of other devices including health monitors, it said.

The new Mobile Share tariff will launch at the end of August offering unlimited voice and text. The tariff is optional for new customers. AT&T’s tariff follows the similar Share Everything plan launched by rival Verizon Wireless last month. The latter’s all-in plan is compulsory for new customers.

“Today we think of people’s smartphones and tablets sharing a bucket of data. But in the future we’ll see health care monitors, connected cars, security systems and other devices in the home all connected to the mobile Internet,” said David Christopher, AT&T Mobility’s chief marketing officer.

As an example, a consumer who signs up to the new AT&T plan starts with 1GB of data for which they pay US$40 per month and US$45 for each smartphone attached to the plan. Packages with up to 20GB in data are available.  The more smartphones are added by the consumer, the lower the per-smartphone price becomes. Prices are also given for feature phones (US$30), laptops (US$20) and tablets/gaming devices (US$10). No prices were given in the announcement for adding other devices such as monitors.