AT&T updated its unlimited data phone plans to 2.0 versions on Thursday, launching AT&T Premium 2.0, AT&T Extra 2.0 and AT&T Value 2.0 options. In software, when products get boosted by a full version number, it means there’s plenty of new material. But does this move signal an overhaul of the company’s 5G lines or just a cosmetic refresh?

These plans replace the AT&T Value Plus VL, Unlimited Extra EL and Unlimited Premium PL plans. However, the carrier also cut its Unlimited Starter SL plan, which served as the entry-level plan (you had to know where to look to find the limited, but cheaper, Value Plus VL plan). Essentially, all but the highest-tier plan are slightly more affordable; while the AT&T Premium 2.0 plan is pricier than the one it replaced, it offers unlimited high-speed data and much more hotspot data.

If you’re looking to upgrade your existing AT&T plan, shopping for a new provider or looking to compare carriers, keep in mind that AT&T plans let each person on an account have their own plan. So you might set up a package where one person has the Premium 2.0 plan for unthrottled 5G speeds and another, such as a child, is set up with the Value 2.0 plan to save money.

Also, if you’re on a current AT&T plan, you won’t be automatically moved to one of the new plans. If you do want to make the jump, you’ll incur a line activation fee of up to $50. And keep in mind that the pricing below is the AutoPay amount; carriers provide a discount (usually $10) if you sign up for automatic payments.

One nice change is that the new plans are priced with round numbers. For example, the Value Plus VL plan was priced at $50.99 for one line, and the Value 2.0 plan is $50 (in comparisons below, I’ve rounded up the old prices to full-dollar amounts). Taxes and fees get added on top of that, so you’ll never see a round-number bill, but I’d like to think it’s a quiet acknowledgement that pricing things one penny below a larger number is insulting to customers.

Let’s dig into the details.

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Value 2.0, the budget plan

The Value 2.0 plan replaces both the Value Plus VL plan and the retired Unlimited Starter SL plan and costs $50 a month for a single line or $120 a month when you have four lines on the account. That’s $1 per line cheaper than Value Plus VL.

For that, you get 5GB of high-speed 5G data, and then unlimited data dropped to a paltry 128Kbps speed for the rest of the month. Calling and texting are unlimited.

You can also use up to 3GB of high-speed hotspot data to share the cellular connection with other devices, also slowed to 128Kbps after hitting the limit. The Value Plus VL plan did not offer hotspot data.

It also includes unlimited talk, text and data between the US, Mexico and Canada.

Extra 2.0, more fast data for not much more money

The Extra 2.0 plan costs $70 a month for a single line or $160 a month for four lines, which is $6 cheaper for one line and $4 cheaper for four lines compared with the old Unlimited Extra EL plan.

The Extra 2.0 plan includes 100GB of high-speed data (with the caveat that speeds can be slowed if the network is busy), which drops to 128Kbps speed until the next month’s billing cycle. That’s a boost over the 75GB offered on the Unlimited Extra XL plan.

For hotspot data, the new plan includes 50GB of high-speed data, which is 20GB more than its predecessor.

As with the Value 2.0 plan, international options include unlimited talk, text and data between the US, Mexico and Canada.

Premium 2.0, for faster everything

Replacing the Unlimited Premium PL plan is the Premium 2.0, which costs $90 a month for a single line and $220 a month for four lines. Those prices are actually higher than the Unlimited Premium PL plan, which came in at $86 for a single line and $204 for four lines.

For that bump in cost, you’re getting unlimited 5G talk, text and high-speed data with no throttling.

Hotspot data has a 100GB cap before dropping to 128Kbps speed, which is 40GB more than the Unlimited Premium PL plan.

As for international calling and data, unlimited talk, text and high-speed data are available in 20 Latin American countries.

AT&T also has plans for cellular-enabled tablets ($21 a month) and wearables like smartwatches ($11 a month). If you subscribe to the Premium 2.0 plan, that pricing is reduced by 50%.

A few thoughts on the new AT&T plans

What AT&T’s plans lack, at least compared to the other carriers, is any streaming perks or bundled services. The 4K streaming option of the Premium 2.0 plan opens a wider data pipeline for services such as Netflix that support 4K playback, but you’re still paying separately for those entertainment subscriptions.

In contrast, T-Mobile bundles Netflix and Hulu (both with ads) and offers Apple TV for an extra fee on its Experience Beyond and Better Value plans. Verizon takes a different approach with streaming packages, which you can choose at discounted prices instead of subscribing to them separately.

I also want to mention that I’m glad the plan names are no longer burdened with the VL, EL and PL extensions. Mobile plans are full of details as it is — always read the fine print before you sign up for one — so I appreciate conveying them to customers in ways that don’t sound like internal spreadsheet codes.

Even though the new plans carry 2.0 version numbers, I’d honestly rate them more like 1.5 based on their features and pricing, except for the Premium 2.0 plan, which is more expensive than the Unlimited Premium PL plan. As usual, if you’re happy with the plan you’re on, you’re fine sticking with it. But if you’re running up against high-speed data limits or considering AT&T as a replacement for another carrier, it’s worth looking at the details to see if one of the new plans works for you.

Read more: Speaking of AT&T, this week marked the 150th anniversary of the first phone call and the company committed to spending $250 billion on infrastructure improvements. I also spoke with AT&T FirstNet folks during the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix about how they support customers and first responders during massive events like the Formula 1 race.

• VENTUNO Q runs fully autonomous AI agents completely offline without external servers
• The Dragonwing processor delivers up to forty dense TOPS of AI compute
• Robotics applications include vision-guided arms and autonomous machines navigating complex environments

Qualcomm and Arduino have launched Arduino VENTUNO Q, a single-board computer designed for robotics, generative AI, and edge computing able to operate fully offline.

The board uses the Qualcomm Dragonwing IQ8 Series processor and a dedicated STM32H5 microcontroller for deterministic control, enabling systems to perceive, decide, and act on the same device.

Accenture’s Donal Óg McCarthy discusses team building in a competitive space and the challenges of the cyber landscape.

As Accenture’s cybersecurity lead in Ireland, Donal Óg McCarthy’s responsibilities span several key areas, such as the growing and running of the security business, a focus on clients and the creation of a rewarding working environment for the organisation’s people.

“I also hold several other responsibilities in our European and global business, which allows me to bring insights and experiences from around the globe to our clients here in Ireland,” McCarthy told SiliconRepublic.com. “I really enjoy that variety and given the global nature of today’s threat landscape for Irish clients, I believe this external perspective is critical.”

He added, “These days I see myself as a builder, bringing together knowledge and expertise from across both Accenture and our ecosystem partners to answer our clients’ most challenging questions.”

As someone with experience in leadership, how did you develop the skills needed to lead others in the cyber space?

I’ve been fortunate to develop my leadership skills through a wide variety of roles and through the guidance of some exceptional mentors along the way. I began my career in an organisation in Galway called Nortel Networks. One of the first things I had to learn as a graduate was how to engage directly with and present to our customers. That experience, alongside the technical foundations I learned in the graduate programme, has really shaped my entire career since then. It is really important to get those career foundations right early on.

Since then, I’ve worked in a variety of roles across the UK, Australia and the US. Upon returning to Ireland, I moved into the consulting side. This constantly changing landscape is something I have realised that I am very attracted to and it’s why I enjoy working at Accenture. I have had three different roles in the last six years in Accenture, all focused on building new businesses. Once I hear an interesting idea or an opportunity, I am happy to just jump right in and figure out the details along the way. While that adds a nice element of pressure, I love it.

How crucial is it to invest in career development across teams?

I don’t believe you can have a highly skilled workforce without a relentless focus on both learning and excitement. Excitement is really important. While each of us has things we need to know to operate successfully inside our organisation, extra learning has to make sense for you as an individual and what you want to achieve. I spend a lot of time with colleagues crafting these learning pathways so there is choice for everyone, while ensuring that ultimately all these skills together are what we need to run and to grow our business.

We’re fortunate at Accenture to have our own learning platform through Udacity, where everyone has access to an endless amount of learning and not just in cybersecurity. We also focus heavily on foundational learning elements, what we call TQ or technology quotient. These are bite-sized learning modules on everything from agentic AI to quantum computing.

What are some of the challenges of a career in the security sector? 

While a career in cybersecurity is highly rewarding, it certainly does come with challenges. Skills shortages in the sector are putting a lot of additional pressure on existing leaders and their teams. We can see this leading to heavy workloads and when you mix this with individuals in incident response, for example, it can contribute to higher levels of stress and risk of burnout. Incident response is a good example of where structure and support are essential. Clear on‑call rotas and escalation models are critical. Too often the same individuals end up getting the call and for busy teams this adds to that burnout risk.

I spend a lot of time with teams to simulate the importance of rotation, shared responsibility and senior leadership support in the wake of a cyberattack. Many incidents can go on for a longer period of time than first anticipated, so this planning means that when an incident does occur, we have a very structured response that includes prioritising teams’ wellbeing and recovery.  

How can skilled and qualified teams address the challenges of the modern cybersecurity landscape?

It is clear that we are operating in an ever-evolving threat landscape. Geopolitical instability, from unrest in Europe and war in the Middle East, has pushed business resilience and cybersecurity front of mind for all organisations. It can be challenging when looking at multiple sources of threat intelligence to identify those areas that are the highest priority. There are, however, a few practical steps that can make a real difference.

The first is staying close to your partners that understand your business and getting their support, especially where an industry-specific narrative is important, for instance in the case of critical national infrastructure. The second is maintaining strong engagement across your security community and keeping those lines of communication open. In a connected supply chain, we are all dependent on each other so these relationships will and do really matter.

How can sector leaders have a positive impact on career development?

Leaders in the security sector have a critical role to play in shaping the future capability and resilience of the profession itself. Having a positive impact on both career development and innovation requires intentional leadership across people, culture and ways of working.

In today’s cybersecurity world, there are many career paths and it is important that we provide opportunities to our teams, ensuring they can progress, specialise or broaden their experience. The security practice of tomorrow is one that is focused on enterprise transformation and can adapt to the changing needs of the business.

Have you any predictions for how the cybersecurity landscape might evolve in 2026?

Unfortunately, we can expect to see a continued rise in AI-powered attacks across industry in 2026. Geopolitical tensions around the world will continue to drive threats in Europe and for Ireland. Our upcoming EU presidency will potentially focus these efforts on organisations based here in Ireland, particularly those who manage critical national infrastructure. The good news is cybersecurity has never been a greater priority for ‘Ireland Inc’, or for organisations operating here.

We see cyber modernisation and increasing investment in security across industry. With this additional investment and focus, we must continue to simplify our security landscape so we can understand what we have in our estate, identify those threats early and continue to strengthen those modern security capabilities. Every one of us in cybersecurity plays a part in Ireland’s national cyber resilience and that responsibility has never been more important.

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Every generation of mobile networks, from 1G to 5G, has rewritten the rules of how the world lives and works. The coming 6G revolution, by decade’s end, will represent a new direction still, toward a universal data fabric where millions of agents collaborate in real-time across the digital and physical worlds.

The story of wireless connectivity is often told in speeds and standards—megabits per second, latency, and spectrum bands. But these generational shifts in device specs obscure a deeper pattern. Each generation, from 1G to 5G, rewrote the relationships between three elements: the Devices we carry, the Networks that connect them, and the Applications that run on them. We call this connectivity’s DNA. With 6G, that DNA of interconnection is about to change fundamentally.

As with the “7 Phases of the Internet”—an article we published with IEEE Spectrum last October—mobile networks’ 6 generations follow a similar arc toward system-wide intelligence. That arc traces through every generation of wireless, revealing a steady advancement of the reach and scope of connectivity itself.

Beyond Devices, Networks, and Apps

The history of wireless connectivity is a history of Devices, Networks, and Applications. Every generation from 1G through 6G redefined each of those three elements. However, 6G marks a departure point where devices, network elements, and applications begin to lose definition as discrete entities unto themselves. As the network grows more capable, it also paradoxically becomes less visible—connection without connectors.

From 1G’s brick-sized phones to 6G’s digital fabric, wireless has moved from analog voices to autonomous agents—present everywhere, noticed nowhere, continuously interconnecting digital and physical worlds.

Brian Barrett: The irony is my favorite part because I feel like venture capitalists have largely positioned themselves as immune to the effects of AI because they’re very special and surely a machine can—

Zoë Schiffer: It’s art, not science.

Brian Barrett: Yeah. It’s art, not science. Machines can take every job, but not us. The ladder stops just below VC for them in a way that is entertaining and fun. So I wonder how many people are actually using this now, especially because venture capitalists themselves are so skeptical of it, it seems like. Who’s the audience? Is it finding real traction out there?

Zoë Schiffer: Yeah. So the way that ADIN works is they have scouts that go out and look for potential deals, and then those scouts can make money on said deals. So I think this would be something where VCs wouldn’t necessarily be adopting the network, but people would be going around them, and they wouldn’t be as necessary, as useful. I think there was another great irony, which Arielle pulled out in her piece, which is that also, if you can start a company with just yourself and a bunch of AI agents, you’re vibe coding your way to success. Do you even need all of that venture capital money to begin with?

Leah Feiger: I don’t know. There’s so much to me, there’s so much fear about AI taking jobs. I feel like every other article that is like, “And these people are nervous, and these people are nervous.” Brian’s right, the part that is funny is these are the folks that have just gone all in on AI, but I’m still waiting. I’m still waiting for AI to take the jobs. Has it yet? Will it yet?

Zoë Schiffer: Yeah. I think that there’s recent research. I was talking to Will Knight, one of our fantastic AI reporters, about this yesterday, and he was saying, “Look, the evidence just isn’t there yet for many, many industries. The hype has, as it often does, gone way out ahead of the actual data here. We don’t know that AI is taking jobs.” But I will say, being in San Francisco, I am hearing a lot of people say engineering teams in particular are very bloated right now. Agents can actually do a lot of the work, and you definitely need humans on top managing those agents, but you could cut a lot of teams by 80 percent, 50 percent, 60 percent. And so I think that we are going to see more AI-related job loss, first in engineering and then in other sectors.

Brian Barrett: Marc Andreessen, famous venture capitalist, cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz, said this very thing in a recent podcast. Listen to how special he thinks his own profession is.

Marc Andreessen, archival audio: Every great venture capitalist in the last 70 years has missed most of the great companies of his generation. If it was a science, you could eventually have somebody who just dials it in and gets 8 out of 10, but in the real world, it’s not like that. It’s just you’re in the fluke business. And so there’s an intangibility to it. There’s a taste aspect, the human relationship aspect, the psychology. And I don’t want to be definitive, but it’s possible that that is quite literally timeless. And when the AIs are doing everything else, that may be one of the last remaining fields that people are still doing.

from the ctrl-alt-speech dept

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast about the latest news in online speech, from Mike Masnick and Everything in Moderation‘s Ben Whitelaw.

Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, YouTube, or your podcast app of choice — or go straight to the RSS feed.

In this week’s round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

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Filed Under: ai, artificial intelligence, child safety, content moderation, molly russell, publicity rights, trust and safety

Companies: grammarly, meta, whatsapp

Engineering is so much more than solving problems or writing efficient code. It is about creating solutions that affect billions of lives and contributing to a profession built on innovation, responsibility, and collaboration. Although technical skills remain critical, what truly will accelerate the growth of the next generation of engineers is community and professional involvement.

Learning from communities

University programs provide a strong foundation in theory and practice, but they cannot capture the complexity of real-world engineering. As an IEEE senior member, I believe professional communities such as IEEE can help bridge the gap by offering:

I have served as a mentor and judge for a variety of hackathons across different age groups, including high school competitions United Hacks and NextStep Hacks, as well as graduate-level events such as HackHarvard.

The experiences demonstrate how transformative community-driven opportunities can be for young engineers. They provide exposure to teamwork, innovation, and the realities of solving problems at scale.

The power of mentorship

Engineers don’t develop skills in isolation. Mentorship, whether formal or informal, plays a pivotal role in shaping careers. Senior professionals who invest in guiding students and early-career engineers pass on more than technical knowledge. They share decision-making approaches, ethical considerations, and strategies for navigating careers, thereby expanding the engineering field.

As a keynote speaker at conferences, I have seen how sharing real-world experiences can ignite students’ curiosity and confidence. What they often value most is not a lecture on technology but candid insights into how to be resilient, grow their career, and learn about the different engineering paths.

Building ethical awareness

With the rise of artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and other high-impact innovations, engineers’ ethical responsibilities are more important than ever. Professional organizations such as IEEE and ACM emphasize codes of ethics and standards to help ensure that technology is developed responsibly.

Through my work as a peer reviewer and committee member for IEEE and ACM conferences, including those at the university level, I have seen how the organizations promote rigor and accountability.

When students engage with such communities early, they can not only expand their technical knowledge but also build an understanding of responsible innovation.

Networking as a catalyst for innovation

Engineering breakthroughs often emerge at the intersections of different fields. Professional communities create the space for such interactions. A student working on computer vision, for example, might discover health care applications by collaborating with biomedical engineers.

While reviewing papers for conferences, I have seen how interdisciplinary ideas spark promising innovations.

I bring the same perspective to my role as an IEEE Collabratec mentor, connecting with innovators across different disciplines and industries.

“When we invest in the community, we invest in the future of engineering.”

By collaborating on projects and expanding your reach, you can find the mentors or partners you need to inspire your next breakthrough.

Participating in forums allows students and professionals alike to broaden their horizons and explore solutions that go beyond traditional boundaries.

Giving back shapes leadership

Community involvement is not only about what you gain. It is also about what you give. Engineers who volunteer for educational programs, STEM initiatives, and professional committees can develop leadership skills that extend beyond technical expertise. They can learn to inspire, organize, and guide others.

Judging hackathons and mentoring student teams reminds me that leadership often begins with service. When experienced professionals actively invest in the growth of others, they help create a culture wherein learning and leadership are passed forward.

Preparing for a lifelong journey

Learning how to be an engineer doesn’t end when you earn your degree. It is a lifelong journey of learning, adapting, and contributing. By engaging with communities and professional networks early, students and graduates can develop habits that serve them throughout their career. They can stay current with emerging trends, build trusted professional relationships, and gain resilience through shared challenges.

Community involvement can transform engineers from problem-solvers into change agents.

Investing in the community

The future of engineering depends not only on technological advancement but also on the collective strength of its communities. By fostering mentorship, encouraging collaboration, and embedding ethical responsibility, professional and community involvement can ensure that the next generation of engineers is prepared to meet tomorrow’s challenges with competence and character.

My journey as a mentor, judge, keynote speaker, and peer reviewer has reinforced a clear truth: When we invest in the community, we invest in the future of engineering. The students and young professionals we support today will be the ones building the world we live in tomorrow.

Nvidia kicks off its annual GTC developer conference in San Jose, California, next week with CEO Jensen Huang’s keynote scheduled for Monday at 11am PT / 2pm ET.

GTC — which stands for GPU Technology Conference — is Nvidia’s flagship annual event, where the chipmaker typically uses the spotlight to announce new products, champion partnerships, and lay out its vision for the future of computing. Huang’s keynote will focus on Nvidia’s role in the future of computing and AI. You can watch the two-hour address in person at the SAP Center or livestream the talk on the event’s website.

The broader three-day event is focused on what’s coming next for AI across industries including healthcare, robotics, and autonomous vehicles, among others.

On the software side, it’s rumored that Nvidia will release an open source platform for enterprise AI agents, dubbed NemoClaw, as originally reported by Wired. The platform would give businesses a structured way to build and deploy AI agents (software that can carry out multi-step tasks autonomously) and would position Nvidia to mirror similar offerings from companies like OpenAI.

On the hardware side, the company is also rumored to be releasing a new chip designed to accelerate the AI inference process — the process by which an AI model applies what it has learned to generate responses or make decisions, as distinct from the initial training process, which requires far more computing power. Faster, cheaper inference is widely seen as one of the last bottlenecks to scaling AI applications broadly. The chip, if confirmed, would represent Nvidia’s latest bid to dominate not just the training market, where it already commands an estimated 80% share, but the inference market as well, where competition from custom chips built by Google, Amazon and others is fast intensifying.

Kevin Cook, a senior equity strategist at Zacks Investment Research, told TechCrunch that attendees should also expect to learn what the company plans to do with its relationship with Groq, the inference company Nvidia reportedly paid $20 billion late last year to license its technology. There’s a lot of curiosity around this tie-up, given that Jonathan Ross, Groq’s founder, Sunny Madra, Groq’s President, and other members of the Groq team agreed to join Nvidia to help advance and scale that licensed tech.

There will, of course, also be a range of partnership announcements and demonstrations showcasing Nvidia’s AI capabilities across industries.