Question

"In 2016, Verizon offered a cell phone plan that cost $30 per month and came with 5gb of data. Thecharge for each extra gb over 5 was $12. AT&T had a plan for $78 per month with unlimited data. At how many gb would the two plans be the same?

Answer 1

The Verizon and AT&T plans cost the same when a user consumes a total of 9gb of data, which includes the initial 5gb in the Verizon plan plus 4gb of overage data.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine at what amount of data usage the Verizon and AT&T plans cost the same, we need to set up an equation where the total cost of the Verizon plan equals the total cost of the AT&T plan.

Let x be the amount of data in gigabytes used beyond the initial 5gb included in the Verizon plan. The cost of the Verizon plan as a function of extra data used is then:

Cost of Verizon plan = $30 + $12x

The cost of the AT&T plan is a flat:

Cost of AT&T plan = $78

Equating the two costs:

$30 + $12x = $78

Solving for x:

$12x = $78 - $30

$12x = $48

x = $48 / $12

x = 4

So the two plans will be the same cost when you use 4 extra gigabytes of data on top of the 5gb included in the Verizon plan, for a total of 9gb of data usage.