AT&T will be transitioning away from unlimited data plans beginning June 7th according to AppleInsider, the company introducing tethering, iPad 3G data plans capped at 2GB per month and slightly lower pricing.
The company announced this week that a new data plan for iPhone owners, dubbed “DataPro,” will be offered starting June 7th, providing 2GB of data for US$25 per month. Tethering will be available for an additional US$20 per month, and lets customers use their handset to share Internet connectivity with another device, such as a laptop. Tethering will be available this summer when iPhone OS 4.0 is released.
AT&T will also offer a less expensive data plan, called “DataPlus,” which offers 200MB for US$15 per month. The carrier noted in its press release that 65% of its smartphone customers use less than 200MB per month, while 98% use less than 2GB per month.
Customers who near their cap for the month will be sent a text message notifying them when they reach a certain usage level. For customers who exceed the cap, an extra 1GB in the DataPro plan costs US$10, and an extra 200MB in the DataPlus plan runs US$15.
Current AT&T customers are not required to switch to the new plans and sacrifice their unlimited data, but can do so without a contract extension.
AT&T also announced that it would discontinue its existing US$29.99-per-month unlimited 3G data plans for the iPad for new customers. This plan will be replaced by a no-contract plan that runs US$25 a month for 2GB of data. Customers who have the existing unlimited plan are not required to change.
Plans for voice and texting through AT&T will remain unchanged after June 7.
AT&T has long hinted that changes to its unlimited data plans were coming, as the company has faced network issues and bandwidth problems. The carrier has sought ways to encourage the heaviest bandwidth consumers to reduce or modify their usage of the AT&T network.
Last December, one AT&T executive said he believed it was inevitable that users who utilize more bandwidth than their share will have to pay more than the rest. At the time, the company said that 40% of the network capacity for AT&T is used by just 3% of smartphone users. Other reports have alleged that the average iPhone user consumes 10 times the bandwidth of a typical smartphone user.
Stay tuned for additional details and let us know what you make of this in the comments.
6 replies on “AT&T revises calling plans, announces tethering for iPhone OS 4.0”
Discussion on FB too: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=122231697…
If you're a current iPhone (Smart Phone) customer, you're grandfathered in and you DO NOT have to take on the new plans, even with purchase of a new phone. However, if you want to add tethering, say bye bye to the old plans forever. This is NOT just for iPhones. This affects ALL AT&T Smart Phone data plans!
“Last December, one AT&T executive said he believed it was inevitable that users who utilize more bandwidth than their share will have to pay more than the rest.”
Who is this idiot? AND, how has he determined what the fair share of an UNLIMITED plan is?
Read very carefully, AT&T- the moment the iPhone is available on another network, here in the US, I and MILLIONS of other customers will be LEAVING you.
Can you hear the value of your stock falling? No? You must be on your network and the call has dropped (again).
This really sucks. I hate data caps and these are very low. I hope Apple does something because they must know that data caps for them equal a loss of profit and going backwards in progress. So yeah it looks like the choice is keep your current iPhone with unlimited data plan or get the new one with a crappy limited data plan. Video chat will really eat away at peoples data plan.
Lets not forget the new iPad data plan. Just barely a month old and bam goodbye to that. Apple may have worked out a deal with at&t but that deal lasted about 1 month.
I don't know what the other carriers data plans are like but I hope this change means Apple is going to add some carriers.
AT&T is about to bleed some customers with this.
So, I have to choose between keeping my old iPhone and unlimited data, or getting the new phone and getting nickel and dimmed to death by ATT, with no option for an unlimited plan?
I think estimates of iPhone 4 sales can safely be lowered now..
ATT also is offering an online Data Calculator (http://www.att.com/standalone/data-calculator/i…) to help estimate approximate daily or monthly usage of your wireless devices.