AT&T ending unlimited data plans for smart phones
Attention, heavy wireless data downloaders: Your days of unlimited use are numbered.
And that number is four.
Tarps
Starting Monday, Dallas-based AT&T Inc . will do away with unlimited data plans for buyers of high-end smart phones such as the iPhone and become the first in the wireless industry to charge based on usage.
While the pricing overhaul could reduce some customers' bills, smart phone owners who want to surf the Web, check e-mail, watch video and stream audio without limits will have to pay more for exceeding data quotas.
By killing its existing unlimited plan, AT&T is likely to ease some of the burden on its wireless network and could pave the way for competitors to follow suit.
"This move was expected, and not just from AT&T, but from all the competitors," said telecommunications industry analyst Jeff Kagan.
"AT&T started this, and I fully expect to hear something similar first from Verizon, then Sprint. The only question is when."
AT&T executives have hinted strongly for months that the cellular industry needed to go to tiered pricing, noting that 3 percent of smart phone customers were responsible for 40 percent of wireless data traffic.
On Wednesday, AT&T took action. The unlimited data plan it now sells smart phone buyers for $30 a month will be replaced by two new ones: DataPlus and DataPro.
DataPlus will cost $15 for a maximum data download of 200 megabytes a month. AT&T says that plan will allow users to send or receive 1,000 e-mails a month, view 400 Web pages and watch 20 minutes of streaming video from sites such as YouTube.
