AT&T Will Consider Limiting iPhone Data Plans

AT&T reports that smart phone users, which make up 3% of their market, are eating up nearly 40% of the data bandwidth on their mobile network.

To no surprise, AT&T is considering ways to free up network bandwidth so that everyone without a smartphone, isn’t effected.  So what does this mean?  It means AT&T might be giving a screw j_b to iPhone users. – by far the biggest consumers of bandwidth from smartphones.

iPhone users on average consume five to seven times more data per month than average wireless subscribers, according to analyst firm Sanford Bernstein. And all this usage is clogging the network, causing many iPhone users, especially in large cities such as New York and San Francisco, to experience dropped calls, slow 3G service, and issues connecting to the network at all.

So what is AT&T considering?  I would think upping the usage fees, but this might not work for those who don’t care about monthly fees.  Another approach are incentives.

“We’re going to try to focus on making sure we give incentives to those small percentages to either reduce or modify their usage so they don’t crowd out the other customers in those same cell sites,” said de la Vega according to a transcript of the conference. “And you’ll see us address that more in detail.”

Either way, I have a strong feeling AT&T will be limiting or slowing data usage for iPhone users. 

Steve Jobs – get yourself out of the exclusive contract, quick!

Source:  CBSNews.