AT&T Says iPhone Usage Based Pricing is Inevitable

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Posted December 9, 2009 at 5:22pm by iClarified

AT&T told investors at a USB conference in New York that it will give high bandwidth users incentives to "reduce or modify their usage".

Amidst poor public perception due to a network issues, AT&T has decided put iPhone users who watch video on tighter leashes, according to an Associated Press report.

AT&T head of consumer services, Ralph de la Vega declined to comment on when these "incentives" would happen but said that usage-based pricing for data is inevitable.

"We need to educate the customer ... We've got to get them to understand what represents a megabyte of data," de la Vega said. "We're improving all our systems to let consumers get real-time information on their data usage."

De la Vega says three percent of "smart" phone users are consuming 40 percent of the network capacity with a majority of the high-bandwidth activity being video and audio streaming.

I can't help but think announcements like these worsen the public perception of AT&T. The last thing unhappy customers want to hear is that if they watch video or use Skype they will be paying more.

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AT&T Says iPhone Usage Based Pricing is Inevitable

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sagsat PR - December 20, 2009 at 9:22pm

Hey att i got 3iphones just give me 1 last reason to cancel,iphone its just one of all the best phones out there, class action suit ,unlimited???? Well see what happen.If y paid for unlimited y want to see att limit ing my data usage.

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Carl in the UK - December 10, 2009 at 3:53pm

AT&T need to invest further in the network then, it wants the subscribers and it wants to make big cash from selling the handsets that have all these features, but it wants to limit how much its customers use the features! Sounds like somebody at AT&T didn't do their sums properly when they took on handsets with these capabilities, especially tethering or they felt that customers batteries would limit the data consumed.

ed - December 9, 2009 at 11:30pm

I can't help but think announcements like these worsen the public perception of AT&T. The last thing unhappy customers want to hear is that if they watch video or use Skype they will be paying more. ....guess who helped me change my mind about staying with Greed T&T

yiyopr - December 9, 2009 at 6:02pm

Its hilarious how they say "we need to educate our customers". Were paying $30 dollars for *Unlimited* internet service we deserve to use it to the fullest extent! Its not our fault your service is so crappy!!

y371 - December 9, 2009 at 5:27pm

Today is a sad day for the US consumer. Today is the day when the Internet fell victim to a greedy corporation. Today is the day Net Neutrality died. FCC, save the day!