AT&T Announces New Mobile Subscription Plans, Ending Unlimited Data Usage
In a move, which is set to lower down the mobile tariffs in the US, AT&T yesterday announced that it will completely eliminate unlimited data service from new mobile subscription plans.
AT&T users must be happy to hear the news because this will bring a remarkable reduction in their monthly bills.
The plans will, however, increase the bill of 2% of AT&T customers. The plans will also end the comfort of watching Youtube and checking e-mail for AT&T users, without worrying about data limits. The new plans will be in effect from June 7. Under the new plans, people who sign up for AT&T service will have 2 data options: for 200 MB per month, the users will have to pay $15 and for a 2 GB limit the charge will be $25. $10 will be charged for every additional gigabyte.
Explaining the reason behind introducing the new plans, AT&T says that 98% of its customers use less than 2 GB per month, so the company decided to introduce two tariffs for the benefits of the customers. Experts, however, seem reluctant to buy AT&T's theory, arguing that the smartphone adoption would definitely increase the 2GB limit.
In a poll at Arstechnica.com in February, 3% of poll takers, said their average monthly data usage on the Apple's iPhone, which uses AT&T's network, was more than 10 GB. Currently, people are paying $30 per month for this usage but after the introduction of new plans, they will have to pay more than $100. The company, however, will allow the existing AT&T customers, including iPad 3G owners, to keep their existing unlimited plans, for now.
