The big news today (at least for my more tech-savvy friends) was the changes announced to the AT&T plans in advance of the new iPhone release. AT&T is discontinuing unlimited plans, but they don’t just taketh away – they giveth something many have waited for for awhile: tethering will be available as an option for iPhones, but all smart phones suffer for the decision: the cap is just 2 GB.
Gizmodo doesn’t hold back in its criticism of the plans, and I agree. Tethering has been a sore spot for iPhone users, and AT&T is facing pressure from a number of sides. The latest update to Android turns on tethering, which Nexus One users are already enjoying, and the upcoming Sprint Evo will allow tethering and WiFi sharing of the Internet connection at 4G speeds with up to eight devices. Data plans on T-Mobile, for the Nexus One, and Sprint, for the Evo, are much more generous; 5GB limits on the tethering on 3G, and unlimited 4G on the Evo, if you have it available. Meanwhile, the Palm Pre Plus, on Verizon, offers free tethering as an added bonus. That’s a different take and probably a way to boost sales for the phone, but it’s a nice phone and a nice touch.
This move by AT&T, in my opinion, doesn’t make tethering a viable option. 2GB of data can go very quickly, and given that the phone will have that 2GB restriction as well, it makes the use of a lot of applications on the phone much more dicey. How much Pandora can you listen to before hitting the cap? How many online games can you play? It’s not readily apparent on its own (you can check the data usage after the fact, if you like playing financial Russian Roulette), and at 1.25 to 2.25 cents cents per megabyte overage (which is a whopping $12.50 to $22.50 per gigabyte), you’ll pay dearly if you fail to stay under the cap. Remember, with old AT&T tethering plans $60 gave you unlimited data on the device, and 5 GB of tethering data. Not quite a value proposition here.
Ironically, those who will find tethering most attractive – the more tech-savvy – will cringe at what are too-onerous data caps. Every other carrier that has devices with tethering has at least 5GB in their caps, and even then many have bristled at data caps to begin with. Comcast’s data cap, while generous, generated negative reaction for attempting to put a cap on data usage at all. Meanwhile, it diminishes the usefulness of the iPhone and iPad by putting an onerous burden on users to not use the phone too much. It’s a real gamble, given the gains Android has made in the last year, and with HP’s takeover of Palm and Microsoft’s upcoming Windows Phone 7, it’s an odd time to take the risk. WiFi access on both devices certainly helps, but should the average user have to stare at the icon and keep track of when they’re using 3G and when they’re not? It seems really onerous to me.
AT&T has been struggling for awhile to get data usage under control on its network while at the same time spending oodles of cash building out capacity. This move seems both designed to boost revenue to make up for all the capital expenditures they’ve been forced to make to stay partners with Apple, while at the same time punishing users for using what really is a fair amount of data on their devices. Apparently, if your users are using too much data, there truly is an app for that… data caps.
SOURCES: Gizmodo 1 and 2, Engadget 1 and 2, Business Wire (at MarketWatch)
