AT&T: No iPhone Data Tiers, Really

“Methinks AT&T doth protest too much,” might have been Hamlet’s response to the carrier again denying it will institute data tiers for iPhone users. Attempting to avoid a storm of protests over earlier comments, AT&T Mobility President Ralph de la Vega now tells BusinessWeek: “I guess I should have been more clear.”

The comment was the second in one week by de la Vega concerning a Dec. 9 AP report quoting the AT&T exec mentioning incentives for iPhone owners to “reduce or modify their usage.” AT&T has said iPhone owners use 40 percent of the carrier’s network capacity despite their being just three percent of smartphone users.

De la Vega recently told The Wall Street Journal AT&T has “not made any decision to implement tiered pricing.” The talk of tiers comes after AT&T reportedly plans to cut capital spending in 2009 to $17 billion from $20.3 billion in 2008. As a result of the cuts, AT&T is looking for ways to offload some of the network demand, turning to Wi-Fi and femtocell technology.

AT&T reportedly sees Wi-Fi as a “lifeline” to remove some users from its 3G network. Rival Verizon Wireless had attacked AT&T’s 3G coverage. As Wi-Fi usage increases (15 million Wi-Fi users connected to AT&T’s 20,000 hotspots in one quarter), the carrier is reaching out to McDonalds, Starbucks and Barnes & Noble for free access.

Another avenue is femtocells, which let AT&T users connect via their home Internet rather than the 3G cellular network.

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[Via AppleInsider]

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Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.

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Mystakill
Last I checked, I was using a cell phone, not a WiFi phone…
firesign3000
@mystakill – so what? who cares how it connects, as long as it works.
Scott
@firesign3000 – It’s like an airline that is constantly overselling their flights and not being able to keep up. And instead of them buying more planes and hiring more pilots, they decide to subcontract out the excess passengers to greyhound. It’s fine in the sense that it helps alleviate the immediate problem of what to do with these excess passengers, but it’s not a particularly robust or effective long-term strategy.
The data usage problem will likely increase exponentially as the growth in smartphones continues to explode.
Charli
personally I think that it’s a pity they aren’t going to go to tiered plans. cut those that are extremely low data users a little break and they are more likely to stay loyal.
as for those who are extremely high users due to video streaming, illegal tethering etc, why shouldn’t they pay more than the average to low users. or be subject to a cap. especially if their high usage is affecting the rest of us in an area
wxwx
@Charli
they wont be cutting you a break for being a low data user, they will keep you paying what you are now. Why lower their revenue? That’s just naive.
What companies like AT&T fail to keep in mind about heavy users,is that more often than not they are the ones referring more customers, and are more fiercely loyal. AT&T Uverse is already benefiting from the move by former Comcast heavy user customers who are switching themselves and their families and friends over to Uverse, where they don’t get treated like criminals for being heavy usage customers.
So far AT&T has been smart enough not to try to alienate the (more tech savvy) heavy users. Let’s hope it stays that way.