Guzzling up websites on your iPhone is now quicker than ever thanks to 4G LTE. It also means that your monthly data allotment can disappear in a poof if you go on a YouTube binge, but at CES this morning AT&T announced it has a plan to help customers consume even more data by allowing advertisers to foot the bill on their content.
The creatively named new service, Sponsored Data, offers a way for companies to pick up the tab on 4G data usage when certain services are being used. Customers will be able to see when the service is in effect thanks to a new Sponsored Data icon that will show up in your status bar and then send the bill for data charges to the sponsoring company.
So if you want to watch a trailer for Pompeii over 4G – which is an ad itself – you can get crazy and steam it in 1080p without worrying about the extra filesize taking a chunk out of your monthly cap. AT&T says Sponsored Data will be the same speed as your regular data so that the only difference is who’s floating the bill.
AT&T says they’ve already signed three partners to work with Sponsored Data – Aquto, Kony Solutions, and UnitedHealth Group – but more will certainly follow as advertisers have been searching for better ways to target consumers on mobile.
Source: AT&T
