“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.
[Via AppleInsider]
