It was announced that ATT is no longer going to offer the unlimited data option for smartphones on new contracts, and frankly I don’t care. First off I never go anywhere near 2gb on my Iphone. I think on average I use about 700mb a month of data (I check it a whole bunch via the ATT app). I don’t really stream music or movie on my Iphone, and I don’t usually use it for pulling down large files, that’s what one for the three computers I have in my possession is for. Now it’s possible that when the new OS comes out that allows for multi tasking I will end up consuming more data with things like Pandora, but I still don’t think I will be getting close to the cap. If I owned an Ipad and I was streaming movies or TV on it this might cause me to leap up in usage and maybe I will have an issues with the cap, but at far as I am concerned if you are using the Ipad to stream movies and TV you should probably be on a wireless connection which would not eat into your data cap. In most places I can think of where I would want to whip out my Idevice and stream some TV I would have access to some kind of wireless connection so using the data would not be required, I am hard pressed to think of a place where I would really need to stream that TV show now where I would not be on wireless. Ok, one of the changes that is also coming out in the new OS is the ability to actually tether your phone to a computer or device. This is nifty, but again I do not think I will be tethering my phone to a computer and then doing data intensive things, I mean yeah if there was no cap I wouldn’t have to care, but as more ATT customer will tell you the network kinda blows, so if my choice is to stream that Stargate episode to my computer on a tethered connection or to wait till I am on a wireless connection I will wait till I am on the wireless, and off the network. I don’t really have much of a personal used case for tethering, but I am sure there are people out there that will use the hell out of this feature, but again I don’t think the use will be for things that require a lot of data usage, more for things like; getting your email at the airport, or in a cab.
Second as I mentioned ATT kinda blows. As more and more people buy Smartphones on the ATT network and use those smart phones for data it will degrade and degrade the network. Putting this cap in place, a cap that ATT claims will not affect like 90% of users (me included) it will hopefully help with the network congestions. It will make people more responsible with their data usage. Now I guess the claim could be made that since ATT already has the problems they have and already almost no one is reaching the cap it might not help at all, but if more and more phones come on the network they eat a bigger and bigger chunk of the pie even if they don’t use more data than the current users. This does not give ATT a free pass to just keep things they way they are they need to spend the time and the money to boost their network and increase the bandwidth and the reliability of the network as a whole, which leads me to my penultimate point as to why I don’t care that they changed the policy on the data plans
Eventually I think that these networks will get to a place where it will be possible to offer the unlimited data package again, granted it will probably come back as a more expensive option, but I personally believe that it will be back.
Lastly this will end up saving me money. When I bought the Iphone I had to bundle it with the $30 a month data plan, if I can shave off a few bucks a month with a plan with a cap that I don’t think I will ever reach I am all for it. Granted my contract has more than a year and a half on it so I will get to enjoy my unlimited plan till I need to renew, and who know what phone or provider I will end up with when that happens.
So there is my 2 cents on the ATT data plan change. In summary I don’t care.
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