AT&T To End Unlimited Use Mobile Data

AT&T Inc will stop offering an unlimited pricing plan for new subscribers to its mobile data services, in a move it says will cut prices for as many as 98 percent of its customers.

The exclusive U.S. provider for Apple Inc’s iPhone said the new metered pricing, which takes effect June 7, means the more customers use their phones for web surfing the more they will have to pay.

Engadget breaks down the major points:

DataPlus / DataPro

• The existing $30 fair-use “unlimited” smartphone data plan is being replaced by two new options: $15 per month for 200MB and $25 for 2GB (called “DataPlus” and “DataPro,” respectively). Customers currently on the $30 plan are welcome to stay on it, but they can switch at any time without extending their contract.
• AT&T’s new overage system is arguably the game changer: on the $15 plan, you’ll pay $15 for each additional 200MB, but on the $25 plan, you’ll pay $10 for each additional GB. It’s simple and straightforward — but most importantly, it won’t bankrupt you if you go over by a gig or three in a month. This compares to $50 per gigabyte of overage on AT&T’s 5GB DataConnect plan for laptops.
• The carrier’s going to be very flexible about changing between the DataPlus and DataPro plans — if you’re on DataPlus, for example, and you discover that you’re blowing past your allotment, you can choose either to start DataPro the following billing cycle, pro-rate it, or apply the higher plan retroactively to the beginning of your current billing cycle. That’s pretty wild.

Tethering

• Tethering will be offered as an add-on to the DataPro plan for an additional $20 per month, which means you’ll pay a total of $45 a month for 2GB of data shared between your phone and your tethered devices. If you’re light on the usage, it’s a sweet deal — but if you scale it up and you’re using the data almost exclusively on your laptop, it compares unfavorably to the traditional DataConnect plan: $60 versus $75 for 5GB (and in the unlikely even you’ve got a webOS device on Verizon, it compares even less favorably). If you’re striking a balance of data use between a smartphone and tethered gear, AT&T’s new setup is still pretty solid considering that you would’ve been paying $60 for the USB stick plus $30 for smartphone data before.
• Yes, it’s finally happening: AT&T’s iPhones will get access to the tethering option, too.

iPad

• iPad users are also affected by the change. The $30 iPad data plan — lauded for being labeled by AT&T as truly unlimited — goes away to be replaced by the same $25 / 2GB plan that smartphone users will see, though current subscribers to the $30 plan can continue unaffected.

Everything launches on June 7, except for iPhone tethering — it’ll launch when OS 4 does. In the meantime, users can sign up for the $30 plans both on their phones and iPads if they’d like to be grandfathered in.

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