What AT&T’s data plan changes mean

Depending on what kind of iPhone or iPad user you are, next Monday’s data plan updates will mean lower rates for the great majority. For power users accustomed to consuming large amounts of content wirelessly, Ma Bell’s changes aren’t such a happy thing.

Come Monday, AT&T’s unlimited plans for the iPhone and iPad will be history. However, current iPhone and iPad users that continue to auto-renew those $30 plans will be grandfathered in, meaning as long as they continue to pay and not change devices or try to make plan changes, they’ll continue to get unlimited data. For new subscribers, however, there are a lot of changes and how these affect you depends on how much data you use.

The DataPro plan gives 2GB data per month for $25. Assuming AT&T’s estimate that 98 percent of users actually do consume less than 2GB a month, this is an improvement and will save them $60 a year. Further, the data overage charge is just $10 per gigabyte, which is a big improvement over the egregiously expensive per kilobit overage rates of years past.

Also, as both Sprint and Verizon charge $50 per gigabyte of overage data, AT&T’s reset the bar for the industry as a whole, which is going to be good for everyone.

All AT&T data subscribers will continue to receive “free” Wi-Fi hotspot connectivity.

Less is more?

For those that can get by on just 200MB of data, the DataPlus plan will save you $225 per year and that’s not chicken feed. However, the catch with DataPlus is that overages are charged at $15 per additional units of 200MB, which begs the question, “Why doesn’t AT&T automatically upgrade these subscribers to the DataPro?”

That said, a sharp-eyed user that monitors his usage, and AT&T will send alerts, can upgrade on his own. Further, users can upgrade after an overage on their own up ’til the end of the billing period, and that’s a fairly reasonable policy.

Another area where Ma Belle has put the cart ahead of the horse is tethering, a service that the company said they’d deliver by the end of last year.

For tethering, you must purchase the DataPro plan (2GB) and then pay an additional $20 per month. The kick in the ribs here is that paying more doesn’t get you any more data — you’re paying again for the privilege of using that same 2GB chunk of data again.

Conclusions

Yes, if you’re a light iPhone or iPad data user, AT&T’s news plans will save you money. The minority of users that made full use of the previous unlimited plans will end up paying more.

Further, for the occasional heavy data user, Ma Bell’ls new overage fees, specifically the DataPro $10 per gigabyte fee, will probably save them money over the long term. However, the DataPlus (plus what?) overage fee is just wrong and subscribers that run past 200MB should be automatically upgrade to DataPro for that month — it’s only reasonable.

Lastly, the $20 tethering fee, which provides no additional data, is likewise ill-conceived and should be changed.

So, AT&T’s new fee structure is a mix of both good and bad. How are Ma Bell’s new plans going to affect you?

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