The Switch to Smart Phones

Next week, AT&T plans to change its service for smart phones, cutting prices from $30 per month for unlimited usage to $25 month for 2 gigabytes and $15 for 200 megabytes of data transference. Part of their reason for this switch is that few users, approximately 3%, account for 40% of the company’s entire data transference. AT&T believes these few users bog down the entire network.

New York and San Francisco are two cities that suffer specifically from this problem. Many users complain about poor service. Accessories for iPhone are still expected to generate large revenue because as the phones are being used less for calling and more for data, they experience more general use. Today, AT&T will also begin allowing new accessories for iPhone, namely, one called tethering for an extra $20 per month that makes an iPhone into a modem.

You can expect smart phones and wireless cell phone accessories to continue drifting towards this direction, as the internet, television, music, movies, and phone calls are used increasingly on the same device. AT&T hopes that this new plan will also sway more people towards smart phone and data usage. For those of us who still just use our phones to talk and text, this is good news.