New AT&T smartphone users won't get one-price Net

AT&T will become the first major mobile phone company to stop offering new smartphone customers a single monthly price for unlimited Internet access — likely presaging an industry shift to charges based on how much people use their phones to access videos, music and data.

AT&T expects the new pricing to boost sales. "Some customers, up until now, have been hesitant to sign up for a $30 monthly data plan" for unlimited access, says Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. Existing customers can switch to the new pricing or keep their current all-you-can-eat service. Newcomers will have two options: Under the DataPlus plan, subscribers can pay $15 a month for 200 megabytes of data; that would handle about 400 photos or 100 minutes of streaming video. The DataPro plan offers 10 times that capacity, 2 gigabytes, for $25. AT&T will send text alerts to customers near their limits. DataPlus customers who go over will be charged $15 for an additional 200 MB. DataPro users will pay $10 for an extra 1 GB. AT&T says 65% of its smartphone customers use less than 200 MB a month, and 98% use less than 2 GB. But, largely due to the success of the iPhone, AT&T "has the most loaded and most used data network in the U.S.," says Roger Entner, head of telecom research at Nielsen. And just 3% of AT&T's smartphone customers account for as much as 40% of its data traffic, contributing to slow transmissions and dropped calls. AT&T must control heavy users, or at least get them to pay more, Entner says.