Only a carrier could trumpet $500 per gigabyte as a price cut

AT&T is cutting the price of data access for prepaid customers -- those who don't sign contracts but instead pay as they go -- to $5 for 10MB of data access on select smartphones, a major cut from the previous $5 for 1MB. But press reports haven't done their math: The costs are 50 times what so-called postpaid customers -- those who sign a contract and get a bill each month -- are charged.

An AT&T GoPhone customer pays $500 per gigabyte of data usage, whereas a postpaid Android or iPhone user pays $10 per gigabyte. Of course, there are other plans: One costs $150 per gigabyte if you buy 100MB increments (15 times what regular customers pay), and the other costs "only" $50 per gigabyte if you buy 500MB increments (5 times over the regular customer cost). Such a deal! Even pay-as-you-go iPad users pay $10 per gigabyte, so the shocking price difference can't be attributed to the prepaid business model's costs versus the postpaid model's costs. After all, AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and Sprint have 3G data pricing that's all over the map for the same amount of data, even with each carrier's suite of plans. The differences just aren't as scandalous as these GoPhone charges.