AT&T said today that 3% of its smartphone users are consuming 40% of its data traffic and compromising its networks.
Back in October at the CTIA Wireless conference AT&T Wireless CEO Ralph de la Vega complained about this same issue indicating the disproportionate wireless bandwidth usage of iPhone users in a speech to wireless industry professionals and hinted at an unpleasant way of dealing with the problem, (eliminating the all you can use data plans).
Well the writing is now on the wall, I predict that in 2010, we will see the elimination by AT&T of their unrestricted data usage plan. What will be interesting to see if Verizon keeps their unlimited data plan and uses this in advertising against AT&T. This could become even more interesting if we do see a CDMA iPhone in 2010 which would work on Verizon’s network. It is widely rumored that apple will release a iPhone with both GSM and CDMA radios, which would mean a single iPhone could be used on either the AT&T or Verizon network. This would keep in the spirit of Apple which seems to prefer to add cost to a product rather than separate it into multiple products, which would add supply chain and inventory complexity.
