How concerned should I be about this news that my iPhone keeps a database of everywhere I’ve been? I’m sure the truth is somewhere between Steve Jobs’ “We don’t track anyone,” and that funny (and insane) South Park episode “HumanCentiPad,…
Earlier this month, AT&T Mobility President Ralph de la Vega made comments that the company was considering "incentives" to discourage heavy bandwidth consumption. Apparently he is now trying to save some face and do a bit of backtracking according to AppleInsider.
AT&T is viewing their expansion of their free Wi-Fi hotspots for consumers as a bit of a "tide me over" solution for its 3G network issues, which has received heavy publicity about its tendency to drop calls and provide spotty reception. AT&T pointed the finger at iPhone users, due to their heavy consumption of data compared to the regular cell phone user.
De la Vega mentioned in an interview with BusinessWeek that he never meant to imply that data caps or tiered pricing models for iPhone users were on their way. "I guess I should have been more clear," he said.
This would now be the second time in a week that de la Vega has had to cover his tracks. Last week he had spoken with The Wall Street Journal about AT&T making no decision to implement tiered pricing.
AT&T is trying to use their Wi-Fi idea as a means to keep users off of the network to rid some of the congestion. The company recently reached agreements with McDonald’s, Starbucks and Barnes & Noble to offer free Wi-Fi.
His comments also come in spite of the fact that AT&T’s capital spending is also expected to decrease this year to $17 billion from $20.3 billion last year. De la Vega still feels like AT&T’s investments are paying off.
AT&T is constantly finding itself on the hot seat as Apple’s exclusive iPhone partner in the United States, particularly for comments made last week that inferred that iPhone data hogs may soon pay more if they use more. But now, the company seems to be backing off of that unpopular stance.
The tech world has been buzzing this week about today’s planned “Operation Chokehold,” a grassroots movement aimed at bringing AT&T’s network to its knees by having as many iPhone users as possible use data-hungry apps over a 3G connection for exactly one hour this afternoon. Although Chokehold started as a joke, there are enough disgruntled AT&T subscribers that the plan has gained momentum as the week has dragged on.
Whether it’s related or not, AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega — who made the comments last week that triggered the Chokehold reaction — now appears to be downplaying the idea of tiered data plans for the iPhone, according to MacRumors.
de la Vega told The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday: “We have not made any decision to implement tiered pricing.” Such a plan would charge the customer according to how much data they use (or presumably, don’t use), rather than the current $30 per month unlimited plan for everyone that the iPhone has made popular.
Of course, AT&T saying it hasn’t made a decision isn’t the same as saying it won’t be doing it in the future. There has been talk this week of giving high-volume data users incentives to use less data, including expansion of free Wi-Fi hotspots for customers and possibly ramping up the company’s 3G MicroCell program. The 3G MicroCell is intended to boost signal strength indoors by handing off the voice & data signal to Wi-Fi.
The pressure is really on AT&T after this week’s disclosure that the telco boosted their data profits by roughly 80% since the iPhone’s debut in 2007, yet the investment in their network has fallen during the same period. This would seem to indicate that the company enjoys a healthy profit from 3G data users but is slow to reinvest that money to improve their network, despite extremely vocal criticism regarding dropped calls and slow data connections.
