AT&T Drops Unlimited Data And Adds A 200MB, 2GB Cap!

By: Edward Jackson (Senior Editor)

AT&T is replacing its current $30/month unlimited data plan with DataPlus and DataPro. DataPlus will give users access to 200MB of data a month for only $15/month. If customers go over the 200MB cap, they will be charged $15 for another 200MB of data instead of the currently outrageous per/MB overage charges.

The new top-ranging data plan is called DataPro and gives users a monthly cap of 2GB for $25/month. Once customers blow past their monthly cap, AT&T will charge an additional $10 for another gigabyte of data. For example, if a customer uses 2.01GB of data, you’ll be charged $35.

For those that only use relatively small amounts of data, but see a spike in usage for some reason, AT&T makes it easy to switch between the DataPlus and DataPro plans. If you start off with the DataPlus plan during the month and see that you are starting to exceed your monthly allotment, you can switch to DataPro at any time and have the charge pro-rated or have it apply retroactively to start of your currently active billing cycle.

As for you future iPad owners out there, the $30 unlimited data plan is also getting axed and replaced with the $25 DataPro package.

Now before all of AT&T’s current customers start panicking, AT&T is grandfathering in customers already on the current $30 unlimited data plan. If you would like to keep using as much data as you want, don’t change a thing and go about your business as usual. You can switch to the DataPlus or DataPro at any time, but you’ll likely lose the ability to ever go back to the unlimited data plan.

For its part, AT&T feels that these new plans are better for customers because 65 percent use less than 200MB/month and 98 percent use less than 2GB/month making the lower pricing more palatable.

“AT&T helps mobilize everything on the Internet – your favorite web sites, TV shows, music, games and social networks. Virtually everything previously done while sitting at a computer can now be done on the go,” said Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. “To give more people the opportunity to experience these benefits, we’re breaking free from the traditional ‘one-size-fits-all’ pricing model and making the mobile Internet more affordable to a greater number of people.”

All of the new changes go into effect June 7.

On a final note, AT&T has also announced that iPhone users will gain access to tethering with the release of iPhone OS 4.0. It will be available to DataPro subscribers for an additional $20/month. In a cruel twist, it appears that the only way to legally obtain tethering is to go with the DataPro plan – so if you’re currently on an unlimited plan (which lends itself nicely to tethering) you’ll have to switch to the inferior DataPro plan and never look back.
Another side effect of these changes is that anyone upgrading from a current generation iPhone to an iPhone 4G next month will be stuck with these new DataPlus and Data Pro plans thanks to the new two-year contract.