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My life's not ALL about technology!

Is AT&T "The Man" in their recent Data Plan announcement?


I was asked today what I thought of the new AT&T Data Plan revisions that have been announced. As with most of these conversations they usually start with someone rebelling against "The Man." In this case, AT&T. To be honest, being an avid RSS Feed reader, I was initially shocked by the announcement and based on the headlines went straight into the mode of thinking "Oh damn, I'm going to get screwed now."

Then I did what many are not doing before passing judgement on the announcement. I went and started digging into my own data usage on my iPhone. What I found actually shocked me. I was not consuming nearly as much data as I originally thought. Not only that, but I will actually save more money under the new plan should I choose to give up my $30 a month "Unlimited" data plan.

The first thing I did was obviously check the iPhone itself to see how much data I was consuming and it was not that clear given the fact that it only gives you what you are consuming during the current billing cycle. I needed to see an average across a period of time. So then I turned to the AT&T Application on the phone to see if I could get that information from AT&T directly. Same number.

My next attempt was to hit the AT&T Wireless website to see what my account details said, or if I could even see historical data usage on my account. There it was, a little link in the "Group Usage" section at the bottom right that said "View Past Data Usage." I clicked on it and it gave me the ability to analyze my data consumption across billing cycles over a range that you set. What I found blew me away. In the past year, my lowest consumption month was 256 mb of data, while my most active month was at 533 mb. I was sure I was consuming well over 500 mb of data in a month. For anyone who knows me, you would probably think the same thing as much as I am on-line from the phone. My running average over a 12 month period worked out to only being 391 mb of data per month. Compare that with the Mrs. who also has an iPhone and uses it as probably the average iPhone user would, who consumes only 72 mb of data per month averaged across the same 12 month period and you begin to see why the AT&T plan isn't really impacting the "average" iPhone user. In fact, it probably will save them money over the $30 unlimited 3G data plans required in the past.

With that information in hand, I turned to the new AT&T Data Plan to see what the financial difference would be over what I currently pay.

ATT Current iPhone Plan

  • simplyRik - $30/mo Unlimited Data - 12/mo Average Data - 391mb/mo
  • Mrs. simplyRik - $30/mo Unlimited Data - 12/mo Average Data - 72mb/mo


ATT New iPhone Plan

  • simplyRik - $25/mo for 2Gb "DataPlus/DataPro"
  • Mrs simplyRik - $15/mo for 200Mb

 

Do the math and you can see that if we switch based on actual usage data today, we could potentially save $20 a month. That works out for us and may be the direction we move starting when the new plan goes live. Essentially, AT&T is loosing money on our contract. So what's in it for AT&T? A couple of things actually. I have thought long and hard about why they would make this move and it is all starting to make sense to me and has nothing to do with AT&T trying to shaft their customers for more money. It appears to be more about managing their own network capacity more aligning their customer billing towards distinguishing between the power users and those who are footing the bill for those hungry for data. I am paying $30 a month for my average 390 mb of data when others are paying the same amount for Gigabytes of data usage on the network, streaming music and videos to their iPhones. If anything, I should have been up in arms for paying for more than I needed, not for losing the title "Unlimited." It is those power users that AT&T is trying to get their arms around from a financial perspective. They were leaving money on the table, giving unlimited data usage to these individuals. Controlling that through the new pricing plan will allow them to better finance their network scaling and to be honest, what they are offering in the way of data overages for those power users is still not unreasonable. They pay $25 for the initial 2 Gb of data, then $10 for every Gigabyte over that. In my mind, that is an Immense amount of data to consume and as I presumed myself to be, a "power user" consuming only 391 Mb of data a month on average, the $10 per Gigabyte of additional data seems quite fair. But if you total it all up, that may only balance the total revenue stream to what it is today, only re-allocating based on individual usage, again, making sense from a wireless carrier perspective. So where else is AT&T looking to place additional financial controls to their data? Tethering. Tethering For those who read this blog and who may not know what that is, it is using your phone with your laptop, for example to connect to the internet through the phone's 3G connection. This is a HUGE data load to push over their 3G network. Going on line with a phone is much different than going on-line with a laptop. Also with a laptop, you can configure it as a wireless hot-spot for other computers to use the same internet connect through the 3G connection. You see this with the MyFi devices which allow up to 5 other devices to connect to the internet through a single 3G/4G connection. So, again, is this AT&T sticking it to us again just to allow tethering? I don't see it. Under the new plan, you will be paying $25 a month under the DataPlus/Pro plan for 2 Gigabytes of data. Add to that the new $20 a month tethering fee and you are at $45 per month for a 2 Gigabyte connection. $30 more a month and it takes you to 5 Gb per month for $75/mo. Compare that with a carrier like Sprint for example who offers a MyFi for approximately $60/mo data plan capped at 5 Gigabytes a month and you will find that you will be paying about $15/mo more over Sprint. SEE! AT&T is getting over!!! Not really, it may be cheaper on Sprint, but internally with AT&T's USB stick plus plan you would be paying $60 for the stick and another $30 for the data plan. As someone who is not interested in connecting over 3G with my laptop, I won't be paying for any tethering option so it does not affect me. iPad Initially AT&T introduced unique pricing plans for the iPad. $15 a month for 250 mb of data or $30 for "unlimited" data. Once again, AT&T does away with the "Unlimited" plan for new users and offers a $25 for 2 Gb/mo plan similar to the iPhone. Right now, on my iPad, with 2 hours left in my billing period for the month, I have only consumed about 1Gb of data, so again, I could save $5 mo. I am not going to be facilitating the appetite of power users any longer. For me, the new AT&T Plan changes actually save me money month on month. Combined with the solid coverage in my area and limited congestion, I am a happy AT&T customer. Power users, I am sure will revolt but all is fair in data management. You should pay for what you consume and I don't fault AT&T for moving to a plan structure that matches what their competition is doing in the same space, but I don't see how any "average" consumer is going to get screwed by "The Man" in these AT&T changes. Do yourself a favor, if you are an iPhone user or someone considering switching to AT&T to get the phone. Look at your data consumption over a year and do the math to see what makes sense for you. Don't just rely on the hype-generating headlines to dictate your personal wireless choices.
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