AT&T to require smartphone data plans starting September 6th
AT&T subscribers, we have good news and bad news. The bad news is that as of September 6th, AT&T will begin requiring that all smartphones sign up for a smartphone data plan. The good news is that customers …
Context & Ripple Effects
This closes a loophole AT&T has lived with since the iPhone launched: buyers could activate smartphones on voice-and-text pricing and skip the data fee entirely. It also extends an arc that started when word of an AT&T iPhone tethering plan surfaced back in February 2008 — the carrier has been working out how to charge properly for mobile data, and mandatory attach is the bluntest version of that.
The move lands during a rough month for AT&T's public standing. In late July a correction confirmed AT&T was behind Apple's rejection of the Google Voice app, and this month a Louisiana district court saw a class action filed against Apple and AT&T over MMS support that was promised but never delivered. Raising required monthly costs while service complaints mount puts both the pricing decision and the carrier's control over its platform under the same spotlight.
First-order effects
- From September 6th, every smartphone activated on AT&T must carry a smartphone data plan, so buyers who previously ran iPhones or comparable handsets on voice-only pricing face a permanently higher monthly bill.
Second-order effects
- Guaranteed per-line data revenue strengthens the case for AT&T to push data-hungry hardware — the BlackBerry 9700 and HTC Tilt 2 reportedly headed to its lineup are exactly the devices whose appeal depends on that attached plan.
Third-order effects
- If mandatory data attach spreads across US carriers, the smartphone contract becomes fundamentally a data contract with voice bundled around it — and with AT&T having just rewritten its terms of service to push disputes into binding arbitration, how carriers impose mandatory terms is likely to draw regulatory attention alongside consumer backlash.
The trend: US carriers are converting the smartphone data plan from an optional add-on into a mandatory line item, making data revenue rather than voice subsidy the core of postpaid economics.