Gruber breaks down The Good and the Bad Regarding AT&T’s New Data Plans for the iPhone and iPad (and other smart phones).
The bottom line is that the current $30/month for unlimited data in the iPhone and no tethering (using the phone to get your computer online) is going away. Instead there are two plans: $15/month for 200MB of data and $25 for 2GB of data. This sounds pretty good to me; I've used just 1GB of 3G data in a year and half with the iPhone, so I'll save $15/month.
The problem is in two details. With the 2GB plan, if you go over you're charged $10 for another 1GB of data, that's pretty reasonable; but with the 200MB plan if you go over you're charged $15 for another 200MB. That might be called gouging. But what definitely can be called gouging is the $20 fee for tethering, particularly because you don't get any more data.
While I don't use a lot of 3G data, others probably use more. I (obviously) don't use it while commuting and I don't use Pandora to stream music and I rarely stream videos. With the rumored additions to OS4, including running Pandora in the background or doing video chats, I could see myself using more bandwidth.
2 comments:
Odds are that if I'm driving any significant distance, I'll be listening to one stream or another using ooTunes. My iPhone says I've received 3.1 GB of cellular network in the last nine days. I guess I'm glad I'm grandfathered.
Being charged for tether functionality just makes me want to hurt AT&T. More than I already did, I mean.
I usually queue up podcasts for long drives. Last trip I listed to twenty something episodes of the British Museums History of the World in 100 objects. Highly recommended.
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