FW: Dear AT&T, your new data plans suck.

good breakdown by BGR.  forgot to approve this post fwd earlier...oops.

as many of you may have known I have been carrying two devices for some time now, iPhone 3G and my BlackBerry Bold 9700.  However, the iPhone didn't have a SIM card in it so it was essentially an iPod Touch.  since i was highly demanding of them I decided I would probably be interested in purchasing service for the iPhone, but figured mine as well wait and see if the next generation iPhone was released in June as it was highly speculated.  however, what i didn't predict was the announcement of these tiered data plans and that they'd go into effect before the new iPhone was released.  

since i wasn't at all interested in having an iPhone with a limited data plan i went forward with purchasing a 3GS before June 7th.  part of the fine print is that if you're an existing customer with an unlimited data plan you can move forward with that plan being grandfathered even if you upgrade your phone. i.e. 3GS to i4.  when the 3GS was announced and released last year apple/att offered an upgrade from the 3G to type-s to anyone that had purchased it within 45 days (or a discounted price if you preferred).  predicting this would happen again--in similar fashion, i proceeded in order to secure a plan with unlimited data.  i'm not a huge fan of being an immediate adopter of any iPhone because i'll have wait for a jailbreak to be figured out and for all those applications to be updated and/or compatibility verified.  i guess it'll happen eventually.  for now, who knows how soon i'll even be able to exchange for the i4 with the ridiculous amount of pre-orders that have taken place.

Feed: Boy Genius Report

AT&T's new data plans certainly have gotten their fair share of press over the last couple days. There are two articles in particular that got us thinking, and we would like to throw our two cents into the ring. So here are our thoughts: AT&T, your improved data plans suck. Hit the jump for the rest of our rant. It's not because there is a lower data cap on the new plans… we can get our heads around that. We don't like it, but we understand it — unfortunately, it is the way things are moving. However, the way in which AT&T is going to charge smartphone users for the data they use is just dismal. The fact that using 2 GB of data while signed up for the 200 MB Data Plus plan will result in a bill of $150, while using 2 GB with the Data Pro plan will only total $25 is infuriating…and a mathematical/accounting anomaly. Reuters reporter, Felix Salmon, asked AT&T's executive director of media relations, Mark Siegel: F.S.: "Is there any point at which AT&T will help a brother out and automatically switch a heavy data user from Data Plus to Data Pro." M.S.: "No." So lets review the math… Siegel went onto say, "One of the things we found is that people don't want one plan. They don't want one size that fits all." Which we totally agree with, but when your options are 200 MB (for people who have a smartphone but probably shouldn't) and 2 GB (which will work for most, but certainly not high end users streaming video and/or tethering), you're being disingenuous. How about these for options: 200 MB for $15/month (for most BlackBerry users and people who have a smartphone and don't know what to do with it), $20/month for 1 GB/month (good for most), and $30 for 5/GB (for the high end data hog). There. That wasn't so hard, was it? Also… as Gizmodo pointed out, if you are going to nickle and dime us on data charges (and text messages, don't think we forgot about that), how about some roll over megabytes? So AT&T, we bid you good luck putting a positive PR spin on this one, because to be perfectly honest, there isn't one. Read [Reuters] Read [Gizmodo]

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