AT and T Begs iPhone Customers “Stop Using So Much Data Bandwidth” (or We’ll Penalize You)   - 915 Views, 1 Comment

AT and T has taken the unusual step of publicly admitting that they can’t handle the amount of data that their smartphone (mostly iPhone) using customers are using, and have indicated that they are going to try to “educate customers about what represents a megabyte of data.” And then they are going to start penalizing “heavy users.” With so many Apple iPhone complaints about lost calls, dropped calls, and poor coverage and other iPhone problems, it’s about time that they did something, although we’re not sure that cajoling, educating, and threatening users is the right ’something’.

However, that’s exactly part of AT&T’s plan to deal with the issue of the fact that they simply are unable to service all of the iPhone traffic they have. Explained Ralph de la Vega, AT&T’s President and Chief Executive for Mobility, “The first thing we need to do is educate customers about what represents a megabyte of data,” adding that “[W]e’re improving systems to give them real-time information about their data usage.”

In fact, AT&T just made available an iPhone app called “Mark the Spot” which allows iPhone users to instantly report data coverage problems to AT&T.

But, says de la Vega, “Longer term, there’s got to be some sort of pricing scheme that addresses the [heavy] users.”

According to de la Vega, just 3% of iPhone users account for as much as 40% of the data traffic generated by AT&T’s iPhone users.

Which suggests that a change in policy to go after just 3% of their customers may not be the most efficient (or effective) strategy. After all, what about the 97% of their customers who are using the 60% of that bandwidth?

To be fair, de la Vega has said that AT&T is also in the process of upgrading their networks, and that some of the changes will bring “immediate” relief to iPhone users, and that in fact their data rate will be “smokin’”.

In the alternative, we have suggestions for both Apple / AT&T to ease the iPhone traffic congestion on their networks (let go of the AT&T - iPhone monopoly and let the iPhone onto other networks), and for users who are sick of dealing with slow AT&T network service, dropped calls, and lost voicemail (vote with your feet and your choice of phones).