Ralph de la Vega, the CEO of AT&T, told Rueters that AT&T is indeed considering a cheaper iPhone data plan. However, this will be for limited data plans.
The executive said it would be costly for AT&T to cut the price of its unlimited Web surfing service. The minimum plan for iPhone users is $70 a month, which includes unlimited Web surfing and a certain amount of voice calls.
Instead, AT&T could offer more limited Web surfing on cellphones for a lower fee, similar to its trial offer of 200 megabytes of data downloads for wireless netbook users for $40 a month in Atlanta and in Philadelphia.
“Right now we continue to study what is the best thing that is available, not just from an iPhone point of view, but what you can do to stimulate additional demand,” said de la Vega, who is responsible for all of AT&T’s consumer sales along with his role as chief executive of the mobile business..
As someone who has racked up absurd data roaming bills overseas by just letting my IMAP email sync, I can tell you this isn’t going to fly well. iPhones are notorious for using many times more data than other smartphones and worrying about data ruins just about every fun and cool aspect of the device.