It seems as if AT&T want to put a cap on iPhone user's data use. Which seems like a great thing. For them.
The iPhone has been a revolutionary device in that it has brought millions of people into the realm of mobile internet. And now, in the name of Net Neutrality* (which I am for) AT&T is now trying it's best to un-do all that. In a recent comment, Ralph de la Vega (president and CEO of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets) said to PC World's Mark Sullivan
Just 3 percent of AT&T's smartphone customers use 40 percent of all smartphone data. [...] Without the proper management of these networks regular data users will be "crowded out" by the small number of users who use massive amounts of data.Ralph de la Vega
I read those statistics as a good thing, the iPhone is actually managing to get their user to, well, use them while other smartphones aren't used nearly as much (or just used for email I'd guess). AT&T read this as "uh-oh, people are actually using the service they pay us money to use". Aside from signing whatever agreement with Apple they signed, has AT&T ever looked happy about the success of the iPhone?
Even if these data use caps are set to a reasonable level, and I'm sure they will be, once they start metering it we'll go back to how it was with WAP, or even dial-up. We'll start to watch the clock as well or more than the content. We'll think twice before using our phones because we'll be making value judgement calls on whether we should be online or saving our data allowance.
Can you remember what it was like to be rushed online? For those of us who can, being able to get online whenever and for whatever you wanted was a revolution in itself. I would argue that always on, always available "mobile" internet will turn out to be more important to progressing the web than always on, always available broadband was. I say this because a) pre-broadband internet (dial-up) was much more pleasurable to use than WAP ever was and b) I'd argue that as little as we knew what to do with the internet in the bad old dial-up days, we know even less when it comes to what to do with "mobile" internet.
Once you make something too cheap to meter, you fundamentally change how that thing is used. Having unlimited data use had that effect in that it didn't matter if you used it a lot or hardly ever, you'd pay the same amount. So why not use it? Now although the money coming out of my pocket every month may not change (I doubt AT&T will charge me less just because they're giving me less) my data use is no longer too cheap to meter/too cheap to matter. And as reasonable as the limits may be, it's more of a physiological barrier than a monetary barrier.
It just feels like we're taking a step backwards. All mainly because AT&T isn't ready to help us move towards the future they're taking their toys and going home unless we all agree to not play with them.
*Fair play to AT&T for turning something that's good for consumers into something that's bad for consumers.
