AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega has told the Wall Street Journal that despite what he said back in October and earlier in December:
"We have not made any decision to implement tiered pricing."
Which is a weasel-wordy way of saying, contrary to previous statements that suggested they might do just that, AT&T isn't planning on charging customers by the byte -- yet. And they're still going to call their plans "unlimited" even as they try to get customers to use less 3G data via:
- More WiFi hotspots
- Microcells (femtocells) which re-route connections through your own broadband cable or DSL modem, effectively creating a mini cell tower in your home.
- Incentives (though de la Vega declined to comment on what those might be exactly)
Thanks in large part to the iPhone, AT&T data volumes have shot up 5000% and, according to a lot of recent blog-spun controversy, they've seen profits increase as well while simultaneously investing less and less in the network meant to support that usage.
