Gadgets Update: AT&T Says Metered Cell Phone Data Plans Are Inevitable

From DailyTech: Metered internet pricing is a controversial suggestion, both in wireless and wired form. Basically, most iterations of the plan boil down to low-usage users' costs remaining similar to current costs, but high usage users having to pay much more than their current rates. Customers by and large hate the idea since they feel they already pay too much for their internet (major service providers in the U.S., like Comcast and Embarq, have fought to outlaw municipal Wi-Fi services that would offer cheaper internet to citizens). Internet service providers, though, oft seem to see dollar signs when they dream of metered pricing.

In the U.S. a handful of companies have conducted wired or wireless meter pricing trials -- AT&T and Time Warner are two of the biggest. Time Warner dropped its plans after backlash, but AT&T is lending serious consideration to plans to increase the fees of its busier users. AT&T Inc. Chief Executive Randall Stephenson on Tuesday said that he feels an eventual rollout of a metered wireless billing plan is an inevitability for his company.

In a multi-topic presentation at a Morgan Stanley conference in San Francisco Mr. Stephenson stated, "For the industry we will progressively move towards more what I will call variable pricing, if you will. The heavy consumers will pay different than the lower consumers."

The announcement leaves customers with a somewhat mixed signal, considering AT&T's recent indication that it was turning away from considering tiered pricing and instead stepping up Wi-Fi partnerships. His consideration of metered pricing is not unique, though -- Verizon Wireless, America's largest carrier, recently indicated that it was eyeing trial deployments of tiered pricing as well.

Among the other interesting topics Mr. Stephenson hit on was the company's relationship with Apple. Despite some gripes from iPhone owners, Mr. Stephenson is convinced that iPhone will be a "key product" (hinting at exclusivity) for "quite some time".

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