ATT announces iPhone tethering, new data plans sans unlimited


Wireless provider announced a slew of changes to its mobile data services to take effect next week.

In one of the greatest cosmic coincidences, AT&T will change terms of service to allow iPhone tethering on the same day as Steve Jobs' WWDC keynote. OK, not really a coincidence at all. AT&T announced Wednesday big changes for its mobile offering starting Monday. The biggest news for iPhone users likely will be the addition of smart phone tethering, although the company left the official support date to Apple for the launch of iPhone OS 4. Also new for tethering are new data rates and limits. For new activations, tethering will start out at $20/mo on top of the devices monthly data plan. This appears to be limited to 2 GB per month. This trims the price by $10 per month for other smartphones with a 5 GB limit.

For smartphones, a new 200 MB/mo tier will run you $15 a month, and a second 2 GB tier runs you $25/mo. Gone are the unlimited data plans. Note that these changes are for new customers, and it appears existing customers will retain their plans.

For iPad users, their unique plans will match the new dataplans with $25 for 2 GB. The $15 for 200 MB remains the same, similar to the new smartphone tier. AT&T says current users can retain their monthly unlimited plans if desired.

So, a real mixed bag here, but good news for lighter data users. The $30 data plan on top of voice service is prohibitive for many casual mobile users. $15 for basic access likely will be much more attractive for those who felt an iPhone was too expensive. The good news is if you have an iPhone and iPad, each device could have 200 MB of 3G data for the same cost as the old iPhone data plan. Watch the overage though as prices can be up to $10/GB.

For heavy mobile users, 2 GB may be changing some behavior. Along with lower cost of entry for smartphone customers, reducing its overall network usage is obviously a second goal here. The iPhone is widely reported to generate a lot of data usage as AT&T tried to keep up. It's interesting, however, that AT&T doesn't even offer a 5 GB or uber expensive unlimited plan.

AT&T