AT&T Cancels Unlimited Data For Smartphones, Announces New Rates

Well, it wass bound to happen sooner or later, especially with a company like AT&T. Change is, after all, inevitable. What am I talking about? Unlimited smartphone data from AT&T is a thing of the past. Or at least it will be soon.

Starting on June 7th, the company will introduce two new data plans to replace its current $30 unlimited smartphone plan. These new plans will, according to AT&T, make it “more affordable for more people to enjoy the benefits of the mobile Internet.” How nice of them.

Here’s the details on the new plans:

DataPlus
200MB of data for $15 per month. AT&T says this will be enough data to meet the needs of 65% of its smartphone users. Go over this limit and be charged $15 per 200MB.

DataPro
2GB of data for $25 per month. According to AT&T, only 2% of its smartphone customers use more than 2GB of data per month. Go over this limit and be charged $10 per GB.

Tethering
Smartphone users that want tethering and have a DataPro plan can also add the feature for $20 per month. So, that means you have the priveledge of paying $45 for 5GB per month to share between your phone and your computer. Wow, what a bargain. One brite spot is that tethering for the iPhone will finally be available once Apple releases iPhone OS 4.0 this Summer.

iPad
New iPad customers will have two options: $15 for 250MB and $25 for 2GB of data. Any iPad customers who wish to stick to the $30 unlimited plan are free to do so, but AT&T is hoping most people will opt to save $5 and change plans.

Well, there you have it. The new data plans from AT&T. So what do we think? Are people who use smartphones and iPads getting screwed? Or, is this nothing to worry about?