Using Too Much "Unlimited" Data? AT&T May Fine You!

"Keep in line and don't get a fine" -- may be AT&T's new order of business in order to try to keep its network afloat

It's no secret that AT&T's network leaves something to be desired. AT&T admits that geographic coverage is poor, but insists that 75 percent of customers have "access" to 3G coverage.

However, in certain cities the situation is reportedly particularly dire, with an Apple store in New York City reporting 30 percent dropped call rates to be the norm. As DailyTech's Shane McGlaun comments in a recent blog about AT&T's initiative to roll out an app to identify regions of poor coverage: "All I can say is that I hope AT&T has a server with lots of storage space because near as I can tell the service sucks everywhere."

Now AT&T may be resorting to a new plan to try to stretch its struggling 3G network -- fining iPhone users that use too much data. Wait, isn't part of the iPhone data plan access to unlimited data transfer? Yes, that is the case, but it turns out that AT&T is considering plans to make "unlimited" mean "don't use too much or we'll fine you".

The issue was plans were let slip by AT&T executive Ralph de la Vega at the UBS conference in New York. He complained that 3 percent of the iPhone users are using 40 percent of the bandwidth. He complains that these bandwidth hogs are feasting on such forbidden fruit as streaming music and video and that his network just can't keep up.

[via Daily Tech]

Get a Free iPhone 3GS! Yes, that is correct! Why pay for one when CNN, BBC, NBC, and other news sites have proven this system LEGIT. Get it the simple way .... straight to your doorstep! Not interested? Then maybe get a Free PS3!