AT&T Data Plan Criticism GrowsAT&T Data Plan Criticism Grows

As the dust continues to settle on AT&T’s new data plans, consumers and others are beginning to question whether the plans will be as beneficial as the carrier claims.

While few question that AT&T will have to act to put a lid on the galloping rise of data that is increasingly clogging its network, some public interest groups have criticized AT&T’s tiered pricing approach, arguing that it is anticompetitive.

“While AT&T asserts that its high-end 2 GB cap will only impact the heaviest users, the fact is that today’s heavy user is tomorrow’s average user,” said Free Press policy counsel Chris Riley in a statement. “Internet overcharging schemes like the one AT&T proposes will discourage innovative new uses and stifle healthy growth in the broadband economy. It is price gouging for AT&T to charge the low-end users $15 per 200 MB and to charge $20 for tethering capability even if no additional capacity is used. This pricing system is clearly divorced from the actual underlying cost of service.”

The AT&T data plans also look rigid when compared with Sprint’s burgeoning WiMax network and the LTE network that Verizon Wireless is prepared to roll out in at least 25 cities later this year.

Additional criticism of the AT&T plans came from Schwark Satyavolu, CEO of BillShrink, a custom search engine that tracks different cell phone plans for consumers. Noting that per person data usage has risen 3.5 times in the last 15 months, Satyavolu said iPhone users will be paying twice for each song and app downloaded from Apple’s iTunes.

“As data usage continues to ramp up, the elimination of unlimited packages will hurt people more and more,” said Satyavolu in a statement. “The biggest immediate impact and long-term harm will be on heavier iPhone users and people who tether, who typically have the highest data usage and will be paying overage fees each month.”

To a large extent, AT&T’s data squeeze has been the result of its success with Apple’s iPhone, whose users tend to download large volumes of data.