This week, AT&T announced new data plans for iPhone and iPad users starting June 7th. The biggest change is that AT&T will no longer be offering unlimited data plans for iPhone or iPad users. What they will be offering, are two lower cost options with capped bandwidth.
There are basically 2 options now for data usage.
- DataPlus: $15/mo for up to 200MB of data ($15 for each additional 200MB after limit is met)
- DataPro: $25/mo for up to 2GB of data ($10 for each additional 1GB after limit is met)
In addition to the above two plans, AT&T is also now allowing “tethering” on the iPhone for $20/mo. Unfortunately this does not include any additional data and seems to be a mear convenience charge. In my opinion, this would be fine with an unlimited plan, but the $20/mo should include some amount of additional data since it will be using data already paid for in the DataPro plan.
Note to current iPhone and iPad users, if you already have the unlimited plan, you can keep it at the current price but if you ever downgrade or change the plan, you will never be able to get the unlimited plan again.
Overall, I am happy with the new options AT&T has to offer and will be taking advantage of some of the savings.
Currently in our home, we have 2 iPhones (mine and my wife’s) and 1 iPad 3G. We currently pay a total of $90/month for data with AT&T ($30 for each iPhone and $30 for the iPad 3G), this includes unlimited data on all 3 devices. My wife uses less than 200mb/mo, so she can downgrade to the $15/mo plan (savings of $15/mo), I never go over 500mb, so I can downgrade to the $25/mo plan (savings of $5/mo). We can add tethering to my iPhone and remove the 3G from the iPad (savings of $10/mo).
Total savings with new setup, $30/mo (or $360/year). Not to mention the fact that I could potentially sell the iPad 3G and switch back to an iPad WiFi since the iPhone will now act as the WiFi hub.
Not a bad deal at all.
UPDATE: A recent post on TUAW seems to indicate that it will not be possible to tether an iPad to an iPhone. As a result, I will be keeping my unlimited 3G plan on the iPad but still downgrading my iPhone plans to save a few bucks come Monday. Overall savings is now $20/mo (or $240/year). Still not too bad.