AT&T won't change iPhone data plan rates

AT&T Mobility has no plans to change the pricing on its data plans for Apple's iPhone, the company said. There had been speculation that AT&T would modify its rate plans to coincide with the launch of the iPhone 3G S.

"We've been very happy with our pricing," AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel told Dow Jones Newswires. Siegel said the company's current data rates would remain in effect when the iPhone 3G S goes on sale June 19. According to AT&T, the average monthly bill for an iPhone user is in the mid-$90 range.

The company said that revenue generated from iPhone subscribers is 1.6 times higher than that of its other wireless customers. However, that revenue comes with a price tag all its own: AT&T has to continually manage and upgrade its network to handle all of the data traffic that iPhone customers generate, and spends millions of dollars subsidizing the device.

AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de le Vega said last month at the Reuters Global Technology Summit in New York that the carrier might consider offering limited data plans for lower fees, and rumors circulated that the carrier would cut the price of the iPhone's minimum monthly plan from $70 to $60. However, de le Vega dismissed the idea that the carrier would offer an iPhone without a data plan, which he said would be bad business. "Our business is to sell services," he said.

For more:
- see this Down Jones Newswires article [1] (sub.req.)

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