...And yet, I don't see T-Mo, Verizon and Sprint jumping on this bandwagon.

The fact is, AT&T will get butchered for this, and change their minds in the future. Of course, if AT&T were the government, it'd take 10 years for them to decide on a reform subcomitte for data plans, and another 10 to realize that the uncapped measure was better.

Data plans are a competition. If this is a bad deal for consumers, they'll drop AT&T en-masse to go to Sprint, Verizon or T-Mo. I can only see this working in Android's favor.

This is great. It doesnt use usage when im connected at home or work or at school to any wi fi hotspot and because of that ive never used more than 200mb a month. Now my girlfriend and I's 2 iphones, unlimited texts and a data plan that doesnt effect us will be less than $100 a month with my $30 off through my work.

This is awesome, imo as the VAST majority IE: 97% according to ATT figures can get the 2gb plan and save 5 bucks a month, they probably figured theyd make more off of those high end users and hopefully also in doing so are going to clean up the network a little because of this.

ALSO: Existing users can remain on the unlimited plan. I understand a few people will be affected but the fact when wi fi is on its not using usage and that 97% of smartphone users on ATT use less than 2GB which is being cheaper than unlimited i think a lot of the bitching is based on the headline and not the content.

You honeslty think ATT will get butchered for this? If you want let's come back to this topic in a year and see just how well ATT is doing. I'd be willing to put down a bet that ATT will be jsut fine in a year's time. Remember how TW started doing tiered internet and uncapped internet? Glad government was around to put ome fear int them otherwise we'd be getting screwed over for internet as well.

As I said above , competition is no longer a part of the equation of the "free market" whoever can manipulate the masses the best wins. You think corporations spend millions on psychology studies just to compete better? I need some of your kool-aid.

There is another side to it besides revenues, and that's demand for data outstripping what AT&T can supply. It's no secret that demand for 3G network is crippling AT&T's quality of service in some key regions. If curbing the appetite of the hungriest consumers can prevent calls from dropping for the rest of AT&T's customers, it could be a net win for most users.

In other words, it might be worth pissing off 2% of their customers to retain the other 98%.

I think AT&T's biggest mistake was offering unlimited data when the truth is that cell bandwidth is far from unlimited. It sounds great when you're selling the plan to customers, but the customers turn pretty sour when their "unlimited" network keeps disconnecting them. Just another company caught with its pants down by the smartphone boom.

AT&T claims that 2% of the people are using up all their data.  Then they change their pricing but only for new customers.  If 98% are under why not give everyone the 2gb deal and pass the cost on to the 2%?  Their limits just seems off 200mb or 2GB, then the cost of each if you go over.  On the lower plan another 15 dollars gets me another 200mb but on the higher plan ten dollars will get you 1GB.  I think most people are close to these limits and AT&T is betting you will go over.

Also they are allow the 2% to stay grandfathered in.  So this will not help out AT&T unless the select to move to the new limits why would they?  Unless when their contract is up they will have too.

ATT is not claiming those top tier 2% are "using all their data" Whats happening here is people are handcuffed into paying 30 bucks a month regardless of if they use 1 mb or 10 gb. This new plan will save the majority of people at least $15 a month or more for multiple iphone users on the same account. It will also save the VAST majority of people $5 a month, where ATT plans on making up the money is from that 2% high end user going above 2GB and also enticing NEW customers perhaps families, who want 2 or 3 iphones, their bill would go from $60-$90 to $30-$45, much more managable for data costs.

ATT is looking longterm, and also in the long run if people say "well, i dont NEED to use 5 GB i can just use 2GB" the network uncloggs a bit and its good for everyone. The the other fine print involved here is that when connected to wifi at home or work or school you will not be charged usage, so people streaming pandora at school or work or in an ATT hotspot (free to all users) or doing anything will not be using their data connected to wifi.

People will obviously overexaggerate the amount theyre on 3G but there is a freaking wifi hotspot at my local magic wok for gods sake, theyre everywhere, very rarely is 3G even necessary but when it is its sometimes a hassle so that makes data usage go down even further

This is not a bad deal by any means.

I know some people are grabbing their pitchforks because of this, but it's not that big of deal.  I don't know if I could use 2Gigs of data on my phone in a month and my usage is generally just over 220MB for my wife and I.  If I really needed to I could connect to the wireless at work and I'm sure I would easily be under 20MB/month and it would be no problem.