I can be somewhat of am impulse buyer. This afternoon, after I was reading more and more into how AT&T is pulling a bait and switch, I placed a few phone calls to the Apple retail stores in and around New York City. I have been interested in purchasing a device ever since I got a few minutes to play with the SDK, but what nearly set me over the edge was the fact that AT&T has decided to discontinue the unlimited 3G plan that Apple was still (up until this afternoon) toting as one of the major selling points of the device. What I found interesting is that all of the stores made a point to tell me that all models of the 3G iPad were currently unavailable, but all except the lauded Fifth Avenue store had WiFi models for sale.
What I find the most interesting is how AT&T are parading this change as being beneficial to their customers without providing any statistics on data usage for the iPad. In the press release they specifically stated that most users consume less than 2GB of bandwidth, which so happens to be the ceiling of their data plans, but the will offer more bandwidth at a $10 per gigabyte rate after that. I will agree with the AT&T findings – my bandwidth usage ever since I have owned an iPhone (since the original) has never gone above 2GB – but I have a had time believing that a streaming Netflix program won’t regularly break that 2GB ceiling.
But a part of my questions if AT&T’s motives, which absolutely are not int the best interest of the consumer, are being put in place to potentially curb a growing VOIP market with the release of Skype for 3G on the iPhone. If AT&T are able to make it more expensive to place VOIP phone calls then people are not going to do it, right? In fact, what I find completely insane is that these devices that have been heralded as the most connected, interactive and innovative consumer electronics, ever, are being hogtied by the only capable wireless 3G provider. We do not have a choice even if we wanted to. These devices, even unlocked, will not work with a similar 3G card inside due to the frequencies being different between T-Mobile and AT&T.
So this unlimited data plan that was absolutely sold as being the primary reason to purchase the 3G model of the iPad has, less than a month after release, completely evaporated. Should those of us that have purchased an iPad be up in arms? What about when AT&T decides to change your contract when you use that neat little clause that lets you turn off your wireless 3G service when you aren’t using it – the next time that you sign up are they going to let you pay $30 for unlimited coverage? Boy, am I glad that Apple has decided to make the iPad unavailable until June 7th, or else I may be asking those questions myself right about now.
Oh, and by the way, if you want to tether your laptop to your iPhone to use some of that 2GB of bandwidth that you have purchased from AT&T you are going to have to pay an additional fee that will not give you a higher cap. Anyone that is interested in voicing their opinion directly to the man himself the Consumerist blog has posted the contact details of AT&T CEO, Randall Stephenson, so have at it boys.