AT&T bait and switch on iPad data plan

• http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=17991&cdvn=news&newsarticleid=30854&mapcode=financial|Wireless
• http://blogs.forrester.com/charles_golvin/10-06-02-atts_revamped_data_pricing_more_about_tomorrow_today
• http://mashable.com/2010/06/02/att-kills-ipad-unlimited-data-plan/

The 3G iPad has literally been out a month (since 4/30/2010). The big draw of the 3G iPad (over the wifi iPad) was AT&T promised an unlimited data plan for $30/mo. Today they announced that they are going back on that promise, and switching the data plan to 2G for $25/mo. Each additional Gig costs $10.

AT&T argues that most people (98%) don’t use over 2Gig of data a month. And probably that was true up to the day the 3G iPad launched. Given that the iPad is a content consumption device, it is going to use a lot of data. Free streaming of Netflix movies is a good example. I wonder what that one month of 3G iPads on their network showed them? I wonder what percentage of 3G iPads used more than 2Gig?

The reason why I bought one of the 3G instead of the wifi iPads was exactly because of this data plan. To change it so soon is a clear breach of promise. Steve Jobs stood on stage and touted this plan as a key selling point for the iPad.

I found out about this this thanks to Jeff Jarvis,  http://twitter.com/jeffjarvis .