AT&T's plan was never really unlimited anyway. It was "unlimited" in the same way chinese buffets are all-you-can-eat to John Pinette: It's all-you-can-eat until you've eaten too much. Still, that plan is more or less the same as what we have here in Ontario, where we pay C$30 for 2 gigs -- except for those of us who got on the 6 gig plan for the same price and keep grandfathering it with each contract renewal. Of course, our contracts are 3 years, not 2, so I don't have much sympathy.
I don't see the problem then, you have until the 7th to sign up on the unlimited data wagon. You snooze you lose. Over here, there was a period of 1 month where you could get 6gb data for 30 bucks, after that everyone could only get 1gb for 25 bucks. I guess I am used to being screwed over by my cell companies.
Yep. It means if you already have the unlimited plan, you can keep it. New users have to pick from the new "limited" plans, which become effective June 7. But if you are grandfathered in (and are paying $30 for unlimited data) and you decide to cancel for a month, when you reactivate the data plan you will have to abide by the new rules. In order to keep the unlimited plan, you need to pay every month. So much for the "no contract" idea, I guess, since it would kind of become a self-imposed contract. Not nearly as magical as Steve led us to believe...
Not really much of a change - all this means is that AT&T have finally been forced to stop mis-selling their contracts and be upfront about what they're actually offering. Between this and their (now almost certain) loss of exclusivity with the iPhone, perhaps we'll finally start seeing some real competition for mobile data plans.
+1 The unlimited plan was NEVER unlimited. It was "fair use" unlimited. Which means there was a cap but that few people reached it. When I had a data plan on my phone I used it non stop (Safari, BeeJive, Mail, NNW, Tweetie, Games) since I was always out without wifi and I never went above 3gb or so. Under the new plan I'd pay 35 with isn't bad considering that I would only pay that when I needed it. Engadget also posted an article about this and gave all the data usage of their editors. Few of them broke the 200mb limit! So for those that stay near wifi you can save quite a bit of money and upgrade your account only when you need it