AT&T aims to have developers pay for app bandwidth usage

OneMoreThing... · Feb 27, 2012

AT&T aims to have developers pay for app bandwidth usage

At an interview during the Mobile World Congress going on in Spain this week, AT&T executive John Donovan told the Wall Street Journal that the company is apparently hoping to have app developers pick up some of the cost of network usage. The whole idea sounds kind of dumb, but obviously AT&T wants to make more and more money off of the climbing amounts of network usage, and one idea they've had is to have app developers subsidize the cost of that data. In other words, a developer like Rovio would pay AT&T directly, and then Angry Birds would come with some kind of a "No Network Usage" label, meaning that users wouldn't need to pay AT&T for any data that app happened to use across the network.

TechCrunch's Jordan Crook doesn't waste any time taking the charge to AT&T for this, saying that the whole thing is a "boondoggle" designed to sneak more money out of both developers and users (who are already hit by the rising costs of usage plans). The fact is that most uses don't go anywhere near AT&T's data cap, but it's in the company's best interest to make them think they're almost there, sending out warnings and cautions about how much bandwidth is being used. AT&T's Donovan claims that a plan like this would allow AT&T to avoid raising user costs, but let's be honest: They'll still go up as AT&T charges users more and more on network usage, and they'll also add on costs to developers (who also will likely pay for way more bandwidth than their users actually use).

All of that said, it's doubtful we have much input on this anyway: If AT&T does offer such a usage plan, there are probably plenty of developers willing to pay if it gains them even just a few more app users.

AT&T aims to have developers pay for app bandwidth usage originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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chscag · Feb 27, 2012

Good old Ma Bell, always looking out for you!

;P

EndlessMac · Feb 28, 2012

chscag said:
Good old Ma Bell, always looking out for you! ;P

LOL. So true. The more money they get the more money they won't spend on upgrading their infrastructures. I remember reading a report that they spend the least on infrastructure upgrades compared to some companies. If I could get 3G service with more than two bars all day then I'll consider it a great day. A typical day for me goes from four bars to two bar to no bars or Edge connection.

iggibar · Feb 28, 2012

I'm calling it quits with AT&T. 3 iPhones with them is enough. Where as AT&T is nickel and dining their customers, Sprint is paying to gain customers, and is the only one to continuously increase in customer appreciation and satisfaction. That's where I'll be going come time.

Their cell service is the only thing we have left from them. We've been trimming them off one by one.

Also, if they seriously think they can get the support from devs to go with this, they are delusional! How much will they be charging them to circumvent the phone user? To me, it's like double dipping! The phone user is already paying to have a data package, now they want the app developers to pay too for data needed for their apps? What's the point of the phone user paying for data then? Doesn't make sense unless they plan un drastically decreasing data limits, while increasing prices at the same time. That's AT&T for ya!

AT&T aims to have developers pay for app bandwidth usage

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