zcallingcard.com

AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) confirmed that starting Oct. 1 it may throttle the data speeds of smartphone users who are among the heaviest top 5 percent of data users in a given billing period.

AT&T said that those customers who are affected can still use unlimited data and their speeds will be restored with the start of the next billing cycle. Before customers have their speeds throttled, likely down to 2G EDGE data speeds, AT&T said it will provide multiple notices, including a grace period.

The carrier said the new policy will affect a “very small minority” of subscribers who use an “extraordinary” amount of data. “In fact, these customers on average use 12 times more data than the average of all other smartphone data customers,” the company said in a statement, explaining that users in the top 5 percent are streaming very large amounts of video and music daily. “This step will not apply to our 15 million smartphone customers on a tiered data plan or the vast majority of smartphone customers who still have unlimited data plans.”

AT&T did not indicate what amount of data usage would qualify users to be in the top 5 percent of heaviest users, but noted that as demand for mobile data increases, the top 5 percent threshold will change from month to month. AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel told FierceWireless that the announcement is not tied to any specific product launch or change at AT&T. According to data from The Nielsen Company, 95 percent of average U.S. smartphone users in the first quarter used under 1.5 GB of data per month.

The blog 9to5 Mac first reported that AT&T would throttle users’ data speeds.

AT&T isn’t the first to throttle users’ data speeds. T-Mobile USA announced in May it would not charge customers for data overage fees but would instead throttle users’ down to 2G EDGE speeds if they went over their data allotments. Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) instituted usage-based smartphone data plans in early July and charges a /GB overage fee. However, Verizon said in February, ahead of the launch of Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone 4, that it would begin throttling the data speeds of its the top 5 percent of its heaviest unlimited data users.

Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) does not charge overage fees or throttle its smartphone data users, but its Virgin Mobile brand will begin throttling the speeds of smartphone users who use more than 2.5 GB of data per month. The company said less than 3 percent of its customers currently use that much data monthly.

For more:
- see this release

Related Articles:
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The tiered-pricing dilemma on smartphones: Overage charges or throttling?
T-Mobile unveils new tiered data plans for smartphones, details throttling speeds
As iPhone looms, Verizon to throttle data speeds of heaviest users

FierceWireless

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MobileSyrup.com

Who are the users of the iPad?

iphone news

What consumers buy iPad? For many the answer may seem obvious, but Apple’s claim that a tablet designed to capture new customers. According to the agency, however, Piper Jaffray buy 74% of its present members iPad held before Mac, and 66% do have iPhone. The study of the agency were involved 448 people who bought iPad. Only 4% are people who expect to replace your current computer iPad, and those who believe tablets will replace the iPhone, are 1%. Interesting is the fact that 10% of respondents thought previously to buy Kindle, which is somewhat bad news for Amazon. 58% of the owners of the Kindle, which represent 13% of the sample of Piper Jaffray, does plan to replace the e-book reader with a tablet of Apple. Reading e-book is the second most popular feature among owners iPad after surfing the Internet. Thirdly, is reading the e-mail (34 percent) and video and mobile games are then – with a 26% and 18%.

iPhone & iPad News

Nielsen took a look at smartphones and they are booming with Android edging in on, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile. As of Q1 ’10, Nielsen data shows that 23% of mobile consumers now have a
smartphone, up from just 16% in Q2 ’09. Android has entered the smartphone space and is taking shares from BlackBerry and Windows Mobile.

Between Q4 ’09 and Q1 ’10, Android and iPhone’s share of the smartphone
market grew by 2% each. At the same time, smartphone leader Blackberry
lost 2% share to fall to 35% of all smartphones while Microsoft’s
Windows Mobile OS also lost 2% to fall to 19%.

Although Android and iPhone users both skew male (Android users show a
54/46 gender split compared to iPhone’s 55/45), there are some 
differences. Android users tend to be slightly younger than their iPhone
peers- 55% of Android users are under the age of 34 — while just 47% of
iPhone users fall within the same demographic. As is usually the case,
age is also a prime determinant of income and education, with Android
users slightly less wealthy and less educated.

What sets iPhone and Android apart from the rest of the field
of smartphones is operating system loyalty. 80% of iPhone users want
their next device to run iPhone OS while 70% of Android users want
another Android device. This is in stark comparison to other major
smartphone players: only 47% of Blackberry users want another Blackberry
while only 34% of Windows Mobile users want another Windows Mobile
device.

Among Android and iPhone users who would like to switch operating
systems, the rate at which Android users would like to try iPhone is
twice as high as that of iPhone users who would try Android. Given that
iPhone penetration is three times that of Android, more iPhone consumers
are willing to try Android.

WIRELESS AND MOBILE NEWS