Beginning on Sept. 6, all AT&T smartphone owners will be required to subscribe to a wireless data plan, the company is now confirming to several online publications.
As a growing number of phone owners begin to shop for smartphones, wireless providers are pushing subscribers towards signing up for text message and data plans, as the price of voice plans continues to fall.
AT&T has data plans that start at $5 per month and go all the way up to $60 per month. Any AT&T subscriber who doesn't have a data plan prior to Sept. 6 will be exempt from the rule.
Even though it's likely most people who purchase a smartphone end up signing up for some type of data plan, I think it's still rather foolhardy to brute force subscribers into signing up for data plans. However, AT&T and other companies invest a large sum to help subsidize phones -- dropping the price of smartphones $150+ more -- only to lose out on earning that money back when smartphone owners don't attach a data plan.
AT&T is still under fire from Apple iPhone owners who think the iPhone price plans are too high, and this decision likely won't help AT&T's PR image. It's unknown if AT&T will launch a campaign to educate phone owners why it is doing this, but we'll see how it unfolds after Sept. 6.
Aside from AT&T, mobile Internet should receive a strong boost, as mobile advertisers are preparing for a wave of first-time mobile Internet users.
