• August 24, 2009

AT&T has confirmed that starting Sept. 6 it will mandate that customers using a smartphone will have to subscribe to a data plan. That means no more using your iPhone just for making calls while appearing techno-savvy. AT&T said the vast majority of its smartphone customers already have data plans for email, mobile Web access and using applications. But it wants to bring the holdouts along to increase their own customer satisfaction by not having to worry about fluctuating phone bills. It also happens to fit with the wireless carrier's goal of boosting revenue by increasing mobile data usage.

Current customers who already have smartphones without data plans will be able to stick with their current plan. The AT&T data plan costs $30 a month and applies to iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian and Palm devices. --Mark Walsh