The reaction to AT&T revising data plans for the iPhone and iPad as of Monday, June 7 has been met with mixed reactions on the web today, but generally positive, I would say, given that most people don’t use 2 GB per month. Plus, on the bonus side, AT&T will (finally) introduce tethering to the U.S., and it can be purchased on a month-by-month basis, which makes traveling with a laptop much more palatable.
One thing I’m unclear of is whether I could tether an iPhone to an iPad- I haven’t heard this question addressed directly, although I remember Steve Jobs emailing a month or two ago that iPad wouldn’t tether.
What I really wanted to talk about were two points that I haven’t heard that much about today. First, I have heard a few people talk about the new North Carolina data center coming online this summer. This data center is reputed to be able to transmit over 4 times the data that Apple’s current data center does. This would be the data center that runs iTunes and serves up a LOT of content. Multiplying that by 4 times seems to imply that they are coming out with a new service that is data intensive, and common consensus seems to be around streaming media, usually, the ability to stream any content you have purchased via iTunes to your computer or mobile device. The ability to stream (purchased) iTunes collections is going to put a lot of pull on AT&T’s network.
Secondly, the extorted iPhone had a front-facing camera as well as a rear facing camera with an LED flash. Standard reasoning is that the front-facing camera is there to support video chat, allowing people to video-conference rather than just telephone. With many current iPhone owners ready to upgrade this service might start small, but I think as it grows it will put a lot more bandwidth in play.
In short, we’re about to see data use on AT&T’s network go way, way up. I think overall, for current usage, the new plans seem fairly priced and don’t penalize people unduly for overages. The question remains how much the new services will actually impact the data rates of average to slightly high-usage users.