Internet, Data Usage | featured news

Wireless carriers have us right where they want us. When there are only four significant national providers in the US, there’s only so much competition for our business. So when they all band together (even if only in mindset) and decide on a “new rule,” customers are forced to play along.

Almost half of UK internet users are going online via mobile phone data connections, according to the Office of National Statistics.

Netflix on Monday officially declared its future is the Internet, saying the DVD market has “peaked.” But experts wonder if the online streaming giant — now with 25 million subscribers in the second quarter — and other Web firms face a looming threat to their businesses. They aren’t talking about competitors such as Hulu, HBO Go and Amazon Prime — the threats outlined by Netflix said in its earnings report. Experts are pointing to broadband data caps.

Verizon Wireless plans to scrap its unlimited data plan for new smartphone subscribers beginning Thursday and replace it with monthly packages that range from $30 to $80.

An MSNBC investigative report, and related lawsuit, claims that AT&T has “systematically overstated” the data usage of iPhone and iPad customers. Lawyers for the plaintiffs, seeking class action status, hired an independent computer firm to compare the actual amount data used by iPhone and iPad customers with the amount that AT&T bills users for.

In time for the widely expected launch of a new iPhone model, carrier AT&T Inc. is pulling in the reins on data usage by its customers with smart phones and iPads....

AT&T says it has worked hard to improve its much-maligned third-generation (3G) network over the last eight months — erecting hundreds of new cell towers, using better-performing wireless spectrum, and souping up its cell sites across the country — and the results of our latest 13-city, 3G network performance tests suggest that the network has indeed undergone a drastic makeover.

A senior AT&T executive dismissed speculation that the company is planning to change the way it prices data plans for its wireless customers, but said it will give customers incentives to limit their use of its wireless network for surfing the Internet or downloading mobile applications.

AT&T said it will introduce "incentives" to encourage iPhone customers to cut back on data usage, as it battles growth in wireless traffic and perceptions of network problems.