AT&T: Industry likely to offer data-only phone plans in 2 years; calls counting as data usage
By Associated Press June 1, 2012
NEW YORK - The CEO of AT&T Inc. said Friday that cellphone plans that count only data usage are likely to come in the next two years. In such a scenario, phone calls and texts would be considered as just another form of data.
Randall Stephenson didn't say AT&T has such a plan in mind, but he suggested that someone in the industry will likely offer one.
"I'll be surprised if, in the next 24 months, we don't see people in the market place with data-only plans," Stephenson said at a Sanford Bernstein investor conference in New York. "I just think that's inevitable."
Analysts see such plans as a logical extension of trends in wireless technology. Smartphones with data service can already use it for Internet phone calls and texting through services such as Skype.
Phone calls are also taking a back seat to other things people do with their smartphones. AT&T has been recording a decline in the average number of minutes used per month.
However, phone companies still make most of their money from calling plans and texting, which use very little data. That means phone companies would want to compensate for the revenue fall-off somehow, perhaps by raising data prices.
...