Courtesy of Benzinga.
The controversy surrounding AT&T’s (NYSE: T) desire to add new fees is heating up after rumors spread that the company will charge Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone users for 3G FaceTime access.
The official word from AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson is that it is “too early” to reveal that information.
“I’ve heard the same rumor,” he said, as quoted by TechCrunch. “It’s too early to talk about pricing.”
While it is nice to know that AT&T’s chief executive is familiar with a rumor that everyone has heard, his decision to evade the question speaks to the company’s history with new fees and price increases.
Verizon (NYSE: VZ) may get all the attention for being the first to announce a family data plan, but it was AT&T that worked the hardest and fastest to prevent customers from enjoying the luxury of unlimited data. If Sprint (NYSE: S) was a bigger company, AT&T would likely be terrified of its unlimited plans.
Still, AT&T remains the number-one telecommunications company in America. In fact, a survey of business IT buyers revealed that future wireless subscribers plan to use AT&T more than any other service provider to satisfy their tablet data needs.
Right now, AT&T charges iPad users $14.99 for 250MB of 4G LTE data (per month). Customers who are willing to spend $50 can get 5GB of data.
Hulu and Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) users know that 5GB does not go very far. However, if iPhone FAQ’s estimates are correct, jailbroken iPhones can make a five-minute FaceTime call without using more than 15MB of data.
In theory, this should mean that data-conscious consumers have nothing to worry about. However, if the data usage is really that low, AT&T will not be able to profit from additional data use. Thus, the company may be inspired to charge a separate monthly fee for the newly added feature.
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