It looks like AT&T will be making the next splash as they claim to be considering Data Only plans for their smart phones and mobile devices. The idea springs from a continually decreasing amount of phone calls being made from web-ready devices and an increase of free web-based replacements, like Skype, which allow a user to make calls, video chat, and text.Instead of a person buying both a phone plan for calls and texting, and then a separate plan for the data used to connect to the web, AT&T is weighing the options. And there is a lot riding on them.Most of a phone company’s revenue comes from the fluctuating minutes and text messaging packages versus the fixed rate data plans. By going data only, their income will be severely crimped. So perhaps then they will hike up data plan prices. But that won’t be popular and again, they will lose revenue as phone companies actually charge each other for connecting calls. Another avenue would be to charge the specific websites for the traffic they have. But this might give large, established sites an edge over small start-up sites. There isn’t a clear solution yet, but AT&T is working on it tirelessly, claiming that in the next few years, Data Only will be the way to go.
