iPhone data plan

Verizon spokeswoman Debra Lewis told Apple Insider that new smartphone customers will no longer be offered unlimited data plans starting Thursday, July 7.

New mobile customers will be able to enroll in Verizon's "usage-based" billing program. Current Verizon customers will not be affected by the change, and upgrade-eligible customers will be able to move to a new mobile device while retaining their plans.

"We have lots of different ways for customers who may not be accustomed to this kind of stuff to check their usage in terms of data alerts, online tools, data calculators, things like that to help people decide what is the right plan for them," Lewis said.

Apple Insider reports that new customers, or current customers without a data plan, will have four options for "different capped monthly data plans: $10 for 75MB, $30 for 2GB, $50 for 5GB, and $80 for 10GB." Customers who exceed their capped plan will be charged $10 per gigabyte or $10 per 75MB on the entry-level plan.

AT&T has thrown down the gauntlet, sending a limited number of subscribers warnings via email and SMS to stop unauthorized tethering. The wireless carrier plans to automatically sign up users for its DataPro and Personal Hotspot plans if they continue to tether their devices without contacting the company.

The move is a first for AT&T since they launched official Personal Hotspot support on March 11 with the release of iOS 4.3. Prior to this, iPhone users could only connect one computer to the iPhone. The new service makes it possible to share your 3G data connection with 3 devices at the same time via WI-Fi, and connect to others with Bluetooth and USB.

AT&T will charge $20 per month for iPhone 4 users to take advantage of the iOS 4.3 Personal Hotspot feature. The carrier has confirmed that full support for the Personal Hotspot will debut when Apple released iOS 4.3 firmware on March 11, 2011.

The native Wi-Fi hotspot has been available on Verizon iPhone 4 models since launch in early February. The feature allows up to three devices to simultaneously connect to the iPhone's cellular data connection via Wi-Fi. Additional devices can use the connection via Bluetooth and USB for a total of five at once.

Well it was nice while it lasted. Just like AT&T dropped unlimited data plans in June 2010 for its iPhone customers, Verizon will cap data in the coming months. The switch to tiered data plan offerings is expected to happen this summer, in advance of the iPhone 5 launch.

Verizon CFO Fran Shammo announced the plan to move ahead with tiered data plans on the iPhone during an investor conference. Shammo also explained that consumers might not be thrilled when they're stuck with an iPhone 4 contract after the next generation device is launched by Apple.

AT&T Mobility has been socked with a class action lawsuit claiming the company overcharges iPad and iPhone subscribers for data usage. The plaintiff in the case claims they purchased a new iPhone and completely turned off any functions that would use cellular data. After 10 days of sitting idle, the device clocked charges for 2.3 kilobytes transferred over 35 transactions.

Although this isn't a whole lot of data, it could point to a problem with millions of subscribers tallying up phantom data usage. Additional claims in the lawsuit point to independent studies accusing AT&T of overclocking web data usage by 7-14 percent per transaction, with instances of up to 300 percent.