AT&T Expects Data-Only Phone Plans Within 2 Years

An anonymous reader writes "AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said today that he expects wireless carriers to start offering data-only cellphone plans within the next 24 months. '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.' He says there isn't a specific plan in the works — he just think it's inevitable."

Comments

Plans

[Adriax]

Available in 50($50), 500($100), and 1000MB($150) plans, with incredibly low overage fees ($1 per kb).

Addons include a standard messaging plan ($0.20/instant message, messages sent determined by taking your used bandwidth and dividing my the average text message size).
Automatic enrollment in their streaming media plan (only $50/month to stream from any source you currently subscribe to).
And a set of voice packages of 100($20), 200($35), and 500($50) minutes ($1/minute overage fees, minutes used determined by taking your total bandwidth used and dividing by the average VoiP bandwidth usage rate).

Re:another no-brainer

[pbjones]

sorry, there are already data only plans for iPads, etc... AT&T is behind the ball.