AT&T Will Encourage Low Bandwidth Use, Not Punish Over-Users

The head of AT&T's wireless division said his company doesn't plan to charge some of its customers extra for using more than the average amount of bandwidth. Instead, it will offer customers reasons to want to use less.

Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T Mobility, made headlines last week when he complained that a small group of users were taking up a large percentage of the available bandwidth, and suggested that these people may soon be facing higher monthly fees.

de la Vega now says this isn't going to happen. AT&T will instead encourage all its users to use less wireless data.

Exactly how this is going to work is not yet known, but the incentives apparently aren't going to be monetary.

It's possible this carrier intends to offer its customers femtocells -- personal cell towers that connect to the Internet through the user's cable or DSL service.

Source: Wall Street Journal