Make Affordable Data Available to Everyone

I cancelled my AT&T voice/data subscription when the iPad’s new MicroSIM was introduced earlier this year. Paying $29 per month for unlimited data compared to ~$80 for national unlimited data, limited voice and SMS was a no-brainer. Almost to good to be true and unlike AT&T’s regular monopolistic behavior. Well, we quickly learned it was a bait-and-switch scheme as only three weeks later the unlimited plan was withdrawn and replaced by a 2GB plan for $25.

But despite not using AT&T’s voice or messaging service I can still make outbound calls via Skype and receive in-bound messaging via Google Voice. Nothing has really changed except I’m paying about 1/3 of the price (never let go of that unlimited plan). And enabling the same for the iPhone as it’s an easy switch in the APN settings.

This just shows how broken the whole business model is and how these old companies are holding us back, consumer as well as new innovative startups. They are preventing us from using the full range of the technology. If everyone could get access to global unlimited, high-quality and fast data for $20-$30 per month we’d be on our way to create the next big growth industry: the mobile economy. It would be great for everyone, not just AT&T’s short-term revenues derived from monopolistic and cartel pricing. Their margins are disgustingly huge, especially from international roaming.

But with the average age of a senator at 60 and member of the house at 55 I don’t think we should expect anything from the government but old industry bailouts and handouts to the oil, real estate and telco industries. It’s really too bad as this country’s future does not belong to GM but to small, smart teams creating new mobile applications.