DataConnect
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AT&T may discontinue subsidized tablet sales, will still offer slates at full price
Saving a few short-term bucks on a subsidized tablet by inking a two-year contract with AT&T may be a thing of the past. According to a document sent to us by a tipster, Ma Bell will no longer offer discounted, on-contract slates as of August 19th. However, it looks like Big Blue is still happy to offer slabs at standard, no-commitment prices along with DataConnect and MobileShare plans. Head past the break if you'd like to take a peek at the notice in deeper detail.
PS Vita 3G purchases include free data, 8GB memory card at Amazon
If you have already pre-ordered, or were planning to pre-order, the $300 PS Vita with wi-fi and 3G support from Amazon, you're privy to some extra bonuses. The unit now ships with a crucial 8GB memory card, a free month of "DataConnect" 3G access (or 250MB, whichever comes first, a $15 value) and, as part of signing up for the DataConnect service, a free PSN game.Right now, Amazon is the only place we've seen this specific offer. We're checking in with Sony to determine whether this offer applies to 3G/wi-fi Vitas sold elsewhere. However, it's a sticker on the box art shown on Amazon (above). That doesn't look retailer-specific.
AT&T announces pay-as-you-go international data packages for laptops
It may not be a substitute for an international MiFi rental service, but AT&T is now at least offering a few more options to keep travelers' laptops connected around the globe. The carrier has just announced a range of new pay-as-you-go international data packages as part of its AT&T DataConnect Pass Global service, which are available in 30-day session increments and provide coverage in more than a hundred countries. Look for them to start at $24.99 for a 20MB package and top out at $199.99 for 200MB. Head on past the break for the full press release.
AT&T's Data Connect overage rates much lower now, still too high
In a perfect world, we'd one day all be guzzling from an endless font of virtually free bandwidth, streaming 1080p video straight to our WXGA handsets with stereo Bluetooth beamed straight to implants in our ear canals. Turning our attention back to reality for a moment, though, and the situation is a little more bleak: carriers are plagued with crappy, overloaded networks, backhaul issues, and a 4G rollout that could easily span a decade. To that end, caps are still firmly in place on US carriers' so-called "unlimited" laptop data plans, and overage rates make the occasional slip-up nasty enough to bankrupt you if you're not offered clemency from customer service. The good news is that AT&T's data overage rates have dropped significantly as of November 6, going from 49 cents per megabyte to 5 cents on the $60 5GB plan and 10 cents on the (nearly useless) $40 200MB plan. That still means you're paying over $50 for each gigabyte of overage -- but as AT&T points out, it's a hell of a lot better than the $500 you were paying before. [Thanks, Kal]
AT&T DataConnect overage: $480 per gigabyte
As much as we hate that true, no-strings-attached unlimited data plans are being killed off one by one, we appreciate that carriers have had the common decency (well, sometimes) to impose caps as "soft" ones -- going over repeatedly might irk 'em into throttling your bandwidth or tearing up your contract, but at least you wouldn't be getting a bankruptcy-inducing bill in the mail without any warning. Watch yourself, boys and girls, because that's now changed on AT&T, where the one and only domestic DataConnect plan offered for laptops -- 5GB for $60 -- now features an overage charge of $0.00048 per kilobyte. Running the numbers, that works out to a staggering $480 per extra gigabyte -- and on a laptop, a gig isn't hard to burn through at all. We guess AT&T would probably either cut you off or give you a call if you went way over, but by then, you've dug yourself a pretty deep hole. It's all pretty ridiculous, and we're hoping they're only a few lawsuits away from reconsidering the way they're handling this.[Thanks, Bill]Update: Several tipsters have written in to let us know that AT&T shuts you down after you've racked up $100 in overage, which seems awfully arbitrary. If we're seriously going to keep going with this per-kilobyte model, can we get a configurable hard cap or something? Thanks, everyone!
