Punishing Prices

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AT&T is reportedly considering a plan to reign in bandwidth hogs using punishing pricing plans.

A company executive said Wednesday that those who have iPhones will be put on tighter leashes.  AT&T currently requires a data plan to go with each iPhone.  The current plan allows for unlimited use for $30 per month.

Apparently, the unlimited use has caused the carrier to have trouble keeping up with wireless data usage, leading to dropped connections and long waits for users trying to run programs on their devices.

AT&T is upgrading its network to cope, but its head of consumer services, Ralph de la Vega, told investors at a UBS conference in New York that it will also give high-bandwidth users incentives to "reduce or modify their usage."

So far there's no word on when the new policies will go into effect.