When addressing investors at a UBS conference in New York yesterday, AT&T’s head of consumer services, Ralph de la Vega, reiterated AT&T’s focus on improving its network, while simultaneously slamming their line of smartphones, specifically the iPhone 3GS, as being the cause of poorer quality service. This, as anyone familiar with AT&T will already know, is not new news. What was intriguing about what he said, however, is that they will inevitably be charging that high-bandwidth users more for what they use. Wait, what!? Isn’t the whole point of buying an “unlimited data” plan that you get unlimited usage? To be fair, according to de la Vega, 40 percent of AT&T’s network capacity is consumed by a mere 3 percent of smartphone users. Most of which can be attributed to activities such as streaming video and music by apps on the iPhone.

In hopes that someone high up at AT&T is reading this post, here’s a quick definition that you clearly don’t understand, courtesy of Merriam-Webster:

Main Entry: un·lim·it·ed
Pronunciation: \-?li-m?-t?d\
Function: adjective
Date: 15th century

1 : lacking any controls : unrestricted (unlimited access)
2 : boundless, infinite (unlimited possibilities)
3 : not bounded by exceptions : undefined (the unlimited and unconditional surrender of the enemy — Sir Winston Churchill)

Admittedly, new media, streaming, and heavy smartphone usage is a huge drag on the network, but for AT&T to continue prospering in to the next decade the correct solution is not to charge the heavy users for what you already market as unlimited. Smartphones are not a fad and are not going to go away. They’re going to keep evolving and the demand for higher data rates is going to continue to grow, so stifling your users will only push them in to someone else’s arms.