AT&T warns bandwidth hogs

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By Peter Svensson

Associated Press

IPhone users who jam the airwaves by watching video on their devices will be put on tighter leashes, an AT&T Inc. executive said Wednesday.

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**FILE** **FOR USE WITH AP LIFESTYLES** In this file photo "With the iPhone, the Bold and the Google phone, we're beginning to truly be able to take our shows on the road," says Jane Buckingham, president of The Intelligence Group.

Apple Inc. **FILE** **FOR USE WITH AP LIFESTYLES** In this file photo "With the iPhone, the Bold and the Google phone, we're beginning to truly be able to take our shows on the road," says Jane Buckingham, president of The Intelligence Group.

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The carrier has had trouble keeping up with data usage, leading to dropped connections and waits for users trying to run programs on their devices. AT&T is upgrading its network, but its head of consumer services, Ralph de la Vega, told investors at a conference it will give high-bandwidth users incentives to “reduce or modify their usage.”

De la Vega didn’t say exactly how or when the carrier would change its policies, but he said some form of usage-based pricing for data is inevitable.

The carrier doesn’t limit data usage for smart phones. It also doesn’t make it easy for subscribers to know how much data they’re consuming. “We need to educate the customer ... We’ve got to get them to understand what represents a megabyte of data,” de la Vega said.

Just 3 percent of “smart” phone users are consuming 40 percent of the network capacity, de la Vega said, adding that the most high-bandwidth activity is video and audio streaming.

This week AT&T introduced an application for the iPhone that lets users report network problems like dropped calls. However, de la Vega defended the network’s performance, saying major problems are concentrated in New York and San Francisco, which are packed with smart phone users. AT&T is the exclusive U.S. carrier for the iPhone.