By: Angela Soric
While speaking to investors at the UBS conference in New York, Ralph De la Vega, head of consumer services at AT&T, stated that the company has been working hard to improve its network. He mentioned that the poor service is a result of devices that consume a lot of bandwidth, such as the iPhone 3GS.
According to The Associated Press, De la Vega said it’s inevitable that high-bandwidth users will be charged for what they use. In the future, AT&T will give users incentives to reduce or modify their usage. The company also strives to make it easier for users to determine how much data they use each month. A possible solution is usage-based pricing or a tiered structure that charges users based on how much data flows through their phones.
“We’ve got to get them to understand what represents a megabyte of data,” he said. “We’re improving all our systems to let consumers get real-time information on their data usage.”
AT&T also plans to improve network coverage, especially in major metropolitan areas such as New York and San Francisco where there is a greater number of Smartphone users. The company is expected to spend close to $18 billion this year to upgrade and expand its 3G network.
