AT&T CEO Regrets Unlimited Data Plans, Worries About iMessage

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson made some interesting comments about the iPhone and iMessage at a conference this week, reports The New York Times.

Stephenson said he wished the company had never offered an unlimited data plan for the iPhone and that he loses sleep over services like iMessage.

"My only regret was how we introduced pricing in the beginning, because how did we introduce pricing? Thirty dollars and you get all you can eat," he said in the on-stage interview at the Milken Institute's Global Conference on Wednesday. "And it's a variable cost model. Every additional megabyte you use in this network, I have to invest capital."


Notably, the switch from unlimited to tiered data has provided AT&T with $6.1 billion in data revenues during the last quarter alone.

It's not only data that worries Stephenson. He's also worried that iMessage could replace SMS services offered by AT&T.

"You lie awake at night worrying about what is that which will disrupt your business model," he said. "Apple iMessage is a classic example. If you're using iMessage, you're not using one of our messaging services, right? That's disruptive to our messaging revenue stream."

Over all, Stephenson said he didn't regret the decision to support the iPhone.


"I remember asking the question: Are we investing in a business model, are we investing in a product or are we investing in Steve Jobs?" Mr. Stephenson said. "The answer to the question was, you're investing in Steve Jobs. Let's go after this thing. And we went after it, and the rest is history."

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