AT&T May Charge App Makers for Consumer Data Use

Keep in mind the problem AT&T is trying to solve. AT&T claims that their wireless data traffic has grown 20,000 percent over the past five years. Great new apps on fast new smartphones are really exploding data usage, and of course more people switch to smartphones every day.

So even though they offered unlimited data a few years ago and it seemed to work, it's a different world now, and the growth doesn't seem to be slowing down. There isn't any new spectrum becoming available soon, so they need creative ways to manage continued data traffic growth.