AT&T: No price cuts on tap for iPhone data plan

The rumors leading up to Apple's WWDC keynote last week were pretty much spot-on—all expect the one about AT&T cutting the price of iPhone data plans. It didn't happen, and according to AT&T, it isn't going to happen.

AT&T rep Mark Siegel told the Wall Street Journal (via MocoNews) that the carrier has "no plans" to tweak the $30 monthly data plan for the iPhone 3G and 3G S—indeed, he said, AT&T is "very happy with our pricing."

Rumors began flying in May that AT&T was contemplating a "range of lower-priced" iPhone plans, including (as BusinessWeek, among other news outlets, reported) a discounted option with "limited data access at a $10 monthly reduction."

Such a discount (which, as the rumors went, probably would have entailed data usage caps) would have brought the cheapest iPhone voice and data plan down to $59 a month. The average monthly iPhone bill? About $90, according to the WSJ. (Mine's about $89, including 450 voice minutes and 200 text messages.)

Now, $30 a month for data is pretty standard when it comes to 3G smartphones; then again, that might sound stiff to someone who's switching over from a garden-variety handset—and that's the audience Apple and AT&T would appear to be courting with the $99 iPhone 3G.

Then again (and as the Journal notes), AT&T counts on the revenue from service plans to make up for subsidizing iPhone hardware costs for new subscribers—to the tune of $400 each for the upcoming iPhone 3G S. It's also not clear whether bargain hunters would warm to a discounted iPhone data plan that includes usage caps.

And that's my question to you, dear readers: Would you be more likely to consider an iPhone with a discounted $20 monthly data charge—even if it involves limits on how much you can surf?

Related:
AT&T Under Pressure To Cut Price Tag On IPhone's Data Plan [Wall Street Journal]