AT&T requires smartphone customers to subscribe to data plans

Nine million people in the UK (15% of the population) suffer from permanent, disabling hearing loss. The estimated demographic figure has ranged from 22 million deaf and hard of hearing to as high as 36 million deaf and hard of hearing worldwide. Of these, only a few million are considered "deaf" and the remainder are hard of hearing but cannot use a phone. for 30 years this group has had to PAY for Unused "Call Time" and are sick of it. I want to hear from DEAF Users - (especially the angry ones that are fed up with the way DEAF users are treated) I especially want to hear from developers that can provide as real time as possible SUBTITLES to speech. Switch on the app and anything heard by microphone could be sent to a server for voice to text and squirted back to the phone. Come on IBM we know you love Android :) So All you can eat Data Plan - Pay for calls as you go. a Lovely Android Phone and best of all IF your a network it could add millions of LOYAL customers and their mothers and brothers.

Probably will produce alot of fallout, When it was Cingular they attempted the same thing and fallout fallowed, they dropped the requirement, did ATT keep any of the Cingular people from that era several years ago. I hope the other calliers are ready to pick up the slack. They already require it for iphone, which is the main reason I have steered away from iphones. Don't agree with the direction they are taking and think it will bite them. My plan was up in May and I am looking for a new carrier.

AT&T is a business. There in the business to make money. I'm sure there's a small percentage of Smartphone users that don't have a data plan already, which is why they're making it a requirement now. Besides, what's the whole point of having a smartphone if you're not going to be using it to its full capabilities?

AnyThing, AnyTime, AnyWhere (AAA). Who gets there first? How much? Still working on it.

I carry a "smartphone" in fact a couple of them, and have not the first inclination to utilize the slowest broadband connection (listen to the studies not the hype) in the US on any of them. The purpose of the smartphone for me is the ability to work "office" type applications without carrying a full laptop and to have WiFi access. If I wished to have AT&T cellular data, I'd have signed up for it. I hope this also bites them again. And no, the "new AT&T" seems destined to relearn every lesson or create a new brand of consumer.

I use my smartphone for calling, and contacts and calendar that I can synchronize to my PC. I do not surf, e-mail, text, or tweet on my phone. I do not wish to pay an extra $30. per month for nothing.

You do realize that non-smartphones can still sync to a calender right? For AT&T it's not about the money as much as it is about protecting new smartphone customers from a surprise $1000 bill. If a customer got that surprise, they call AT&T pissed off and demand their money back. Even though AT&T offered a data plan, customers still feel it would be unfair. Maybe as consumers, we should look at our own behaviors and make smart decisions instead of blaming "the evil corporation"! AT&T is only protecting consumers from themselves.