AT&T held its Developer Summit today, announcing a new Sponsored Data plan. Senior executive John Donovan took to the stage to reveal new options for businesses to pay AT&T on behalf of consumers when utilising the network to stream content, be it video, app data or even general website browsing.
This would enable consumers to access certain parts of the web without worrying about data caps and charges. Head on past the break for all the details.
How would this be useful for companies in the real world? Think of it as a free way for employees to access work-related content on their smartphones, but not footing the bills themselves. This would enable companies to throw up websites and multimedia you could access without having it counting towards your own account.
For example, a video game publisher could throw up a trailer for a new game. You could view said video on your smartphone, but have said publisher fork out for the data usage. Or a data-intensive app like on-demand video footing the bill for previews, thanks to your monthly subscription with them.
It's a neat way to save consumers some data when using the web, especially with tight data cap restrictions. The only potential problem with this new option is how other companies and publishers foot the bill and how potential costs are passed on to consumers (if at all). That, and you're only eligible should you have an active data plan and a 4G device (be it smartphone, hub, tablets, etc).
Still, it's a superb concept if deployed and used effectively by companies and we're sure consumers would enjoy seeing such practices in place to save them some data and/or money.
Be sure to remain tuned to our feed (as well as our sister websites) for all the latest news to come out of CES 2014. Head on over to the AT&T website for more details.
