Earlier this month, AT&T Mobility President Ralph de la Vega made comments that the company was considering "incentives" to discourage heavy bandwidth consumption. Apparently he is now trying to save some face and do a bit of backtracking according to AppleInsider.
AT&T is viewing their expansion of their free Wi-Fi hotspots for consumers as a bit of a "tide me over" solution for its 3G network issues, which has received heavy publicity about its tendency to drop calls and provide spotty reception. AT&T pointed the finger at iPhone users, due to their heavy consumption of data compared to the regular cell phone user.
De la Vega mentioned in an interview with BusinessWeek that he never meant to imply that data caps or tiered pricing models for iPhone users were on their way. "I guess I should have been more clear," he said.
This would now be the second time in a week that de la Vega has had to cover his tracks. Last week he had spoken with The Wall Street Journal about AT&T making no decision to implement tiered pricing.
AT&T is trying to use their Wi-Fi idea as a means to keep users off of the network to rid some of the congestion. The company recently reached agreements with McDonald's, Starbucks and Barnes & Noble to offer free Wi-Fi.
His comments also come in spite of the fact that AT&T's capital spending is also expected to decrease this year to $17 billion from $20.3 billion last year. De la Vega still feels like AT&T's investments are paying off.
