In what could possibly be a somewhat related tip-off that AT&T might not be handing out goodies without hidden costs, AT&T's CEO of Wireless, Ralph De La Vega recently suggested that the carrier might have to implement "proper management" of their wireless users. What precisely was meant by these comments remains to be seen, but the suggestion that AT&T might need to control users' bandwidth access appears implied.

While stating the eminently reasonable position "that the few cannot crowd out the many,” De La Vega went on to cite AT&T research that showed 3% of the carrier's customer use 40% of smartphone data. For that 3%, one could reasonably believe that he was referring to iPhone users. With a robust app store from which to choose, as well as access to iTunes and Safari and email, the iPhone does have the greatest number of access points to wireless bandwidth.

AT&T's bandwidth issues are an ongoing source of problems for the company, suggesting that management were ill-prepared to take on the handsets when they first signed up with Apple. The lack of tethering, the absence of MMS, these are just the small symptoms of a company that refused to invest appropriate resources into building up a sufficiently stable and powerful 3G network and one without a satisfactory 4G network ready to roll out in its place.

Regarding other matters related to wireless, the CEO went on to suggest that no new regulations were necessary, a de rigueur position among most executives. Of course, one could easily see the carrier's newfound flexibility on the Skype/Vonage issue as the result of implied regulatory pressure. At the same time, making such apps able to work on the 3G network instead of keeping them corralled in WiFi, will only exacerbate the lack of bandwidth issues De La Rega bemoans.

Exactly what AT&T's double-edged strategy might be is hard to quite grasp in this instance, unless these are unrelated, one hand unaware of what the other is doing issues. We have our doubts though and wonder if opening up access to the 3G network to a small group of VoIP apps might not be a sacrifice play coming up.