In a Monday announcement, AT&T said that it intends doing away with unlimited data plans for new and even the existing subscribers; substituting it with a comparatively much fairer tiered pricing or usage-based pricing offer.

Noting that the shift in pricing policy – which will lead to usage-based payments for the news users of iPhone and other smartphones – is essentially a more common-sense strategy, AT&T opines that the move might eventually help it resolve its network congestion problem.

Going by the AT&T statistics, nearly 40 percent of the carrier’s wireless-data traffic is generated by barely 3 percent of smartphone users, which not only results in the clogging of the network, but also ruins AT&T’s image, and offsets the advantage of having exclusivity on the popular Apple iPhone.

According to an AT&T statement, the shift to tiered pricing will spell savings for almost 98 percent of smartphone users; while very heavy users would have to pay more, depending upon their usage.

With tiered pricing in place, users will no longer have to pay $30 per month for unlimited data – rather they would have the option of paying either $25 per month for 2 gigabytes or $15 for 200 megabytes; with additional charges for more use. Elaborating further, AT&T said that the more expensive plan will cover million one-page e-mail messages; 1,000 minutes of video, and 400 song downloads.