Now, thanks to a post from AT&T customer John Cozen, the “top 5%” evidently refers to users who go over 2.1 gigabytes a month. Before Cozen’s story, it is important to keep in mind that, to new customers, AT&T offers data plans that exceed 2 GB a month with no throttling.

Take a look:

So what gives in relation to Cozen’s pathetic treatment from his service provider, aside from the fact that AT&T simply doesn’t want their customers to have unlimited data plans? Before that, here’s glimpse at Cozen’s unfortunate dealings with the ubiquitous AT&T. We’ll pick things up with Cozen’s reply to AT&T’s first, “well, you exceeded the cap” email:

Hi Patti, thank you for your message and attention to this matter. I am aware of the policies and procedures regarding the top 5% of data users on an unlimited plan. My concern remains that I am not actually in the top 5% of data users as I only used 2.1 GB of data before receiving the message. 2.1GB is not an exorbitant amount of data and barely exceeds the 2GB plan offered by AT&T. Please inform me as to what levels of data use generally cause an unlimited data customer to exceed the 5% barrier.

Thank you,

An excerpt from AT&T’s subsequent response is incredibly telling:

To give you a baseline – the average data use across the country by the top 5% of AT&T smartphone customers was 2GB per month, effective August 2011. The amount of data usage of our top 5% of heaviest users varies from month-to-month and by market, based on the usage of others and the ever-increasing demand for mobile broadband services. To rank among the top 5%, you must use an extraordinary amount of data in a single billing period. It’s not how much time you spend using your device, it’s what you do with it. You can send or receive thousands of e-mails, surf thousands of Web pages and watch hours of streaming video every month…

It almost seems fitting to end that particular stanza with a “blah, blah, blah.” The fact is, even though AT&T offers data plans that exceed 2GB a month, Cozen, with his 2.1 GB worth of bandwidth usage, put him that dreaded “top 5%” category,” which doesn’t seem remotely like fair and just business practices, something Cozen also pointed out:

It seems unfair that AT&T would throttle my data plan after 2GB of usage that costs $30/ month yet offers a 3GB plan at the same price with no throttling. As a loyal customer, this is extremely frustrating and feels unfair. I look forward to your response.

Naturally, AT&t’s response to Cozen’s follow-up was just a rehash of the “top 5% get throttled” nonsense, while completely avoiding his point about their current data plans. Instead, they invite Cozen to change his data plan, which is quite telling in relation to what AT&T’s true desires are concerning those of us with grandfathered unlimited data plans.

In fact, that’s who Cozen’s story ends. There wasn’t a “this was our mistake, so here’s a refund for you because we were acting so obtuse about this” from AT&T. To illustrate this point even further, when Cozen finally received a phone call from AT&T’s management team, again he was told to consider switching to a tiered plan, because, let’s face it, AT&T does not want any of their customers to have — or use — unlimited data plans on their smart phones.

The question is, why is AT&T being so stingy with bandwidth as a whole? Even those who use AT&T’s home Internet service don’t get it on an unlimited basis, so again, what gives? Why is AT&T treating bandwidth like it’s a dwindling resource? Does the lack of competition allow these communication giants to act with such impunity, because this is not an example of good customer service or support? Let us know what you think.

comScore paid $44.3 million for the Seattle based company and issued 50,000 stock options to certain M:Metrics investors.

The acquisition strengthens comScore’s position in measuring mobile phone usage, mobile Internet surfing and advertising.

comScore says M:Metrics will add as much as $7 million to its reported revenues this year. It also benefits from M:Metrics operating loss carry forward of $20 million, which comScore says will reduce its future tax payments.

In the U.S., 89 percent of mobile phone users own a device that can browse the Internet, according to M:Metrics. In emerging markets, many people use mobile devices exclusively for communication and Internet access.

"With the substantial growth of 3G devices and Internet friendly handsets, we believe we are now at an inflection point in Internet usage on mobile devices," said Dr. Magid Abraham, comScore’s president and chief executive officer. 
 

Will Hodgman, president and chief executive officer of M:Metrics called the deal a natural fit that combines traditional online measurement services with mobile analytics.

"As media converges, which it does every day, mobile as an island needs to be connected to a continent," Hodgman told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. He said advertisers, mobile phone manufacturers and media companies want a single solution to measure both mobile and fixed-line Internet traffic. He said its because they want to know how to market to consumers in both areas.
 

Sixty-three percent of mobile owners are not using cell phones to access online services such as search engines or to search for information from newspapers, which are popular activities on computers. Thirty-seven percent of cell phone owners are accessing some type of information or services on their cell phone, which indicates a demand for more than just voice services from cell phone users.

"We’re not advocating the browser go away – just that there should be an alternative for ‘glanceable’ content – the content people need frequently," said Vice President Julie Ask, lead analyst of the report.

"Consumers are willing to pay for good experiences and products. The industry should focus on this reality. In turn, they can double or triple current adoption levels and drive up usage by focusing efforts on those cell phone users who would be motivated by a better user interface and more compelling experiences.."

Better experiences, along with lower pricing, will likely increase adoption of Internet services on cell phones, but from a provider view there are a varying degree of expense and challenges surrounding implementation. Consumer demand is creating a real need for a complement to the browser on mobile devices.

"Browser alternatives such as widgets or applets, which are mini applications that allow for content to be easily accessed from a home screen or with just a few clicks, can meet consumer demands for quick access to information," said David Schatsky, President of JupiterResearch.

"The goal should be to engage the user through ease of operation so that accessing information in this manner will eventually become second nature."

Within the group of 16-to-24 year olds there is a large number (47%) who have not used the mobile Internet. This could be do to lack of an enabled phone or they don’t see any benefits from using the application.

The cost and the charging structure have been cited as reasons why the mobile Internet is not yet considered mainstream. Many of the charges for this service are based around cost per megabyte making it challenging for users to gauge how much they are spending.

Pre-pay payment plans are still widely used in the UK, especially among younger consumers, although mobile operators are trying to lure more subscribers on to contracts.

Tom Perrott, Insight Director within the Harris Interactive Europe Technology Research Practice, comments, "Networks will have to work hardest among the pre-pay customers to implement a charging structure that does not hold back use, but still provides them with the much needed revenue stream to reduce their dependence on just voice and text."

Perrot adds, "Apart from younger consumers being the earlier adopters, males also tend to take up technology sooner than females and initially are the more intensive users." Male’s account for half the adult population in Great Britain, and 62 percent of those who have used the mobile Internet are males. Among all adults who use mobile Internet, males account for 73 percent of those who use the application at least once a week.

This survey was conducted online by Harris Interactive Europe among a total of 2,144 adults (aged 16 and over) within Great Britain between March 28th and April 2nd 2007.

Mobile users can be broken down into three categories: those who access the Internet from mobile devices (5%), those who have Internet mobile devices but don’t use them to go online (58%) and those who don’t have Internet enabled mobile devices (36%).

The obstacles for the mobile Internet are extra fees and the difficulty of establishing a quality Internet connection. "It’s a laborious exercise to get to the content that the consumer is ultimately interested in consuming," said Josh Krandall, managing director at Media-Screen. "Also, the cost of services impedes use in total and deters more widespread use."

Users conduct an average of 3.3 online activities on their mobile devices compared to 13.4 activities on their laptops or desktops. "The mobile Internet is still in its infancy due to technological and pricing hurdles," said Jean Durall of Media-Screen.

The most common activities for mobile Internet users are email, which 47 percent access, followed by gaming at 27 percent, news with 16 percent and TV which 13 percent of respondents watch. The study also found that marketing and advertising on the mobile Internet do not grab most users attention.

More than half of the respondent said that mobile Internet access does not match well with their lifestyle.

"I think that the marketers are overlooking key demographics," Mr. Krandall said. "If you are not young or you are not an on-the-go businessman, then mobile Internet has not been marketed to you."