AT&T Wireless Overwhelmed.

As an indicator of the bottleneck ahead, AT&T has been overwhelmed with a 5,000 per cent increase in wireless data consumption in three years, driven by the minority of customers who own Apple’s iPhone. For now, AT&T is the exclusive US carrier for that device.

“We’re seeing a disproportionate number of users driving consumption,” Ralph de la Vega, AT&T Mobility president, said at the conference.

“If we don’t find a way to keep them from crowding out others, we’re going to have a very significant issue.”

Mr de la Vega said the top 3 per cent of its smartphone customers were responsible for 40 per cent of data usage, consuming 13 times more than the average smartphone user. With new smartphones that have software fromGoogle and others coming, and the prospects of wider distribution of broadband-enabled notebook PCs, the demands for connectivity will continue to jump geometrically.

--from today's Financial Times.