Jimm Phillips

AT&T said it will roll out its own shared data plans. Wednesday’s announcement prompted further ire from public interest groups, who had earlier railed against speculation that the company may begin charging for use of the iPhone’s FaceTime app on its wireless network. AT&T’s forthcoming “Mobile Share” plans will be available in late August. The new plans will allow subscribers to buy a set amount of data -- up to 20 GB -- and share it among up to 10 devices, including smartphones and tablets. Verizon Wireless unveiled its similar “Share Everything” plans last month, which became available June 28 (CD June 13 p7). Both companies’ plans give subscribers unlimited voice minutes and text, charge a graduated fee depending on the amount of purchased data and an additional fee for each device that will use the plan’s data pool. Unlike Verizon, AT&T will still offer subscribers traditional individual and family plans as well.

Spectrum sharing presents a tantalizing potential to improve efficient use of spectrum, but the technology and policy fixes needed to make it a reality are at least a decade off, wireless network expert Peter Rysavy said in a report released Monday (http://xrl.us/bng3q5). Underutilized government-only frequency bands will be need to be restructured so non-governmental and commercial entities can share them, the report said. It’s entirely possible for commercial and government entities to share these spectrum bands, but it will take time to determine how they can integrate, Rysavy said during a news conference Monday sponsored by Mobile Future. Getting information from federal agencies on how much spectrum they use can be challenging, an aide to the House Commerce Committee told the event.