Apparently we should get ready to say our final goodbyes to unlimited data, as our favorite cellular plan feature is not looking long for this world. At least that’s the message we’re getting from AT&T and now O2 UK. AT&T announced their new data plans last week, with unlimited going the way of the dodo and now topping out at 2GB for $25 a month, with the option to purchase additional gigabytes at $10 a pop.

O2 UK has taken a similar approach, though they’re offering even less to start. Plans will range from £25 for 500MB and 100 minutes to £60 for 1GB and unlimited calling (all plans include unlimited SMS and Wi-Fi hotspot access). While AT&T offers the option to add in more data as its needed, O2’s plans call for you to add a bolt-on to your plan, to the tune of an extra £5 a month for 500MB, or £10 for a full gig’. O2 will be sure to help subscribers monitor their plans by shooting out text messages to keep them updated on their data usage.

The press release states that 97% of O2 customers would not need to buy anything more than the 500MB plan, and that that much data is 2.5 times more data than the average O2 subscriber pulls down in a month. We’ll be quick to point out that the average O2 customer also likely has a dumbphone with horrible web browsing capabilities.

The new plans take effect for new and upgrading customers on June 24, until then subscribers can pick up any smartphone on O2 UK (including the Palm Pre, Pre Plus, and Pixi Plus) with unlimited data included on any compatible plan.

Source: O2

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Bell’s history with the Palm Pre hasn’t exactly been a perfect one, but it looks like their new Palm Pre promotion may be a winner. There’s been low sales, very little promotion, and much higher profile launches, especially on their new HSPA network. However, it seems the Pre is back on the front page of Bell’s smartphone section, with this very nice new promotion.

Under the promotion, and a 3-year contract agreement, you get a Palm Pre for $0 (like before), and better yet, there’s now $15 off your monthly bill! That’s a total savings of $180 yearly, plus $300 for the device itself. Oh, and they’re tossing in $75 worth of accessories too.

If that sounds intriguing with you, and the 3-year contract isn’t deterring, then you’ll want to look at the different smartphone plans Bell offers. The lowest is the Smartphone 50 plan, which offers the very basics (with only 500MB allowed monthly), usually for $50/month, but under the promotion, ends up at $35/month.  And don’t forget, Bell allows tethering. Awesome, eh. Prices increase from there, up to the Smartphone 100 plan, so there’s flexibility is what you want out of your device.

Whether this is an attempt at Bell to get rid of lingering inventory, or a renewed interest in Palm now that HP came to the rescue, will remain a mystery. But at these kinds of savings, it doesn’t really matter too much. No details on how long the promotion will last, so if this is what you’ve been waiting for, you may want to act fast.

via MobileSyrup & webOS Roundup, thanks for the tip AdmiralRaptor

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Tethering has always been a bit of a touchy subject both officially from carriers and even in our forums. The legalities are sketchy for most. Thankfully, for Canadian Pre users, things got a bit easier.

Recently, we’re not sure of the specific date, all of Bell Mobility’s smartphone plans changed. Now, every smartphone data plan has tethering added. For example, the $50 plan now says,

"500 MB of data for personal email, Internet browsing, instant messaging, and tethering"

Pricing goes up from there, with the largest plan at $100 offering a 3GB monthly allotment.  However, as it says, the data amount is shared, so tethering Canadians will need to be aware of bandwith used.

With that in mind, it’s worth reminding fellow Canadians that the homebrew app Netstat is amazing for keeping track of bandwidth used. As for tethering apps, the most convenient one is the paid app MyTether, and lately we’ve been hearing successful stories of Bell users using the free Mobile Hotspot.

Since legality is becoming less of an issue for tethering, it’s not surprising there are rumblings others may be creating competing tethering apps as well.

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A reader of our sister site phoneArena.com was really lucky, to has his shiny new Palm Pre activated on the Simply Everything Plus 500 minute plan for $59.99. In addition, he signed only a 1-year contract, instead of 2-year and even “referred” himself so he’ll be getting two $25 Visa debit cards from Sprint. So [...]

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If you were hoping for big big news from the Webinar, you will be disappointed — the event was all about Sprint and aimed at people who might have been new to the Pre and be part of an endangered species: looking to invest.

Anyhow, in an event designed to be all about Sprint, it makes sense that the question of plans would crop up.  As you might expect from a Sprint exec, a clear answer on SERO was nowhere to be found, but we do know a bit more about what the plans can be.  For inviduals:

• $99 Simply Everything
• $69 Unlimited data + 450 minutes – "Everything Data"
• $89 Unlimited Data + 900 minutes – "Everything Data"

The situation is pretty much analogous with the above for family and business plans — any plan you want, as long as it has unlimited data.

Sprint used the word "required" a lot when it came to having an unlimited data plan with the Pre — but it’s theoretically possible that you could try to argue your way out of that for a cheaper plan.  Well, we should say "cheaper" plan, because the Pre sucks down data willy nilly all the time with Synergy.  It’s even worse when you’re using the device actively because, well, it does such a great job rendering web pages and pulling in email.  So we’re saying that you’ll almost surely go over pretty much any data cap you may have no matter how diligent you are about WiFi hotspots.

In other words — it looks like there won’t be any hard and fast requirements, but if you are looking to get a plan not enumerated above, schedule in some extra time for haggling, the hard sell, and hire a personal assistant to keep track of your data usage.

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