Looks like the iPhone won’t just encourage mobile data usage; it will enforce it. AT&T and Apple revealed that the starting plan for the new iPhone will come bundled with unlimited data usage for a mandatory $20 extra a month.

Admittedly, to use the iPhone’s more advanced features, a data plan would be required. Buying an iPhone without data access would be akin to buying a BlackBerry without e-mail. The ironic thing is that the iPhone’s primary data access doesn’t come from AT&T--it comes from the wide-open world of Wi-Fi. After shunning a 3G chip for measly EDGE, Apple and AT&T are now forcing customers to pay for a sub-par data plan when many of the advanced features of the iPhone will only perform well over the Wi-Fi connection.

Let’s be honest. Despite theoretical speeds and benchmark testing, the typical EDGE device works at the speed of a dial-up modem. That might be fine for a WAP site, but as you may recall -- and how can you not, considering the inundation of iPod commercials -- that the iPhone runs the Safari browser, which renders full HTML pages from the wired world. The typical Web site these days is far more optimized for broadband than narrowband connectivity, and I don’t envy the person surfing the “Real” Web over an EDGE radio. And what about YouTube? Apple will stream video to the phone just like Apple TV streams it to the television. Again, not a service optimized for EDGE networks.

Then there’s iTunes itself -- a service that can only be accessed via a USB cable. So what does that leave for the EDGE network? E-mail?

I can sort of understand why Apple didn’t put 3G in the first iPhone. The different UMTS frequencies in the U.S. would prevent it from launching a global phone. Yeah, I’ll buy that. But what I can’t understand is that after the cellular connectivity in this device has been downplayed -- after even AT&T has begun touting the Wi-Fi connectivity in the device -- how Apple and AT&T can force customers to buy not just a data plan, but an unlimited data plan, that won’t even support many of the key applications of the phone? I suppose the simple answer is because they can.

Let’s face it, there is such a frenzy for the iPhone right now, Apple and AT&T could require their company logos be tattooed on all iPhone owners’ foreheads. If you don’t believe me, read some of the financial analyst commentary circling around the announcement: Wall Street was surprised the plan prices were so low.

Contact me at kfitchard@telephonyonline.com.