Sure, while everyone was up in arms and not wanting to settle for anything less than an unlimited data plan, it turns out that AT&T users are not hitting the levels that were expected.

According to AT&T chief technical officer John Donovan, iPhone 3G users were using a “relatively high” amount of data as compared to other phone users, but that on an overall basis they were using much less than AT&T had planned for. Donovan would not get into any specifics regarding any reason why this has happened, but many are speculating that the connection issues which caused calls to be dropped to the EDGE network are to blame.

Donovan mentioned that AT&T had planned for a fivefold increase in traffic, but in reality only saw a threefold increase. He also denied that AT&T oversold their network capacity, claiming that they had already taken their own steps in anticipation of the demand.

What I wonder is that we saw plenty of reports dealing with the 3G coverage issues, and AT&T is claiming that they only saw a threefold increase when they have planned for a fivefold increase. I can only imagine how many more issues we would have heard about if the traffic actually hit the levels that AT&T claim to have been expecting.

[electronista]