Is AT&T cracking down on iPhone users with non-iPhone plans?

Hey you! Yes, yes you. That iPhone that you’re carrying and flaunting around, is that legit? You’d rather tell us, because the following might just interest you.

According to BGR, one of their loyal readers received a friendly email from AT&T, which goes like this.

Subject: Important information regarding your iPhone 3G

The new AT&T – Your world. Delivered.

Our service records indicate that you are using an iPhone 3G with a data plan designed for other devices.

To avoid unexpected data overage charges and enable Visual Voicemail, please contact your telecom manager, or an AT&T representative at 1-800-331-0500.

Thank you for choosing wireless from AT&T. We appreciate your business.

Sincerely,
AT&T Customer Service

BGR suspects that pretty soon, AT&T will make sure that all users who are using the iPhone with non-iPhone plans will need to pay as much as the iPhone-specific plan subscribers do.

Now, the quality of the 3G service provided by AT&T is a totally different story, but this story does seem to raise a lot of concerns.

If AT&T starts doing this in the USA, other carriers in the other countries won’t wait too long to crackdown on the iPhones being used on their networks. I’m not sure if Apple is/will participate in this, but if the carriers get hold of the IMEI numbers of all the iPhone in the market, it shouldn’t be difficult to find those defaulters.

I doubt this will result in a crackdown of the unlocked iPhones, but carriers can definitely stop servicing those who are not on the iPhone specific plans. Luckily, a few markets where the iPhone has been launched, such as India, the users are free to use any available plans on their iPhone, but provided that the iPhone has been purchased officially from the carrier itself.

Is this the beginning of the end?