www.WirelessFederation.com/news: North America telecom operator, AT&T said that the heavy data consumers of the US carrier may have to suffer premium charges through the introduction of tiered pricing.

According to AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega, 40 per cent of wireless data traffic on the network is generated by three per cent of the operator’s smartphone users. Network performance issues have been found in Manhattan and San Francisco, where wireless data is popular. The focus of the company is to give incentive to small percentage of users in order to reduce or modify their usage.

The company has come under fire from US commentators for trying to foist the blame for its network’s shortcomings onto the customers. Much has been made by AT&T from Apple and it has heavily promoted the iPhone and associated unlimited data tariffs.

The company saw record activations of the iPhones in Q3. But it has also received complaints from the customers regarding performance of the carrier’s network. The issue also highlights the problems faced if the carrier fails to scale its network up to cope with the performance requirements.

Currently, USA has 40% of the world’s smartphone and mobile data users.