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AT&T Wireless CEO Ralph de la Vega said last week that AT&T will have to "manage" the bandwidth usage of iPhone users.

Without the proper management of these networks, De la Vega said, regular data users will be "crowded out" by the small number of users [read iPhone users] who use massive amounts of data.

"We have to manage the network to make sure that the few cannot crowd out the many," De la Vega continued. He said the words "crowded out" at least five times in that part of his keynote address.

No indication on what, exactly, AT&T plans to do, but this can't be good. Previous efforts along these lines by other companies has revolved around either throttling users' connection speeds or charging exhorbitant fees for "power users." Customer reaction to both approaches has always been swift and terrible.

I'm reserving judgement, but this does not bode well.

AT&T and U.S. health care: rising prices, slumping service.