In an interview, AT&T chairman and CEO, Randall Stephenson said that one of the surprises AT&T had with the Apple iPhone is that amount of data usage iPhone users have consumed.

Stephenson says the iPhone, distributed exclusively by AT&T, has met the company’s expectations. The only surprise, he says, is the impact on data usage by iPhone owners. It’s double what AT&T had expected, and more than half of that usage is taking place at Wi-Fi hotspots, he says.

As a tie-in to AT&T’s announcement of their new Mobile anchor color (orange) and their new tagline (Your Seamless World), Stephenson’s comment on data consumption is interesting.

Clearly this remark reflects iPhone users utilizing the unlimited data plan with their iPhones. But the part about the “more than half utilizing from wifi connections” seems to say more about the speed inadequacies of EDGE rather than the sea change of wireless connectivity methods. Remember, this is the same company that had to drop their assumptive, “Fewest Dropped Calls” line from their advertising.

Although the move to evolve the AT&T product offering around the core wireless business is forward thinking and no doubt, the future, it will take more than an advertising campaign to change the world.

Still, any company that is going to make an effort to create products, networks, and services to support a “Seamless World” can’t be all that bad.

[Via USA Today]