The Mobile Data Economy: How Much Data Do You Need To Buy?

The most memorable AT&T story from this week's CES technology conference might be when it kicked out T-Mobile's colorful CEO John Legere from its party. But an announcement from earlier in the week has the potential to be industry-changing.

Have you ever downloaded an app that didn’t seem like it was going to chew up a ton of data only to later find out that it was devouring megabytes without you knowing?

Facebook will acquire an Israeli start-up called Onavo, the Tel Aviv-based firm said Monday, in a deal reportedly worth up to $200 million. "Facebook has agreed to acquire our company," Onavo co-founders Guy Rosen and Roi Tiger wrote on their blog, without saying how much the social networking giant had agreed to pay. Local media reports priced the acquisition at $100-200 million (73 million to 147 million euros) and said it would see Facebook open its first research and development centre in Israel.

(Ron Dauphin)

Amazon.com Widgets Well done article on CNET looks at theAT&

Verizon Wireless, a segment of Verizon Communications (VZ), has added fuel to the price war in the telecom market by snipping the rates of some of its data plans by as much as 12.5%. Subscribers who are at present paying $80 per month for 500 megabytes of data under the smartphone plan “Share Everything” will now be able to get the same services for $70 a month. This $10 price cut will also apply to Verizon’s two gigabyte and one gigabyte data plans, which currently sell for $100 a month and $90 a month, respectively.

(Ninja M.)