AT&T Slowly Expanding “Toll-Free” Data Trial, but Still No Big-Name Customers

AT&T grabbed a lot of attention back in January when it announced plans to offer companies the option to pay for data used by their customers. Since then? Crickets.

Speculation that Amazon might be the first big-name customer for the service for the Fire phone proved to be premature. However, AT&T has been gradually adding a few smaller names to the pilot program launched earlier in 2014. So-called sponsored data is designed to work like a toll-free number did in the landline days.

In this case, the sponsor foots the bill for the consumer to use certain services without having the resulting data use count against his or her monthly limit. Seattle-area startup Syntonic Wireless is announcing that it is now a part of the AT&T effort and plans to launch a sponsored content marketplace that will allow smartphone owners to see a range of available content that won’t count against their monthly data cap.