AT&T has just announced that they will begin offering new smartphone and tablet data plans starting Sunday, January 22nd, marking the first update to AT&T’s plans since June of 2011.

AT&T chief marketing officer David Christopher made the following statement:

Customers are using more data than ever before. Our new plans are driven by this increasing demand in a highly competitive environment, and continue to deliver a great value to customers, especially as we continue our 4G LTE deployment.

The carrier has announced three new plans for smartphones and two nes plans for tablets, replacing the current $15/200MB, $25/2GB, and $45/4GB with tethering plans. The new plans feature more data at a slightly lower cost-per-byte, although the plans are $5 more per month up front.

The new smartphone plans are as follows, and include free unlimited access to AT&T WiFi hotspots:

AT&T DataPlus 300MB: $20 for 300MB, additional 300MB for $20.

AT&T DataPro 3GB: $30 for 3GB, additional 1GB for $10/each

AT&T DataPro 5GB: $50 for 5GB, with mobile hotspot/tethering, additional 1GB for $10/each

And users of 3G tablets can now choose from the following two new plans:

The existing 250MB for $15 plan

AT&T DataConnect 3GB: $30 for 3GB

AT&T DataConnect 5GB: $50 for 5GB

Existing data plan holders will be able to keep their current plans, but after Sunday, all new data contracts for smartphone and tablet customers will be required to follow the new plans.

While these plans are slightly cheaper byte-for-byte, I still can’t help but think that these are truly outrageous prices for data. But hey, that’s just my two cents…