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AT&T (formally Cingular) would like to make your next trip abroad a little less expensive; through new international PDA data rate plans now available to users of the broad range of smartphones and cellular-wireless handhelds the carrier supports.

The global rate plans range from $44.99 to $69.99 per month depending on whether the device is a smartphone or QWERTY thumb-keyboard device. For that monthly charge, users get unlimited domestic data and 20 MB of data outside the U.S. in some 30 countries abroad (see here for list). And if you go over 20 MB, the overage charges are only $5 per megabyte in many of these destinations.

That's a steep discount from the typical $15 or more per megabyte people are used to paying when traveling overseas.

For example, 20MB of international data usage at a standard $.0195 per KB rate would result in a charge of $399.36, some $330 more than the highest tier combined monthly domestic/international charge under the new AT&T plans.

So if you're an AT&T customer with either the Samsung BlackJack, Cingular 3125 Smartphone, Cingular 8525 Pocket PC, HP iPAQ hw692, Palm Treo 680, Palm or Treo 750 and travel a lot, you may want to consider signing up.