[EDIT] Some posters have responded that the assumptions made below are unrealistic as regards the average subscriber. That is absolutely true! This OP is unrelated to the "average subscriber." The thread is about the disconnect between the data download volume required by high-bandwidth apps being advertised by the carriers and the cummulative monthly data volume permitted by the carriers. I.e., this post would be valid if there were zero subscribers using these services. I would note, however, that these ideas will become increasingly applicable to the average subscriber as subscribers begin to use the cited services in greater volumes.
Other posters have commented that the 2 mbps assumption in this OP is unrealistically high. Please see posts 52, 54, and 75 for calculations related to actual apps that use similar bandwidths.
There has been much contraversy surrounding TMO's throttling network access speeds after a subscriber uses (or downloads?) 5 GB of data. Also, some people seem to be confused as to the meaning of the associated terms "bandwidth," "download speed," "total monthly usage," etc. This post is simply an attempt to clarify these terms and to add perspective to the issue.
I will use an (imprecise) analogy to household electrical power usage. The quantity of electrical power (measured in kilowatts), consumed at any point in time depends upon the sum of the current draw of the appliances, fixtures, machinery, etc. operating at that point in time. (Although power = voltage multiplied by current, the power company keeps the voltage relatively constant.)
Wireless data downloads can be considered as analogous to electrical power consumption if we analogize maximum link speed (also referred to as bandwidth) to voltage and bit flow to current. The power company maintains a (relatively constant) voltage to enable us to pull a variable amount of current according to our needs. A carrier maintains a (variable) amount of bandwidth to enable us to transfer a variable amount of data according to our needs.
Kilowatts and bits/second are both instantaeous values. So, the electric meter must continuously meter the current as it flows through the meter to sum the total energy used (kilowatt-hours). Likewise, TMO (apparently) implements a meter on their servers for each subscriber to monitor data flow over the course of a billing month.
Now, this is where the analogy gets interesting.
The power company charges per usage while TMO advertises and charges a flat monthly rate (assuming an "unlimited" data plan). On the surface (read: "as advertised"), the TMO plan sounds better. One is able to plan for a fixed monthly expenditure without having to worry about consumption. That is very appealing, because TMO has also heavily marketed their newer and ever-faster networks as well as devices and services requiring these greater bandwidths.
But notice what happens when a customer attempts to aggressively use the new devices, services, and supporting network bandwidths. When the data throttling hammer comes down, Internet data services are simply terminated until the beginning of the next billing month, for most practical purposes! (The modern Internet is largely non-functional at 56 kb.)
How would such behaviour play out with household energy consumption per our analogy? Say the power company initiates a big marketing campaign to place equipment and services in your home that require lots of power to operate, and sets you up on a flat monthly fee. To accommodate the new equipment and services, the power company drops 10kV service to your home. The first month, You use the new, very power-hungry equipment and services for 5-6 hours. By then, you have used 20,000 kwH. The power company's policy is to throttle users who reach 20,000 kwH. So what do they do? According to the analogy, they decrease the voltage to your house to 20 volts. Of course, 20 volts is not enough to run anything except perhaps enough to make a couple of light bulbs flicker. However, the power company can say that, technically, they have not breached their obligation to supply you unlimited power for a fixed fee. If you can do something with 20 volts for the remainder of the billing month, have at it!
For both the power company and a wireless carrier, these are peak loading problems. The difference is that the power company builds out the infrastructure necessary to handle peak loading for all of its customers, big and small.
A wireless data carrier can "build out" in two dimensions, speed and capacity. These are related but different quantities. Say TMO replaces transceiver technology on a tower. Say the old system had 4 transceivers, each capable of handling 1000 subscribers and providing data speeds of between 500kbps and 5 Mbps to each subscriber depending upon the number of data users connected to that tower. Now assume that the upgrade has five transceivers, each capable of handling 1000 subscribers. New technolgoy coding techniques now render a transceiver capable of providing data speeds of 1-21 Mbps, depending upon the number of data uses connected to that transceiver and their data requirements, etc. In this scenario, the carrier could do fancy marketing to pull in additional subscribers and some users would in fact sometimes see faster downloads. However, the carrier might not have accomplished much from a capacity standpoint in this scenario. E.g., tripling the number of 3G radios might be better from a capacity standpoint than replacing the existing 3G radios with 4G radios. However, the latter is much sexier from a marketing standpoint.
We will know when TMO has finally built out sufficient capacity to satisfy the data demand that they themselves create by hyping speed and speed-requiring services such as TMO-TV; because at that point there will be no further need for data caps and they will be removed or increased to higher thresholds. In the meantime, the following calculation is an indication of the amount of "unlimited" nework access we currently receive from TMO in exchange for our $80 - $100:
What is your average download speed? Of course it varies from region to region and from one moment to the next. Let us just pick some reasonable number as an average to work with, say 2 mbps. Consider that average and the 5 GB data cap. For quick calculation purposes, let us consider 10 bits/byte. (The real number is ~9 bits/byte after taking into account error correction overhead, etc.)
(5 x 10E9 Bytes) x (10 bits/byte) = 5 x 10E10 bits
(5 x 10E10 bits) / (2 x 10E6 bits/sec) = 25000 seconds
(25,000 seconds) / (3600 seconds/hr) = 6.9 hours
In conclusion: An "unlimited" TMO data plan provides about 7 hours of [clarification: high bandwidth application] access monthly, based upon advertised and provided speeds, before one is cut off from useful data access. Your available number of hours will vary according to the data speeds that you experience/utilize.
There are ~720 hours in a month. Thus, our carrier's plan provides for 2 mbps use of our phone about 1% of the time or about 25 minutes per day.
If you understand and are happy with this (as many no doubt are), wonderful! I believe that a subscriber should at least be aware of what he/she is getting for his/her $80-$100 per month, though; and the carriers should, but do not, disclose this information.
The only grip I have about it is, I wished it was cheaper, maybe $20-25 (i know about the loyalty plan but I haven't gotten time to ask about it). Or offer a $15 2gb plan (as opposed to the janky $10/15 200mb plan)
Unlimited means..
1. Having no restrictions or controls.
2. Having or seeming to have no boundaries; infinite.
3. Without qualification or exception; absolute.
This is what Unlimited mean,not the twisted version T-mobile trick some into believe,Unlimited mean no restrictions no controls,you can't abuse something that is presented to you in Unlimited form period.
I don't know why people have no sue T-mobile for this.
eltormo said:
Unlimited means..
1. Having no restrictions or controls.
2. Having or seeming to have no boundaries; infinite.
3. Without qualification or exception; absolute.
This is what Unlimited mean,not the twisted version T-mobile trick some into believe,Unlimited mean no restrictions no controls,you can't abuse something that is presented to you in Unlimited form period.
I don't know why people have no sue T-mobile for this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Who says unlimited means no restrictions and no controls? Unlimited defines whether there is a limit or not, not how you use the internet.
As for the OP, I regularly tether and use my phone and still haven't hit the 5 GB limit (downloading apps/games on my phone, roms, kernels, streaming Pandora, forum browsing on my laptop and youtube streaming).
The one's that get over the 5GB limit are probably doing things that they shouldn't be doing so imo it's fair and I would rather have it set to 5GB than having them raise rates for everybody and offer real unlimited.
not satisfied, but not upset. had i not streamed the entire super bowl through my phone, my data wouldn't be throttled right now!
my bad
ahem
Umm....
Cap ?
sahil04 said:
Who says unlimited means no restrictions and no controls? Unlimited defines whether there is a limit or not, not how you use the internet.
As for the OP, I regularly tether and use my phone and still haven't hit the 5 GB limit (downloading apps/games on my phone, roms, kernels, streaming Pandora, forum browsing on my laptop and youtube streaming).
The one's that get over the 5GB limit are probably doing things that they shouldn't be doing so imo it's fair and I would rather have it set to 5GB than having them raise rates for everybody and offer real unlimited.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You know i just quoted a dictionary definition of Unlimited right one of them is having not restrictions or controls.?
Maybe you know more than the dudes who wrote the dictionary maybe we should go by your terms and not what the real definition means.
In fact the terms i quote are not referring to the Internet.
Stop lying dude i download 3 gameloft games,and watched some video on youtube and i landed over 1 GB in just 3 days,games from the android market like gameloft ones are close to 300 MB,i have spiderman,SplinterCell and GT racing and with those 3 alone i got close to 900MB.
In fact i made a test and watched several videos on youtube,and did some download without tethering,and i landed on 1.3 GB in just 3 days,and i did not even tether dude,stop acting like 5GB is allot if not,in fact not even close to be that much 5GB is nothing this days,i have video on my Galaxy S that are 53MB just for a 3 and half minute video,just head over to youtube and see how much data and actual good quality video takes.
In fact i have Temperature by Sean Paul and is 53 MB,10 miserable video like that one,that is what enough to get you what an hour of entertainment or less,and you have 500MB is just 1 hours of watching videos,use it 2 hours and you have 1GB already eat up.
5GB is nothing.
In fact roms alone are 130+ MB,some are close or over 200 MB,download 7 of those on 1 week and you already have close to 1GB use,just for roms.
Your math doesn't add up,and even without tethering 5GB is nothing.
But show me what we should not be doing,since phones like the mytouch 4G are also throttle and those are advertise as video phones (not that the Vibrant can't do that) and as a wireless hub,where other devices can connect to you,(again no that the Vibrant can't do that either),so in the end you have a service that is been advertise as unlimited,only to be punish for using it,Verizon did the same thing and was force to settle in cash.
I read now that T-mobile was sue for this as well,i don't think the outcome will be any different than what happen with Verizon.
I like the dictionary version of what Unlimited means,not your or T-mobile twisted version,you most work for T-mobile you have to,to actually cheer for such a scam,and to accuse others of wrong doing,when the features all this phones have are bandwidth demanding.
Tmobile
I like Tmobile
n2ishun said:
Umm....
Cap ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what's this a picture of?
eltormo said:
Unlimited means..
1. Having no restrictions or controls.
2. Having or seeming to have no boundaries; infinite.
3. Without qualification or exception; absolute.
This is what Unlimited mean,not the twisted version T-mobile trick some into believe,Unlimited mean no restrictions no controls,you can't abuse something that is presented to you in Unlimited form period.
I don't know why people have no sue T-mobile for this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, that is what "unlimited" means. You got the adjective right but I believe that you may be misunderstanding the noun. "Unlimited" must modify something; it cannot be analyzed by itself. if you read the fine print you will see that TMO promises unlimited Internet access, not unlimited Internet access at any particular speed. Thus (they claim), they continue to supply "unlimited" Internet access at 56kb after switching on the cap. That is, you may download any amount of data possible at 56kb. They may not even promise that. They may simply talk in terms of an "unlimited plan," which is marketing sizzle that means essentially nothing, except perhaps suggesting an absence of up-charges.
It seems that you may be suggesting that TMO promises unlimited access at any speed. That would not make sense, of course, because they are not physically capable of providing "any speed." So, what bandwidth are you buying when you sign up with a carrier? Well, essentially you are buying into an uncertain, imaginary bandwidth. By that I mean that in your own mind you imagine/hope what the bandwidth will be like, based upon that carrier's generally-stated advertising, PR releases, reputation, etc. At the current state of the wireless art, a carrier will not promise a retail customer any particular bandwidth.
That is where the "trick" lies and how unpleasant surprises arise. The carriers speak out of two sides of their mouth. One side is the advertising, PR, press releases, etc. which suggest certain bandwidth availability by making references to services (movie downloads, Internet TV, etc.) that require such bandwidth availability. The other side of their mouths is the retail subscriber contract terms which suggest just the opposite. That is, regular use of the bandwidths suggested in the PR constitutes punishable abuse.
These are untenable, contradictory positions that will likely not persist for much longer (JMO). Unfortunately, the short-term "fix" could be a metering scheme that is even worse. If they take that route, though, their ad campaign might take a big hit, as they would likely have to abandon terms like "unlimited."
It may be helpful to keep in mind what the wireless carrier business really is. A carrier spends billions of dollars to purchase spectral bandwidth from the US government. That carrier then spends additional billions of dollars to build out a network which enables them to repackage the spectral bandwidth as voice/data bandwidth to sell at retail. Like any other business, a wireless carrier will attempt to sell its service (repackaged bandwidth) for as high a price as the market will allow. Understanding this is the key to understanding why a carrier will laugh all the way to the bank when a fixed price, high-bandwidth customer threatens to cancel their contract and/or take their business elsewhere. If that happens, the carrier will simply resell that bandwidth to two or more new customers who may be smaller bandwidth consumers. Following such a transaction, the carrier will have replaced $80 per month of revenue with $160 $240 or more of monthly revenue.
Please note that my writings in this or any other XDA threads are simply personal opinions relating to public matters and are specifically not intended as statements of fact or advice. Any references to particular carriers are intended as examples only and could be applicable to any carrier.
Interesting Poll
The poll at the top of the page is interesting. At this point, at least, the extremes of "very satisfied" and "completely dissatisfied" are fairly evenly split.
Please vote if you have not already done so.
I am sure T-Mobile will double the cap pretty soon, and $30 ($25 with EM+) internet will have tethering included in the near future because AT&T is pressing hard on the new 4G smartphone + tethering pricing:
$45 with 4GB and tethering, and $10 per GB overage.
zbt1985 said:
what's this a picture of?
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121 gigs of transfer over Tmo in the last 31 days ?
BruceElliott said:
Yes, that is what "unlimited" means. unlimited Internet access, not unlimited Internet access at any particular speed.
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Click to collapse
I think if even YOU (a Tmobile shill) will look at it, limiting internet speed is still LIMITING.
My contract states in clear language, UNLIMITED INTERNET ACCESS.
They have tried to force me to change that contract many times.
Many many times.
I will not change it, or allow them to change it, it is a binding contract.
Yes, they offer free phones and minutes and even freemonths for me to change it...NFW, ain't happenin.
n2ishun said:
I think if even YOU (a Tmobile shill) will look at it, limiting internet speed is still LIMITING.
My contract states in clear language, UNLIMITED INTERNET ACCESS.
They have tried to force me to change that contract many times.
Many many times.
I will not change it, or allow them to change it, it is a binding contract.
Yes, they offer free phones and minutes and even freemonths for me to change it...NFW, ain't happenin.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A T-Mobile shill? You must not be reading my posts very carefully... LOL!
n2ishun said:
121 gigs of transfer over Tmo in the last 31 days ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No; that is an application associated with a BitTorrent client that simply keeps track of Internet usage. Not sure how it is applicable to this thread, given that TMO provides the same information for TMO's wireless service.
mingkee said:
I am sure T-Mobile will double the cap pretty soon, and $30 ($25 with EM+) internet will have tethering included in the near future because AT&T is pressing hard on the new 4G smartphone + tethering pricing:
$45 with 4GB and tethering, and $10 per GB overage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would be good. Let's hope that you are correct.
I pay good money for my data plan. And it is indeed very limited.
I had a talk with T-mobile on Twitter back when it was announced about the HSPA+ speeds and said why is there a cap after 5gb and I used the 21mb/s and gave them all the calculations as to how quickly that 5gb would get used up. I asked why give us faster speeds when you could be investing our money into expanding the network giving 3G speeds to areas stuck on EDGE or have no coverage from T-mobile. Their only response was stay tuned for what we have in store for our customers.
Yes throttling speed that is done purposely by T-mobile makes it not unlimited. If it was simply limited to the speed that you can get given where you are using your phone at then that would mean unlimited.
Scoobyracing03 said:
I had a talk with T-mobile on Twitter back when it was announced about the HSPA+ speeds and said why is there a cap after 5gb and I used the 21mb/s and gave them all the calculations as to how quickly that 5gb would get used up. I asked why give us faster speeds when you could be investing our money into expanding the network giving 3G speeds to areas stuck on EDGE or have no coverage from T-mobile. Their only response was stay tuned for what we have in store for our customers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, you clearly anticipated what my OP is about when you communicated with TMO. Let's hope that the person who suggested that you "stay tuned" was well-informed!
I imagine that the early build-out in the speed dimension was a marketing tool designed to capture customers based upon the "wow" factor of enormous speed. However, a carrier who does not quickly follow this angle up with building out in the capacity dimension will (and has) disappoint(ed) customers and will likely fall flat on their face. Wireless carriers are, of course, a limited monopoly, limited by available spectral bandwidth constraints and huge investment costs. We in the U.S. are fortunate to at least have a few carriers to compete for customers. Hopefully that competition will be sufficient to continue to drive investment in capacity. If not, the public sector can always step in... At the end of the day, the freqency spectrum, like the air we breath, is owned by the people. We may lease it out. We may also cancel leases for the public good...
So with all the U.S. Carriers either severely limiting or capping Data on their phone/tablet plans(only a matter time for sprint too) why all the focus on cloud based services like google music/ iCloud etc. I would think that these 2 are in direct opposition to each other. I am currently on Sprint and enjoying the unlimited data but not holding breath on it staying around forever. I use Google Music and Netflix/Hulu+ as well as Pandora. I have a premium account where possible and have used others in the past like rhapsody and spotify. What incentive do I have to keep using these services if my data is limited. I see very little point to using them if I have to "triage" my data usage based upon priority. For reference I typically use 4-6gb a month on my sprint account and no I don't tether, I have a Time Warner Cable connection at home rated at 30+MBPS.
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Thread moved to Q&A due to it being a question. Would advise you to read forum rules and post in correct section.
Failure to comply with forum rules will result in an infraction and/or ban depending on severity of rule break.
The thing is, that technologies like HSPA+ and EV-DO can't handle the amount of data that is pushed through them, that's why Verizon and AT&T are going to LTE, because it CAN handle the amount of data they push now, and more, which is why they give you such high speeds, because it can handle it.
As time progresses, and carriers realize that Unlimited data can easily be offered, they'll switch back to that.
I don't know. I would like to think that way but corporations have repeatedly shown that they will do anything they can to get us to pay more. I don't see them offering unlimited data regardless of the network's capability. It frustrates me to no end to try to get someone on an android phone to use any of the cloud services from drop box to Google docs and music and then realizing they are not on a data plan that allows for what is in my opinion one of the major benefits of the platform.
I own a Nexus S and I think I am one of the very few I have seen or talked to that has no problem with only 16gb storage, the cloud negates the need for a massive memory card but the data limitations on carriers trump that.
I have no illusions of my Sprint plan staying unlimited much longer either and once it is gone I am gonna to adjust my android experience to accomodate and use it in a way that I am forced to, not the way I prefer.
ktt4510 said:
I don't know. I would like to think that way but corporations have repeatedly shown that they will do anything they can to get us to pay more. I don't see them offering unlimited data regardless of the network's capability. It frustrates me to no end to try to get someone on an android phone to use any of the cloud services from drop box to Google docs and music and then realizing they are not on a data plan that allows for what is in my opinion one of the major benefits of the platform.
I own a Nexus S and I think I am one of the very few I have seen or talked to that has no problem with only 16gb storage, the cloud negates the need for a massive memory card but the data limitations on carriers trump that.
I have no illusions of my Sprint plan staying unlimited much longer either and once it is gone I am gonna to adjust my android experience to accomodate and use it in a way that I am forced to, not the way I prefer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just give it time. Eventually the FCC will sue the carriers. That will be a fun day.
Sent from my SGH-I727 using xda premium
Longcat14 said:
The thing is, that technologies like HSPA+ and EV-DO can't handle the amount of data that is pushed through them, that's why Verizon and AT&T are going to LTE, because it CAN handle the amount of data they push now, and more, which is why they give you such high speeds, because it can handle it.
As time progresses, and carriers realize that Unlimited data can easily be offered, they'll switch back to that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I disagree. You'll see that Verizon and ATT's data tiers for 3G and 4G phones are the exact same, same price for the same amount of data. However, Verizon is running a limited time promo where 4G customers get twice the data for the same price, eg. $30 for 2gb turns to 4gb. They launched this promo right after ATT launched their first LTE smartphone last month, certainly not a coincidence. Thank goodness for competition!
The main reason is the carriers realize how hooked we are to our smartphones, many of us couldn't go back to a feature-phone and want to take advantage of our addiction by having us pay more and more to keep using them.
Sadly, I think unlimited plans will never come back. One reason tiers have been implemented is because of exploding data demand and capacity and strain issues. But really, the main reason is just pure greed. Why do you think after you pass your monthly allowance, ATT and Verizon charge you for each extra gig instead of throttling your speed like T-Mobile? They want to get you hooked on bandwidth intensive applications like NetFlix and after you go over your allowance, they hope you'll keep ponying up more cash for data overages to continue using your phone.
There was even a public interview recently with a Verizon executive stating he wishes for as many customers as possible to move up from the $30/2gb plan to their higher $50/5gb and $80/10gb plans just to gain increasingly more revenue each quarter.
Companies are being really stupid when it comes to 4G, and the Ipad having 4g is really dumb because of the dumb choices by the cell phone companies. Whats the problem? Should be obvious, data caps. What the hell is the point of faster internet when you can't use it without paying hefty premiums? I am watching verizon advertisements about 4G and how you can download 1100 songs and stream multiple HD movies and it makes me sick. Sure you can download 1100 songs on 4g, if you don't use ur internet for single byte of data for anything else. Sure I can quickly stream movies over 4g, whats the point when the movie will eat up half my data plan? Sure webpages will load faster, but the only websites where it will make a real difference are ones that will eat up my data. What do they think, people want their email messages to download faster? OOO I have 4g, my one email downloads half a second faster. Give me a break.
Putting 4G on the new Ipad I think is more for marketing than it is for anything else, because people will quickly realize that their data usage bills are through the roof when they start using that data for a lot of the things people will use an Ipad for, and by that time it will be too late, they already bought the product. In the long run this will create a ton of consumer backlash. I am so glad I am grandfathered in with unlimited data, because if I had a data cap life would be extremely difficult in regards to my cell phone and tablet usage (HTC Thunderbolt with wireless tether)
AMEN BROTHER!
Just like no sd cards in phone, they give you cloud storage for free, but you get to pay for data. My sd card never charges me when I use it! This is a blatant ploy by the wireless providers to get us to use more and more data, paying them more and more, when they claim they are struggling to keep up with demand and don't have enough spectrum!
Sent from my Inspire 4G using XDA
Your right that's one other thing. I love the claims that they need data caps to keep up with demand on a 4g spectrum that is no where near capacity, its so insane how selfish and greedy they can be.
PS I also have grandfathered unlimited data and ATT decided that unlimited is really 3gb and then you get switched to edge. I never agreed to this. I guess big companies can do whatever they want.
And by the way, The HTC Vivid is still sending some data over 4g even when you are on WiFi! I have seen it on 3 phones now! 1.6gb 3 weeks usage, only gmail and weather when not on WiFi, very minimal user, no streaming, no downloading! Beware!
Sent from my Inspire 4G using XDA
Well Bros
You Guys are Talking "4G",
Whereas we ,in Pakistan are still Waiting for 3G To be launched...
Or, you could go with someone that offers unlimited data still or buy unbranded like I did.
z33dev33l said:
Or, you could go with someone that offers unlimited data still or buy unbranded like I did.
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In America the only major carrier that still offers unlimited data to new customers is Sprint, who is known for being one of the worst carriers when it comes to getting a signal. I do not know if Europe or other areas have 4G coverage yet and if those countries have options when it comes to unlimited bandwidth.
Also what do you mean when you say buying unbranded?
T mobile does, att does on prepaid.
z33dev33l said:
T mobile does, att does on prepaid.
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Click to collapse
You are sort of right about Tmobile, they won't charge you for overages, but you get dropped to the lower speed network when you go over your plans allotment for 4g, you can pay for 2 gb of 4g speed or you can pay more for 5 gb of 4g speed, so they are still doing tiered data plans and charging more for higher allotment, but doing what ATT does when you go over your plans allotment and dropping you to slow speed.
I believe this should still be considered a problem when they advertise all the high bandwidth things you can do with 4G but require you to either pay a hefty premium to have a decent amount high speed data or force you to crawl internet speeds when you don't want to pay extra but want to do internet intensive things. I just feel its shady marketing practices, especially the current verizon 4gb data 4g ad.
And clearly I do not know how to spell allotment.
I'd hardly consider 3g a crawl...
Would you consider dial-up a crawl? I'm using it now and I would like to shout some distasteful comments about it
Sent from my Lemon™ 5GS using Tapatalk
I get 3g speeds after running my 4g into the ground.
sfetaz said:
In America the only major carrier that still offers unlimited data to new customers is Sprint, who is known for being one of the worst carriers when it comes to getting a signal. I do not know if Europe or other areas have 4G coverage yet and if those countries have options when it comes to unlimited bandwidth.
Also what do you mean when you say buying unbranded?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Speaking for europe I can say there is no 4G in uk but plans for 4G within two years.
We are stuck with 3G which cost me five pound for five hundred mb.
Dave
Sent from my LG P920 using Tapatalk
We have a 30Gb data limit here in Finland for 4G LTE.
The carriers want you to go over your data limit so they can charge you more. Then they want to recharge you for the same data if you want to tether with it. And for some of us we don't have a choice of many carriers if we want coverage.
They also impose the data cap because VZ is marketing part of their 4g bandwidth to customers now. FIOS is in pretty limited markets and it's a pretty low-cost method for VZ as they don't have to put down new cables or anything. What sucks though is that now you will have people attempting to run all their normal computer data over the same data network as people on their phones which doesn't seem like it will have a good outcome.
Unlimited data
This is the only reason I will not switch from Sprint to Verizon or AT&T. UNLIMITED data! Sooner or later Sprint will take the lead for this simple reason...
All these companies need to break away from wanting consumers to sign a new contract for data on a tablet.
I also believe that having 4G on an iPad is pointless because if you get a texting+voice app you now have a huge iPhone.
Well the telecommunication corporations in north America charge the most in the world so what do you expect. Furthermore, they can get away with it and there is nothing you the consumer can really do about it because it is something such a wide spread amount of people use that they can charge whatever they want.
Not to go off topic but I think socializing the telecommunications industry would be the best course of action as it is a universal service that pretty much everyone uses. It would lower the rates greatly if there wasn't a huge mark up on all the services.
Then again anything a little related to communism is scary because you know Nixon said so and corporations tend to push technology further to stay ahead of their competition so meh.