Bye bye Unlimited Data

GravityEyes · Sep 16, 2012

My wife and I both bought the original iPhone is '07, have upgraded each year and retained our unlimited plans. They are coveted, as we all know.

Well, last night I looked through our usage (i track it). Only once, since '07 have we ever went over 3 Gbs a month.

So tonight I converted to Mobile Share...

My previous plan

700 anytime minutes
Unlimited text & mobile-to-mobile
2 Unlimited iPhone data plans
1 2gb per month iPhone data plan (our son's)

Cost = $194 per month

New Plan

Unlimited text and talk
6 Gb Shared data

New features

Facetime over 3G
Personal Hotspots on all devices

Cost = $195 per month

For our situation, it made total sense. My wife and I both have wifi iPads, and MacBooks, the tether will come in handy!

Also, I will never want a 3G iPad ever at this point, sure you can share data now, however you will pay a $30 per month fee for the device. I had a 2nd Gen iPad with 3G and it was such a waste of money, I never used it enough to justify the plan or the premium.

I know some of you hold tightly to that unlimited plan, I did too. But realistically, with the throttling, does it really make sense to keep it anymore?

Anyone else considering the same?:

France- · Sep 16, 2012

...So you dropped an unlimited data plan...
...to spend an extra dollar every year, plus a feature or two?
Doesn't seem logical to me.

mcarthon · Sep 16, 2012

People don't realize with LTE you will use almost twice as much data for the most part. So having unlimited or 5gb cap would have benefited you altleast til you see how much data you use with LTE.

Wait did you even upgrade to the iPhone 5? If not everything I said is irrelevant.

penajmz · Sep 16, 2012

Doesn't make sense to me. I will always try to keep my unlimited data as long as I can. Throttled? Yes but there's no over usage fees, ever.

unlimitedx · Sep 16, 2012

Mobile share is a great idea, but costs far too much. Verizon and AT&T set up the plans to capitalize on the fact that data usage will continue to skyrocket in the upcoming years, where users will pay by the gigabyte. Sharing a pool of data is great, but it can also easily lead to scenarios where some members of the family are using more than the allotted data causing overage fees.

ECUpirate44 · Sep 16, 2012

mcarthon said:
People don't realize with LTE you will use almost twice as much data for the most part. So having unlimited or 5gb cap would have benefited you altleast til you see how much data you use with LTE.

That is completely dependent on your habits. If you use your phone for a task lets say download a 2MB email, it's still only going to use 2MB. Maybe you will do more on 4G in the same amount of time you would on 3G, but that completely dependent on the user.

wordoflife · Sep 16, 2012

France- said:
...So you dropped an unlimited data plan...
...to spend an extra dollar every year, plus a feature or two?
Doesn't seem logical to me.

I'm not a fan of these Shared Data plans, but regarding what you're saying, why not?
Now they have:

- Hot spot
- Unlimited minutes
- No throttling

Makes sense to me if you're not needing "unlimited" data anyways.

mcarthon said:
People don't realize with LTE you will use almost twice as much data for the most part..

I'll never understand this. For example, when I want to check my email. I'll do it on LTE, but faster. The same emails are/would've been checked regardless of speed. It depends, really.

jesusplay · Sep 16, 2012

30 + 30 + 30 is still cheaper than the 6GB shared family plan.

Hell if you had just activated the iphone 2g on you sons line then switched back to his current iphone = unlimited data....

Nice logic OP

Primejimbo · Sep 16, 2012

jesusplay said:
30 + 30 + 30 is still cheaper than the 6GB shared family plan.

Hell if you had just activated the iphone 2g on you sons line then switched back to his current iphone = unlimited data....

Nice logic OP

How? it's $90 just for the 6GB plan and $35 (maybe $30) for each phone added to it. it it's 90+30+30+30

epphllps · Sep 16, 2012

LTE will chew through data alarmingly fast as previously mentioned. Videos load in HD, ads that are videos load in HD, YouTube and all sites alike will use HD vids and that is usually what eats lots of data. You will download large apps in seconds on 4G and before you know it... Cap exceeded. Be mindful and stick to wifi anytime you can if capped.

komiothebeat · Sep 16, 2012

epphllps said:
LTE will chew through data alarmingly fast as previously mentioned. Videos load in HD, ads that are videos load in HD, YouTube and all sites alike will use HD vids and that is usually what eats lots of data. You will download large apps in seconds on 4G and before you know it... Cap exceeded. Be mindful and stick to wifi anytime you can if capped.

this goes with assuming that people live in an area with LTE is Available ?

just saying, the closes place that offers LTE to me is Los angeles .... 3 hours away..

deannnnn · Sep 16, 2012

I'm tempted to do this too, as I am in a similar situation and really want tethering/FaceTime over cellular, but I keep thinking that a new app is going to come out that uses a ton of data or my usage habits will change with LTE available on my phone and I'll want that unlimited back. So I'm hanging on to it for as long as I can!

Applejuiced · Sep 16, 2012

epphllps said:
LTE will chew through data alarmingly fast as previously mentioned. Videos load in HD, ads that are videos load in HD, YouTube and all sites alike will use HD vids and that is usually what eats lots of data. You will download large apps in seconds on 4G and before you know it... Cap exceeded. Be mindful and stick to wifi anytime you can if capped.

What if you dont watch youtube or ads on youtube on your phone? How can you download large apps when there's a limit on the size of an app before it needs to be on wifi only to download?
People think LTE data will just make your usage amount crazy where in reality it has to do with the way you use it or how much.
Right now I get 8-9mbps on HSPA+ and with LTE and the same daily use of my phone all of a sudden I will use double or tripple the data?
Its already fast right now.

Primejimbo · Sep 16, 2012

deannnnn said:
I'm tempted to do this too, as I am in a similar situation and really want tethering/FaceTime over cellular, but I keep thinking that a new app is going to come out that uses a ton of data or my usage habits will change with LTE available on my phone and I'll want that unlimited back. So I'm hanging on to it for as long as I can!

just use Skype, it works over 3G and you can use it on different OS's, not just iOS

ECUpirate44 · Sep 16, 2012

Applejuiced said:
What if you dont watch youtube or ads on youtube on your phone? How can you download large apps when there's a limit on the size of an app before it needs to be on wifi only to download?

Yup 15mb limit over cellular.

iMichael! · Sep 16, 2012

Oh boy!

1 Extra Dollar!

Sound the haters!

F123D · Sep 16, 2012

New features

Facetime over 3G

Personal Hotspots on all devices

Get ready for your data usage to skyrocket.

GravityEyes · Sep 16, 2012

France- said:
...So you dropped an unlimited data plan...
...to spend an extra dollar every year, plus a feature or two?
Doesn't seem logical to me.

And explain how this is illogical? The unlimited data fetish is, at its core, illogical. Its not 'unlimited' folks...

iregret · Sep 16, 2012

ECUpirate44 said:
Yup 15mb limit over cellular.

Umm, that's actually a 50 mb down over cellular.

GravityEyes · Sep 16, 2012

mcarthon said:
People don't realize with LTE you will use almost twice as much data for the most part. So having unlimited or 5gb cap would have benefited you altleast til you see how much data you use with LTE.

Wait did you even upgrade to the iPhone 5? If not everything I said is irrelevant.

No i did not upgrade to the 5. And just because LTE is twice as fast it doesn't mean it will be twice the usage.

ECUpirate44 · Sep 16, 2012

iregret said:
Umm, that's actually a 50 mb down over cellular.

You're right. Changed in 5.1.

GravityEyes · Sep 16, 2012

jesusplay said:
30 + 30 + 30 is still cheaper than the 6GB shared family plan.

Hell if you had just activated the iphone 2g on you sons line then switched back to his current iphone = unlimited data....

Nice logic OP

That wasn't possible at the time. He didn't get his first 'hand me down' until last year. Prior to that I sold the previous models on ebay.

pragmatous · Sep 16, 2012

It's not twice as fast.

Some places get 75mb/s vs 3mb/s (3g) - LTE is significantly faster. If you do not watch videos on your phone you'll be fine. If you do then you're screwed. You'll be at 6GB on week 2 and you won't be able to do jack squat on your phone until the next month.

GravityEyes said:
No i did not upgrade to the 5. And just because LTE is twice as fast it doesn't mean it will be twice the usage.

GravityEyes · Sep 16, 2012

Seriously folks, you think I did this to save a dollar? Good lord...

I did this for:
- gain Facetime over 3G
- tether our iPads and laptops

Our 700 minutes were getting chewed up. I telecommute for my job, I'm always on the phone, and I have a tween who talks on the phone incessantly. If I jumped up another tier on my minutes plan, it would be more than I really need. And again, our data was under utilized over the past 5 years?

bushman4 · Sep 16, 2012

Using some good judgment will help keep you data lower. For example,
download Apps when at home over WiFi.
Send pictures via Email not SMS
theres others just think

Bye bye Unlimited Data

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