Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
AT&T CEO Believes 5G Phone Plans Could Be Tiered and Priced on Data Speed
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
No evidence? The government is good at 2 things: destruction and wasting money. That’s it. Every other imaginable producable service or asset is better made through voluntary cooperation. And when taxes are charged under threat of imprisonment, that is theft. You can call it whatever you please to make yourself feel better about it but that does not make it not theft.
I want to pay one low price for both the internet on my phone and in my house. I don’t want to have to pay twice for the internet like we’re doing now.
Not sure what you mean. But because government itself is a monopoly, it is, in the way this world operates with its natural laws and human nature, impossible for it to be more efficient than a private market of voluntary trade driven by supply and demand. Pick an industry. All of them apply.
[doublepost=1556158736][/doublepost]
If the government didn’t steal my money to pay for them, I would stay off them. Schools should be private. Libraries are relics of the past. Welcome to the internet.
Finally someone talking about the pricing.... I am sick of seeing articles saying that 5G is the answer to everything but leaving out what it is going to cost. This seems like a dream come true for providers to nickel and dime customers to death over every aspect of their bandwidth usage.
In some countries, 4G started as an optional feature (with extra cost).
Some plans in the US also restricted 4G in the past to higher tier/more premium plans, especially on MVNOs.
And now we have 5G, if you spend extra money.
There was a time when the government did nothing to stop private companies from dumping industrial waste in the water. That worked out well.
Of course, each tier will specify a “maximum” speed, and you won’t get any refunds when your achieved speeds are a fraction of that.
I don't get it... AT&T doesn't have 5G technology. Why does it even talk about 5G pricing tiers?
AT&T once upon a time, very good for my needs. Today, will not do business with them if any other option available. Sad that a once valuable company now zero value. Moving on.
If that's the case, I don't want 5G. I wasn't even that excited about it to begin with, but now this kind of talk scares me. The range limitations on 5G alone already had me concerned about the push for it, and data plans are already expensive enough as it is. They should offer unlimited 5G data plans and price the plans based on speed if they want to move towards a pricing scheme like this. If they try to limit both the data AND the speeds, consumers will not go for it. Only way this works is if they do it exactly like home broadband (in urban areas); you pay for your speed option, but you have unlimited data at (or up to) that speed...
Fine, I don't need more than 10mbit/s
[doublepost=1556161917][/doublepost]
[doublepost=1556161917][/doublepost]
Good for connecting homes where cabling is difficult. Should in theory be enough to support both your phone and your home, which is nice
Last edited:
They all would have to do this, and they likely all will, for any of them to get away with it... T-Mobile, Boost, and the regional carriers likely won't, but they probably won't have 5G capabilities anyway for years after the Big 3.
[doublepost=1556162393][/doublepost]
lol you do realize how much smaller Japan is compared to the US right? People are much more spread out over a much larger area than in Japan... sounds great in Japan but you're comparing Apples and Oranges man...
They could use the same pricing scheme with 4G if they want. Probably just isn't optimal the way the costs work out. I expect 5G to be cheaper overall.
[doublepost=1556162585][/doublepost]
If T-Mobile's plan costs more, I won't buy it
[doublepost=1556162626][/doublepost]
Cause they're tone-deaf.
You're right, they could do that with 4G right now (and I guess some countries already do that?), but not without a lot of pushback from consumers. 5G is great for them because it is a newer and faster technology (albeit with limited range and no penetration), and that gives them an excuse to drastically change their pricing structure.
I am not paying....I love 4G, right now most of my fast speed internet is done at home on 1GB fiber, just want to
make an occasional phone call, lite web browsing.....
make an occasional phone call, lite web browsing.....
In some areas, where the ONLY decent cell service is one provider or the other... that’s pretty darned immune.
Yeahhhhh I guess. But then again, not many of us will have a need or even a use for 5g for many years when most of us do the most basic stuff that 4g handles perfectly. Watching video, conferencing, downloading, browsing, work. Most of us don’t use our 4g and sit there like “godddd if only it was faster! I could do so much more!” Ok. Like?
Which is why I cringe when people criticize apple for not including 5g on the 2019 iPhone when it won’t dramatically improve the user experience anyway.
I disagree. At a certain point, the tech has matured and doesn't need more advancement for any reason than sex appeal.
A jet can get us anywhere on Earth in a day. No one is pushing for a high priced supersonic option to get there in half a day.
Any car maker can build a 250mph road car. Most everyone is afraid to drive that fast. No one really wants one for any practical reason except a few who would want to show off.
Hard drive space is sufficient for most home computers at a Tb. 8Tb holds the library of Congress. How many library of Congress do most people want in their laptop?
I only need a fridge to get cold enough to freeze food. I don't need it cold enough to liquify helium.
As soon as wireless was fast enough for 4k video, anything past that became advertising hype.
It would be better if we the people could get some spectrum back and develop our own wireless networks, so we could have free, open source, long distance wireless. That's how Wifi started, it was a giveaway frequency band. There will never be more spectrum given to the people ever again. The telcos learned when they missed out on wifi profit. They would be charging you for every bit of data over your home over WiFi if they got a do over on that slip up.
The moment anything even vaguely threatens the Wireless Oligopoly, the shills come out in force to lobby online on the forums, or to lobby Congress. Pathetic really.
The spectrum belongs to the 1% now. It used to belong to the people. It was stolen from us.
Remember when all the little local towns were setting up free WiFi everywhere? Then the Oligopoly shut that all down hard? Yeah you forgot didn't you.