How ridiculous is that, right? They sell us unlimited --but then its not unlimited!
Oh! Supposedly its only the speed that is limited right? Well I thought it was unlimited! Why are you limiting my speeds?
Even the word used: "THROTTLE"
It is defined as: attack or kill (someone) by choking or strangling them.
They are choking us out at .5 mbps just because we stayed with their carrier.
...And after only 5GB which today is nothing. Back when they first established the data plans, they gave us unlimited data, and severely limited minutes. Now that we don't talk on the phone anymore, they give us unlimited talk minutes, but severely limit data.
Makes sense because back then, we were using so little data that it seemed like a good deal to give a ton of data and charge more than 10$ or 20$ for it because the bandwidth could not be abused with the transfer rates of old.
Now that that has changed, I think the limits could and should be based on a more usable throttling model. The current throttling model makes it a punishment for staying grandfathered. A punishment beyond a necessary or reasonable degree for bandwidth specifically. (Its not from the point of view of looking at bandwidth capacity and working backwards to fill it just enough so there is no congestion, but rather the point of view of money and getting people pushed off and onto more expensive and limited tiered data plans.)
Well the ability to stream youtube lies somewhere just between .5 mbps and 1.5 mbps. So as a throttled user, you would still be able to use all the features on your device such as streaming video -- which is the main thing you can't do now while being throttled. 1.5mpbs is decent enough to use your device, but is also just still a drop in the ocean compared to 30-50mbps LTE at regular paid speeds which is what is really abusing the network. Not some insignificant 0.5/1.5 mbps usage.
Then also the throttling should not punish you until after at least 20GB because 5GB is gone in a couple weeks now if you stream in the car.
I went over my limit in six days during this billing cycle, doing the same stuff I used to on iPhone 5S which lasted most of the month without getting to 5GB.
I think these type of limits are more realistically fair and usable to consumers, while also maintaining a useable network thats still not too congested and would probably behave no different than it does today.
The throttling could be even more reasonable, maybe with an engaged alogarigthm that splits it into nights-and-weekends-data to alleviate more from the day and give more freedom at night during off-peak hours when they can afford the space. Like maybe you're only throttled till 7 or 9 and then its back to full speed. Or maybe tiered throttling where only the more you use and abuse it does it limit you in progressively restricting tiers.
We can treat it just like we did when we were desperate for more minutes and pushing the system to its limit by alleviating the peaks and encouraging use during down time and so on...
It should be only enough to protect their bandwidth potential but still let you feel like you are mostly un-throttled as long as you're within reason and not abusing it.
Oh! Supposedly its only the speed that is limited right? Well I thought it was unlimited! Why are you limiting my speeds?
Even the word used: "THROTTLE"
It is defined as: attack or kill (someone) by choking or strangling them.
They are choking us out at .5 mbps just because we stayed with their carrier.
...And after only 5GB which today is nothing. Back when they first established the data plans, they gave us unlimited data, and severely limited minutes. Now that we don't talk on the phone anymore, they give us unlimited talk minutes, but severely limit data.
Makes sense because back then, we were using so little data that it seemed like a good deal to give a ton of data and charge more than 10$ or 20$ for it because the bandwidth could not be abused with the transfer rates of old.
Now that that has changed, I think the limits could and should be based on a more usable throttling model. The current throttling model makes it a punishment for staying grandfathered. A punishment beyond a necessary or reasonable degree for bandwidth specifically. (Its not from the point of view of looking at bandwidth capacity and working backwards to fill it just enough so there is no congestion, but rather the point of view of money and getting people pushed off and onto more expensive and limited tiered data plans.)
Well the ability to stream youtube lies somewhere just between .5 mbps and 1.5 mbps. So as a throttled user, you would still be able to use all the features on your device such as streaming video -- which is the main thing you can't do now while being throttled. 1.5mpbs is decent enough to use your device, but is also just still a drop in the ocean compared to 30-50mbps LTE at regular paid speeds which is what is really abusing the network. Not some insignificant 0.5/1.5 mbps usage.
Then also the throttling should not punish you until after at least 20GB because 5GB is gone in a couple weeks now if you stream in the car.
I went over my limit in six days during this billing cycle, doing the same stuff I used to on iPhone 5S which lasted most of the month without getting to 5GB.
I think these type of limits are more realistically fair and usable to consumers, while also maintaining a useable network thats still not too congested and would probably behave no different than it does today.
The throttling could be even more reasonable, maybe with an engaged alogarigthm that splits it into nights-and-weekends-data to alleviate more from the day and give more freedom at night during off-peak hours when they can afford the space. Like maybe you're only throttled till 7 or 9 and then its back to full speed. Or maybe tiered throttling where only the more you use and abuse it does it limit you in progressively restricting tiers.
We can treat it just like we did when we were desperate for more minutes and pushing the system to its limit by alleviating the peaks and encouraging use during down time and so on...
It should be only enough to protect their bandwidth potential but still let you feel like you are mostly un-throttled as long as you're within reason and not abusing it.
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