Capped data plans, who will blink first?

[jollyreaper]

The carriers or the manufacturers?

All of the smartphones have issues with mysterious bandwidth usage. Sit the phone down overnight, more data chugs back and forth than would strictly be necessary for maintaining contact with the cell towers. You pay for all of it.

It's an acceptable loss and only of concern with regards to battery life when dealing with an unlimited plan but what do people do when they're capped?

I'm not sure how the debate's been going so far. The thing that impressed me the most about the original iphone was uncapped data. The second thing that impressed me only after the nature of the business was explained to me was just how big an idea the app store was given that carriers loved having their own little captive markets for their crappy JVM phones. Mobile apps did not become a serious and viable business until the advent of the app store. This was a bigger concession even than the uncapped data plan.

So ATT is capped, no unlimited plans on offer. Verizon is rumored to be getting ready to drop theirs. Sprint is still bragging about uncapped for iphone but just truncated their plans for non-iphones.

How does someone with a 200mb/month plan deal with all of the mysterious bandwidth usage? How are the carriers getting away with these limits?

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Verizon is rumored to be getting ready to drop theirs.

Verizon dropped unlimited months ago.

 

[verwon]

And that Sprint cap is only for 4G on non-phone devices and tethering, it's not for regular phone use, at all.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

How does someone with a 200mb/month plan deal with all of the mysterious bandwidth usage? How are the carriers getting away with these limits?

I'm not sure that the "mysterious" bandwidth usage actually adds up to all that much. Most months (4 of the past 6) my usage is under 500MB and I use a fair bit of data - dozens of emails daily, fair bit of web browsing, even tethering my iPad and laptop occasionally. I can see how 200MB would work fine for a light user.

 

[heisenberg123]

The carriers or the manufacturers?

All of the smartphones have issues with mysterious bandwidth usage. Sit the phone down overnight, more data chugs back and forth than would strictly be necessary for maintaining contact with the cell towers. You pay for all of it.

It's an acceptable loss and only of concern with regards to battery life when dealing with an unlimited plan but what do people do when they're capped?

I'm not sure how the debate's been going so far. The thing that impressed me the most about the original iphone was uncapped data. The second thing that impressed me only after the nature of the business was explained to me was just how big an idea the app store was given that carriers loved having their own little captive markets for their crappy JVM phones. Mobile apps did not become a serious and viable business until the advent of the app store. This was a bigger concession even than the uncapped data plan.

So ATT is capped, no unlimited plans on offer. Verizon is rumored to be getting ready to drop theirs. Sprint is still bragging about uncapped for iphone but just truncated their plans for non-iphones.

How does someone with a 200mb/month plan deal with all of the mysterious bandwidth usage? How are the carriers getting away with these limits?

mostly by utilizing wifi as often as they can

 

[jollyreaper]

Verizon dropped unlimited months ago.

Not my carrier so it's hard to keep up. I thought they were still toying with the idea. I left ATT for Sprint.

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mostly by utilizing wifi as often as they can

Yes, but it's when they're beyond wifi that the phantom data usage kicks in.

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And that Sprint cap is only for 4G on non-phone devices and tethering, it's not for regular phone use, at all.

For now. The question is whether they'll a) drop unlimited and if they do b) how they'll try to force people off it. There are accounts in other threads concerning the trickery ATT uses to get people to accidentally drop their grandfathered plans when switching phones.

 

[verwon]

Not my carrier so it's hard to keep up. I thought they were still toying with the idea. I left ATT for Sprint.

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Yes, but it's when they're beyond wifi that the phantom data usage kicks in.

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For now. The question is whether they'll a) drop unlimited and if they do b) how they'll try to force people off it. There are accounts in other threads concerning the trickery ATT uses to get people to accidentally drop their grandfathered plans when switching phones.

They're cell providers, we just have to deal with it, or not have a phone.

I have no problems with Sprint and need a phone.