Sprint to Cap Mobile Hotspot Data to 5GB Ahead of iPhone Launch

This makes perfect sense.

If I live in a 4G area, it would be cheaper for me to just add tethering through my phone on sprint than paying for a separate cable/dsl internet connection. Then I could go to town streaming netflix and the local network would get hit pretty hard. In a 3G area its less practical, but would still be a fairly cost effective option to consider as a primary connection at home.

Unlimited data on the device is way less traffic than unlimited data used for a tethered connection. All they are doing is trying to prevent their network from getting saturated. They want to keep being able to offer unlimited data for the handset as that is what most customers want and will be their big selling point when they introduce the iphone. Its a small minority of customers who use(and pay for) tethering to begin with. And an even smaller minority are the tethering data hogs who will be affected by this.


I have an HTC Mogul on sprint and an HTC Hero on verizon and the 3g speeds seem pretty much identical in my local.
 
Abyssgh0st said:
Guess Sprint is getting the iPhone after all. Looks like we have a new worst carrier choice for the iPhone.
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True.

It's also offering unlimited data for a very short period of time. Some internal emails have been leaked.

They say after the first 90 days following the iPhone debut on Sprint they are going to tiered plans. The cost of subsidizing the iPhone is so high that Sprint cannot handle both that and allowing unlimited data usage.

So much for Sprints "advantage".
 
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

I had been thinking of switching to Sprint after my AT&T contract was up, but now that it sounds like my bill will be about the same on Sprint as it is on AT&T, coupled with the fact that Sprint's overage charge once you go over 5GB is FIVE TIMES what AT&T charges, pretty much all the advantages go away.

It's funny how these companies are doing absolutely nothing whatsoever to compete. They all charge around the same, copy each other's stupid policies and never really stand out in any way. Isn't this collusion? Isn't this illegal?

Oh right, our government has no balls. The fact that they're even making an effort to keep AT&T from swallowing T-mobile actually surprised me. The airlines did it too, with baggage fees. No. Balls.
 
"Mobile Hotspot plans allow users to tether their iPhone to their laptops and share their mobile internet connection."

I would have said "Mobile Hotspot plans allow carriers to double dip by charging their users for the same data twice."
 
zorinlynx said:
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

I had been thinking of switching to Sprint after my AT&T contract was up, but now that it sounds like my bill will be about the same on Sprint as it is on AT&T, coupled with the fact that Sprint's overage charge once you go over 5GB is FIVE TIMES what AT&T charges, pretty much all the advantages go away.

It's funny how these companies are doing absolutely nothing whatsoever to compete. They all charge around the same, copy each other's stupid policies and never really stand out in any way. Isn't this collusion? Isn't this illegal?

Oh right, our government has no balls. The fact that they're even making an effort to keep AT&T from swallowing T-mobile actually surprised me. The airlines did it too, with baggage fees. No. Balls.
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Apple has higher margins than the cell carriers, maybe the government should investigate them first
 
ChrisA said:
Does it really cost Sprint anything even close to $30 to deliver 5Gb of data?

This is just like McDonald's charging $1.29 for a paper cup with soda inside. It cost them about $5 cents but that is how they are able to sell Burgers for $2. Same here I think They sell you $0.50 worth of data transfer to $30 so that they can offer cell phones for dirt cheap or free.
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Wait, did I miss something? McDonald's doesn't have to pay mortgages anymore? It doesn't need employees who have to be there even when you're not gracing them with your presence? It doesn't have to hire lawyers to protect them when someone slips and falls? It doesn't have to keep the electricity running?

I hate it when people who don't understand basic business try to talk business. If you really think McDonalds is making that much money off a soda, why aren't you setting up shop right next door and undercutting them by 25%?
 
Does this affect the MiFi?

I just got a Sprint MiFi with unlimited 4g for $45. I'm getting 3/Mbs and can easily stream Netflix HD on the Apple TV. I love that thing.

On second thought it's unlikely that a Sprint iPhone will have 4g so this is apples/oranges...
 
Tiger8 said:
This is understandable, you don't want people streaming netflix through their Apple TV using the iPhone as a wifi spot, no?
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No. They can just stream netflix to their iphone anyway. What's the difference which device they stream it to? The only difference is how much you kill your iphone battery.
 
I see these articles and i laugh because everyone was hating on AT&T including Verizon and Sprint saying how much their network sucked and how it couldn't handle the traffic generated by the iPhone. They boasted how their networks where so much better and that they would have no problems handling this massive amount of traffic.

Years later, Verizon has the iPhone and now Sprint will get the iPhone (presumably) and they all have had to remove their unlimited data plans because if they left them in place they would have the same issues.

Also, Verizon has not seen the same amount of iPhone subscribers because they still don't have simultaneous voice/data service. Sprint has it but only when in their 4G network which is limited as of now.
 
I presume that iPhone hostpot software sends usage statistics to the carrier. If a third party provide a jailbroken app which simulates regular data usage (by the phone), then you can have unlimited hostpot usage (I don't know if iPhone supports infrastructure mode, but the third-party app could provide at least wep connectivity).

Also, you could buy a Symbian phone and use JoikuSpot app which I doubt any carrier can track its usage or block it (yet).
 
Apple's FAIL, not Verizon's

mrgq said:
Also, Verizon has not seen the same amount of iPhone subscribers because they still don't have simultaneous voice/data service.
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Verizon has simultaneous voice/data on their 4G Android phones.

The antiquated 3G Iphone doesn't, of course, but that's because it's an out-of-date device - not because Verizon doesn't support the feature.
 
paradox00 said:
"Mobile Hotspot plans allow users to tether their iPhone to their laptops and share their mobile internet connection."

I would have said "Mobile Hotspot plans allow carriers to double dip by charging their users for the same data twice."
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Yeah lol. That is why you have to not let phone companies take advantage of you. Instead reverse it on them. Buy an ipod touch and then get a $50 unlimited hotspot from virgin mobile or tmobile and then make free calls to anywhere in the country and have internet for your laptop etc.

We are at a time right now when technology favors the user. It's just harnessing that technology that really favors those who decide to do it.
I'm doing the ipod touch thing and I can honestly say I have crystal clear call quality that is better than any cell phone compressed data call. I also have all the same aspects of an iphone at half the cost.
 
If we actually had a government 'for and by the people', this shell game bull stuffing would stop.

I'd like to get an unlocked, truly unlocked (not an ebay fake) iPhone. Yeah, it's not going to happen because AT&T, et all, still get to 'own us' for x-number of years...

ALL plans should be unlimited data. History has shown that people use what they want, and MOST people don't really use that much data... They are screwing themselves...

----------
macguy360 said:
I'm doing the ipod touch thing and I can honestly say I have crystal clear call quality that is better than any cell phone compressed data call. I also have all the same aspects of an iphone at half the cost.
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But how dare you be happy! The corporations are doing something wrong then if you are so happy.

Either the feds are going to come crashing down your door to demand that you come with them to court, or the corporation involved is going to cut you off and demand back payment for all the time and services that you have 'stolen'.

Remember this is America! Land of the indebted and home of the imprisoned...
 
But how dare you be happy! The corporations are doing something wrong then if you are so happy. Either the feds are going to come crashing down your door to demand that you come with them to court said:
Lol, I'm expecting them to somehow come up with a way to ruin this for me. So far everythings going great. No contract, no crappy call quality. If I didn't have a fiance that had to have cable id get rid of that also and just use the hotspot at home for streaming tv and movies. Then I would be saving a couple hundred a month in bills and not be turning into a zombie watching commercials every 3 minutes.
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Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A293 Safari/6531.22.7)

So use a 3rd party tethering app.

Problem solved.
 
So this article is complete nonsense unless Sprint is releasing a 4G iPhone 5!!!

If their version of the iPhone is NOT 4G then adding a cap to 4G data would have NOTHING to do with its release.

Not in favor of a 4G cap but I sure as hell won't be getting an iPhone 4S or 5 unless it has 4G data capabilities.
 
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