Here is how it should be done: A combination of this plan and the typical plan. Give the user control over when they use their metered quantity of high-speed data.
There is always this push for more speed. This ends up justifying the carriers' claims of network congestion and need to meter data. However, what if everyone was given a specific number of gigabytes, as they are now, that can be used at full LTE/5G/whatever speed, but then at the same time, they can use an unlimited amount of data at a lower rate, but they can use that whenever they want.
In other words, when I'm sitting at the mall waiting for a friend, or riding a bus, or sitting in the park, I don't need 4K quality video at 20Mbits. I can easily live with SD quality video at low bitrates, which would fit into the "unlimited" rate easily. However, the way it works now: suppose I stream a lot of Spotify or SD YouTube all month, but now it's the 29th of the month and a friend who lives out in the country loses their Internet and needs a driver update. On today's unlimited plan I might have to wait an awfully long time to download that driver. Or maybe it's Christmas and the family out in the country wants to huddle around the TV and actually watch something in 4K. In both of these situations, giving me control over when I have my high-speed allowance means I can both conserve network resources and get what I need when I need it.
And the carriers need to think of it this way. Most people will probably forget to even use their high-speed data, if lower speed is always unlimited anyway. So you sell a plan with, say, 20GB of 5G, but unlimited LTE limited to 3Mbps. Honestly? Most people will probably never even notice nor even bother to switch to 5G or higher speed. So you end up making money and conserving resources overall.
Why hasn't any carrier considered doing this yet?
There is always this push for more speed. This ends up justifying the carriers' claims of network congestion and need to meter data. However, what if everyone was given a specific number of gigabytes, as they are now, that can be used at full LTE/5G/whatever speed, but then at the same time, they can use an unlimited amount of data at a lower rate, but they can use that whenever they want.
In other words, when I'm sitting at the mall waiting for a friend, or riding a bus, or sitting in the park, I don't need 4K quality video at 20Mbits. I can easily live with SD quality video at low bitrates, which would fit into the "unlimited" rate easily. However, the way it works now: suppose I stream a lot of Spotify or SD YouTube all month, but now it's the 29th of the month and a friend who lives out in the country loses their Internet and needs a driver update. On today's unlimited plan I might have to wait an awfully long time to download that driver. Or maybe it's Christmas and the family out in the country wants to huddle around the TV and actually watch something in 4K. In both of these situations, giving me control over when I have my high-speed allowance means I can both conserve network resources and get what I need when I need it.
And the carriers need to think of it this way. Most people will probably forget to even use their high-speed data, if lower speed is always unlimited anyway. So you sell a plan with, say, 20GB of 5G, but unlimited LTE limited to 3Mbps. Honestly? Most people will probably never even notice nor even bother to switch to 5G or higher speed. So you end up making money and conserving resources overall.
Why hasn't any carrier considered doing this yet?
