If you understand what that means, we're all PAYING Verizon for the privilege of BETA TESTING Verizon's new 4G network. I have the Pantech and experience the problems you'll see described elsewhere in this forum; dropping connection, inability to hand off between 3G and 4G, etc. What a joke!
If it doesn't work, satisfactorily, I would take it back and use my old one. You don't need to be a beta tester for anyone. Problem solved.
I have a theory that is why they priced and capped it like they have. I was really let down when I heard what the price and data plans would be when I heard them. I know alot of other people were too. I think they priced it like that now just to keep the adoption rate down. If everybody switched to 4g at one time and had these problems people are reporting then it would have been a mess. But they'll get these bugs worked out, get the network up and running right and expanded more, then work with priceing and caps more to bring people like me onto it. That's my theory for now.
I'm with you Gambler. It's beyond argument that Verizon pushed this out a bit prematurely. But look at the market they are up against. Everyone was parading out "4G" speeds and wrapping up 2 year contracts before Verizon could even get on the field. I was tempted to go T-Mobile. Atlanta looks like a 4G battle zone, All the biggies are in town buying up all the billboard space they can.
I was plodding along well enough on my 3G unlimited, with 6 months to go on my contract. It ran well under Ubuntu. But...
The offer was $10.00/month cheaper than the old plan. I had misgivings about the 5G Usage, but after looking over my records, I found I'd never gone over 4.75 G's. (Of course when it takes 3 hours to watch a 90 minute movie on Hulu, you aren't all that tempted. So I took the bait...
It's been an interesting ride so far. I suppose a lot of customers are getting 4G right out of the box with no problems. I don't know how long I would have lasted without the help on this forum. My thirty day trial is over and I'm committed now.
I've learned that Verizon LTE technology is operating way below it's capacity. When the 4G roles start to fill up, rather than slowing down the system, Verizon can just turn up the juice. I have no doubt they're on track to spread the blessings of 4G to many other major cities. And Verizon still has the best national coverage.
Sure I'm a beta tester. I tell everyone the "Can you hear me now?" guy is a customer. I've traveled to places just to test the signal. Like a spy I sneak into hotel restaurants & coffeeshops. Athens GA. -good, 3G Gainesville -acceptable, Verizon Hotspots - None of the locals even know they're Verizon Hotspots, and the speeds aren't much faster than house wifi. I've alerted Verizon about several of their locations.
I know now that when ALL THREE of my computers with 3 different operating systems, don't work, it's their problem.
It's working fine now and I'm glad I can contribute. But I was lucky the crashes didn't occur during and life&death project deadlines or I'd be singing a different tune. See you around if you're up for the ride.
Hey Neander,
I have the Palm Hot Spot feature which is 5 gig. I've used it a lot and discovered Flash was a big part of my data consumption (with heavy browsing, not downloading or streaming). So I turned it off in the Chrome browser. It's usually just for advertising anyway and my guess is it will cost you 1 gig a month.
SteveA; Thanks for the tip! I never thought about it, but since you mentioned it, I have wondered about all those full-video advertisements that pop up unsolicited and take up my bandwidth.
You say I can cut those off if I disable Flash -and enable Flash when I'm ready for it? Good Call. I'll check it out. Thanks.
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