Silly Data Rates

[mendiesel]

Wifi dude

[kcrudup]

1GB is perfect for some users; I've been a heavy Android user for a while, but only got the 1GB plan when I got my Xoom as I have WiFi connectivity in so many places I only expect to use it when completely away from anything else. So far, I've used 29MB in 7 days.

[droidsw]

The data plan rates temporarily had me looking at netbooks/notebooks, until I found out the cheapest data plan for them is $50, That brought me back to a tablet. Either way, data costs money.

Then the word of the wifi only Xoom rumored to be coming to Sam's Club for under $550 really got my attention. For my use, primarily living room, den, around the house only, the wifi only version will work. No data plan needed, since I won't be using the Xoom for anything but internet.

Am I missing something, or is it that simple?

[jasnmar]

That's pretty much what I arrived at as well. I ended up buying the 3g version and just not subscribing to a data plan. Yea, I paid extra for a 3g radio that will probably never be used, but at least I get a free upgrade to 4g that won't be used either:-D
Jason

[leecason]

In Verizon Wireless' defense, they do offer a bandwidth usage calculator that is inline in the Xoom signup process. I was going to get the minimum 1GB until I used that calculator and saw how easily you can eat up 5 GB of usage. So, I signed up for the two-year contract with 3 GB data plan. I have WiFi at home, so I expect that 3 GB will be sufficient, but won't know for sure until I've had more time to use the device.

It doesn't help that the Verizon Wireless data usage app is broken/buggy but hopefully they will be able to fix that sooner rather than later.

I have had a couple of other smart phones in the past but cancelled the data plan shortly after getting the phone because the user experience was just too painful for me. I spend 10+ hours in front of dual 21" monitors and have little patience trying to view web pages the size of a postage stamp. The 7 inch tablets are now pretty good but not big enough to render my tech books viewable. The Xoom with 10 inch screen is the first non-laptop portable device that I've owned that  is large enough to be comfortable for me for Internet use, so I expect that I will use it for that purpose. Using my GoDaddy webmail is painful because of the way they use frames, but my company's Outlook Web Access works better than I expected for a non-Microsoft browser. I don't have a Crackberry like most of my associates, but now I can pay poor attention in meetings and read email on my Xoom like my peers.

Sure, I would like to pay less for the bandwidth--who wouldn't? But I have seen worse bandwidth plans, and as Verizon Wireless gets more usage history, I expect that these plans will get better over time. It is usually a lot easier to drop your prices than to raise them, and since this is all kind of new, Verizon Wireless needs to manage costs while they figure out how users and the market will accommodate this relatively new form factor for personal computing.

[JFizDaWiz]

I'm about to call in and change from the 3GB to 1GB. I've had the Xoom for over a week now and have only used 60MB of mobile data and that's because I updated apps in the car. My house, coffee shops, smoke shops, restaurants all have wifi and I hardly even need the data plan but good to have on the go

[kcrudup]

Yeah, I used a little over 400MB last month. For me, the $20 plan proved to be just as perfect as I'd needed it to be, with the ubiquity of WiFi nowadays- using 3G only for those few times you're totally unconnectable otherwise.