My Opinion on Carrier Trends

[mishaparem]

Personally I think it is ridiculous that any carrier limits data, with cloud computing slowly gaining traction, unlimited data is exactly what all carriers should be focusing on. With increasing bandwidth, and open source systems such as android out on the market, people will never stop digging fro ways to cut cell phone service out completely and just stick with data only. Cramming high power CPUs into tiny devices means lots of heat and a short battery life time. Hardware manufacturers for cell phones will be embracing cloud computing to the max - the ability to offload CPU intensive processes onto high end server clusters to save on battery? Win! Instead of trying to stem the tide of progress, Verizon is in the perfect position to revolutionize this market. Upgrade your bandwidth, contract or build up your own server clusters for cloud computing, and instead of useless (calling it what it is) bloat ware, install some cloud computing infrastructure on the phones to allow users to store data on Verizon network storage, and run CPU-heavy apps on your cloud clusters. Structure your plans with unlimited data, and native voip, with tiered cloud and network storage access.

You can't stop a cloud computing world from happening, you can either take the plunge, and come out on top, or you can keep plugging up holes in the wall against the tide of progress, but you can't stop the wall from bursting.

[rcschnoor]

I am sure that they would be happy to offer unlimited data, but it is doubtful that it would be anywhere near the price of what it was prior to them going to tiered data.

[Tidbits]

I have said this to numerous people and boards. At some point there will be no such thing as cell minutes only packets of data. Unlimited data is a thing of the past, and it will never come back.

[Tidbits]

It may come back but it won't be under $100.

[mishaparem]

Even cellphone minutes have unlimited plans. The current pricing is somewhat ridiculous, which is exactly why companies like Clearwire are even capable of starting up. Virgin mobile has unlimited 3G for $50/mo, and i expect they will upgrade to LTE soon. However, if I did not have to pay for cellphone minutes, I would be satisfied with a $100/mo for unlimited LTE with native voip, at least for the time being while LTE is still "new". 5Gb is not a realistic package for me, I went over the 5GB limit on my Verizon LTE MiFi in three days. All I had to do was upgrade my Ubuntu, and watch a couple netflix movies onthe weekend. I'm not saying I would be doing the same stuff on a phone, but watching YouTube videos will chew up the 2GB limit and spit it out. Streaming music while browsing, or even just streaming music at work, combined with YouTube after work and on weekends will chew up the 5GB limit. At least give me a realistic limit.

[mishaparem]

It doesn't take much effort on their part to program an unlimited plan. It takes more development time to develop a plan that has limits, and then throttles or cuts off service. This is from a programming perspective. From the same perspective, they already have an unlimited plan still running on grandfatherd contracts, change the value of variable cost=X/mo to cost=$100/mo, and reintroduce the option. I have not seen the option, so I feel like I am being pushed into a corner with these limitations. It is as if all the carriers are trying to limit smart phone data plans to email only or something.

[Tidbits]

Bandwidthis the issue, and cost to maintain it.

[Tidbits]

It'll only happen when Carriers recoup the cost they spent for the network. Look at voice plans for example.

[commonsense101]

Most dsl and cable companies have started to limit data, my 4glte sometimes is faster than my fios internet

Why would they bring back unlimited and be the only carrier to do it? Doesn't make much business sense

[mishaparem]

Please look up Sprint, T-Mobile I believe both throttle the bandwidth past a point, but you still get unlimited data at a slower speed for the same price if you go over I believe. Also good reading is Virgin Mobile with unlimited 3G data for $50/mo, sure, 3G, but I would be very surprised if they said, "We will never ever upgrade to LTE!". And last but not least, Clearwire, looks like a brand new startup with unlimited LTE for $40/mo, their problem is poor coverage, but they are expanding it, and will no doubt continue to do so. Please do not use the phrase, "the only one" so lightly. I remember a time when Verizon went from zero to hero in the course of a couple years just because they were "the only one" that covered nearly the entire country while Att and T-Mobile were getting questionable reception in some of the most populated areas in the US.

Oh yes, and please point me to a DSL company who's largest data limit is 5GB.... in fact point me to one whose worst plan has a maximum download limit of 5GB, you would be hard pressed to find one I would think.