Re: My Opinion on Carrier Trends
mishaparem
Enthusiast - Level 1

This is true. I'm enraged right now though, this data thing has been irritating me since carriers first decided to limit bandwidth. My contract is ending in March, and I have to decide what to do. I am split down the middle between Virgin and Verizon. Virgin offers $50/mo unlimited 3G, but I have to commend Verizon on their voice coverage. I honestly think I would be more satisfied with unlimited 3G than with 5 or 10GB capped LTE.

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Re: My Opinion on Carrier Trends
Tidbits
Legend

Point me to a DSL company that started off the ground and that doesn't piggy back off a larger already paid for network then i will agree about the caps.

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Re: My Opinion on Carrier Trends
mishaparem
Enthusiast - Level 1

Funny thing is that when you have companies piggy backing off of you, you can afford to lower the prices for your own customers, or for example, you can afford to offer unlimited data, while the piggy backs have to sell their data in packages.

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Re: My Opinion on Carrier Trends
Toyota4x4van
Contributor - Level 3

The newspaper just had an article about AT&T starting to severely throttle those users that are still on an unlimited plan, even BEFORE they reach the 3GB that is offered on their tiered plans.  Unlimited users that reach just 2GB are being throttled down to 1/10th the normal speed.  Who wants to bet that Verizon won't start doing the same to force us "grandfathered unlimited" customers onto tiered plans?

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Re: My Opinion on Carrier Trends
Tidbits
Legend

I guess you weren't born yet to understand what i am saying. When all these ISP were coming out they had caps. Even today there are caps no one notices when they hit the cap. Those that piggy back have caps.

When 4G gets paid off we may see the unlimited come back and the death of minutes. I have seen this coming 10 years ago. Why do you think landline ISPs are rolling out their own wireless networks?

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Re: My Opinion on Carrier Trends
Tidbits
Legend

Potentially that could happen. Honestly i could care less. Cell phones are a luxury and if i don't like the terms i will walk away. I'll be fine just like the billions of people who don't have cell phones.

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Re: My Opinion on Carrier Trends
mishaparem
Enthusiast - Level 1

I live in the desert, I can go speed limit in the slow lane with all the trucks for 15min before having to go around one. While I drive, I read my emails, return phone calls, spam Verizon to give me FiOS at my location (they finally agreed today), and coordinate the contractors from six different home improvement projects I have going on. All in all, without a cellphone I would be losing at least 30min each day, because I would have to be doing all of this at home. At federal minimum wage I would be losing a little over $100 per month. I usually don't think about work before or after work, but I would rather be using that time to catch up on some pet projects, work on the house, or just relax - things I definitely cannot do while I am driving, even on an empty road.

In the past two months while I was renting, and now when I am still awaiting internet to be installed at my house, having a phone with unlimited data has proved to be a lifesaver. I was feeling sorry for myself about how slow 3G was, right until I borrowed an LTE MiFi from my parents, and blew through the 5GB limit in literally two days. Sure, LTE was 2x faster, and I was downloading and streaming an unusually large amount of data that day, (was streaming music on phone, and using MiFi for downloading linux updates simultaneously, and later streamed a couple Netflix videos on Mifi), but who cares? The point is, once I hit that limit, if 5GB of LTE was all I had, it was not worth giving up unlimited 3G which is two times slower.

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Re: My Opinion on Carrier Trends
droidsw
Specialist - Level 1

Still on 3G with my X and frankly, 3G is so slow I rarely ever exceed 1GB. Wifi at home and work gets me the speeds I need.

When wifi isn't available, I don't bother with video, or even browsing, except to look up something, because as I said, 3G is so slow. I listen to mp3s more than Pandora and only download when on wifi. So data caps for 3G sound bizarre.

If/when I upgrade to a 4G phone, assuming I'm grandfathered and keeping my unlimited data, I will still use wifi to conserve data limits and battery, anyway.

That said, whatever those are doing to consume enough data to get throttled seems foreign to me. But, it would anger me.

I agree with tidbits. I could go back to a dumbphone and never look back. Like slow drivers in the fast lane, it would be one less thing to getting on my nerves.

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