T-Mobile "Unlimited Data Plans" - a scam.

[frostedflakes]

Not sure if you're trolling...but that's a pretty shameless cop-out for wireless providers (or even ISPs) to say 98% of their subscribers don't use the 5 GB. It almost implies that if they did, their networks won't be able to take it.

If it's marketed as unlimited, it should be delivered as such. Would buffets be able to get away with this? Fat people would be comfortably rolling in their graves. 90% of people can't eat as much as them..so they will be cut off. Great business technique assholes.

Cliffs:
Suck it Comcast and your 250GB/mo cap.

Why should they spend more money just to appease 2% of their customers? That's not a cop-out, it's just smart business.

Most residential internet services are oversold, that's the reason they're able to offer the speeds they do for a relatively low price. Phone service operates on the same principle, your offered capacity is much higher than the actual capacity your network can carry, and part of the network design is figuring out the best mix between overselling but not overselling so much that you cause excessive failed calls and upset customers. Many telecommunications systems are based on the assumption that not everybody will be using the connection at the same time, not everyone will be maxing it out, etc. That's just the reality of residential phone and internet service. If you want a dedicated line that is all yours and can be used in any way you want, you need to price a T1, T3, OC-3, something like that, and they aren't cheap. Since this connection can't be oversold and the cost shared among many customers, you're going to pay out the ear for it.

With respect to the Comcast 250GB/mo cap, they've said that only like 0.1% of their customers go over it. 1 in 1000 customers. It sucks, but face it, people who are affected by this cap are a very small minority and Comcast has absolutely no reason to go out their way to make them happy. And honestly I think Comcast's 250GB/mo is pretty darn generous. A lot better than the 60GB/mo caps and stuff that some ISPs try to push on customers.

 

[dmcowen674]

I just love it when they say "Unlimited" and then place a soft cap on you at 5GB. Come on, 5GB?

You think 5GB was to little, that has just been lowered to 500MB.

 

[KMFJD]

I love my ISP...

'In order to maintain good speeds for all users we will continue to enforce our 20GB transfer limit.

Our research has shown that there are a very small percentage of our airNET customers (2-3%) who insist on downloading (and uploading) a very large amount of data - exceeding the 20GB limit allowed on airNET accounts. When a user exceeds 20GB in a month we set their speed to 128K for the balance of the month. This allows these users to retrieve emails and browse, however at much slower speeds. We advise these users by email when this happens.

Please be aware that 97% of our users never approach this limit so the odds are very good that this does not apply to you, especially if you do not download movies/shows. '

 

[oynaz]

Only in America can "unlimited" mean "limited" and we just sit back and take it.

Haha, exactly.

 

[Anubis]

Just using Pandora for work ~8hrs a day for a month is easily over 2GB of data by itself and I know tons of people that listen to Pandora all day.
.

actually its closer to 4gb a month if you do that. I know because i do that every month with slacker

 

[BarkingGhostar]

This is pretty easy to explain. 98% of all wireless subscribers never use 5GB of data per month. The few that do are obviously using their phone either incorrectly or seriously need a break from the app store.

That's not explaining it. Saying 'Unlimited' and then in operation making it NOT unlimited is false advertising. Bait and Switch in my book. Only those folks that are use to being anally abused just take it up the booty.

 

[sonicdrummer20]

Unlimited means unlimited. They want to fight about it, it'd be more than worth it to take them to court assuming you haven't signed your life away.

Second, to those being smartasses and saying "well it's just a phone" or "use a computer", shove it where the sun don't shine. For nearly 50% of America, a wireless broadband plan is our ONLY option to connect to the internet faster than 24.4 (which is the max I can get on my phoneline). No cable, no dsl, and I'm not paying $129 a month for some variation of a very small satellite limit.

That said, I use sprint, and I have a true unlimited plan grandfathered in from 5 years ago. Last month I used 18 Gb, this month will probably be a bit less. Family of 5, and it's the only net connection, 18 Gb really isn't all that much considering we're streaming hulu plus and netflix, plus normal usage.

And .99999999999 = 1

 

[waggy]

while i agree them claiming unlimited then doing that is wrong. really 5gb ona phone? hell i rarely hit 200 megs!

these plans are not designed to be hooked up to a computer so you can play wow or such. to many use it like that and it effects us all. You want a plan like that there are options.

 

[slag]

Just using Pandora for work ~8hrs a day for a month is easily over 2GB of data by itself and I know tons of people that listen to Pandora all day.

These low data caps kill much of the progression we've had in the mobile sector. We won't be able to stream movies like we want to, stream shows like we want to because of these tiny data caps. They only help the wireless companies and hurt us in the long run.

I know of no one who listens to pandora for more than an hour at a time tops, or more than a few hours a week.

Seriously, if you listen to the radio that much (and who listens to a radio all day, every day??), buy a radio, not an app on a phone that works as a radio.

 

[Jeff7]

The wonderful world of marketing, where 0.5 = 0, and infinity is finite.

 

[vshah]

i've hit 11 gigs with tmobile without extra charges or restricted bandwidth

 

[rudder]

People shouldn't be fapping in public places to wireless phone porn. The cap is to stop that.

 

[alkemyst]

ummm remember unlimited dial up?

 

[destrekor]

Well, I guess different carries say different things, but I but for a fact Verizon does not have a 5gb cap on the unlimited 3g data plan. Comically enough, if you pay extra for tethering, then you will find in the ToS for the Tethering feature, that you are limited to 5gbs of data. But only pay $30, and don't tether (and/or don't get caught tethering, I guess), you can go over 5gb with no problems. Granted, if you do dare to tether without paying the fee, and you go over 5gb, you'll probably raise a few questions, and then they'll dig to determine just how you used those gigabytes.

I scoured and scoured the ToS for the regular $30 data plan, and could find nothing that even alluded to the idea of there being a cap or a preferred limit. And forums across the internet agreed, with a few agreements from employees of Verizon.

 

[FelixDeCat]

i've hit 11 gigs with tmobile without extra charges or restricted bandwidth

.QFT

 

[vshah]

.QFT

granted i don't do this every month (average around 4gb) but in isolated cases, they don't seem to care.

 

[alkemyst]

There have never really been true unlimited plans. I am not sure why people can't grasp this. Unlimited is selling what the average customer uses and then a nice healthy reserve.

For most it would be a truly unlimited plan as they will never hit their caps.

In the days of dial up and DSL, people cried how they got capped while trying to run a warez server or download every known song and movie each month.

If you need that kind of bandwidth, you need a non-consumer level of service and need to be prepared to pay for it.

 

[Gillbot]

This is pretty easy to explain. 98% of all wireless subscribers never use 5GB of data per month. The few that do are obviously using their phone either incorrectly or seriously need a break from the app store.

Or we use it for work.

I have destroyed the 5GB cap on my blackberry many times over.

 

[alkemyst]

Or we use it for work.

I have destroyed the 5GB cap on my blackberry many times over.

which is why you can pay metered service and there is business class service.

 

[Gillbot]

I am on a business plan.

 

[alkemyst]

I am on a business plan.

so you should be able to pay the metered rates.

What business has 5GB+ a month though on a phone?

 

[extra]

"i don't use more than xx a month, therefore the people that do are expecting something unreasonable, even though the plan says no limit!" --some people in this thread.

 

[shortylickens]

In other news, Paris Hilton appeared nude in a homemade video.

 

[Brian Stirling]

The bandwidth is shared. If everyone was smashing it all the time it would be slow for everyone.

Thank you, this question comes up every third day and it seems there are a lot of people that either can't grasp that concept or simply wish to eat as much as they want and to hell with everyone else.

Of course, the carriers do play fast and loose with terms like "unlimited" so the greedy among us get there panties in a wad when they discover they can't continue to download unlimited amounts of gay bondage porn! D:


Brian

 

[alkemyst]

it's no different than the term free speech.