Verizon data limits on the horizon

[Anubis]

You and me both.

Time to grab an app that directs you to open wifis, Mcdonalds, Starbucks, etc. I may have to migrate from Verizon elsewhere.

yea too bad i live in the boonies and open wifi wont help me, the moment i pull into my driveway im on wifi

however the other 12 hours of the day there isn't a wifi network available, and 90% of my data use comes from streaming music at work

no work does not offer wifi where my office is, and even if they did EVERY single music streaming site is blocked so it wouldn't matter

 

[Bateluer]

yea too bad i live in the boonies and open wifi wont help me, the moment i pull into my driveway im on wifi

however the other 12 hours of the day there isn't a wifi network available, and 90% of my data use comes from streaming music at work

no work does not offer wifi where my office is, and even if they did EVERY single music streaming site is blocked so it wouldn't matter

Better start using that phone as a PMP and copying MP3s to it directly.

 

[Anubis]

Better start using that phone as a PMP and copying MP3s to it directly.

you willing to send me a 80+ gig micro SD card so i can do that?

theres a reason i made this thread last week

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2106746

 

[Acanthus]

Even at $80 they're still cheaper for what you get.

This. Even with the $10 premium data charge it is still cheaper than everyone else for the same service level.

 

[ew915]

Get real, anyone who uses more than 5Gb a month lets say are people who aren't profitable to the carriers so having you pay extra makes sense from a business point of view.

Checking a few emails, loading a few webpages does not take much, i manage to stay around 50mb a day checking forums, news feeds, emails, sms...

However there are people who believe that the phone is a media box and use it to stream videos and music all day long. If you believe so it makes sense to pay more because you use the network more than the average.

Now i do not believe taking away the unlimited data is a good thing, but it won't be the end for the people who use their mobile connection to stream or BT.

 

[Acanthus]

Get real, anyone who uses more than 5Gb a month lets say are people who aren't profitable to the carriers so having you pay extra makes sense from a business point of view.

Checking a few emails, loading a few webpages does not take much, i manage to stay around 50mb a day checking forums, news feeds, emails, sms...

However there are people who believe that the phone is a media box and use it to stream videos and music all day long. If you believe so it makes sense to pay more because you use the network more than the average.

Now i do not believe taking away the unlimited data is a good thing, but it won't be the end for the people who use their mobile connection to stream or BT.

So basically by not using any of the phones advanced features you can be a good little client.

I strongly believe that this for network utilization problems and not actual cost issues. The only place "cost" for the bandwidth actually comes in is maximizing profit.

It takes approximately 200 SMS text messages to equal 1 second of talk time in bandwidth, should unlimited be $10-$15 a month?

 

[YoungGun21]

The real question is how much more, if any, the LTE (4G) plans will be compared to the 3g plans..... I hope they aren't much more.

 

[Brian Stirling]

So basically by not using any of the phones advanced features you can be a good little client.

I strongly believe that this for network utilization problems and not actual cost issues. The only place "cost" for the bandwidth actually comes in is maximizing profit.

It takes approximately 200 SMS text messages to equal 1 second of talk time in bandwidth, should unlimited be $10-$15 a month?

Text messages cost the carriers almost nothing but providing GB's of data does. Keep dreaming that using as much as you want is reasonable -- when the carriers go metered and you have a 30GB/month habit you will wonder how long you can continue the $400/month cost to sustain your habit.

If everyone tried to eat, say, 10GB/month, they'd find the couldn't because the network would be so bogged down it would make the dial-up modems of old seem positively screaming by comparison. You know, running a 15GA extension cord over to your neighbors house so you can run your house from it for free may seem feasible but that 15GA extension cord would probably only deliver about 1250VA over a 200 foot distance so unless your house has a MAX power demand of 1250VA you will find the idea won't work even though it might be able to handle the average need over a 24 hour period.

So, go ahead and stream music and videos while you can but before long you'll have to pony up some serious coin to keep that bad idea going!


Brian

 

[Bateluer]

you willing to send me a 80+ gig micro SD card so i can do that?

Do you need all 80+ GBs all the time?

 

[Anubis]

Do you need all 80+ GBs all the time?

no ideally id need over 120 but im willing to compromise

 

[Acanthus]

Text messages cost the carriers almost nothing but providing GB's of data does. Keep dreaming that using as much as you want is reasonable -- when the carriers go metered and you have a 30GB/month habit you will wonder how long you can continue the $400/month cost to sustain your habit.

If everyone tried to eat, say, 10GB/month, they'd find the couldn't because the network would be so bogged down it would make the dial-up modems of old seem positively screaming by comparison. You know, running a 15GA extension cord over to your neighbors house so you can run your house from it for free may seem feasible but that 15GA extension cord would probably only deliver about 1250VA over a 200 foot distance so unless your house has a MAX power demand of 1250VA you will find the idea won't work even though it might be able to handle the average need over a 24 hour period.

So, go ahead and stream music and videos while you can but before long you'll have to pony up some serious coin to keep that bad idea going!


Brian

So please explain to me where these charges for bandwidth come from?

Verizon builds a LTE cellphone tower. The radio equipment in the tower is networked to a fiber optic connection that is routed to, lets say, Level3.

How much does a fiber line run these days? Who are they signing contracts with on a per GB basis?

Help me understand their poor business model.

(you also tried to reiterate the network saturation issues, which i already surmised that this is actually what the caps are about)

 

[Brian Stirling]

So please explain to me where these charges for bandwidth come from?

Verizon builds a LTE cellphone tower. The radio equipment in the tower is networked to a fiber optic connection that is routed to, lets say, Level3.

How much does a fiber line run these days? Who are they signing contracts with on a per GB basis?

Help me understand their poor business model.

(you also tried to reiterate the network saturation issues, which i already surmised that this is actually what the caps are about)

1. No matter how big a pipe is it will have a finite capacity to deliver data!

2. Data use is growing faster than capacity!

What part of that equation do you fail to grasp?


The carriers have used the unlimited plans for quite a while and are reluctant to move away from them from a marketing standpoint but when they see the growth in data use they see the trend can not continue. The word "unlimited" has allowed many to believe they can waste bandwidth doing things they can get without wasting bandwidth because, hey, I paid for unlimited so I just going to use as much as I can. This is what I'm talking about when I say streaming is a bad habit.

Like I've said countless times before the carriers will all switch to metered billing but will have an interim period with multiple tiers. In the long run you will pay for data use the same way you pay for electricity -- by the KWHr/GB.

A while back I mentioned that I wanted a 32GB uSD card for my Evo and would get even more if I could and some of the folks here gave me crap arguing I should just stream.

Before long we will have smart phones with 1TB or storage -- I can't wait!


Brian

 

[Acanthus]

1. No matter how big a pipe is it will have a finite capacity to deliver data!

2. Data use is growing faster than capacity!

What part of that equation do you fail to grasp?


The carriers have used the unlimited plans for quite a while and are reluctant to move away from them from a marketing standpoint but when they see the growth in data use they see the trend can not continue. The word "unlimited" has allowed many to believe they can waste bandwidth doing things they can get without wasting bandwidth because, hey, I paid for unlimited so I just going to use as much as I can. This is what I'm talking about when I say streaming is a bad habit.

Like I've said countless times before the carriers will all switch to metered billing but will have an interim period with multiple tiers. In the long run you will pay for data use the same way you pay for electricity -- by the KWHr/GB.

A while back I mentioned that I wanted a 32GB uSD card for my Evo and would get even more if I could and some of the folks here gave me crap arguing I should just stream.

Before long we will have smart phones with 1TB or storage -- I can't wait!


Brian

I did not ever, at any point in this thread, contest what you are saying.

I agree with you.

The tiered caps are specifically for saturation issues and not COST issues.

 

[Brian Stirling]

I did not ever, at any point in this thread, contest what you are saying.

I agree with you.

The tiered caps are specifically for saturation issues and not COST issues.

Yes, it is for saturation, but that becomes cost when the carriers have to add more cell sites to handle the increased data use.

I expect to see, perhaps at 6G or thereabouts, a move to micro-cellular systems where the number of cell sites is increased substantially even to the point of having one or more cell site within an office building. This way they can operate at lower power and increase the bandwidth in a larger area by breaking it up into many smaller areas to reuse spectrum.

To do that, of course, will require a big increase in network costs that will be partially offset by lower per site cost. In major urban areas where higher frequency cell signals (4G) don't propagate as well we could see one or more cell sites per floor of major office buildings.

Alternatively, a next generation cell phone maybe able to use wifi to do everything it now uses cellular networks to do so that the cellular bandwidth could be supplemented by wifi. If the hardware/software is available on the phone you could configure it to use your home, office and other wifi systems to offload bandwidth requirements from the cellular network.

In the mean-time, however, the carriers will have to deal with the legacy of there "unlimited" plans and the tendency that many have to overuse the network because they can.


Brian