Would it be so hard?

[SunnyD]

For carriers to offer heavily throttled data service for free? I mean seriously, something to check email, browse a website, etc., albeit very slowly. And then allow you to upsell into a faster tier of data.

Right now I'm on T-Mo prepaid. Paygo... so I have no data. They have a GREAT idea with their web day pass. $1.49 and I'm off and running on the web for 24 hours, and it's great. Except it's 30MB before it gets throttled to hell and back. It's good for what it is, but even if I want to do account management on my phone, I have to BUY data first.

Pipe dream, yeah... I know.

 

[gsaldivar]

Check out Virgin Mobile. They now have a 3G MiFi for $149, brand new and contract free. Unlimited internet for 5 devices for $40/month, or $10 for 100mb/10 days. If you only need internet for one laptop/netbook, you can get a USB dongle instead for $79.

It's not free but very reasonable.

 

[iahk]

SunnyD,

Have you checked out the walmart family mobile plans? it says family mobile, but they also have a single line plan. they sell the data optionally, so you top it up like a pay as you go service. but the best part is that it doesnt expire after x amount of days. you keep it until you use it all, rinse and repeat.

http://www.walmart.com/cp/Walmart-Family-Mobile/1076544

another good part of this for you is that it works off tmobile's network, so you can just bring your current phone over if you want to. my friend is using his tmobile g2 on it.

 

[WelshBloke]

For carriers to offer heavily throttled data service for free? I mean seriously, something to check email, browse a website, etc., albeit very slowly. And then allow you to upsell into a faster tier of data.

Right now I'm on T-Mo prepaid. Paygo... so I have no data. They have a GREAT idea with their web day pass. $1.49 and I'm off and running on the web for 24 hours, and it's great. Except it's 30MB before it gets throttled to hell and back. It's good for what it is, but even if I want to do account management on my phone, I have to BUY data first.

Pipe dream, yeah... I know.

Tmobile used to be like that over here in the UK a few years ago. They are really good now for PAYG data now, hopefully they will introduce it over there soon.

No monthly charge and you pay for a chunk of time you want to have data for in advance.