T-Mobile Joins the Capped Data Bandwagon 112
NicknamesAreStupid writes "It looks like T-Mobile is following the lead of Verizon and AT&T in shifting from unlimited data plans to tiered pricing. It starts with their family plans which may be cheaper than unlimited depending on your family's usage. Was this done for its customers' families or for its future parent, AT&T?"
What the summary fails to mention... (Score:4, Informative)
Is that while "capped", you're not shut off on the 2GB/mo or higher plans, simply throttled to "2G" speeds once you reach your monthly allotment.
So? (Score:3, Informative)
They are bought by AT&T. It was going to happen sooner or later. It just turns out that it is sooner rather than later.
They were note unlimited (Score:5, Informative)
They always had a 5GB Cap, so all this "They are not longer unlimited, they are now 2/5/10GB caps" is misleading -- you're actually getting a middle-man choice now...
Before most carriers went from 100/200MB to 5GB(aka ""Unlimited""), nothing in the middle. You paid either $15 or $30/month for ~200MB/5GB respectively. At least now the options are more like 200MB/1GB/2GB/5GB/++ with a better price structure.. And I do like that T-Mobile doesn't charge extra for going over.
But the plans were not really unlimited to begin with.
Re:It is really too bad... (Score:4, Informative)
I am willing to bet a lot of people would prefer to replace their Cable, DSL, Fiber with a Cell connection, if it were affordable enough. 3G is fast enough for most browsing.
Cell phones got popular when they removed the extra fees like roaming costs and free long distance calling. Now it seems like they forgot about this with overly expensive data plans with caps. Even if it is cheaper people don't like caps,
I have a cell connection because there is no other choice (other than dialup) where I live. 1.5MB/s. Not quite the 3G/4G experience, but, works when there is no substitute. Plug the card/device into a router that supports it as a WAN connection. I'm also on one of the older plans that truly was unlimited (70GB usage last month, one fixed price).
I have on average "two bars" at my house. Some observations:
- 150KB/s downloads. ~200KB/s through Steam on good days.
- 150ms - 250ms average ping times. Good for browsing, horrible for online gaming.
- Carriers can and will silently drop idle connections. You need to reboot the router or remove / reinsert device to get a new signal.
- Multiple streams of data absolutely crawl the connection (try opening 10 links off of Google search at same time, good luck).
- Last but not least, in poor conditions, 16KB/s downloads, 750ms-1000ms average ping times. Happens maybe once or twice a week.
Previously had cable before moving to where I am. In my view, I don't see this an acceptable substitute for Cable/DSL/Fiber anytime in the near future. There is a VERY noticeable quality difference even Joe six-pack or grandma would notice. That and as you mentioned the data caps will kill any netflix streaming, steam downloads (5 games purchased in past month @ 4GB min each), etc. Both the plans and technology will need to improve. I'm waiting for that day to come myself.