Virgin Mobile To Start Throttling Broadband2Go 257
Daevad writes "Virgin Mobile sent an e-mail today informing me of their plans to start throttling the Broadband2Go Plan. The web site doesn't seem to reflect the change yet, but here is the message they sent to me:
'Here at Virgin Mobile, our mission is to deliver an outstanding customer experience. Sometimes that means making difficult choices in order to provide the best possible service to the greatest number of customers.
To make sure we can keep offering our $40 Unlimited Broadband2Go Plan at such a great price, we're putting a speed limit in place for anyone on that plan who uses over 5GB in a month.
How will it work?
Starting February 15, 2011, if you go over 5GB in a month on the $40 Unlimited Plan:
Your data speeds will be limited for the remainder of the monthly plan cycle. During this time, you may experience slower page loads and file downloads and lags in streaming media.
Your data speeds will return to normal as soon as you buy a new Broadband2Go Plan.
This change will only affect plans bought on or after 2/15/2011.
How will it affect me?
Keep in mind, 5GB is A LOT of data. To give you an idea, it's about 250 hours of web browsing or over 500,000(!) emails. So this change shouldn't affect you unless you're a heavy downloader/streamer/etc.'" Just when I was getting comfortable recommending it to people, too. I do prefer a slowdown to an absolute cap, but this sours me a bit on the (locked-to-Sprint) MiFi I bought to use the Virgin service.
Bait and switch? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Bait and switch? (Score:5, Informative)
You even have a month to buy in to the old plan if you so desire, which I find surprising.
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From the summary: "This change will only affect plans bought on or after 2/15/2011."
You even have a month to buy in to the old plan if you so desire, which I find surprising.
Even so, it would only be good for 1 month.... You can't prepay multiple months like you used to be able to with AT&T prepaid data.
Re:Bait and switch? (Score:4, Informative)
You even have a month to buy in to the old plan if you so desire, which I find surprising.
Not quite. Virgin's Broadband2Go [virginmobileusa.com] is month to month, there is no contract. So if you pay for B2G service on 14 February you will not be throttled throughout the rest of February but after 14 March you will be throttled if you go over 5GB.
I fully support this. Normal users won't use that much, however for businesses and such that need more bandwidth Virgin should offer higher priced plans with more bandwidth.
Falcon
Wrong (Score:5, Informative)
Virgin mobile is a no-contract company. If they locked you into a contract and THEN started to throttle, that would be a bait and switch. But with no contract, you can decide to stop buying more airtime if you don't like the new terms.
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Then what are you supposed to do with your $150 mifi device? What about people that bought it for Christmas thinking that they'd get unlimited mobile Internet for $40?
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Whine about it on the (slow) internet or sell it on ebay?
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Then what are you supposed to do with your $150 mifi device?
Sell it on eBay [ebay.com].
Falcon
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Re:Wrong (Score:4, Insightful)
How is it not unlimited? (Score:4, Insightful)
The network you get is still unlimited. It's not like you could actually use an infinite amount of bandwidth before - unlimited simply means you can keep using the internet as much as you like. That remains true after you pass the (very reasonable) 5GB cap, it's just that it gets a bit slower at the end. I think they have hit upon the nicest possible way to offer "unlimited" internet with reasonable real-life restrictions to keep bandwidth hogs from chewing up way more bandwidth than they are paying for.
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Which means it'd be perfectly acceptable if they offered it as a 20kb/s connection with burst capabilities, which is the actual usable bandwidth you have available over time.
It's simply a matter of honesty; if they aren't offering unlimited use at a specific data transfer rate, then they shouldn't claim they are.
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Re:Bait and switch? (Score:5, Insightful)
Far better than the AT&T bait and switch with iPad plans... remember that? Changed before the device was even available for a full month. Still, this is the fairest cap I've seen a wireless provider implement so far. Throttling users at their limit actually makes much more sense than cutting them off cold. Unless you are one of the people who thought cellular service would be able to truly replace landline service, (having no concept of the very finite bandwidth available via RF) 5GB is a lot of data. ...and if you run into it by accident, you can still use your service for less bandwidth-intensive things like email, light web access, or reloading your Virgin Mobile account.
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I'm guessing you're in the US. I pay 299 SEK (about 45 USD a month) for my cell phone and subscription; granted that's not including free minutes or texts, but I get 10 GB data with that. Go over 10 GB and I'm throttled to 0.2 Mbit/s.
And I'm fairly certain you can get even better and fairer deals than what I'm on.
Not bait/switch at all, and no issue to most users (Score:3)
Except for three things:
1. Most carriers have multiple billing cycles. I've got two separate T-Mobile accounts (3 devices on one and 2 in another area code on another) and they cycle on different weeks.They have had the 5GB and then throttle till next month "unlimited" concept on data cards for quite some time, BTW. I've seen the same thing when I was on AT&T with more than one account. So the un-throttling will happen spread across the month, at least in smaller cluster.
2. Most users are not going anyw
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"2. Most users are not going anywhere near to 5GB of usage. /. users are totally atypical."
WTF? It's ridiculously easy to blow this cap, for example by watching YouTube videos.
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Far better than the AT&T bait and switch with iPad plans... remember that? Changed before the device was even available for a full month.
I don't know about you but I got grandfathered [gizmodo.com] on my plan. I still get unlimited data from AT&T for the same price as before. There was no bait-and-switch involved. If you got the plan before the change then you can have unlimited data for $30/month, if you got the plan after the change then you can get 2GB for $25/month and each additional 2GB is $25.
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Far better than the AT&T bait and switch with iPad plans... remember that? Changed before the device was even available for a full month. Still, this is the fairest cap I've seen a wireless provider implement so far. Throttling users at their limit actually makes much more sense than cutting them off cold. Unless you are one of the people who thought cellular service would be able to truly replace landline service, (having no concept of the very finite bandwidth available via RF) 5GB is a lot of data. ...and if you run into it by accident, you can still use your service for less bandwidth-intensive things like email, light web access, or reloading your Virgin Mobile account.
I dunno, I've still got my AT&T 29.99$/month unlimited data. I occasionally horse around and blow way past 5GB/month just to feel I'm getting my money's worth, too. It would be bait and switch if they pulled it from me, not just because they're no longer offering it to you.
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Sure, it's better than many alternatives.
But maybe, just maybe they shouldn't call it, i don't know, unlimited?
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Just thought I'd point out that the nice thing with the Virgin Mobile (at least with the Mifi anyway), you can use the device to fill up or reactivate your account even if you have exhausted it.
Just started with Virgin Mobile last week (Score:2)
I shopped around for a new cell phone plan for several weeks before finally deciding to go with Virgin Mobile, and it's thanks to the fact that I am travelling for my job, because they don't even have stores where I come from so I picked up a prepaid at a Sprint store close to where I am now. They have very sensible plans, and in fact seem to be the only ones who understand that it makes much more sense to limit voice than texts. (All their plans have unlimited text and data; you just get more or fewer minu
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I recently switched providers too. I hate the idea of contracts that come with "free phones". I went with cricket and have been very surprised/happy with their service. $55/month for unlimited voice/text/data ($60/month after taxes). No contract and the service has been very reliable. Not as good as Verizon was but I was paying well more with Verizon for limited talk/text and no data.
If you don't like the way that the big players treat you then put your money where your mouth is and give some of the up and
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I would if any of them had decent coverage.
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Well, wait. Just to be clear. Virgin offers an "unlimited" plan for cell phones. The author of the article bought a MiFi (mobile hot spot) to use on this service that's sold for cell phones. And he's pissed that now they are going to slow down the data after 5 gig.
Do I have it wrong?
Would he still be mad if they had said "This service is now unlimited only for single cell phones, not for mobile hot spots"?
Or maybe Virgin has been selling this service specifically for people
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Got it. Yes, it's bait and switch. Virgin sucks for doing this. 5gb per month for a service that's sold for mobile hot spots isn't even in the same neighborhood as "unlimited".
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Yep, then it's bait and switch.
Thanks for the clarification.
I use VM B2Go.... My connect notice (Score:2)
Wow, 500,000(!) e-mails (Score:3)
Or, printing (!) 1,789,569,706 times!
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Or 31,250,000 pings!
(Depending on the exact definition of GB)
Files are getting bigger and bigger (Score:2, Informative)
So this change shouldn't affect you unless you're a heavy downloader/streamer/etc.
The Windows SDK alone is a gigabyte and a half, and a six-month upgrade to a popular GNU/Linux distribution is nearly a gigabyte.
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I've just been hit by the T-Mobile "unlimited" debacle, but for anything like that I'd be creating a new user and logging it in to a coffee shop WiFi (McGonads is free) to do crap like that, if I didn't have home internets.
I'd never log my user in whilst on a hostile network. Downloading some RPMs/DEBs or (in my case) doing a "pacman -Syu" can be quite easily done from a temporary account, providing moody OS updates in a timely manner is a bit beyo
Cell phone or satellite? (Score:2)
So, you're using your smartphone to download the Windows SDK?
Should someone outside the reach of cable and DSL be using satellite instead?
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Uh, the whole point of the Broadband2Go plan is to use it by devices other than smartphones. That's why its website has a MiFi router in the front page.
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A challenge to the complainers... (Score:3)
What would you have Virgin Mobile do instead? So far, this is among the most reasonable takes on the problem I've seen to date. Let's lay down some assumptions:
1) The cost-per-user for the service has turned out to be too high at the current pricing.
2) Analysis shows that a small percentage of users are super-heavy traffic users gobbling up many, many GB per month.
Virgin Mobile could then:
1) Up the plan pricing for everyone to accommodate the upper-end of the bell curve's massive usage. This will penalize the overwhelming majority of users for a few users' overuse. (Isn't that just the same crap that everyone complains about with stupid no-differentiation rulemaking in schools? "It has to be the same for everyone.")
2) Keep the same pricing, but impose a throttle that imposes a penalty only on those users who are breaking the pricing model. They still get service, but at a degraded level.
3) .... ??? (Your Answer Here.)
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You use terms such as "overuse" and "breaking the pricing model". The users bought an unlimited connection at a given price. Why blame them? Also, how do you know Virgin has any problems with profitability? This only cuts their costs without losing many customers. This is the smart thing to do for them regardless of their profits.
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Stop calling it "unlimited". The caps are fine as long as they're honest about them, and not hide them.
Re:A challenge to the complainers... (Score:4, Insightful)
Here are some options that Virgin Mobile isn't doing:
Network capacity is a finite resource. It looks like Virgin Mobile is dealing with that in the most reasonable way. Good for them.
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Ah, so option A - "up the plan pricing for everyone to accommodate the upper-end of the bell curve's massive usage" then. The battle cry of the greedy entitlement complex.
most important news story of the day... (Score:2)
Seriously, this is important to me. I have my MC760 hooked up to Windows 7 (don't ask) running virtual-AP software (buggy as hell). I was considering going for a mifi but this story puts the kabosh on that idea. No more downloading 'criminal minds' episodes. More importantly, no more attending class online. Which means, for me, that virgin mobile has lost its value proposition. Oh well, I spend $50 on the device...good bye Virgin Mobile, it's back to Starbucks & McDonald's for me.
Not a big deal (Score:3)
Re:Not a big deal (Score:5, Insightful)
There are lots of people who use mobile broadband for their primary internet connection:
Those of us who can't get anything else.
I live just outside a good-sized city. I'm not in the middle of nowhere.
I can't get cable. I can't get DSL. I can't get FIOS. I can't get UVerse. I can't get WiMax.
My choices are 3G or satellite, and satellite is even more limited and slower than 3G. And costs more. And is less reliable.
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Well that sucks. As an idea though: Do you guys have prepaid plans with decent data packages these days? You could buy a bunch of cards and swap 'em out.
I can buy 5GB for 15 on my prepaid card here in Germany, as often as I want (usually I just buy one per month, since it's only for my phone, and the package expires monthly - it's on vacation that I might buy 5 or 6 packages in the space of a week). Isn't there something similar in the States?
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.. isn't that supposed to be 'Would you like some cheese with your whine', not the other way around?
Meh (Score:2)
Or get a device that doesnt block you. (Score:2)
If the device gives you enough control, then tethering restrictions dont matter.
How could TMobile detect tethering if the device makes it look like a seamless, untethered connection?
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Free Market (Score:3)
Right?
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The market can only "punish" the extremes of shafting the customer. With the DOJ and FTC asleep at the switch, we are racing to the bottom on many fronts, so shafted tends to be a constant. Only the degree of shafting varies.
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Sometimes you don't have a lot of choice.
Crappy service is better than NO service, and sometimes there isn't a non-crappy alternative.
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A: When God put Broadband2Go in front of Adam and said "Choose yourself a plan"
They're Also Canceling The Plan Altogether (Score:5, Informative)
If you don't already have the $40 'Unlimited' level on automatic update/renewal, you won't be able to buy it in the future.
They're not going to offer it at all. Just the lower level, much more limited data (and those ARE a hard limit.)
http://www.virginmobileusa.com/legal/terms-of-service-virgin-mobile#bb2g_plans_expiring [virginmobileusa.com]
And they may cancel it completely in the future.
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No they're not. they clearly stated in the email to me that you still still get $40 unlimited, however you are throttled back. What kills me are the people that insist that Verizon's or AT&T's plans were ever listed any different. Their "Unlimited" plans have been this way for at least the last 5 years.
Regardless, with this news, I think the Mifi I just bought at the end of December is now going back to Virgin Mobile. In a few months I'll have similar access through my iPhone either on Verizon or AT
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Did you look at the link I posted?
From http://www.virginmobileusa.com/legal/terms-of-service-virgin-mobile#bb2g_plans_expiring [virginmobileusa.com]
Until February 14, 2011, you may purchase or switch to the $40 Broadband2Go plan described below. If as of February 15, 2011 the last plan you purchased was the $40 Broadband2Go plan, you may continue to purchase the $40 Broadband2Go plan until further notice or until you switch to one of the other Broadband2Go plans. Once you switch to another Broadband2Go plan, you will not be abl
English translation (Score:2)
Translation: To make sure we can keep offering our $40 "Unlimited" Broadband2Go Plan at such a great price, we're putting limitations on it, but still calling it unlimited. Simple, really.
All you can eat (Score:5, Funny)
Manager: I'm sorry, sir. You have to leave the buffet now.
Customer: But it says "All you can eat for $10".
Manager: That is correct. That is all you can eat for $10.
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No, it's more like: "Sir, would you mind eating a bit slower, so that the kitchens have the time to prepare the food for other customers also? At the rate you're going now, nobody else is able to get to the food before you do."
5 GB is also... (Score:2)
5 GB is a lot of data? 5 GB happens to be:
1. About one hour of Netflix streaming, every day for a week.
2. One fully-featured Linux install, with the bells and whistles.
3. A Steam purchase of BioShock 2.
4. About 20 minutes of uncompressed video from a decent camera.
5. About 1% of a full system backup.
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Cmon (Score:2)
Keep in mind, 5GB is A LOT of data. To give you an idea, it's about 250 hours of web browsing or over 500,000(!) emails. So this change shouldn't affect you unless you're a heavy downloader/streamer/etc.
So, if you use more than email you are a heavy user? If that's all people used the web for, I doubt it would even exist anymore.
How to Lie Effectively: Virgin Mobile Demonstrates (Score:2)
Keep in mind, 5GB is A LOT of data. To give you an idea, it's about 250 hours of web browsing or over 500,000(!) emails. So this change shouldn't affect you unless you're a heavy downloader/streamer/etc.
An honest rendering of this would be, "We really only intended for you to do unlimited emailing and web browsing (defined as reading through html pages very slowly, mind you; certainly not as enjoying the kind of content that we all take for granted these days). This won't affect you unless you are a moderat
In the UK, Three.co.uk is the only honest one. (Score:2)
Only carrier with their own towers and data infrastructure, which they are still investing heavily in.
my plan is sold as;
2,000 free minutes per month
5,000 free texts per month
"all you can eat" data per month (their quotes)
For 30 quid a month, around 45/50 bucks, Samsung Galaxy S on android 2.2 included.
is that ... (Score:2)
5 gigi-bytes or 5 gigi-BITS per month?
I wouldn't put it past them!
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These creatures walk among us -- be wary - nay, RUN!
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Just reply to the email with the, "You keep using that word, but I don't think you know what it means" line.
Oh the irony! (Score:2)
And that's exactly the example they use on their website to distinguish the $10 100MB "limited" plan from the UNLIMITED:
100mb = 5 hrs web browsing, 10,000 emails without attachments
UNLIMITED = UNLIMITED
are they going to change UNLIMITED to being 250 hours of web browsing and 500,000 emails?
My real problem is these devices are designed for PCs, not cellphones, and how incredibly easy is it to
Re:Gotta love calling a limited plan unlimited (Score:5, Insightful)
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You still get unlimited data, it just comes slower after a certain point. Sounds reasonable to me, compared to some other plans.
You never got unlimited data, you had the ability to use the service 24/7 at whatever data rate was available. That means you would have a finite amount of data downloaded. Now they are saying that at a certain point the data rate will be slower, thus you will be able to download less.
Either way it's limited, it's just more limited now.
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Just to play the devil's advocate, what they mean by "unlimited" is that there is no hard cap on the AMOUNT of data you may download. Only a SPEED limit when you hit 5gig. In truth, you would never have true unlimited data, as that would imply infinite transfer speeds. Your already finite transfer rate just get adjusted. So this change does not make the statement "unlimited plan" anymore false or true.
The plan is still overpriced as hell compared to what they deliver, though. But the network they're offerin
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So all plans are unlimited - some just drop the speed to 0bps. If they are limiting you in any way depending on how much data you use, I'm sorry but it's not unlimited. Which is fine, as long as it's not called that.
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It is unlimited in the sense of "you may download as much as you want (unlimited) at these specified speeds." Sure, that is not unlimited in the sense of infinite volume, but in the sense of infinite use without having to pay extra.
Getting your head in a bunch over the technicality of whatever marketing ploy a business is using is pretty much an exercise in futility. It is pretty implicit that "unlimited plan" does not mean "magic infinity +1 transfer rates forever" and if you ever thought so for even a hea
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It is unlimited in the sense of "you may download as much as you want (unlimited) at these specified speeds."
But that's the point! The specified speeds should not change depending on how much you consume.
It is pretty implicit that "unlimited plan" does not mean "magic infinity +1 transfer rates forever" and if you ever thought so for even a heartbeat you're an idiot. Sorry to be blunt, but that is pretty much stupidity at its most fundamental.
Except I didn't say that. I said that to be unlimited, using it shouldn't change the conditions - if you are supposed to have 5mbps, you should have 5mbps regardless of how much you use it.
Saying that unlimited is "infinity" is definitively stupid.
They are clear and up front stating what you're paying for and what they mean by what they say.
I disagree - while I didn't expect unlimited to mean infinity, the current plan has nothing "unlimited" about it. It has a very real cap on usage. Unlimited should mean
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So all plans are unlimited - some just drop the speed to 0bps. If they are limiting you in any way depending on how much data you use, I'm sorry but it's not unlimited. Which is fine, as long as it's not called that.
That's like saying that an "all you can eat" buffet really isn't all you can eat because they won't let you spend a month at the restaurant eating. Unlimited, in the case of an unlimited data plan, is a reference to the amount of data that can be consumed, not the speed of consumption.
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Is this all you can eat for $40.00?
yes sir!
forks over cash, sits down.
waitress brings over egg roll.
waitress takes plate away.
Hey! I thought you said this is all you can eat!
Yes sir, that is all you can eat.
ALL YOUR BANDWIDTH ARE BELONG TO US
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No, it's like saying that you enter the buffet and pay for "all you can eat". Then, after the appetizer and first course (the 5GB), the waiters start bringing the contents of the second course in 5g portions each hour until the restaurant closes.
What I'm saying is that no conditions - including the speed of consumption - should be affect by the amount of data consumed, because the latter is unlimited.
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Overpriced? OVERPRICED?
I love how Americans complain about 5GB for $40 when some of the rest of the world are paying getting 1GB for $60.
What Virgin is proposing isn't "overpriced". It's actually bloody cheap.
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I live in Denmark. Thank you for being prejudiced.
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The alternative at the other end of the ball is advertisement with the legal contract. Wonder how that will work out.
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Re:A lot of data? (Score:4, Informative)
VM doesn't sub contract from sprint anymore. VM is now owned by sprint 100%. It has been a sprint brand for atleast a year I believe.
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The real question is how many Library of Congresses could you fit in 5GB.
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Saying that capping at 5GB is necessary doesn't mean 5GB is 'plenty of data'.
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I agree with you. I was replying to the AC, who was claiming it was "necessary", and I simply said that being "necessary" to cap at 5GB doesn't mean it's a lot of data.
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By "one's" do you mean yours or someone elses?
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5 GB is the soft cap just about every American Provider uses for "unlimited" service. Sprint has had the "throttle anyone who goes above 5 gb" policy in place for a while -- they're just finally closing this last "hole" in it (since they own the Virgin Mobile brand). Of course AT&T no longer offers "unlimited" data, but for those who still have it, it remains at a 5 gb soft cap. Rather than throttle you, they simply threaten to cut you off if you repeatedly exceed it.
We have 4 wireless carriers in mo
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Are you retarded? The 'How will it affect me?' is clearly part of the message sent by Virgin, not Daevad's question. It's inside the quotes.
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Oh stop your sniveling. I'm in Canada, and I have no problem figuring out what they're talking about. If it were about a nation other than the US, it would say so in the summary. If it doesn't say, then they're talking about the US. It's not rocket science.
I'm sure that you already understand this as well as I do - you've just got some kind of persecution complex which demands that everyone acknowledge your particular corner of the world. Well too bad. Do something notable, and maybe /. will have a st
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I believe most people want to use the service for "spurts" of downloading when they are away from their primary internet connection. I don't think the general case is for people to remain connected 24 hrs/day for 2 weeks straight.
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Hell yes! If you let the government interfere when companies lie and cheat then you'll be on the slippery slope to communism before you can say "socialized healthcare".
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You realise that bandwidth isn't actually cheap, no? Actually, it's really expensive - if you buy it on a 1:1 contention ratio. The reason your ISP is able to sell it to you so cheap is that they actually buy it on a 1:45 or more contention ratio.
You want unlimited bandwidth (and do note that bandwidth is charged on a commit throughput basis, not data quantity basis) you better to be prepared to pay many thousands of dollars more than you currently do - just call up Level3 or Equinix and ask them how much