Bad Karma: WISP Pares Back Its Monthly 4G Hotspot Plan, Again 59
Robotech_Master writes: The ongoing saga of the Neverstop plan shows that Karma Wireless just can't seem to catch a break as far as high-bandwidth plans are concerned. After starting out with a straight pay-per-bandwidth plan, "Refuel," for its $150 wireless hotspot, Karma thought it would innovate with a throttled-but-otherwise-unlimited 4G plan, "Neverstop." However, it soon discovered that users were taking it at its word and using up considerably more bandwidth than Karma expected or could afford. After experimenting with further throttling, Karma subsequently revamped the plan into a $50 per month, 15 GB plan that throttled to dialup speed after it ran out.
However, now it turns out even that plan was too optimistic, and Karma has opted to dump the Neverstop plan altogether in favor of tiered monthly plan called Pulse —whose bandwidth costs significantly more. ($40/mo for 5 GB, $75 for 10 GB, $140 for 20 GB.) Karma's "unlimited" users weren't pleased the first time the plan changed, and now they're practically through the roof.
Unhappy customers... (Score:5, Insightful)
If a company can't afford to deliver the product as sold, and they aren't bound to a contract to deliver that product as sold for more than one billing period, then what do these users think is going to happen - Karma Wireless is going to continue to provide a loss making service until the company goes under with massive debts?
Karma Wireless tried something, it failed (mainly because they screwed up forecasting costs) and now they are moving on.
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(mainly because they screwed up forecasting costs)
Whenever I see the words "projections", "forecasts", or "estimations" when it comes to financial issues, I treat what I'm about to read or hear as a fairy tale. Finance is NOT a natural science where the numbers are based on physical reality. Calculating the orbit of a moon is nowhere the same as projecting sales and revenues.
It's a pet peeve of mine that folks see numbers and they immediately treat it as an undeniable fact without considering context.
How true. I think computers have made it worse because people simply plug in numbers without thinking about what results make sense; and thus blindly accept whatever results they get.
And engineers are just as bad as everyone else; maybe worse because they were trained to trust numbers and calculations
If an engineer's training taught them to trust numbers and calculations something was lacking in their education. I was taught to always questions the results to see if they made sense, the trust was not s much in numbers and calculations but that the theory was correct and would produce the correct results if the numbers were
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The calculations in finance can be perfect - it's where the numbers came from.
For example, my county was convinced by a professional sports team to foot the bill to build a new stadium. They provided all these projections and estimations of all the extra tax revenue the county will make and projections of the benefits to our economy.
All pie in the sky. And no one bothered to look to see that every city and county that paid for a sports stadium has gotten screwed.
Projections are a fancy way of saying "pr
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people simply plug in numbers without thinking about what results make sense; and thus blindly accept whatever results they get
I don't think that's the issue so much as that financial projections are in many ways more art than science. I think a lot of the Slashdot readership, being generally from the "technical" side of their employers rather than the "business" side have a view of what is actually involved.
Let's take the example of an ISP. Forecasting your data usage needs is simple, right? Costs are subscribers x bandwidth rates. Your revenue is subscribers x monthly fee. Do you make a profit?
In reality, though, you never estima
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If a company can't afford to deliver the product as sold, and they aren't bound to a contract to deliver that product as sold for more than one billing period, then what do these users think is going to happen - Karma Wireless is going to continue to provide a loss making service until the company goes under with massive debts?
Karma Wireless tried something, it failed (mainly because they screwed up forecasting costs) and now they are moving on.
There product probably attracted a disproportionate number of high bandwidth users who knew they would be heavy users and thus attracted to Neverstop. For light users there are too many cheaper options than Karma. For example, T-mobile offers 200mb / month for free, 6GB with BingeOn for $35, and 15GB of tethering for $50 on a phone plan. As you point out, their business model simply is not sustainable as originally conceived.
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If a company can't afford to deliver the product as sold, and they aren't bound to a contract to deliver that product as sold for more than one billing period, then what do these users think is going to happen
It appears they did deliver what was sold, they just could not keep delivering it, so they changed what they were swelling. But they never sold any promises the plan would continue to be offered as is. It seems they tried, but it just didn't work financially due to those who's usage model was basically downloading a full bandwidth constantly.
It actually seems to me this company is trying to offer an option for heavy users, but the cost model just doesn't work due to a certain slice of users, and they ar
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so they changed what they were swelling.
Apparently, it was swelling TOO much.
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underpriced (Score:3)
Back when I worked for an ISP my boss had a line he used to describe some of the competitors: "It takes no particular talent to sell a dollar for fifty cents."
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Wrong technology (Score:3)
The obvious lesson here would be that 4G is really not the technology you want to be using for downloading +15GB/month of data. Currently it is simply incapable of supporting that, so demand has to be throttled one way or another. Cost is as good as any.
If you have need for that kind of bandwidth on the go, look elsewhere or expect to pay for it.
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I said exactly what I meant to say, but unfortunately I can't make you read it.
Provision of 4G is a limited resource, just like anything else. Maybe one day 4G will have no problem handling 15GB+ a month for everyone, but currently it can't. If there's any fault to be allocated about that, I don't know. But if you want to live in reality, rather than planet what-should-be, 4G is a poor choice for that volume of data.
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I used to have Sprint's WiMax 4G service as my home ISP, same service as Clear/Clearwire but under a different branding. Downloaded on the order of 90GB some months. Worked fine for several years, other than that I was on the very edge of the service area and occasionally dropped signal in bad weather.
4G can get bits to homes. If an ISP sets out to do that and fails because it ov
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I live in an internet backwater (central London) where my only viable option for broadband is 4G. I'm currently capped at 25GB, which is plenty for non-streaming use. It's actually much more reliable than my old landline ADSL, which would go flaky for months at a time regardless of provider. It's also pretty fast at ~70Mbps down (compared to 2.5Mbps for ADSL). Up speed is decent too at ~20Mbps. Cost is ~$35pcm (23 quid, with EE, monthly contract).
Re: Wrong technology (Score:1)
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Yeah, it's like satellite when nothing else is available except dial-up. :(
I think I speak for everyone here when I say (Score:2)
'Who?'
This article is irrelevant (Score:1)
The only question that should be asked is why it cost so much.
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The thing that makes Karma worth using in my book—and the thing I personally use it for—is its "Refuel" plan, where you can get data for $10 a gigabyte. That's a reasonable price, basically on par with what Google's Project Fi offers, and even better, every so often they sell bandwidth for half price, so $5 a gigabyte. I don't use much mobile data, but having a Karma hotspot through which I can lets me save money on my Project Fi bill.
(Plus, well, I've earned over $2,000 in referral credit from
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The thing that makes Karma worth using in my book—and the thing I personally use it for—is its "Refuel" plan, where you can get data for $10 a gigabyte. That's a reasonable price,
Seems high to me. I pay $100 for 15 GB on my smart phone plan, and that includes unlimited talk, text, and no-hassle hot-spot (so built-in wi-fi to 4G LTE). Yea, it's bulk, but I use most of that. It rolls over, so in the summer when I'm wandering more, I have plenty of extra allotment that I built up during the winter. If I do go over, it's $10 / GB if I do nothing, but I get notifications so I can just bump up my plan for the month, which is much cheaper.
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For someone with moderate-to-low data needs on my phone and laptop and tablet,
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So I wanted to to clarify - do you mean $100/month for the 15 GB, or $100 for 15 GB that doesn't expire?
It expires, but only after a year. That is, the 15 GB I bought in January will still be available in August, but it will be gone after the NEXT January.
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I've been limiting my Karma data buying to when they have it on buy-one-get-one sale, so I get 20 GB for $100. (And it's $100 I didn't even pay for personally, given I've still got $1,600 of referral credit left.) The only thing is, there's no way to know when they're going to run another sale, so I typically just buy a couple of bundles when it is and cross my fingers it'll happen again before my last purchase runs out.
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Operating at a loss, or not high enough profits. (Score:3)
Honestly you really need to read closer. IS it really they can't afford it or they can't afford it after thinking they need to increase profits by 25%. You really cant believe anything out of the mouths of the executives because they believe they are entitled to record profits and will word it as they are losing money..... losing imaginary money they want.
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If I'm on a month-to-month contract and decide that you're not paying me enough, I quit at the end of the month. Whether I'm making or losing money has n
Here we go again... (Score:2)
Ordered one...right when the plan changed (Score:1)
I saw this as a solution to my rural broadband access woes (no cable, no DSL, AT&T access horrible, Sprint access fantastic). Maybe I could dump my satellite TV and get into the modern world of Netflix, Hulu, and other services, and decrease my AT&T data plan.
Alas, roughly the time I ordered my Karma the infamous blog post appeared. Just received the gadget yesterday. As I already paid for a month, I'll use my (unlimited) 15 gig before I return it.
Shame...it's a nice implementation.
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Obligatory (Score:2)
Karma Wireless: I am throttling the speed once you get past 15GB of data.
Users: You said the plan was unlimited!
Karma Wireless: I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further.
250GB for $48 per month. (Score:4, Interesting)
I run a WISP in a heavily competitive area with both CenturyLink and Comcast as competitors. We sell a residential service that averages 25Mbps down and 9 up. 250GB per month for $48/per month. We use the cheapest radios available, Ubiquiti.
I don't understand a WISP who can't make money at a $50/month and 15GB limit plan.