For all those thinking Sprint is the savior of unlimited plans, this is what the CEO of Sprint mentioned several months ago:
"We can offer unlimited as long as the usage is reasonable. If you run an all-you-can-eat buffet, but you have the New England Patriots come in and the whole team spends a whole day there, I can't afford to do that anymore.”
And people wonder why the telco's have to implement data caps. If you really have to watch a TV show, or stream a movie on your phone using your carrier's data plan, who cares why performance for everyone else is impacted?
Ever hear of WiFi? Can't get WiFi poolside at some motel in the middle of hicktown USA? Load movies on your phone before your trip, or just read a regular, analog book will ya? Sheesh!
Some people, eh? They live in Hicktown USA and so they feel like they can ruin it for everybody else.
Some people, eh? They live in Hicktown USA and so they feel like they can ruin it for everybody else.
On my last road trip I stayed in 4 hotels, in every hotel the free hotel wireless was slower and more prone to disconnect than my 3G service not to mention having to re-login every time I put the phone to sleep. At a couple of rest stops I was able to get over 4 mbps compared to usually much less than 1 mbps in the hotels. In fact I can get faster 3G service at my house than I can get DSL.
To me, 3G is useless as I have Wi-Fi anywhere I'd be able to use data.
So there's that.
Same here. Most civilized places in the world have Wifi. 3g makes no sense at all for me. It's slow, it's expensive and you have these ridiculous datacaps so that you can barely check your damn email.
My family has 3 iPhones. All 3 together use probably around 2GB or less. We are grandfathered into the unlimited plan at $30/phone for data. If Verizon's rate turned out to be a family plan, we might actually save money. We might have to buy more than the 2 gigs. But, sure 3 gigs would cost less than the $90 we are spending now.
I still think $30 for 2G is a complete rip-off. Don't get me wrong. But, I'm being optimistic....because if it turns out to be as bad as it sounds: $30 for 2G each, I would consider going old school and just forget about the whole darn smart phone thing. If I have to bend over and take it where the sun won't shine just to have a smart phone, I will just do without. We survived without it for years, we can survive without it again. They might get the message when smart phone sales plummet.
In the end, I think Google, Apple, Motorola, Micro$oft, HTC and other hardware makers will come to the rescue. They will be hurt by unrealistic pricing as much or more than consumers.
As for my usage, well 2 or 3 gigs for my family would probably do be enough. I hate to admit that because I feel like I'm "giving in". But, the reality is that I use Pandora a lot. I use the web all I can stand on ATT's crappy 3G network, as well as other typical usage such as maps and email. My son uses his as much as he wants. He uses the most data at around 1 gig or so (watching YouTube). My wife rarely uses data.
You can thank all of the video apps for this (Skype, Facetime, Netflix, Hulu, etc). There simply isn't enough capacity for 300 million Americans to stream video. So, the carriers are forced to ration it.
To me the iPad wi-fi is useless without 3g...I am glad I got the 3g from At&t.
Tethering is separate from your regular phone bill kido.
I have high speed wifi at my hotel front desk job so I could down load a movie in no time. And I also have high speed Internet at home where I use my airport express for the wireless.
So screw the 3G version iPad. I ain't dishing out anymore money to them greedy mofos!!
And if AT&T starts messing up I'll toss my iPhone in the canal and go metro pcs. I swear!!
I really don't need all that high end crap anyway.Internet in my pocket is alright but I could l easily without a phone with internet access.
I was at Fry's to buy my son a monitor. They had a nice LG 23" for 219 on sale.. They also have a Internet price match guarantee... So I loaded up Newegg on my iPhone and sure enough they had it on sale for 159 with free shipping and no tax. Begrudgingly they matched the price....
Internet is indispensable.... I won't give up my iPhone, I will just look for ways it can pay me.
Oooh! This new era of cloud computing is so amazing! Netflicks, Amazon Prime, Roku, millions of Apps on my iPhone. Lion and all the orgasmic goodness to come!
Oh, what's this? My DSL provider (At&t) instituted data caps. Oh, my. After spending a bit of time I finally found the At&t page where they say they show my data useage. Oh Oh! I guess it's bye bye to Netflix.
Oh well, I have my iPhone and I can stream my iTunes music very soon.
Oh Oh! My wireless provider, Verizon, the only one that offer me a working signal where I work and live has decided to begin naughty rate hikes for cellular data.
I worry about our nation's wealthy people. I hope they won't be harmed by this. After all, they are smarter than me and we need them to be able to use lots of data to keep our economy rich.
I'm going to Walmart tomorrow and get a TracPhone.
i pay $25/month. unlimited text. unlimited data. 300 minutes only, but who talks anymore? and i can use skype anyway. If you want 1200 minutes, way more than anyone needs, it's still only $45/month.
No Contract. I can stop anytime. Android phone was only $150, cheaper than most contract phones. Sprint network is just about as big as Verizon's (it's CDMA after all) and roaming is not needed even in rural areas.
I get full speed until 5 GB then I am throttled (has never happened). But at least I'm not limited.
I tether for free with my rooted custom firmware Android 2.3 Optimus V. With Gingerbread and the CPU overclocked my benchmarks are on par with the Droid X running 2.2.
Only disadvantages are small screen (I don't want a huge android phone anyway) and no Flash support (who cares, Apple doesn't have it either, and mobile stuff is all MP4 and app based). The phone is basically slightly better than the iPhone 3GS. Way better because of the software flexibility.
I even have the Netflix app that doesn't check to make sure you have phones that Netflix wants you to buy. I use Pandora at the same time as free Google Navigation on my car trips.
If you don't have Virgin Mobile you are THROWING YOUR MONEY AWAY!
OK, I'm in a peculiar situation. My wife has a blackberry through work, so we didn't desperately need a smartphone "right this second" and never got around to getting one. At home we have a "feature" phone (some lame Samsung or another). But the thing is, we pay nothing to use the blackberry, and our private cell is on a legacy program through Verizon, for $29.95 a month - with taxes, that's a final cost of $38.00 give or take 30 cents (300 anytime minutes, 100 text messages). But, I always thought it would be nice to get an iPhone, or simply upgrade to another plan. So Sunday we went to a Verizon store and talked to two different associates. Tell you what - we had a lot of laughs. See, you can't get a plan as cheap as ours nowadays - with ANY phone, they advised us to stick to what we have because we are grandfathered in, and the plan doesn't exist otherwise. And the iPhone? Forget it! No way. Way, way too costly. Sticking with the free blackberry - sure it sucks, getting on the www. is poky, but you know what? It works, and it's free. I also have an iPod Touch 4G, and between that, my sh|tty Samsung feature phone and the blackberry, we're set. All for $38 a month, total.
My next move is to look at other options. What's the deal with Virgin? I heard good things. How's the coverage?
Coverage is great. I have the Optimus V. Basically, you get the Sprint network without roaming capability. Hasn't been a problem for me. I travel between Ohio and Massachusetts through West Virginia and I don't have any major problems.
To get the most out of it, I rooted the Optimus and installed a custom 2.3 gingerbread firmware, which enables WiFi tethering (awesome). There is lots of support for the Optimus V on the XDA forums and Android Forums. I overclock to 806 MHz
There were a couple days where 3G or data totally stopped working for a while, but that was very rare and I have seen that same kind of glitch happen with a friend's iPhone 3GS on AT&T, too.
The nice thing is the flexibility. If you run out of those 300 minutes, you can restart your month early, top up and pay 10cents/minute, or just forget about it and use Skype and keep on using your unlimited internet
Remember, those 300 minutes have no mobile to mobile, night/weekend, and if you call Voicemail, that costs minutes too. I have yet to use all 300 of my minutes though.
Best choices are Optimus V or a Blackberry. Come on, a Blackberry for $25/month, that's insane. The other keyboard-equipped samsung Android phone isn't so great.
Remember the Optimus V has an ARM6 processor so no flash support
See my above post, which was probably more angry than it had to be. Some guys on the XDA forums or somewhere have the Netflix app without the device checking software that prevents you from using it on unsupported Android phones. I have no idea why Netflix did that but I guess they just didn't test it on everything.
I think Virgin is worth a try. If you hate it, you are only out $25, you can just sell the phone on eBay! Or...well I guess you could just return it too haha
Oh yeah...all my custom stuff probably got rid of the Virgin activation program, plus Virgin's stupid carrier programs that everyone puts on phones (my friend's Verizon phone won't let you get rid of the Blockbuster app. Really???). I know I can get it back to factory state but I haven't tried it and forget how :-)
If you are comfortable with rooting, custom firmware, geeky stuff, etc, the phone is AMAZING. If not, it's still a GREAT 2.2 Android phone and the Optimus V is pretty new, and pretty solid, it's your typical reliable LG phone without the bells and whistles.
Oh yeah, it comes with a 2 GB SD card, and not much onboard storage. Good amount of RAM though (512mb i think)
Oooh! This new era of cloud computing is so amazing! Netflicks, Amazon Prime, Roku, millions of Apps on my iPhone. Lion and all the orgasmic goodness to come!
Oh, what's this? My DSL provider (At&t) instituted data caps. Oh, my. After spending a bit of time I finally found the At&t page where they say they show my data useage. Oh Oh! I guess it's bye bye to Netflix.
Oh well, I have my iPhone and I can stream my iTunes music very soon.
Oh Oh! My wireless provider, Verizon, the only one that offer me a working signal where I work and live has decided to begin naughty rate hikes for cellular data.
I worry about our nation's wealthy people. I hope they won't be harmed by this. After all, they are smarter than me and we need them to be able to use lots of data to keep our economy rich.
I'm going to Walmart tomorrow and get a TracPhone.
TracPhone is great, but check out Virgin Mobile! Sorry to spam...but it is the most amazing smartphone deal ever.
for so long, all of us ATT users had to deal with the Verizon folks constantly talking sh-t about their great company. I never understood the passion for a company (any company) that quite frankly doesn't care for anyone. They care about your wallet.
OK, I'm in a peculiar situation. My wife has a blackberry through work, so we didn't desperately need a smartphone "right this second" and never got around to getting one. At home we have a "feature" phone (some lame Samsung or another). But the thing is, we pay nothing to use the blackberry, and our private cell is on a legacy program through Verizon, for $29.95 a month - with taxes, that's a final cost of $38.00 give or take 30 cents (300 anytime minutes, 100 text messages). But, I always thought it would be nice to get an iPhone, or simply upgrade to another plan. So Sunday we went to a Verizon store and talked to two different associates. Tell you what - we had a lot of laughs. See, you can't get a plan as cheap as ours nowadays - with ANY phone, they advised us to stick to what we have because we are grandfathered in, and the plan doesn't exist otherwise. And the iPhone? Forget it! No way. Way, way too costly. Sticking with the free blackberry - sure it sucks, getting on the www. is poky, but you know what? It works, and it's free. I also have an iPod Touch 4G, and between that, my sh|tty Samsung feature phone and the blackberry, we're set. All for $38 a month, total.
My next move is to look at other options. What's the deal with Virgin? I heard good things. How's the coverage?
Virgin uses Sprint's 3G network. It had an unlimited $45/month plan up until a couple of months ago, but now is capped at 5GB (I think).
I've had an unlimited Sprint 3G plan for a very long time, but I tried the Virgin plan until it brought in a cap. I found that even though the network was the same, Virgin's connectivity was less that robust compared to Sprint's. I had about three times as many dropped connections with Virgin than I get with Sprint.
If you signup with T-Mobile today for an unlimited data plan, and then AT&T buys T-Mobile, do you end up with a grandfathered AT&T unlimited data plan for your iPhone?
If you signup with T-Mobile today for an unlimited data plan, and then AT&T buys T-Mobile, do you end up with a grandfathered AT&T unlimited data plan for your iPhone?
We don't know yet. Firstly because the purchase hasn't gone through and secondly because AT&T could easily go either way with that.
Comments
"We can offer unlimited as long as the usage is reasonable. If you run an all-you-can-eat buffet, but you have the New England Patriots come in and the whole team spends a whole day there, I can't afford to do that anymore.”
http://www.precentral.net/hesse-too-...ed-data-sprint
(ban me if you want, i don't care)
(if u really want to, delete this post, cause there is no reason to edit it)
awesome
And people wonder why the telco's have to implement data caps. If you really have to watch a TV show, or stream a movie on your phone using your carrier's data plan, who cares why performance for everyone else is impacted?
Ever hear of WiFi? Can't get WiFi poolside at some motel in the middle of hicktown USA? Load movies on your phone before your trip, or just read a regular, analog book will ya? Sheesh!
Some people, eh? They live in Hicktown USA and so they feel like they can ruin it for everybody else.
Some people, eh? They live in Hicktown USA and so they feel like they can ruin it for everybody else.
On my last road trip I stayed in 4 hotels, in every hotel the free hotel wireless was slower and more prone to disconnect than my 3G service not to mention having to re-login every time I put the phone to sleep. At a couple of rest stops I was able to get over 4 mbps compared to usually much less than 1 mbps in the hotels. In fact I can get faster 3G service at my house than I can get DSL.
To me, 3G is useless as I have Wi-Fi anywhere I'd be able to use data.
So there's that.
Same here. Most civilized places in the world have Wifi. 3g makes no sense at all for me. It's slow, it's expensive and you have these ridiculous datacaps so that you can barely check your damn email.
I still think $30 for 2G is a complete rip-off. Don't get me wrong. But, I'm being optimistic....because if it turns out to be as bad as it sounds: $30 for 2G each, I would consider going old school and just forget about the whole darn smart phone thing. If I have to bend over and take it where the sun won't shine just to have a smart phone, I will just do without. We survived without it for years, we can survive without it again. They might get the message when smart phone sales plummet.
In the end, I think Google, Apple, Motorola, Micro$oft, HTC and other hardware makers will come to the rescue. They will be hurt by unrealistic pricing as much or more than consumers.
As for my usage, well 2 or 3 gigs for my family would probably do be enough. I hate to admit that because I feel like I'm "giving in". But, the reality is that I use Pandora a lot. I use the web all I can stand on ATT's crappy 3G network, as well as other typical usage such as maps and email. My son uses his as much as he wants. He uses the most data at around 1 gig or so (watching YouTube). My wife rarely uses data.
So, I could get by on 3 GB for the family.
Yeah, that's true. I forgot about that movie.
perhaps the original poster was thinking they might need to avoid use of prohibited words.
Myself - I prefer bastages - http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bastages
Well i did a quick look to see what my carrier is offering and it converts to 9 GB for ~20 USD, so i'd say it's bend over rape going on here.
where do you live? please save all of us who being held captive by verizon.
be realistic how many users watch movies over 3g?
To me the iPad wi-fi is useless without 3g...I am glad I got the 3g from At&t.
Tethering is separate from your regular phone bill kido.
I have high speed wifi at my hotel front desk job so I could down load a movie in no time. And I also have high speed Internet at home where I use my airport express for the wireless.
So screw the 3G version iPad. I ain't dishing out anymore money to them greedy mofos!!
And if AT&T starts messing up I'll toss my iPhone in the canal and go metro pcs. I swear!!
I really don't need all that high end crap anyway.Internet in my pocket is alright but I could l easily without a phone with internet access.
Internet is indispensable.... I won't give up my iPhone, I will just look for ways it can pay me.
I'm no spelling nazi, but I think that you mean - Bastards !!!
Grammar Nazis!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4vf8N6GpdM
Oh, what's this? My DSL provider (At&t) instituted data caps. Oh, my. After spending a bit of time I finally found the At&t page where they say they show my data useage. Oh Oh! I guess it's bye bye to Netflix.
Oh well, I have my iPhone and I can stream my iTunes music very soon.
Oh Oh! My wireless provider, Verizon, the only one that offer me a working signal where I work and live has decided to begin naughty rate hikes for cellular data.
I worry about our nation's wealthy people. I hope they won't be harmed by this. After all, they are smarter than me and we need them to be able to use lots of data to keep our economy rich.
I'm going to Walmart tomorrow and get a TracPhone.
i pay $25/month. unlimited text. unlimited data. 300 minutes only, but who talks anymore? and i can use skype anyway. If you want 1200 minutes, way more than anyone needs, it's still only $45/month.
No Contract. I can stop anytime. Android phone was only $150, cheaper than most contract phones. Sprint network is just about as big as Verizon's (it's CDMA after all) and roaming is not needed even in rural areas.
I get full speed until 5 GB then I am throttled (has never happened). But at least I'm not limited.
I tether for free with my rooted custom firmware Android 2.3 Optimus V. With Gingerbread and the CPU overclocked my benchmarks are on par with the Droid X running 2.2.
Only disadvantages are small screen (I don't want a huge android phone anyway) and no Flash support (who cares, Apple doesn't have it either, and mobile stuff is all MP4 and app based). The phone is basically slightly better than the iPhone 3GS. Way better because of the software flexibility.
I even have the Netflix app that doesn't check to make sure you have phones that Netflix wants you to buy. I use Pandora at the same time as free Google Navigation on my car trips.
If you don't have Virgin Mobile you are THROWING YOUR MONEY AWAY!
OK, I'm in a peculiar situation. My wife has a blackberry through work, so we didn't desperately need a smartphone "right this second" and never got around to getting one. At home we have a "feature" phone (some lame Samsung or another). But the thing is, we pay nothing to use the blackberry, and our private cell is on a legacy program through Verizon, for $29.95 a month - with taxes, that's a final cost of $38.00 give or take 30 cents (300 anytime minutes, 100 text messages). But, I always thought it would be nice to get an iPhone, or simply upgrade to another plan. So Sunday we went to a Verizon store and talked to two different associates. Tell you what - we had a lot of laughs. See, you can't get a plan as cheap as ours nowadays - with ANY phone, they advised us to stick to what we have because we are grandfathered in, and the plan doesn't exist otherwise. And the iPhone? Forget it! No way. Way, way too costly. Sticking with the free blackberry - sure it sucks, getting on the www. is poky, but you know what? It works, and it's free. I also have an iPod Touch 4G, and between that, my sh|tty Samsung feature phone and the blackberry, we're set. All for $38 a month, total.
My next move is to look at other options. What's the deal with Virgin? I heard good things. How's the coverage?
Coverage is great. I have the Optimus V. Basically, you get the Sprint network without roaming capability. Hasn't been a problem for me. I travel between Ohio and Massachusetts through West Virginia and I don't have any major problems.
To get the most out of it, I rooted the Optimus and installed a custom 2.3 gingerbread firmware, which enables WiFi tethering (awesome). There is lots of support for the Optimus V on the XDA forums and Android Forums. I overclock to 806 MHz
There were a couple days where 3G or data totally stopped working for a while, but that was very rare and I have seen that same kind of glitch happen with a friend's iPhone 3GS on AT&T, too.
The nice thing is the flexibility. If you run out of those 300 minutes, you can restart your month early, top up and pay 10cents/minute, or just forget about it and use Skype and keep on using your unlimited internet
Remember, those 300 minutes have no mobile to mobile, night/weekend, and if you call Voicemail, that costs minutes too. I have yet to use all 300 of my minutes though.
Best choices are Optimus V or a Blackberry. Come on, a Blackberry for $25/month, that's insane. The other keyboard-equipped samsung Android phone isn't so great.
Remember the Optimus V has an ARM6 processor so no flash support
See my above post, which was probably more angry than it had to be. Some guys on the XDA forums or somewhere have the Netflix app without the device checking software that prevents you from using it on unsupported Android phones. I have no idea why Netflix did that but I guess they just didn't test it on everything.
I think Virgin is worth a try. If you hate it, you are only out $25, you can just sell the phone on eBay! Or...well I guess you could just return it too haha
Oh yeah...all my custom stuff probably got rid of the Virgin activation program, plus Virgin's stupid carrier programs that everyone puts on phones (my friend's Verizon phone won't let you get rid of the Blockbuster app. Really???). I know I can get it back to factory state but I haven't tried it and forget how :-)
If you are comfortable with rooting, custom firmware, geeky stuff, etc, the phone is AMAZING. If not, it's still a GREAT 2.2 Android phone and the Optimus V is pretty new, and pretty solid, it's your typical reliable LG phone without the bells and whistles.
Oh yeah, it comes with a 2 GB SD card, and not much onboard storage. Good amount of RAM though (512mb i think)
Oooh! This new era of cloud computing is so amazing! Netflicks, Amazon Prime, Roku, millions of Apps on my iPhone. Lion and all the orgasmic goodness to come!
Oh, what's this? My DSL provider (At&t) instituted data caps. Oh, my. After spending a bit of time I finally found the At&t page where they say they show my data useage. Oh Oh! I guess it's bye bye to Netflix.
Oh well, I have my iPhone and I can stream my iTunes music very soon.
Oh Oh! My wireless provider, Verizon, the only one that offer me a working signal where I work and live has decided to begin naughty rate hikes for cellular data.
I worry about our nation's wealthy people. I hope they won't be harmed by this. After all, they are smarter than me and we need them to be able to use lots of data to keep our economy rich.
I'm going to Walmart tomorrow and get a TracPhone.
TracPhone is great, but check out Virgin Mobile! Sorry to spam...but it is the most amazing smartphone deal ever.
for so long, all of us ATT users had to deal with the Verizon folks constantly talking sh-t about their great company. I never understood the passion for a company (any company) that quite frankly doesn't care for anyone. They care about your wallet.
And here you have it folks. Thanks for coming!
OK, I'm in a peculiar situation. My wife has a blackberry through work, so we didn't desperately need a smartphone "right this second" and never got around to getting one. At home we have a "feature" phone (some lame Samsung or another). But the thing is, we pay nothing to use the blackberry, and our private cell is on a legacy program through Verizon, for $29.95 a month - with taxes, that's a final cost of $38.00 give or take 30 cents (300 anytime minutes, 100 text messages). But, I always thought it would be nice to get an iPhone, or simply upgrade to another plan. So Sunday we went to a Verizon store and talked to two different associates. Tell you what - we had a lot of laughs. See, you can't get a plan as cheap as ours nowadays - with ANY phone, they advised us to stick to what we have because we are grandfathered in, and the plan doesn't exist otherwise. And the iPhone? Forget it! No way. Way, way too costly. Sticking with the free blackberry - sure it sucks, getting on the www. is poky, but you know what? It works, and it's free. I also have an iPod Touch 4G, and between that, my sh|tty Samsung feature phone and the blackberry, we're set. All for $38 a month, total.
My next move is to look at other options. What's the deal with Virgin? I heard good things. How's the coverage?
Virgin uses Sprint's 3G network. It had an unlimited $45/month plan up until a couple of months ago, but now is capped at 5GB (I think).
I've had an unlimited Sprint 3G plan for a very long time, but I tried the Virgin plan until it brought in a cap. I found that even though the network was the same, Virgin's connectivity was less that robust compared to Sprint's. I had about three times as many dropped connections with Virgin than I get with Sprint.
If you signup with T-Mobile today for an unlimited data plan, and then AT&T buys T-Mobile, do you end up with a grandfathered AT&T unlimited data plan for your iPhone?
We don't know yet. Firstly because the purchase hasn't gone through and secondly because AT&T could easily go either way with that.