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A World Without Wi-Fi Looks Possible as Unlimited Plans Rise

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Re: A World Without Wi-Fi Looks Possible as Unlimited Plans Rise

#41

Post by [deleted] »

scarface74 wrote: post #21
croon wrote: post #9

> Customers will get full LTE speeds until they reach 22GB of usage, after which they’ll be subject to reduced data speeds and de-prioritization. > Hotspot tethering — up to 10GB at LTE speeds — is included, as are calls and texts to Mexico and Canada. That's certainly an alternative take on the definition of "unlimited" than the one I'm accustomed to. Curious: What's the reduced speed? Is it less than 1Mbit/s? If so…

The "reduced speed" is whatever it takes to prioritize customers on the same tower who are not over the limit so they get full speed. If you aren't on a congested tower, your speed isn't impacted. Seems fair to me. Unlike wired internet, wireless carriers can't just throw money at the problem and get more bandwidth. A certain spectrum can only carry a certain amount of data. Even building more towers and having each…

[deleted]

Re: A World Without Wi-Fi Looks Possible as Unlimited Plans Rise

#42

Post by adventured »

Brendinooo wrote: post #40

Just because these unlimited plans are being offered doesn't mean they'll take off. The economics might work well for single people, but if you're a family of five, how many phones and unlimited plans are you willing to get? $500 can get you a good desktop that'll last for 5-10 years, that same amount gets you a mid-to-high range phone that will maybe last for four years. Plenty of places still don't get a good signa…

That's a weird question to pose frankly. US family plans have almost always functioned by discount per phone added to the plan. They average out to being cheaper per person, not more expensive, which is the entire point of the family plans. That's the direction this will move for households, just as it did for each previous unlimited thing (minutes, texting, etc).

To answer it though, the plans will take off and will be extremely popular. This round of competition will be to push up data limitations and speeds, as infrastructure deployment is mostly saturated. Unlimited data will become nearly universal and the speeds will increase significantly.

Re: A World Without Wi-Fi Looks Possible as Unlimited Plans Rise

#44

Post by the-dude »

arethuza wrote: post #30
the-dude wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> signal booster I think the correct term is femtocell

One of these things: https://www.vodafone.co.uk/shop/accessories/sure-signal/

One of these things : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femtocell

Not a signal booster.

Re: A World Without Wi-Fi Looks Possible as Unlimited Plans Rise

#46

Post by michaelt »

scarface74 wrote: post #36
croon wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The "reduced speed" is whatever it takes to prioritize customers on the same tower who are not over the limit so they get full speed. If you aren't on a congested tower, your speed isn't impacted. Seems fair to me. I'm not saying it isn't fair, I'm saying it's false advertising. I also know the technical limitations on the radios on the towers (worked in the industry). But suggesting that it's unlimited, both from…

How is it "false advertising"? 1. It is "unlimited" - not "unlimited full speed" 2. They tell you about the deprioritization. On an anecdotal note, my family was in an extended stay for a few months while we were waiting to get our house built. The hotel wifi was abysmal. We were tethering our phone to our AppleTV - Binge On allowed us unlimited video tethering - we were using 80-100Gb per month successfully without…

  It is "unlimited" - not "unlimited full speed"
It doesn't say "unlimited full speed any day any time any location" either.

I'm planning an internet service that provides unlimited 600 Mbit/s wireless internet. But it'll only be available from 3pm-4pm on the day of the first full moon of every month in one building, in the basement, inside a locked filing cabinet in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying beware of the leopard.

I think we can both agree that calling my product "Unlimited" would be false advertising.

Re: A World Without Wi-Fi Looks Possible as Unlimited Plans Rise

#47

Post by scarface74 »

Brendinooo wrote: post #40

Just because these unlimited plans are being offered doesn't mean they'll take off. The economics might work well for single people, but if you're a family of five, how many phones and unlimited plans are you willing to get? $500 can get you a good desktop that'll last for 5-10 years, that same amount gets you a mid-to-high range phone that will maybe last for four years. Plenty of places still don't get a good signa…

I have a family plan on T-Mobile. Unlimited data, 14Gb tethering per line, of course unlimited voice, text and I get unlimited data in other countries. I went to Mexico last year and got 3G speeds.

I pay $200 a month for 5 lines. It will be 6 soon since they are running a get free line promotion.

Re: A World Without Wi-Fi Looks Possible as Unlimited Plans Rise

#48

Post by jankotek »

adventured wrote: post #29
jankotek wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite opposite. US is far behind and expensive. UK and Ireland had unlimited data plans 5 years ago for 20 euro/month. Today even Turkey or Vietnam have better data deals than US.

> Quite opposite. US is far behind and expensive. The US isn't far behind. The US had over 90% 4G population coverage long before it was wide-spread across Europe. Europe lagged far behind the US in fact. [1] It is expensive. You're conflating two separate things. The US had unlimited data plans longer than five years ago. Some carriers briefly went away from them and are now going back to them due to competition. Th…

Ok, lets put it in a different way. In Ireland I had cheap prepaid card and 40GB/month was not problem (this was on 3G).

I could not do that in US, I would have to sign for 1 year and pay over $1000 in total.

Re: A World Without Wi-Fi Looks Possible as Unlimited Plans Rise

#49

Post by ecopoesis »

I don't think the unlimited plans will last. I think the only reason they've appeared is because we're past the build out phase of 4G/LTE. I expect that when 5G comes around, unlimited plans will disappear as the carriers capital expenses rise during the build out and while their 5G network is underprovisioned.

Re: A World Without Wi-Fi Looks Possible as Unlimited Plans Rise

#50

Post by legulere »

libeclipse wrote: post #43

It should also be noted that WiFi uses considerably less battery than mobile data does, so while convenient, this probably won't replace WiFi anytime soon unless there's a massive boost to battery technology.

I heard that for the first time, so I looked around and found this paper: http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~lierranli/coms6998-7Spring2014/p...

Here the problem seems to be that the base power needed (beta in table 4) is way higher than for wifi.

I wonder if the numbers have changed since 2012 though.

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