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Uh Oh, Internet: Basic Mobile Video Will be YouTube-Only With MetroPCS Plans

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Re: Uh Oh, Internet: Basic Mobile Video Will be YouTube-Only With MetroPCS Plans

#71

Post by metageek »

wmf wrote: post #65
detst wrote: post #45

It seems to me that lowering phone prices[0] -- making subsidies, and thus long-term contracts, uninteresting to consumers -- and LTE compatibility across networks will create a more competitive market, lowering prices and forcing these tactics out the door. Obviously, the carriers will do everything in their power to prevent the commoditization of their networks but am I crazy in thinking that's at least a path we a…

lowering phone prices making subsidies uninteresting to consumers I doubt it; irrational consumers will still choose "free with contract" instead of $100. LTE compatibility across networks I doubt this too due to frequency incompatibility.

>I doubt [LTE compatibility] too due to frequency incompatibility.

Are you sure? AT&T and Verizon both have frequencies in the 700 MHz range; I'm sure they don't have the exact same frequencies, but I'd bet that the same hardware can support them. At least, it's more likely than having one phone that can support, say, 1700 and 1900 MHz.

Last I heard, the lurking problem with LTE compatibility was that nobody had agreed on how to do voice over LTE. We might wind up with a situation where you can roam from AT&T to Verizon (it's all IP), but you can't take an AT&T phone and activate it for Verizon.

Re: Uh Oh, Internet: Basic Mobile Video Will be YouTube-Only With MetroPCS Plans

#72

Post by kin »

madmaze wrote: post #30
peterpaul wrote: post #28

Has anyone actually located where MetroPCS makes sets these rules? I have not been able to find them in the TOS

here: http://www.metropcs.com/presscenter/newsreleasedetails.aspx?... "The $40 service plan offers unlimited talk, text, 4G Web browsing with unlimited YouTube access."

How does that limit video to Youtube only? You sure this isn't just a marketing phrase? Is there concrete proof that other video players will not work?

Re: Uh Oh, Internet: Basic Mobile Video Will be YouTube-Only With MetroPCS Plans

#73

Post by hapless »

metageek wrote: post #69
irons wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then explain why there's no EU-comparable regional service in areas of the US with far greater density, like any of the top ten metro areas. Even the cell carriers have large roaming-only gaps and dead zones, not just in the unpopulated western US, but on major freeways in California. Using national population density to explain the extraordinary relative suckage of US broadband is a straw man argument.

> Then explain why there's no EU-comparable regional service in areas of the US with far greater density Because nobody wants regional service? There used to be regional service that was cheaper--I remember my parents signed up for it when they first got cellphones, around 2003--but it lost out in the marketplace, because people would cross a state line and be shocked by the roaming fees.

There are a lot of regional carriers left. I believe MetroPCS, the carrier in the article, may be one of them, since I'd never heard of the firm.

Edit: http://www.metropcs.com/coverage/ Their coverage maps indicate real coverage of a few metro areas, and roaming onto national networks.

It's just that regional carriers aren't a whole hell of a lot cheaper than the big national guys. Who wants a 10% discount for 1/100th the coverage area ?

Re: Uh Oh, Internet: Basic Mobile Video Will be YouTube-Only With MetroPCS Plans

#74

Post by vetinari »

jonknee wrote: post #31
peterpaul wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea I was shocked after i moved from germany to the US. Even worse is the coverage here

Population density of Germany is 229 persons per km/sq. In the US it's 32. It's a lot more expensive to run the infrastructure for a country 27 times the geographic area and 1/7th the density.

That still does not explain why I'm losing signal in the middle of Queens, for example. You can be damn sure, that nothing similar happened in the middle of Munich.

Re: Uh Oh, Internet: Basic Mobile Video Will be YouTube-Only With MetroPCS Plans

#75

Post by grantheaslip »

spyne-02139 wrote: post #62
grantheaslip wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh come on, do you really think that governments are so shook up over WikiLeaks that they might encourage ISPs to turn the internet into a series of walled gardens? For that matter, do you really think that they're that evil? Obviously they're not happy about WikiLeaks, and I'm not saying that governments or ISPs are perfect, but some perspective is badly needed here. What you've written screams hyperbole and is veer…

I find it disconcerting that your appeal-to-emotion rebuttel addressing the walled garden premise has garnered so many up votes. The second paragraph is nothing more than an insult to the ideology opposite yours.

I've got nothing against people having an ideology opposite to mine, though we're not talking about polar opposites here -- we probably both agree about the importance of net neutrality.

What I do have a problem with is people holding beliefs based on little to no actual evidence. I understand the appeal of trying to slot this into your worldview, but it's totally unsubstantiated. All evidence suggests that neutrality is threatened by major corporations lobbying the government to allow them to make more money, not the government lobbying major corporations to turn the internet into a walled garden.

Re: Uh Oh, Internet: Basic Mobile Video Will be YouTube-Only With MetroPCS Plans

#76

Post by motters »

JonnieCache wrote: post #34
maeon3 wrote: post #12

Facebook Fee: $.95 Youtube Surcharge: $1.53 blogging package: $.25 Roaming charge (non approved sites): $5.21 Wikileaks download penalty: $10.00 Destroying net neutrality, killing what made the Internet great in the first place: priceless.

Potential cost to the establishment of forcing all the hackers onto darknets: who knows?

From the point of view of the establishment what happens to hackers is of little importance. Hackers or other tech-savvy users will always find ways over, under or around whatever walls exist. This happens today in countries like China. All the establishment is really very concerned about is the majority of average internet users (who may or may not also vote).

Re: Uh Oh, Internet: Basic Mobile Video Will be YouTube-Only With MetroPCS Plans

#77

Post by motters »

grantheaslip wrote: post #37
motters wrote: post #9

Blocking sites because they're "not on the service plan" is likely to be much more acceptable in western countries than explicit censorship, as in Iran or China. It's authoritarianism dressed up as commercialism. In the post-Wikileaks era my bet is that governments will either encourage, or at least not do anything to hinder, the erection of walled gardens which make it more difficult for the average internet user to…

Oh come on, do you really think that governments are so shook up over WikiLeaks that they might encourage ISPs to turn the internet into a series of walled gardens? For that matter, do you really think that they're that evil? Obviously they're not happy about WikiLeaks, and I'm not saying that governments or ISPs are perfect, but some perspective is badly needed here. What you've written screams hyperbole and is veer…

Governance in the 21st century, whether it be at the level of governments or corporations or other large scale institutions, is about managing flows of information. Wikileaks merely provides an example of cases where such management failed catastrophically. I think it's not too much of a stretch into the murky world of conspiracies to suggest that governing organisations may wish to retain control of their information flows, and take steps in accordance with these concerns.

Re: Uh Oh, Internet: Basic Mobile Video Will be YouTube-Only With MetroPCS Plans

#79

Post by trunnell »

motters wrote: post #77
grantheaslip wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh come on, do you really think that governments are so shook up over WikiLeaks that they might encourage ISPs to turn the internet into a series of walled gardens? For that matter, do you really think that they're that evil? Obviously they're not happy about WikiLeaks, and I'm not saying that governments or ISPs are perfect, but some perspective is badly needed here. What you've written screams hyperbole and is veer…

Governance in the 21st century, whether it be at the level of governments or corporations or other large scale institutions, is about managing flows of information. Wikileaks merely provides an example of cases where such management failed catastrophically. I think it's not too much of a stretch into the murky world of conspiracies to suggest that governing organisations may wish to retain control of their informatio…

governing organisations may wish... to take steps... to retain control of their information flows

I think the point of the parent is that this attitude is defeatist and will therefore be somewhat self-fulfilling.

Instead, we hackers need to assert ourselves more fully in our own democracies to avoid the sort of thing your comment seems to assume is a fait accompli.

Re: Uh Oh, Internet: Basic Mobile Video Will be YouTube-Only With MetroPCS Plans

#80

Post by rb2k_ »

dantheman wrote: post #42
rb2k_ wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was shocked too when I came to the US for a few months. In Germany, I just pay 9 cents per SMS/Minute and 10 Euros for a Gigabyte of data (per month). In the US, I had to pay about 50 USD per Month on T-Mobile. It would have been more if I actually told them I had a smartphone ("Nah, I've got an old Nokia, I just want to be able to get eMails").

I don't know what plan you have, but tmobile for me is 60 a month for unlimited internet, sms, 500 minutes, unlimited nights/weekends.

I used the "T-Mobile Even More Plus™ 500 Talk with FlexPay®" and added the featurephone internet "service"... I could only get edge anyway because of t-mobile's weird UMTS frequencies in the USA. I just had to set the proper APN and it worked (only edge, but that's just because I had a European GSM phone)

p.s. I used google voice for texting, no need for stupid text message plans

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