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T-Mobile caps smartphone users' data at 500 MB/month

blogs.computerworlduk.com

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Re: T-Mobile caps smartphone users' data at 500 MB/month

#41

Post by chc »

omh wrote: post #20
SimonPStevens wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"every mention of "unlimited" in their advertisements or contracts will have a footnote saying that it is actually capped" So you are saying it's OK because they correct it in the footnotes? By that logic they could also offer "500 minutes & 500 texts... Footnote: actually, it's capped at 10". What I don't understand is how they can advertise with a word with a crystal clear meaning like unlimited and then totally g…

The regulator for adverts is the Advertising Standards Agency, and several years ago they decided that this sort of thing was OK. A key part of this was because "most" people would never get near the limits. The judgment is at: http://www.asa.org.uk/ASA-action/Adjudications/2008/9/Vodafo... Of course the number of people affected was a figure provided by Vodafone, and by getting this adjudication in early Vodafone we…

It's kind of reasonable because nothing in the universe is truly unlimited, so you'd have to be insane to take it at face value and believe it. The actual meaning is "effectively unlimited" — i.e. you're very unlikely to ever bump into the limits — but that's too much of a mouthful for advertising.

Re: T-Mobile caps smartphone users' data at 500 MB/month

#42

Post by halo »

duke_sam wrote: post #26

I'm surprised they are acting like this in the UK. There's a much better choice of carriers in Europe and you don't have any problems with different wireless standards (GSM vs CDMA). I knew the choice in Ireland was pretty awful but I figured competition in the UK would keep dick moves like this in check.

The UK has the same amount of carriers/networks as the US: four. They do all use GSM, though.

Re: T-Mobile caps smartphone users' data at 500 MB/month

#43

Post by ZoFreX »

mbreese wrote: post #21
ZoFreX wrote: post #11

There is a lot of FUD flying around over this issue. Hopefully I can dispel some of it. Firstly, it's a fair usage policy, not a hard limit. You don't get charged for over-use with a FUP. With my contract (which is with Orange), if I go over the FUP a little bit, nothing happens. If I take the piss then they will ask me to upgrade to a larger data package, or use less, or lose it. Secondly, the "T-Mobile says no vide…

> your internet continues to work on your phone > streaming video and other data heavy activities will not work I fail to see how those two things can both be true.

I know for sure that transmission of HTML and images etc (i.e. most of what you need for webpages) and email continue to work when you hit the limit.

Re: T-Mobile caps smartphone users' data at 500 MB/month

#44

Post by ZoFreX »

steveklabnik wrote: post #37
ZoFreX wrote: post #11

There is a lot of FUD flying around over this issue. Hopefully I can dispel some of it. Firstly, it's a fair usage policy, not a hard limit. You don't get charged for over-use with a FUP. With my contract (which is with Orange), if I go over the FUP a little bit, nothing happens. If I take the piss then they will ask me to upgrade to a larger data package, or use less, or lose it. Secondly, the "T-Mobile says no vide…

My girlfriend used 3GB of mobile data a month or two ago. She listens to a lot of Pandora. Your experiences are not able to be extrapolated to another chunk of the population.

I said it was hard because I was thrashing it. In one of those months, I left Windows Update running while my phone was tethered. During the summer, I was using Spotify every day, on the walk to work and on the walk home again. Even under such heavy usage I didn't get close, I think a very small percentage of people use more than half a gig (which begs the question, why bother limiting it in the first place if most people don't touch it?)

Re: T-Mobile caps smartphone users' data at 500 MB/month

#45

Post by gst »

500 MB is a joke.

I currently pay 4 Euros per GB per month. That's it - no other fees at all (meaning: I do not need to combine this with a voice plan, I get voice for 4 Eurocents per minute [or alternatively 9 euros for 1000 minutes], and I don't have any other fixed costs).

1 GB is more than enough for me, but there's also another plan that costs 9 Euros per months and gives you 9 GB (per month).

Re: T-Mobile caps smartphone users' data at 500 MB/month

#46

Post by ZoFreX »

omh wrote: post #22
ZoFreX wrote: post #11

There is a lot of FUD flying around over this issue. Hopefully I can dispel some of it. Firstly, it's a fair usage policy, not a hard limit. You don't get charged for over-use with a FUP. With my contract (which is with Orange), if I go over the FUP a little bit, nothing happens. If I take the piss then they will ask me to upgrade to a larger data package, or use less, or lose it. Secondly, the "T-Mobile says no vide…

Lastly, it's really, really hard to use 3GB of data on a mobile phone I've just been looking at an upgrade and found that I've been using about 1GB a month. This is mainly through streaming radio as I travel to work, and if my commute was longer (or it wasn't half underground!) I could easily use 2-3GB on radio alone. Incidentally, I used to use FM radio for this but since I got an iPhone this isn't an option!

Using Spotify every day is one of the biggest factors in my usage, but I never got over 500MB. Can you get Spotify on iPhone? One of the big bandwidth savers is that you can download your playlists to your phone, so the songs only have to be downloaded once (You can cache up to ~3000 songs like this). You can set it to only sync when on wifi, so you'll have all your songs when you're out and about (and underground!) without using so much of your 3G bandwidth.

Re: T-Mobile caps smartphone users' data at 500 MB/month

#47

Post by gst »

chc wrote: post #41
omh wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The regulator for adverts is the Advertising Standards Agency, and several years ago they decided that this sort of thing was OK. A key part of this was because "most" people would never get near the limits. The judgment is at: http://www.asa.org.uk/ASA-action/Adjudications/2008/9/Vodafo... Of course the number of people affected was a figure provided by Vodafone, and by getting this adjudication in early Vodafone we…

It's kind of reasonable because nothing in the universe is truly unlimited, so you'd have to be insane to take it at face value and believe it. The actual meaning is "effectively unlimited" — i.e. you're very unlikely to ever bump into the limits — but that's too much of a mouthful for advertising.

It isn't unlimited anyways, because the effective limit is the bandwidth available to your phone.

Still, 500 MB is a joke.

Re: T-Mobile caps smartphone users' data at 500 MB/month

#48

Post by drivebyacct2 »

gst wrote: post #45

500 MB is a joke. I currently pay 4 Euros per GB per month. That's it - no other fees at all (meaning: I do not need to combine this with a voice plan, I get voice for 4 Eurocents per minute [or alternatively 9 euros for 1000 minutes], and I don't have any other fixed costs). 1 GB is more than enough for me, but there's also another plan that costs 9 Euros per months and gives you 9 GB (per month).

4 Euros per GB per month

My mouth is agape. I would kill for a fair, per-GB smartphone plan here in the United States. $10/GB, no matter whether it's your phone, your tablet/netbook/laptop tethered to your phone, etc.

Re: T-Mobile caps smartphone users' data at 500 MB/month

#49

Post by lukeschlather »

SimonPStevens wrote: post #12
mikegreenberg wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understood that "unlimited" meant all you can eat with a biggest pipe we can offer you for the first X Gb, and then we throttle "over the cap" usage for the rest of the billing cycle. Technically, you can keep using it, but at reduced speeds.

Makes sense. But in a slightly different domain, my broadband provider advertises "Unlimited XMbps broadband" but throttles after 1.5Gb. That's clearly not "Unlimited XMb/s" That's "1.5Gb XMb/s broadband with unlimited 300Kbps broadband". Yeah I know broadband speed is a big grey area, and they have all these getout clauses like service conditions etc etc, but when it comes right down to it the whole thing just feels…

Here in America advertised speed doesn't even have to relate to actual speed. "Unlimited XMb/s" means "You will never get more than XMb/s, and there's a cap, but you'll have to figure out what it is on your own. Don't worry, it's very large."

Re: T-Mobile caps smartphone users' data at 500 MB/month

#50

Post by seanmcq »

ZoFreX wrote: post #44
steveklabnik wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My girlfriend used 3GB of mobile data a month or two ago. She listens to a lot of Pandora. Your experiences are not able to be extrapolated to another chunk of the population.

I said it was hard because I was thrashing it. In one of those months, I left Windows Update running while my phone was tethered. During the summer, I was using Spotify every day, on the walk to work and on the walk home again. Even under such heavy usage I didn't get close, I think a very small percentage of people use more than half a gig (which begs the question, why bother limiting it in the first place if most p…

The limit justifications are fairly simple, you've already listed a dozen things you don't do that you know would take you over the limit.

In the presence of no limit, you, and most people, would do those things. It would use radically more bandwidth.

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