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My regional carrier, US Cellular, recently started an unlimited plan. Right there in the small print it says it's capped at 1.5 Mbps from the beginning, and dro

by goda90 9y ago

My regional carrier, US Cellular, recently started an unlimited plan. Right there in the small print it says it's capped at 1.5 Mbps from the beginning, and drops to 2G speeds after 22 GBs used. Unlimited plans are just a marketing move, with no real substance at all.

mikeash 9y ago
AT&T's unlimited plan is similar. You high speeds up to 22GB/month, then "speeds may slow" which in practice probably means 2G speeds. As it happens, this is exactly like all their other plans, except for the size of the soft cap. And, get this, the "unlimited" plan isn't even the highest one. They have a 25GB plan with a soft cap that's actually cheaper than the "unlimited" 22GB plan. I guess people really, really, really want "unlimited" plans and don't care to actually look at what they're getting.
- tyingq 9y ago
  The drop to 2g may be preferred by people that don't want unpredictable overage charges, and like that they can at least use email and light web browsing if they go over.
  - mikeash 9y ago
    Oh sure, I have no problem with that as long as they explain what they're doing (and they do). It's just ridiculous that not only is their "unlimited" plan just as limited as all of their other plans, but it's not even the top tier.
fhood 9y ago
I have an ancient unlimited plan with AT&T and honestly I don't care if they cap me so long as I can still stream music at high bit rates.
milankragujevic 9y ago
Ironically enough, my cellular carrier, actually got tricked themselves, when they let me buy an unlimited plan for Google Drive. Basically I get unlimited upload and download bandwidth with Google's Drive service, so I can for example SSH into my server on the road, download a YouTube video or a movie, upload to Drive, then watch on my laptop or phone with 4G speeds. Since I recently moved to a rural area with only a Wireless ISP (WiFi, not cellular) and the speeds are about 5/1 Mbps, I really appreciate the LTE 4G speed. (The only reason I have 4G at this place is because there is a huge power plant next to my house and they put a cell tower on a top mast of the plant. Neighboring areas only have 2G or No Service at all.) I even tested the service by downloading 100 GB and they didn't throttle me, so either they know something I don't, or they got scammed. The service costs 2.48 USD. Pretty good deal if you ask me, even if it lasts a short while, I'll at least get to upload my terabytes of backups from HDDs. Only problem is my phone gets scorching hot when transferring data at 50-70 Mbps.

by goda90 9y ago

mikeash 9y ago

AT&T's unlimited plan is similar. You high speeds up to 22GB/month, then "speeds may slow" which in practice probably means 2G speeds. As it happens, this is exactly like all their other plans, except for the size of the soft cap. And, get this, the "unlimited" plan isn't even the highest one. They have a 25GB plan with a soft cap that's actually cheaper than the "unlimited" 22GB plan. I guess people really, really, really want "unlimited" plans and don't care to actually look at what they're getting.

tyingq 9y ago
The drop to 2g may be preferred by people that don't want unpredictable overage charges, and like that they can at least use email and light web browsing if they go over.
- mikeash 9y ago
  Oh sure, I have no problem with that as long as they explain what they're doing (and they do). It's just ridiculous that not only is their "unlimited" plan just as limited as all of their other plans, but it's not even the top tier.

fhood 9y ago

I have an ancient unlimited plan with AT&T and honestly I don't care if they cap me so long as I can still stream music at high bit rates.

milankragujevic 9y ago

Ironically enough, my cellular carrier, actually got tricked themselves, when they let me buy an unlimited plan for Google Drive. Basically I get unlimited upload and download bandwidth with Google's Drive service, so I can for example SSH into my server on the road, download a YouTube video or a movie, upload to Drive, then watch on my laptop or phone with 4G speeds. Since I recently moved to a rural area with only a Wireless ISP (WiFi, not cellular) and the speeds are about 5/1 Mbps, I really appreciate the LTE 4G speed. (The only reason I have 4G at this place is because there is a huge power plant next to my house and they put a cell tower on a top mast of the plant. Neighboring areas only have 2G or No Service at all.) I even tested the service by downloading 100 GB and they didn't throttle me, so either they know something I don't, or they got scammed. The service costs 2.48 USD. Pretty good deal if you ask me, even if it lasts a short while, I'll at least get to upload my terabytes of backups from HDDs. Only problem is my phone gets scorching hot when transferring data at 50-70 Mbps.