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How much cellular data people use is dictated far more by data caps and usurious overage charges than by the speed of their connection. With overage charges of

How much cellular data people use is dictated far more by data caps and usurious overage charges than by the speed of their connection. With overage charges of >$100 a GB in some parts of the world, usage per person isn't going to increase just because speeds go up. Unless the carriers have a sudden outbreak of generosity, data caps won't rise under 5G, so usage per person will stay the same but improved efficiency will allow the carriers to extract more profits from more people per cell simultaneously. 5G doesn't solve any problems for end-users. It solves the carriers' problem of 'how can we get more people to use up their data cap faster.'

Reason077 6y ago
Data caps seem to have risen pretty fast recently under 4G, and the prices of unlimited data plans have come down. You can get unlimited 5G data plans, on a good network, for under £30 per month here in the UK. Even cheaper on a crappy network! Of course, how fast and aggressively the prices come down depends on the competitive environment in your country. But it will happen.
- DaiPlusPlus 6y ago
  My T-Mobile USA plan is $85/mo :( I miss my old O2 and Orange £10 top-ups I’d buy as a sport with my weekly pocket-money.
SahAssar 6y ago
In some parts of the world it's very normal to have unlimited data without slowdowns. Some months I have downloaded around 200-400GB on a normal 40$/month cellular plan with no extra charges.
- BeeOnRope 6y ago
  In Chile I pay about 5,400 pesos, about $7, for unlimited LTE, unlimited calls, unlimited tethering. Speeds are OK, between 5 and 20 Mbps usually.
rayiner 6y ago
> Unless the carriers have a sudden outbreak of generosity, data caps won't rise under 5G, Verizon's $80/month plan (for individuals) right now has unlimited 5G, plus 50GB of 4G LTE before you hit the soft cap. When 4G LTE was first introduced, the price was $80 for 10GB of 4G LTE. That's a factor of 5 improvement in less than a decade. Likewise, I can get 150 mbps+ on XLTE out here in the 'burbs (where Verizon's network really shines). Back in 2011, 5-10 mbps would have been great speeds. What else in the computer industry has improved by that much over the last decade? Maybe multi-core performance of Apple's phone CPUs? (7x jump from 2013 to today.) Certainly nothing in the desktop or laptop realm. A 2019 iMac with 9th generation core CPU is only about twice as fast (multicore) than a 2011 iMac with 3rd generation core CPU. EDIT: The $45/month is lines on a family plan. Corrected to compare $80/month for an individual plan.
- dragontamer 6y ago
  > What else in the computer industry has improved by a factor of 10 over the last decade? SSDs were still SATA in 2010 and capped at 500GB/s (and in practice were slower than that). High-end SSDs today are maxing out PCIe 4.0 x4 for 6000+ GB/s. GPUs probably have a 10x increase in speed. AMD 5870 and GTX 200 series... yeah... that's way old. Hard drive capacity is probably 10x bigger, maybe. CPUs and RAM haven't improved much. Most things seem to be getting faster though.
  - fomine3 6y ago
    nit: MB/s
- lancepioch 6y ago
  Are you talking about the Play More Unlimited plan from Verizon? That costs $80 per month for one person and also includes taxes and fees.
  - rayiner 6y ago
    You're right, it's $45 when you have 4 lines. Corrected.

Reason077 6y ago

Data caps seem to have risen pretty fast recently under 4G, and the prices of unlimited data plans have come down. You can get unlimited 5G data plans, on a good network, for under £30 per month here in the UK. Even cheaper on a crappy network! Of course, how fast and aggressively the prices come down depends on the competitive environment in your country. But it will happen.

DaiPlusPlus 6y ago
My T-Mobile USA plan is $85/mo :( I miss my old O2 and Orange £10 top-ups I’d buy as a sport with my weekly pocket-money.

SahAssar 6y ago

In some parts of the world it's very normal to have unlimited data without slowdowns. Some months I have downloaded around 200-400GB on a normal 40$/month cellular plan with no extra charges.

BeeOnRope 6y ago
In Chile I pay about 5,400 pesos, about $7, for unlimited LTE, unlimited calls, unlimited tethering. Speeds are OK, between 5 and 20 Mbps usually.

rayiner 6y ago

> Unless the carriers have a sudden outbreak of generosity, data caps won't rise under 5G, Verizon's $80/month plan (for individuals) right now has unlimited 5G, plus 50GB of 4G LTE before you hit the soft cap. When 4G LTE was first introduced, the price was $80 for 10GB of 4G LTE. That's a factor of 5 improvement in less than a decade. Likewise, I can get 150 mbps+ on XLTE out here in the 'burbs (where Verizon's network really shines). Back in 2011, 5-10 mbps would have been great speeds. What else in the computer industry has improved by that much over the last decade? Maybe multi-core performance of Apple's phone CPUs? (7x jump from 2013 to today.) Certainly nothing in the desktop or laptop realm. A 2019 iMac with 9th generation core CPU is only about twice as fast (multicore) than a 2011 iMac with 3rd generation core CPU. EDIT: The $45/month is lines on a family plan. Corrected to compare $80/month for an individual plan.

dragontamer 6y ago
> What else in the computer industry has improved by a factor of 10 over the last decade? SSDs were still SATA in 2010 and capped at 500GB/s (and in practice were slower than that). High-end SSDs today are maxing out PCIe 4.0 x4 for 6000+ GB/s. GPUs probably have a 10x increase in speed. AMD 5870 and GTX 200 series... yeah... that's way old. Hard drive capacity is probably 10x bigger, maybe. CPUs and RAM haven't improved much. Most things seem to be getting faster though.
- fomine3 6y ago
  nit: MB/s
lancepioch 6y ago
Are you talking about the Play More Unlimited plan from Verizon? That costs $80 per month for one person and also includes taxes and fees.
- rayiner 6y ago
  You're right, it's $45 when you have 4 lines. Corrected.