3 ms·

Part of the problem is the definition has drifted, and the cell carriers want to (understandably) keep using the old definition, and the tech geeks (understanda

Part of the problem is the definition has drifted, and the cell carriers want to (understandably) keep using the old definition, and the tech geeks (understandably) want the new one. When "unlimited" data became a thing, it was in a world where data for your phone was sold in bundles of hundreds of MB, and when you hit your cap, you had no more data at all, or were charged quite a bit of money per extra MB. In that world, it was possible to turn a $60 phone bill into a $600 phone bill doing less data traffic in a month than most smart phone users will use in a day. And so in that world, "unlimited" data was clearly and well understood to mean "no hard cutoff and no overage charges". Maybe "unmetered" would have been a better term, but "unlimited" was something of a term of art already in the cell industry as applied to voice minutes (see "unlimited nights and weekends") and to text messages, where in both of those cases this was also understood to refer to a no hard cutoff or overage charges. For most consumers, the "limits" of their cell service has always been the line before they had to start paying more. And a throttled data pipe is well within that understanding.

Dylan16807 2y ago
If it's always a certain speed, that's pretty reasonable. If the speed drops a lot after a certain number of bytes, calling that unlimited is deceptive. And that behavior is not unmetered either.
- tpmoney 2y ago
  So what word should they use for such a plan that distinguishes it from the plans where going over your allocated data amount starts racking up data charges at $1 / MB? And would you really be satisfied if the company advertised the plans as "unlimited 3G data with 5G SpeedBoost™ for the first 50GB"? After all, if it's "always" 3G then it's always a certain speed, and surely its not deceptive to give better service than paid for from time to time.
  - Dylan16807 2y ago
    That would be a fine description for it. I approve of this answer for your question of how to word it. Why do you think I wouldn't be satisfied? The big problem is that the 50GB cutoff is hidden. A cutoff like that is better than a hidden extra charge, but not a lot better. Also, if they had to directly mention the speed they probably would use 3G and that would be a big improvement over the status quo where lots of carriers go down to 256kbps or 128kbps. > surely its not deceptive to give better service than paid for from time to time It's fine as long as you don't give a false impression to someone trying the service. Calling out the 50GB as a different speed avoids that pretty well.

Dylan16807 2y ago

If it's always a certain speed, that's pretty reasonable. If the speed drops a lot after a certain number of bytes, calling that unlimited is deceptive. And that behavior is not unmetered either.

tpmoney 2y ago
So what word should they use for such a plan that distinguishes it from the plans where going over your allocated data amount starts racking up data charges at $1 / MB? And would you really be satisfied if the company advertised the plans as "unlimited 3G data with 5G SpeedBoost™ for the first 50GB"? After all, if it's "always" 3G then it's always a certain speed, and surely its not deceptive to give better service than paid for from time to time.
- Dylan16807 2y ago
  That would be a fine description for it. I approve of this answer for your question of how to word it. Why do you think I wouldn't be satisfied? The big problem is that the 50GB cutoff is hidden. A cutoff like that is better than a hidden extra charge, but not a lot better. Also, if they had to directly mention the speed they probably would use 3G and that would be a big improvement over the status quo where lots of carriers go down to 256kbps or 128kbps. > surely its not deceptive to give better service than paid for from time to time It's fine as long as you don't give a false impression to someone trying the service. Calling out the 50GB as a different speed avoids that pretty well.