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In general, I, like most of us, hate ISPs who advertise "unlimited" data but it really is limited. However, this particular case, the guy used 77TB (jaw droppin

In general, I, like most of us, hate ISPs who advertise "unlimited" data but it really is limited. However, this particular case, the guy used 77TB (jaw dropping) and it probably makes sense for Verizon to step in. Now. going back to the unlimited thing. I really want some kind of govt control here and make it unlawful for these companies to advertise "unlimited" because lets face it, it never is. There is always a "cap" or "Throttle" (EDIT). So instead of advertising as "unlimited", why not say "Use as much as you want upto xyz GB". Yes this does not sound nice for marketing but honestly, claiming unlimited with a fine print is really getting old and boring.

jdhzzz 13y ago
Is unlimited, but throttled, still unlimited? If so my $30/mo. phone plan is unlimited. I'm not sure it is capped at all. It may drop to 1200 baud, but won't ever run out.
- codegeek 13y ago
  You know what I mean. yes we the HN crowd know all about throttling and stuff. What about the average Joe who sees the TV ad for "Unlimited data" and goes "wow I can watch youtube all day". For example, I have an "unlimited" data plan from TMobile. But they try to explain it to me like this "After 2GB usage, you will lose the 4G speed and it will be very slow". They even send me text messages with this crap once I reach a certain "limit" on my "unlimited" plan. It cracks me up.
  - DanBC 13y ago
    I have an unlimited plaan from tmobile. I carefully checked with them what they meant. They meant unlimited reading of email or surfing, but if I used too much data (1GB per month) I wouldn't be able to watch YouTube or download large files. It's an aggressively stupid method to sell bandwidth. Now no one knows what's allowed or expected.
    - XorNot 13y ago
      Man I wish you could get data plans like that in Australia. I have 1gb of data per month, but then I get overage charges which means in practice I can't use that data aggressively at all because of the risk I'll get massively screwed by going over the cap. I would love a data plan which just throttled me down to dial-up speeds or whatever. Still enough to use email/IM, and I'd be able to use my data cap more liberally. Which is of course, why it will never happen.
maratd 13y ago
> Yes this does not sound nice for marketing but honestly It's not a matter of sounding nice. The average person has no idea what a gigabyte is. But they know what unlimited means. Figure out how to explain what a gigabyte is to the average person and I'll get behind your proposal. Otherwise, I'll just read the fine print or search on the net as to what "unlimited" means for that specific plan and company.
mikeash 13y ago
This didn't come down to "unlimited" not being unlimited, though. It came down to him running servers off a plan where that was not allowed, and all they want him to do is pay about 50% more for a plan where it is allowed. I'm not sure how I feel about ISPs trying to regulate what you do with your connection, rather than just how much, but it's at least a different question from the one of "unlimited".
larrys 13y ago
"In general, I, like most of us, hate ISPs who advertise "unlimited" data" It's unlimited which does not mean there aren't limitations. For example an "all you can eat" buffet means all you can eat in one visit and also means you can't expect to take home what you don't eat. Likewise unlimited would typically come with some restrictions and expectation that you aren't watching movies 24x7 but more like a normal person might (call it 12 hours x 30 days?). "So instead of advertising as "unlimited", why not say "Use as much as you want upto xyz GB". " Well for one thing most end users wouldn't have an idea of what that means. So right there that would be a fail in the brains of most normals. How many people can translate "x" gb or tb into something that means "I can watch 10 movies a night". So I guess that is the answer but then again they actually might not even realize how much bandwidth email takes or visits to the amazon store. Hence "unlimited" is much easier. By the way at the 7-11 they don't say "you can have 10 ketchup packs" because then everyone might take 10 ketchup packs because it says they can. Leaving the ketchup and allowing people to take what they feel is right typically results in less usage overall.

jdhzzz 13y ago

Is unlimited, but throttled, still unlimited? If so my $30/mo. phone plan is unlimited. I'm not sure it is capped at all. It may drop to 1200 baud, but won't ever run out.

codegeek 13y ago
You know what I mean. yes we the HN crowd know all about throttling and stuff. What about the average Joe who sees the TV ad for "Unlimited data" and goes "wow I can watch youtube all day". For example, I have an "unlimited" data plan from TMobile. But they try to explain it to me like this "After 2GB usage, you will lose the 4G speed and it will be very slow". They even send me text messages with this crap once I reach a certain "limit" on my "unlimited" plan. It cracks me up.
- DanBC 13y ago
  I have an unlimited plaan from tmobile. I carefully checked with them what they meant. They meant unlimited reading of email or surfing, but if I used too much data (1GB per month) I wouldn't be able to watch YouTube or download large files. It's an aggressively stupid method to sell bandwidth. Now no one knows what's allowed or expected.
  - XorNot 13y ago
    Man I wish you could get data plans like that in Australia. I have 1gb of data per month, but then I get overage charges which means in practice I can't use that data aggressively at all because of the risk I'll get massively screwed by going over the cap. I would love a data plan which just throttled me down to dial-up speeds or whatever. Still enough to use email/IM, and I'd be able to use my data cap more liberally. Which is of course, why it will never happen.

maratd 13y ago

> Yes this does not sound nice for marketing but honestly It's not a matter of sounding nice. The average person has no idea what a gigabyte is. But they know what unlimited means. Figure out how to explain what a gigabyte is to the average person and I'll get behind your proposal. Otherwise, I'll just read the fine print or search on the net as to what "unlimited" means for that specific plan and company.

mikeash 13y ago

This didn't come down to "unlimited" not being unlimited, though. It came down to him running servers off a plan where that was not allowed, and all they want him to do is pay about 50% more for a plan where it is allowed. I'm not sure how I feel about ISPs trying to regulate what you do with your connection, rather than just how much, but it's at least a different question from the one of "unlimited".

larrys 13y ago

"In general, I, like most of us, hate ISPs who advertise "unlimited" data" It's unlimited which does not mean there aren't limitations. For example an "all you can eat" buffet means all you can eat in one visit and also means you can't expect to take home what you don't eat. Likewise unlimited would typically come with some restrictions and expectation that you aren't watching movies 24x7 but more like a normal person might (call it 12 hours x 30 days?). "So instead of advertising as "unlimited", why not say "Use as much as you want upto xyz GB". " Well for one thing most end users wouldn't have an idea of what that means. So right there that would be a fail in the brains of most normals. How many people can translate "x" gb or tb into something that means "I can watch 10 movies a night". So I guess that is the answer but then again they actually might not even realize how much bandwidth email takes or visits to the amazon store. Hence "unlimited" is much easier. By the way at the 7-11 they don't say "you can have 10 ketchup packs" because then everyone might take 10 ketchup packs because it says they can. Leaving the ketchup and allowing people to take what they feel is right typically results in less usage overall.