T-Mobile kills the 1GB data cap, takes a more friendly approach
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted Sep 24th 2008 6:55PM
posted Sep 24th 2008 6:55PM
"Our goal, when the T-Mobile G1 becomes available in October, is to provide affordable, high-speed data service allowing customers to experience the full data capabilities of the device and our 3G network. At the same time, we have a responsibility to provide the best network experience for all of our customers so we reserve the right to temporarily reduce data throughput for a small fraction of our customers who have excessive or disproportionate usage that interferes with our network performance or our ability to provide quality service to all of our customers.
We removed the 1GB soft limit from our policy statement, and we are confident that T-Mobile G1 customers will enjoy the high speed of data access over our 3G network. The specific terms for our new data plans are still being reviewed and once they are final we will be certain to share this broadly with current customers and potential new customers."
Well there you go. One less reason not to buy.
Agreed.
Happy US citizens! Here in Canada, I-phone is at 100$/month for 1Go/m, no kidding:
https://www.rogers.com/web/Rogers.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=GCT&_nfls=true&setLanguage=en&template=wireless-products&sub_template=iphone_voice_data_packages
No kidding, aemond,
This one action by TMobile is classier than anything I've ever seen from any wireless provider in Canada. Hell, take very classy thing that Bell, Telus, Rogers, and Fido have ever done, put them together, and it's not this classy. Sadly, that says more for the state of the Canadian wireless industry than it does for TMobile.
This will change within the next 3 years.
I wouldn't commit to any long term contracts for much longer.
Change is coming :)
@aemond
There is a promo data plan at $30 for 6GB... Pretty good deal...
https://www.rogers.com/web/content/wireless-plans/iphone_adpacks
Yeah right. So basically the 1GB limit will only apply to certain people. IE: The people who go over 1GB.
Here in Finland you can get dual-sim 384k/384k with no caps for 15$/MO
One thing where we are lucky...
looks like the bullet extraction procedure from the foot went well.
That's pretty cool that they've responded so quickly regarding their potential/existing customer's concerns - unfortunately the network is so weak to start with I wouldn't be persuaded by this. Now if only ATT would listen to their customers about their outrageous SMS charges, I'd be a happy guy...
Power to the people! Gotta love a company that listens from time to time.
Your photo. I have that tablet. It is hands down the single worst computer I've ever been on. And I've been on many.
So. So. So. So. So bad.
I don't see what the fuss was over 1GB. The last thing I want is some super dork doing all sorts of lame unnecessary shit with their bandwith and choking it up for the rest of us who want to use it normally. It's like Comcast throttling super users. I'd rather they did that or charged according to use, that way I am not paying the same for hanging on Engadget as the guy down the street seeding 50 Torrents and choking up my speed.
Unless I am totally mistaken and people "overusing" the bandwith won't even have an effect on me. In that case, I don't care.
Wonder if I will get super low ranked for this... let's find out...
Hey, get off the net! I've got another 1w 14h 22m of seeding left!
If you get low-ranked, it's because you're borderline trolling. Bandwidth caps have their places, but not one as low as 1GB. Hell, just you "hanging on Engadget" could conceivably use up that cap in a month if you read new articles as they are posted. And as they said, they'll still be capping extreme users (although no mention of how much they consider that to be), so you'll still be safe from your evil neighbor downloading his torrents.
Sure Torrents use a lot of bandwidth and in all honesty, to SOME degree I agree with them, some people should be throttled a little.
However, some users like myself who like to listen to internet radio, watches TV through the net, etc would feel the FULL effects of such actions.
When the iPhone 3G came out, for that one month that I had the iPhone, i used a total of 5GB of bandwidth. Thats from just surfing the web, using youtube, and listening to internet radio! 1GB of bandwidth CERTAINLY is not enough the G1.
"If you get low-ranked, it's because you're borderline trolling."
Oh God, get the fuck out of here you luntaitc. "BORDERLINE TROLLING." For expressing my opinion on bandwith throttling, and that I think in some cases it does make sense? I guess if you don't agree, that's trolling, hm?
You'll notice the user beneath your reply, replying to me in a completely rational manner. Try it sometime.
Hey, I for one want to use the thing for low-bandwidth but rather consistent AAC+ streaming. According to Google's wonderous search engine calculator, if I were to listen to this shoutcast during my commute ONLY, I end up with:
((48 (kilobit / s)) * 3 hours) * 20 = 1.23596191 gigabytes. 3 hours commuting each weekday would put me over the top of their previous limit. And this is barring any other sort of activity I'd do from day to day like browsing, google maps etc.
Is 3 hours of low-bitrate traffic a day, spanning about 15-20 cellsites (I commute 17 miles each way by bus daily) "excessive?" I personally don't think so.
With my current Blackberry, even browsing a lot has made it use up 600 megabytes this month.
I am all for having reasonable limits, and policing those who abuse the service (leeching 700 meg linux cd isos for example, via aircard or data connection to the phone) but 1gb for a media/network centric device is too low. I praise T-Mobile for listening to the consumers and potential new customers of theirs. I'm on Sprint now, but October 22nd I'm porting my #, selling my Curve on eBay, and eating the termination fee. I just resigned for 2 more years in June when I got the Curve, but they can go the way of the bitbucket, considering the BB is too closed, WinMo BITES, and no other feature phone can come close with multitasking.
"The last thing I want is some super dork doing all sorts of lame unnecessary shit with their bandwith and choking it up for the rest of us who want to use it normally."
Trolling, you maroon.
That was fast. It was also necessary. A 1GB cap on a data-hungry phone "geared for mobile internet" was meaningless.
What's excessive use Engadget readers?
I'm being serious here. I hear that Verizon and AT&T are capping their data plans at 5G. Is that a lot or too small for the average user?
I do a lot of web browsing (daily until I deplete my Tilt's battery life) and limited Skyping on my phone and my monthly usage is around 1GB. 5GB should be plenty for phone use, however if tethering is involved it won't be enough.
I won't be satisfied, however, until I see the final terms of the agreement.
1GB is too low. I want to browse the web, watch the typical low-rez youtube type videos, check email, look at pictures others send me, etc.
I suspect that 5GB will settle in as an acceptable level for the current generation of phones. If you use it as a tethered modem though this isn't going to be anywhere near enough. A single hour of hulu for example is probably 200MB by itself, and that's not the still coming "HD" video either. Even ignoring bittorrent etc.
That sounds more like the TMo I've happily given money to all these years.
T-mobile is obviously googling themselves and finding the 1GB cap complaints.
Here come the Torrent Whores!
...and expect a tethering app to be one of the first 3 out the door...
I'm pretty sure the winners of the developer's challenge would be there first, but I agree with your point.
I saw that one coming. This is like the big fiasco with Chrome's EULA, they throw these disclaimers in there just in case, but then blogs catch the fine print and get everybody worked up about it until the company has to change their policy to prevent a major backlash.
Just one of the many ways that Engadget improves all of our lives.
alright! arbitrary semi-unwritten throttling policy instead of hard cap FTW!
You're really Ryan Block, aren't you?
no, i finish my Wii Fit challenges thanks much
No one burns Ryan that bad, not even you Phan, how dare you. Shame on that spiked coffee.
seriously, my coffee was laced with magic mushroom tea. oh well, a horde of downranking fucktards descended on that camera post anyway. it's not safe to go out anymore
Dude, phanbouy, you need some serious help. You've posted 70 times today(and there are still a few hours left in the day)!
Here are all of your post times. I guess you got a nice 12 hour sleep last night, huh?
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unbiased
it takes about as much time to put up a comment as it does to realize that
a) you've repeated yourself verbatim in 2 different posts
b) you're a sorry enough of a sack to sift through my profile counting up the posts
And yet its still true.
didn't say it wasn't. congrats on the observation though
And yet your still a douche.
you are the man for having murray as your pick... FOTC is GREAT... cant wait for season 2
that's the best you can come up with "you're a douche"? this coming from the resident prick-wad himself who never saw anything not worth losing his shit about? keep working on those anger management classes, fucktard
Bravo, T-Mobile.
Excellent, albeit inadvertent, self publicity: Create a one gigabyte cap, watch people complain, remove bandwidth cap, watch people sing praises.
such as the two posters right below you. too good, too good.
At least they listen to people unlike at&crap!!! Limiting people is better than just setting a hard 1GB limit IMO. It is at least a step in the right direction.
I dropped AT&T after 3 years due to horrific customer service, suffered through the 6 months my company forced me onto Sprint, and, despite their lack-luster phone selection (the G1 is a step in the right direction), have stuck with T-Mobile since simply because of their excellent customer service. I've found such responsiveness throughout my experience with them. Now, about the pricing...
;-)
Mad props, T-Mobile, mad props.
That's a relief, although there are still a lot of issues to consider here. On paper I look like I would be one of the first people to get this phone - my contract with Verizon is even recently up and their service in my area has been horrible (dropped calls - constant dropped calls!) So I'm planning on switching to another company. What's keeping me back? Other than not knowing if t-mob is much better in my area (and knowing I won't have 3G any time in the near future), the headphone jack is actually an issue. I can't believe they left that off given how much flak the iphone took for this. It might be the single reason I wait for the next Android phones to come out.
Eh on the ones currently in production, theyve stated that their going package the ExtUSB to 3.5mm with their phone. Won't be in the ones out on the first day though. Its in the update on the previous post lol.
I was a Tmobile customer for years enjoyed there service then my work got deals at ATT and the iPhone came out... Well I've been really unhappy with ATT service, (love & hate my iphone, just like every abusive relationship you keep finding little things you can't let go of...) tempted to try out T-Mobile again. I'll be out of the country when T-mobile releases this phone so I hope to read all about it, and if it lives up to the hype I will pick one up in november-december.
wait how much more off of 1 GB??
it could be 1.5 GB, still no good
The cap is designed for people that abuse the service, such as people that decide to get a tethering app and use the phone as a 3g modem. People that just use the phone regularly are not going to get capped, so there really isn't an issue. I will be a heavy user and I am not worried, been with t-mobile for 4 years and have yet to see any kind of actions like these.
So glad they removed that ridiculous cap, and it only took one day. Hahahahahahahaa. I wonder what other 3G smartphones T-Mo will have? Does anyone know?
Traffic should be prioritized by average data transferred per day over the last week. Data from people with a lower average gets a higher priority while ones with a higher average have to wait, meaning high speeds for the former and lower speeds for the latter, with a minimum speed so that the latter's connection is not completely cut off.
You can torrent to your heart's content, but don't be surprised if you start to see 2 kb/s transfer speeds after a while. Of course, as each of your high transfer days is dropped off of the average, your speed should start to go up again.
Also, even if you have a really low priority from a high average, if no one else is using the pipe then you can use the entire thing. But if someone comes along and starts sending data back and forth, your stuff has to wait and your rate will drop.
Ahhhhh, it's mobile-Comcast!
already invented. It's called verizon wireless.
I could work with 1gb/month.
Remember, this is a PHONE. Unless you are tethering it to your PC, you should be able to pull it off.
Not to mention, its got Wifi, and with the coverage in most places, you really shouldnt have to use the 3G much.
dude, you really can't use the "it's a phone" argument anymore. I use my "phone" for Internet far more than I use it to talk to people. I have no idea what my useage is like. There is 3g coverage where I work, but no wifi in the building, because it is state gov't (though I still have a 1st gen iPhone, so I still have to rely on EDGE while I'm at work... Sigh)
Great now they just need to lower the monthly data plan cost to 15$ for non-3g areas. People who cant receive 3g speeds should not have to pay the same price as those receiving 3g speeds.
Why is this viewed as such an amazingly "good" thing? I agree, that upping the limit is generally beneficial, but in a few months we will have people complaining about how they are getting throttled for "no reason". We blast the cable companies for not having well-defined limits and then targeting customers who surpass those.
Not trying to troll on a company that is listening to its customer base, but it's very loose to say "customers that abuse the network". The hard-line is as much a protection for us as it is for them. We just need to get them to agree that a higher hard-line is in everyone's best interest. :)
That's really cool of T-Mobile!!
This sort of response to customer input makes me want to be a T-Mo customer, I'm not, as I am grandfathered into Sprint's SERO plan, and will ride that train to the end of the line, but still. BIG kudos to T-Mobile!!!
OK so let me get this straight...
If a standard ISP has a soft cap and they say that they, "reserve the right to cap a "small fraction" of users who abuse the network" everyone screams foul.
But if a cell provider says that they, " they'll reserve the right to cap a "small fraction" of users who abuse the network" everyone is happy...
I do not understand, why do we trust cell providers judgement over an ISP?
There is a hell of a lot of difference between a 1GB cap and the what? 250GB cap Shitcast is implementing.
But what makes a cell provider a better judge of who is abusing their system, than an ISP?
Before ComCast announced a real cap, they were using "Their best judgement" to determine who was abusing their system.
So why is a Cell providers judgement on who is abusing the system OK while an ISP's judgement is evil?
Gotta ditto everyone else. 1GB may have been fine for phone prior to the iHype and G1. However the high bandwidth browsers that give you the full browsing experience, youtube, etc 1GB can be EASILY hit now. IMHO a more reasonable cap would be 2-3GBish.
There shouldn't be any cap at all. Let's not give telcos/cablecos a pass on this. Build out the infrastructure to prevent the need for any caps.
@Alex>> Really they're not making you pay more for the data, they're just requiring that you get the extra messaging plan. PPC and Smartphone data plans are $20 a month on EDGE. 400 messages is $5, Unl. messages is $15. So really you are paying the same either way. 3G is usualy more per month on other carriers isn't it?
I have always appreciated Tmobile! I truly feel they are a different kind of company. Good work T, it's always nice to know you listen to the little people.
T-Mobile in the UK is useless. They screw everything up. Good luck with them.
Are we all that gullible???
They didn't remove the cap ...they just announced they weren't going to tell anybody what the cap is.
That's not "killed" that's just weasel words. Down with T-Mo's restrictive policies!
YAY!!! More reason to buy! I preordered...did you?
Tmobile appeals to the youth and arrested-development, : ) early-adopting user base. But none of us wants to get in trouble for watching TV. Especially after Tmobile has spent a hundred mil rolling out a product that hinges its appeal to that type of HULU-ish connectivity. If this is where the user experience is headed (finally, after years of empty claims), then carriers have to own it, and get their infrastructures together. This is a sign Tmobile may agree.
Yet again, it's the companies that don't try and halt progress that will survive.