Here's something we can all agree on: data caps are a bummer, especially now that we've all got smartphones capable of gobbling literally gigabytes a day. Unfortunately, they seem to be a necessary evil in this crazy supply-versus-demand world of capitalism we all call home, particularly in light of the
spectrum crunch the FCC keeps warning us about. Or are they? One great band-aid rarely explored by North American carriers is the concept of bandwidth throttling, whereby you don't have a hard cap that results in overage -- instead, you just get slapped with a lower data throughput if you blow past your quota. That's what regional value carrier Cricket is doing with the launch of its new data plans today, offering buckets of 2.5, 5, and 7.5GB for $40, $50, or $60, respectively, at maximum speed on its EV-DO network -- but additionally, the quota is on a rolling 30-day basis, which means you can potentially free up some of that bucket each and every day of the month (depending on your usage patterns). If you exceed your cap, you risk falling down to a lower speed where you "may only be able to do basic email and web browsing." The downside is that this represents a $10 increase in the cost of Cricket's 5GB plan -- and bandwidth throttling still isn't fun, of course -- but at least you can keep using your modem without the dread looming in the back of your mind that you're going get a 20-page bill at month's end.
posted August 3rd 2010 3:31PM
@rcappo
You bet, though I might be a bit more generous. I still haven't found a cellular service that costs what I value it at.
When that happens, I might get a phone.
T-mobile has been doing this for a while.
@gandecab Right. So far, it seems like the carriers that don't have reputations for offering a lot of laptop broadband are the ones doing this, unfortunately.
Verizon, At&t and Tmo have said they're switching to tiered plans, not Sprint. If Sprint were going to switch to tiered plans, they would have done it with 4G. Sprint has too much spectrum to play with.
@scorpeo I hadn't heard that T-Mo was switching to tiered
Where's a link to that information?
@z0phi3l, you're correct you haven't heard, Tmo has not made an official statement yet. Tmo being on a similar network as At&t and not having the bandwidth of Verizon or Sprint (let alone spectrum), it is inevitable Tmo will switch to tiered plans.
that looks fair.
only problem is they don't have coverage anywhere close to me.
FYI, my understanding is that T-Mobile already does this. They do not have a "cap", instead they throttle if you go beyond 5GB (at one point it was 10GB, not sure when it changed). Now granted, there is talk of T-Mobile going to a capped / tiered structure, but for those of us grandfathered in there is no cap. Hopefully it stays that way!!!
A god model that could work for everyone would be $20 basic services (200 minutes, 500mb), sliding scale for voice and data on top of that. But carriers like things to be confusing.
To bad they charge for Roaming.
that's too expensive. i can't pay as much or more for my mobile access as i do my home internet. just seems out of balance to me.
Its "nice" to see companies getting commended for taking steps backwards. Cellular South - the largest privately held carrier in the country - offers unlimited "everything" - nationwide talk, data, text messaging - for $79.99/month and will let you add a second line with unlimited everything for half price.
Too bad Cricket's coverage sucks. I tried a Cricket laptop card for a week. I had coverage right by windows, but if I moved a couple feet away, I lost the connection. Not to mention the fact that it's slow as hell. I'd much rather have signal and speed than not, even if it means a 5GB cap. 850 MHz 3G FTW! I'll just stick to downloading large files and whatnot over WiFi or ethernet rather than use the card as my main internet connection. Who would use internet gaming over this crap?
These speeds are too slow, i like 2mbps.
I have a better idea... How about TMobile, unlimited... And I mean unlimited for 30 bucks??
@zapote21 $30? I'm still on my $24.99 Unlimited Android + 400 text messages plan after renewing for the Vibrant. I love T-Mobile.
@Maverick128
I'm on that one too. Between that and our family plan, the wife and I have unlimited data, 400 text each, unlimited TM2TM, and 1000 shared "other" minutes for $50 each (taxes included!)
I never even use the text messages anymore with Google Talk.
I just got off the phone with Cricket's customer service; luckily those of us that already had service still get to keep our grandfathered "unlimited" (5GB cap) $40 / month plan. I just signed up and got my free modem 1 week ago! How's that for timing!
The people who can least afford to pay for a plan use this service, so what does cricket do? Chrages than an additional fee do pay the bill at the store. A huge rip off of the people most hurt in todays economy.
erm...still far too expensive
Are you insane? Who is going to spend $60? I pay $20 for unlimited Android from TMo and would never pay $40 more for Cricket!
This sounds like a perfect solution in every way. Bravo!
This is nothing more than a slightly less offensive version of data capping. How about not molesting my data usage at all and just charging me a flat rate per megabyte or gigabyte, and then providing me with an easy method to monitor my usage? That paradigm seems to work fine for water, electricity, and natural gas. Why not data?
Honestly, all this experimentation with caps and throttling is just over complicating things. Then ISPs can tune the price-per-bit dial until demand is at a level they can supply. That rewards ISPs that operate efficiently and allows the market to find a natural balance.
If they focused on higher bandwidth, lower latency 4G networks instead; they would have fewer simultaneous users which would make everyone's experience better. Whatever company does that will be able to twist the knife in AT&T or anyone else who adopts tiered data.