Caps are
nothing new to the world's 3G networks, but T-Mobile's being particularly stingy with the bytes -- 1GB is all you get. Well, technically you can get more than that, but our friends in magenta are reserving the right to throttle you back to a stifling 50Kbps -- virtually useless by smartphone standards, and less than what even a good EDGE network is capable of providing. That's going to be sour news to heavy
G1 users, especially as Android touts its stellar connectivity, world-class browser, and a full suite of data-gorging apps. For now, we're going to cut T-Mob some slack on this since the threat is purely theoretical, but if they start enforcing this little stipulation with a heavy hand, the G1 is going to have to stay in the pocket a little more than we'd like.
[Thanks, Emmanuel C.]
posted Sep 23rd 2008 2:51PM
Well, with T-Mobile being the FIRST to limit 3G speed and put a 1GB Cap on data on PHONES - not data cards even, but PHONES - They footbullet themselves so much that now, I dont even want to go back to T-Mobile, nor will I even recommend them to anyone anymore.
At least with my Sprint phone unlimited means unlimited on the phone - while data cards are limited softly to 5GB at least 2 of the 3 months your able to abuse that and go over without them getting all mad at you.
Hell, even AT&T hasnt limited their iPhone 3G speed or data GB's!!!
make sure you do your research before you speak. AT&T has a 5GB cap on all data plans, including iPhone 3G and other devices. so does verizon, and i'm sure sprint does too. i don't really look into sprint because to me their obsolete in the wireless world now :]
not according to my soon to be touch pro....
1GB really? that's a joke right? with html email and a couple youtube vids you're screwed....what a joke. That might keep me from purchasing right there....I know I go over 5GB routinely on my Curve so I know with streaming video that's going to hit fast.
According to my math, which might be wrong, that comes out to only a little more than an hour of 64kbps streaming music per day.
64kbps = 8 KB/s, 1 hour = 3600 (seconds) * 8 = 28800 KB / 1024 = ~28,1 MB
This is ridiculous!
$35 per month and you only get 1GB?
The iphone 3G is $30 / month for unlimited, and the AT&T 3G network is available in 20 times more places right now.
I don't mind a resonable cap, but 1 GB is way too low. I'm a average user on my smartphone and I typically rack up over 800MB download and 100MB upload. So even with my average useage I'm pushing the limit.
With a phone like the G1, which encourages people to download apps, surf the web, check Gmail, download music, etc. they are going to have a ton of people over the 1GB mark.
They better rethink this.
Even if it's just a scare tactic and will not be enforced, it's pretty crappy of Tmobile. Why scrare you customers into not using all the features you just hyped up?
Stupid.
"Some downloads such as movies, music, and games, not included."
So much for that Amazon mp3 service they just hyped up ...
I bought an iPhone 3G the week it launched. I just looked at my "Usage" screen and it shows I last reset the counters on 7/17/08, so this is 2 full months of data plus a couple of days. Guess how much data transfer I have used? 260 MEGABYTES downloaded, 41 MB uploaded. Maybe its because I have wifi at home and half-dozen computers at work and home so I don't stream music or watch video on the tiny little screen. I do use Apps when I'm on the go, especially sports scores and maps/GPS, but mainly its a push email device and a PHONE (replacing a Verizon Blackberry which replaced a Motorola Q which replaced a Treo -- and I never went over 100MB/month on those either)
I just can't see this being an issue, since the G1 includes wifi. Who wants to transfer gigabytes of data over a wireless connection? I have a laptop 3G data card and I probably don't go over a couple GB/month using it frequently. I just really have to question how you use that much data over a smartphone, unless you're doing something stupid (and laptop tethering doesn't count, because it isn't allowed on either the iPhone or the G1) - the average user (and I'm definitely more of a power user) will never touch 1GB per month, and the abusers of the service are the same ones that complain about how expensive their data plan is. I'm paying for the Enterprise data plan (with a heavy corporate discount), so I don't want to hear it.
T-mobile has cheap, CHEAP service and is consumer oriented. For the bargain prices they offer, 1GB is reasonable. If you use more, pay more.
maybe, just maybe many "consumers" use a lot of MB's because they watch videos and check out photos with their phone?
You might be a power user, but you might not be a Youtube or facebook power user.
You can have thousands of computers at home, but do you also have one on public transportation? Yeah, that's what I thought.
Streaming music would get you in trouble.
The problem is that you can't pay more if you want to use more. They don't have an UNLIMITED unlimited plan.
I'd be happy to pay $5/GB for wireless bandwidth with no caps. I will *not* pay the $13+/GB cell phone companies are trying to charge with their $60/5GB plans, which is over an order of magnitude more expensive than what I would pay for quality hardline bandwidth even in somewhat rural areas.
Either the cell phone companies are just collectively gouging customers because they can (price fixing lawsuit, anyone?), or their costs for wireless data really are astronomically expensive, meaning it's not "there" yet, and they need to stop marketing it to the masses.
Being a pessimist, I'll go with the former option...
In my first month of using the 3G iPhone, I reached roughly 1.8 GBs of data usage (u/l and d/l). In my second month, I reached 2.4 GBs of data usage. I would not survive on T-Mobile's network!!!
This is even worse than the other carriers' greed. I was really hoping that TMO was going to position themselves as the great replacement for Sprint. Sprint was also so easy and flexible with their data, unlike the others. Unfortunately, looks like big pink is even worse than big blue, big red, and ugly yellow. Ok, enough with the colors.
Seriously, for simple text-only sites and a few emails a week, this would be ok, but for a company that encourages heavy use, they will very quickly lose a lot of credibility and create unhappy customers.
Call a spade a spade- the comparable iPhone plan is $50/month since with AT&T's iPhone 3G plans, ot a single text is included.
Even T-Mo's $25 plan includes 400 texts. With the cheapest T-Mobile voice plan being $29.99, overall you ARE getting a better deal.
And why does everyone get so involved with this? It doesn't say: 'WE WILL CAP NO MATTER WHAT...' it says 'We MAY...'
I read this as: Let's see how our 3G network holds up in reality - and how many people really think they must download TV-shows over a 3G network while there are thousand of free faster WiFi hotspots around them- and if it can handle the storm, we won't bother throttling users down.'
I agree with Wolfi. I think T-Mobile is just throwing that out there to see how the 3G network will hold up. So many people have WiFi in their homes now and hell even most restaurants and cafes have WiFi. Just use the WiFi when you are in a place that has WiFi, if you're not, then use your 3G. But I still think a 1GB cap is being a little over zealous. Even at&t doesn't restrict you that much.
I agree. You don't get charged against your data from your own network...only on T-mob's 3G Network. You're telling me you don't have a WiFi network at home? Hotspot at home is only $10.
I still have the old 2G iphone and my average for the past 6 months have been 6.1GB a month. Then again I am constantly on the net or listening to streaming music or watching videos. With the launch of the app store and a good month of using the apps my usage went up about 2GB with all the great apps on there. Yeh, I would be up the creek with the android. Plus the iphone has dozens more apps then the android has as of today.
How can you POSSIBLY use that much data? I struggle to make it through the work day on a single battery charge with my moderate use, 3G off, wifi off, just using email and some things like Evernote, Loopt, weather, news (RSS), and normal phone usage. I do ~150MB/mo on the cellular network. How can you spend that much time away from a Wifi hotspot? How do you get the battery to work long enough to transfer that much data? It is painful for me to watch a single Youtube video over Edge or even 3G with the constantly buffering. And, I have 12GB of music on my iPhone to listen to so I don't need to stream Pandora. Your usage isn't anything remotely normal, or even sane.
"Reserve the right," means they can at their discretion...... Doesn't mean they will. Some of you people jump the gun waaaay too quickly.
This is mainly a scare tactic to keep wireless network perma downloaders/uploaders off the network and keep it consistent for everyone else who will use it for normal applications. 95% of users will most likely never hit the 1GB mark. For the other 5% of you, T-Mobile wants you to be scared.
Until someone is actually bumped down to the lower speeds, perhaps we should hold off on judgement?
See there had to be some kind of "catch" coming from T-Mob. 1gb Data is NOTHING, regardless of Wi-Fi. Who wants to be rely on Wi-Fi for most of their data?
On a few posts some people said they are probably testing out the 3G network with the rollout of the G1 Android and how the network is going to hold up with more significant traffic. They have to limit it so the network doesn't get too bogged down. With all the cool features of the G1 you would think they wouldn't cap off that low since this phone is made for data. The T-Mob's true colors are showing.........cheap price.....cheaper service
Looking at my usage on T-Mobile for the last moneth (and using Edge!): 3.5 Gb!
Of course T-Mobile Total Internet is my only internet service, and most of that was updating Debian Linux on my home PC to Lenny. However, Ich do at least one Linux install/update per moneth so a cap would not be good for me.
So, you're using a wireless card?
That is ridiculous! TMO just be kidding!
Don't download any HDTV shows from iTunes!
I don't know if people are misunderstanding the statement. You are still getting unlimited data usage, but once you reach 1GB of data in a bill cycle your internet connection speed will decrease to edge/gprs speeds until your next billing begins. You are not going to get charged overages for surpassing 1GB of data. And the $35 for data is for unlimited internet and text, if you want less text it will $25 for internet and 400 text. I wish people actually understood what they read before making negative remarks.
Here, in the UK on 'unlimited' data plans you got 500 MB from Vodafone, 1GB from T-Mobile, 250MB from Orange and 200MB from O2 (don't know if it's the same for O2's iPhone plan). With all my web browsing, email and rss I hardly use more than 120 MB per month so 1GB looks like an okay offer.
I can see an app like Pandora using all that 1GB in a month.
while the 1GB cap does sound pretty bad, there's one thing here that people are completely overlooking: tMobile is not charging any kind of premium for 3G access. Their plan for internet + unlimited text is $35, which is exactly the same that they are charging now for unlimited EDGE access + unlimited text. I think i can live with that.
Will the G1 be a T-mobile Hot-Spot enabled phone?
For example like T-mobiles blackberry curve.
As someone else said, at this point they're not charging extra for the service. And their verbiage says they MAY slow you down if you exceed the preset cap. I'll bet once the network is up and running a short while and they have some idea what it can do/sustain, that things will fall into place. I do have to say though, I agree that unlimited is unlimited, and 1GB is 1GB. Call it what it is.
Personally, I think the cap is there to prevent folks trying to replace their cable-modem with their cell phone, or using it to download Linux CDs, etc. Mainly, to give them an out when someone is doing something stupid. In many years with T-Mobile, I've had nothing but good luck and reasonable service, I doubt they'd change it now.
@Iasthai , if I wanted to just use wifi for data, I'd buy a Dell mini. The whole point of 3G is to use data, and lots of it. Tmobile has taken ages to actually roll out 3G in "21 cities" (cough laugh cough), so to have them pull a 1GB "soft" cap is a joke. I don't care if it's soft, hard, or has a candy shell to protect the delicious milky way cap in the middle, it's a joke. I'll go buy an iphone 3G now or wait until the Bold comes out.....they're really, and I mean really missing the boat on this one......
They have updated it now so it's not saying it's 1gb any longer and it's also not guaranteed your usage will restricted.
"To provide the best network experience for all of our customers we may temporarily reduce data throughput for a small fraction of customers who use a disproportionate amount of bandwidth. Your data session, plan, or service may be suspended, terminated, or restricted for significant roaming or if you use your service in a way that interferes with our network or ability to provide quality service to other users. Some devices require specific data plans; if you do not have the right plan for your device, you may not be able to use data services. Additional charges may apply. Domestic use only."
UPDATE: They've ReCalled the 1 gig Cap, its no More and No Longer Listed on their Website details.
- D