Data Caps really stink

[S4GRU]

I have to say now with almost a month of using a Verizon LTE hotspot that data caps really stink. I have not exceeded the 4GB on my plan. However, it is extremely annoying and even produces slight anxiety every time I need to use data.

 

I'm always wondering, how much data do I think this activity will use? How much have I used in this billing period? How much more data do I think I am going to use the remainder of the billing period? Then I run off to the Verizon site and check my usage meter.

 

Its almost like I need to do a cash flow analysis (except it's a data flow analysis) every day and meter myself. And now I never want to stream anything at all, fearful it may use too much data. It's awful.

 

Even my family is sick of it. I became a data nazi. When we all were connected to it in South Dakota on vacation, I was always quizzing everyone, "what are you doing right now? You better not be streaming anything!" They all kept asking, "when are we going to be back to Sprint coverage? This sucks." My kids and my wife are used to doing just whatever they want to. They didn't even like the speeds in relation to being managed.

 

Unlimited data is a wonderful thing. Like Ron Popeil says, "just set it and forget it!". I'm really looking forward to Sprint having unlimited data on a much better network. Because data caps just plain suck!

 

Now to call my therapist regarding my new anxiety disorder...

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

[Odell]

What may help is to do a realistic analysis of your data usage to determine if you will be likely to approach the cap. 4GB is a lot of mobile data and most people will never approach that kind of usage. I know I'll get some power user posting that he regularly sucks up a half terabyte just streaming his extensive hentai collection but most people will rarely, if ever, get that high.

 

Once you know that even on your most data intensive months you use say about 2-3 GB then you can relax knowing that you still have some headroom available.

[dedub]

I stream pandora and/or last.fm daily at work, and use 5-9 gigs per month of wimax. If caps were around 10gig I think that would be plenty for most people to not worry even with streaming. Using a shared data pool between multiple people, well that would be nerve wracking for just about any size cap.

 

When I was on att (with a grandfathered unlimited) and started hitting that softcap, it wouldn't hardly keep up with a stream with the low bandwidth.

 

Of course, if I was stuck on sprint 3g all the time, it would be just as horrible for streaming, but fortunately wimax hits 95% of my normal usage pattern. When I get out of wimax area, I tend to go back to radio/sat/usb audio.

[4GHoward]

It can't be as worst as AT&T.

[iansltx]

Heh.

 

The nice thing about having brothers who game (rather than watching lots of videos) is that, once their games are downloaded (at home) 'net usage is low (multiplayer is on the order of 50 kbps for most games). So I don't have to worry too much Just have to make sure not to watch any long-form video on my iPad while connected to LTE, tempting as it may be, and turn online backup etc. off while I'm tethered (I've accidentally gone through a gigabyte in one sitting on my iPad while tethered...never again!).

 

Then again, when I run out of data on that plan, the service stops; I don't get billed for overages. When I run over on my T-Mobile aircard (haven't yet), I get throttled way down...no overages there either. And of course my phone is unlimited for on-device usage (between tethering and on-phone usage, thanks to being in an LTE area for a few days, I've used ~3.3GB and I've got a couple days left in my billing cycle).

 

Now the really tricky part will be when my family heads up to Alaska in a couple days. There are islands of coverage up there that are native Sprint (which surprises me, since Sprint has no local numbers in what appears to be the entire state), but things drop off to roaming pretty quickly. At that point, we'll be down to voice-only coverage on three phones (one AT&T-based, two Verizon-based) and who-knows-what on my phone. Even if I do end up with data, I'll make sure to download whatever I want to watch/listen to while in Sprint territory, or maybe using hotel WiFi, because ~600MB of roaming data (my trip will cross a billing cycle) can go by quickly if I'm not careful.

[S4GRU]

What may help is to do a realistic analysis of your data usage to determine if you will be likely to approach the cap. 4GB is a lot of mobile data and most people will never approach that kind of usage. I know I'll get some power user posting that he regularly sucks up a half terabyte just streaming his extensive hentai collection but most people will rarely' date=' if ever, get that high.

 

Once you know that even on your most data intensive months you use say about 2-3 GB then you can relax knowing that you still have some headroom available.[/quote']

 

That's just it. It stinks to have to monitor all your usage. My usage patterns change all the time. Business trips and vacations, I use more. And with a shared data pool, you have to monitor several peoples usage. This is my point. I don't like data caps. They are not very compatible with my lifestyle.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

[Pillowsplat]

Robert,

Is this a call for help?

Don't jump!

SOMEONE .... GET THE NET!!

Quick!!!

[mellimel2212]

Yeah I plain HATED data caps when I was wit big red and big blue especially with Verizon because of overages sprint is a breath of fresh air I use like 10 11 gb monthly more if I'm travelling

 

Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk 2

[Odell]

That's just it. It stinks to have to monitor all your usage. My usage patterns change all the time. Business trips and vacations, I use more. And with a shared data pool, you have to monitor several peoples usage. This is my point. I don't like data caps. They are not very compatible with my lifestyle.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

 

I missed the part about the pooled usage. I can see how that would get annoying. I am hopeful that Sprint doesn't go that way anytime soon.

[ericdabbs]

What may help is to do a realistic analysis of your data usage to determine if you will be likely to approach the cap. 4GB is a lot of mobile data and most people will never approach that kind of usage. I know I'll get some power user posting that he regularly sucks up a half terabyte just streaming his extensive hentai collection but most people will rarely, if ever, get that high.

 

Once you know that even on your most data intensive months you use say about 2-3 GB then you can relax knowing that you still have some headroom available.

 

Hahaha he stream his hentai collection over LTE. Thats funny. I don't know anyone that has ever downloaded hentai.

[S4GRU]

Hahaha he stream his hentai collection over LTE. Thats funny. I don't know anyone that has ever downloaded hentai.

 

I'm so unhip, I don't even know what hentai is? Sounds like a Japanese city. Is that on Hokkaido?

 

Robert

[strung]

I have to say now with almost a month of using a Verizon LTE hotspot that data caps really stink. I have not exceeded the 4GB on my plan. However, it is extremely annoying and even produces slight anxiety every time I need to use data.

 

I'm always wondering, how much data do I think this activity will use? How much have I used in this billing period? How much more data do I think I am going to use the remainder of the billing period? Then I run off to the Verizon site and check my usage meter.

 

Its almost like I need to do a cash flow analysis (except it's a data flow analysis) every day and meter myself. And now I never want to stream anything at all, fearful it may use too much data. It's awful.

 

Even my family is sick of it. I became a data nazi. When we all were connected to it in South Dakota on vacation, I was always quizzing everyone, "what are you doing right now? You better not be streaming anything!" They all kept asking, "when are we going to be back to Sprint coverage? This sucks." My kids and my wife are used to doing just whatever they want to. They didn't even like the speeds in relation to being managed.

 

Unlimited data is a wonderful thing. Like Ron Popeil says, "just set it and forget it!". I'm really looking forward to Sprint having unlimited data on a much better network. Because data caps just plain suck!

 

Now to call my therapist regarding my new anxiety disorder...

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

 

Dude I'm right there with you 100%. I ported to Verizon GSIII on the 2GB / month plan and thinking about porting back to Sprint. I used 0.72GB the first week, and I'm afraid to use YouTube or stream anything, for fear I might need to stream something. Though VZ has the best data coverage in Dakotas / MN / WI. Can't win.

[Odell]

I'm so unhip, I don't even know what hentai is? Sounds like a Japanese city. Is that on Hokkaido?

 

Robert

 

Some things are better left unknown. There are many things I've become aware of over the years that I wish I had just never known about. There are some things you can't un-see and things you can't un-know.

[pyroscott]

I just checked my usage. .28 GB in 10 days. I stopped worrying about my caps months ago. I am covered with WiFi at home and work. Can't really watch streaming video in the car. My daily hour or so of Pandora isn't a big data hog...

 

I'm on pace to use 1 of my 4 GB of data...

 

Sent from JBToro on Forum Runner

[Odell]

I just went to Verizon's online data usage calculator to see what my usage would be and I was amazed. If I wasn't using wifi for most of my data I could go over 4GB a month pretty easily. Most months I wouldn't hit that but I could see it happening more than once or twice a year and at $15GB for overages that could get ugly real fast.

 

I must amend my earlier statements and wholeheartedly agree with Robert's title for this thread. Data caps really do stink! And how!

[newspapercrane]

I know I'll get some power user posting that he regularly sucks up a half terabyte just streaming his extensive hentai collection but most people will rarely, if ever, get that high.

It's a High Resolution collection, and it was 1.2 terrabytes thank you very much.

[ericdabbs]

I'm so unhip, I don't even know what hentai is? Sounds like a Japanese city. Is that on Hokkaido?

 

Robert

 

Alright I'll tell you despite what Odell has said about sometimes things better left unknown since you are so darn curious. You probably going to laugh at this but hentai is essentially Japanese cartoon pornography and usually its hardcore. Think of a porn video in cartoon form and that is hentai.

 

Not sure why anyone would prefer cartoon porn over real porn but I'll just leave it at that.

[iansltx]

Aaaaaaaaaaanyway...

 

Sprint does do pooled data. It's called Ting. It's more expensive than Verizon if you use a lot, but less expensive if you don't. At one gigabyte per month, a single line user would have to talk 3000 minutes per month and send/receive 2000 text messages to match Verizon's cost per month. If they were a texting fiend (6000 per month) and talked "only" 2000 minutes, they'd come ahead on Ting vs. Verizon. For two lines, 3000 minutes, 6000 texts and 2GB of data would be $120 on Ting, or $140 on Verizon. Of course, you have to pay for your phones on Ting, but the flip side of that is that there's no such thing as overbuying...and per-minute/per-text overages beyond the highest-end plan are cheap.

 

But I'm getting off track. What were we talking about? Oh yeah, for heavy users like me caps would leave me anxious/paying more, both of which care no bueno.

[strung]

Looks like you can get 12 GB of Shared Data on a Verizon plan (e.g. a mobile hotspot) for $90. Then you could use some VoIP app on the phone connected to the hotspot.

[S4GRU]

Alright I'll tell you despite what Odell has said about sometimes things better left unknown since you are so darn curious. You probably going to laugh at this but hentai is essentially Japanese cartoon pornography and usually its hardcore. Think of a porn video in cartoon form and that is hentai.

 

Not sure why anyone would prefer cartoon porn over real porn but I'll just leave it at that.

 

I should have known it was something like that.

 

I'm thankful to live a quiet, sheltered life. I think I'd become Amish, if it wasn't for the fact I couldn't bring my smartphone and tablets with me.

 

Robert

[S4GRU]

I think more than anything, it's that LTE begs to be used. Low pings, great speeds, it just wants to be unleashed. It's a wireless multimedia beast. However, with data caps I feel restricted and only end up doing things I could do just fine with 1Mbps. What a let down.

 

Robert

[Ascertion]

Omggg Rob, do you have time machine so I can advance into the future of LTE coverage?

[strung]

I think more than anything, it's that LTE begs to be used. Low pings, great speeds, it just wants to be unleashed. It's a wireless multimedia beast. However, with data caps I feel restricted and only end up doing things I could do just fine with 1Mbps. What a let down.

 

Robert

 

Exactly! I just learned that the phenomenon is referred to as "induced demand". A similar thing happens when more highways are built and traffic actually increases.

[pyroscott]

Well, not to defend data caps, but I remember when sprint really started to get overloaded in st cloud, the wife would complain about it in the living room where I was on 25mbps WiFi. I have always set up WiFi on my phone to use my home and work networks. Yes, my home network was faster, but sprints 3g was plenty fast for phone use when it had speeds in the 500kbps+ range. Mobile data is intended for when you are mobile, not stationary, covered by a WiFi network. It would be like using minutes off your cell plan allotment when your land line in your office is right there next to you, or your home phone... unlimited anything removes the incentive to conserve, or use a more efficient network. Tiers give incentive to offload your use to WiFi, but they still let you use as much data as you want (with overage penalties.) In rural areas where high speed data is not available, tower load is less, so it doesn't make as much of a difference on the network if people use more data or if their phone is always set to use the mobile network, but when you have a tower with a large load, everyone can't be using mass amounts of data without using a lot of spectrum or the experience of everyone on that cell will suffer. Usage in this manner instead of offloading to WiFi, and especially cord cutting tetherers will lead to the end of unlimited data.

 

Sent from JBToro on Forum Runner

[dedub]

The whole problem I have with data caps/tiers, is that they are fundamentally different from the 'minutes/texts' tiers that we don't seem to have a problem with.

 

And why is, because minutes and texts have a definitive use/cost structure. A minute is a minute whether you call your mom or your girlfriend/wife. A text is a text regardless whether the recipient is on-net or off-net.

 

Whereas, data usages is inherently an unknown and completely variable factor, and it can't be completely predicted before use, like watching the clock on a phone call or limiting your number of texts.

 

When you go to youtube to watch a video, or you read an email with attachements, it is theoretically possible to know how much bandwidth you will use, but in most cases it is not known beforehand. Further, simply browsing the web is a completely unknown usage factor, because nearly every modern website generates pages dynamically, and often has 3rd party content (ie ads) which introduce further variability even when refreshing the same page.

 

The phone companies obviously see huge dollar signs in tiered pricing, and as noted above, tiered bandwidth tends to force nearly all parties involved (users/phone manufacturers/apps/content providers) to be more efficient, than say when you have an unlimited pipe and you don't have to be 'careful' about going over some arbitrary limit.