unlimited data in the future for all?

[slik6996]

I'm just curious does anyone think its sprint and t-mobile get a lot of LTE and grow it and keep unlimited data Verizon or AT&T will go back to unlimited or does anyone think that everybody will be capped one day? Just curious on your thoughts on this good sprint even become a good competitor?

 

[nickgalaxys4]

I'm just curious does anyone think its sprint and t-mobile get a lot of LTE and grow it and keep unlimited data Verizon or AT&T will go back to unlimited or does anyone think that everybody will be capped one day? Just curious on your thoughts on this good sprint even become a good competitor?

I like you idea unlimited data for all.

 

[Almeuit]

Don't think so. Sprint and Tmobile do this to draw customers in since it is the one thing they don't have.. But the other carriers have better networks, usually coverage, all that. I don't see them giving up on capd data especially since so many people are using it and comfortable with it.. And all it can do is cause less congestion on their network for people that worry about their cap... And people that don't worry about the cap either go over or have big caps so they make more $$.

Either way it's a plus for them.

Sent from my Sprint HTC One using AC forums.

 

[cgardnervt]

We are more than likely to see better pricing rather than unlimited data is my guess. Maybe they will loosen up on it but not anytime soon is my gut feeling. Like Almeuit said...Sprint and Tmo do that because its a way to sell their product to new people. While Verizon and att offer better coverage in most areas.

 

[jneusch]

I think you will see Sprint dump unlimited as soon as NV and their LTE rollout are complete. With their abysmal data speeds right now, they need something to attract new customers and keep the ones they have. T-Mo is another with a smaller footprint and a slower rollout. Until they expand in both coverage and speed, they too need a hook.

Again, this is just my opinion for whatever its not worth.

 

[josearmz10789]

It's more likely for gas to drop down to $.90 like in the 90s than for Verizon and at&t to go unlimited.

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[slik6996]

It would be awesome for unlimited everywhere But I'm sure everyone will be capped sooner or later. More money for them and of course we will pay.

 

[Mellimel22]

I don't think T-Mobile or the new sprint is doing any capping seeing as both are consumer friendly companies. Not only is unlimited a good selling point it's what the customers on both networks want.

Sent from my T-mobile LG Escape using Tapatalk 2

 

[cgardnervt]

I don't think T-Mobile or the new sprint is doing any capping seeing as both are consumer friendly companies. Not only is unlimited a good selling point it's what the customers on both networks want.

Sent from my T-mobile LG Escape using Tapatalk 2

I think Sprint will within the next 12-24 months. They are now telling people "Get on Sprint now and get unlimited data for life!" Like it could change in the future. Then again who knows! Enjoy it if you can! If not get on a network that works best for you.

 

[MissyHaney]

Remember when people were still paying for domestic long-distance calls? The carriers made tons of money back then.

I suspect that's what the cell phone industry is doing right now. They're milking us or as much as we can stand.

Who knows... in 10 years, wireless data may be free like today's long-distance calls.

 

[hokiesteve]

Remember when people were still paying for domestic long-distance calls? The carriers made tons of money back then.

I suspect that's what the cell phone industry is doing right now. They're milking us or as much as we can stand.

Who knows... in 10 years, wireless data may be free like today's long-distance calls.

That's my suspicion too. Once they all build out significant capacity and coverage for wireless data, the focus will shift back to pricing. It probably won't happen until 2g/3g networks start to sunset though.

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[Mister Android123]

I agree. One day it will all be unlimited. Not anytime soon though.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4

 

[natehoy]

I don't think T-Mobile or the new sprint is doing any capping seeing as both are consumer friendly companies. Not only is unlimited a good selling point it's what the customers on both networks want.

Until they get enough customers who start using their unlimited bandwidth and they start having capacity issues. Then, just like happened with Verizon and AT&T, you'll see some level of throttling above a certain amount of usage per month, then outright caps, then attempts to get people off their grandfathered unlimited plans onto the new capped ones.

It is a money move, but it's not ENTIRELY a money move. Backhaul Internet costs money to pipe to those towers, and spectrum has limits. At the moment, a Sprint or T-Mobile tower is like a lonely little puppy that's just happy to have some attention when the few customers who use it actually attach. There's a HUGE fixed cost to running those towers, and they aren't coming anywhere near capacity.

If they are successful in getting enough actual coverage to start getting larger numbers of customers, which I hope they are because the market needs more competition, their towers will start getting saturated just like the bigger boys' towers are, and they'll either have to spend MASSIVE amounts of money widening the backhaul and getting more spectrum, or they'll have to start telling their customers that the buffet is going a' la carte.

 

[Almeuit]

Until they get enough customers who start using their unlimited bandwidth and they start having capacity issues. Then, just like happened with Verizon and AT&T, you'll see some level of throttling above a certain amount of usage per month, then outright caps, then attempts to get people off their grandfathered unlimited plans onto the new capped ones.

It is a money move, but it's not ENTIRELY a money move. Backhaul Internet costs money to pipe to those towers, and spectrum has limits. At the moment, a Sprint or T-Mobile tower is like a lonely little puppy that's just happy to have some attention when the few customers who use it actually attach. There's a HUGE fixed cost to running those towers, and they aren't coming anywhere near capacity.

If they are successful in getting enough actual coverage to start getting larger numbers of customers, which I hope they are because the market needs more competition, their towers will start getting saturated just like the bigger boys' towers are, and they'll either have to spend MASSIVE amounts of money widening the backhaul and getting more spectrum, or they'll have to start telling their customers that the buffet is going a' la carte.

You're right it is not 100% for money but I'd say about 95% is for money. The networks can handle it.. If we go back to what AT&T said... 98% of their users don't use 2 GB... So... That's 2% utilizing it a lot when they had unlimited... And you're telling me it's not mainly about money?

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[natehoy]

You're right it is not 100% for money but I'd say about 95% is for money. The networks can handle it.. If we go back to what AT&T said... 98% of their users don't use 2 GB... So... That's 2% utilizing it a lot when they had unlimited... And you're telling me it's not mainly about money?
.

I'm not going to dispute the fact that carriers make boatloads of money. They do. I'm not going to dispute that the current bandwidth allocations are pitifully small. They are. The cell companies are in an unregulated oligarchy, they're making hay while the sun shines. It's very much about the money.

But there also is a certain amount of reason involved. With LTE, a single phone can take up the backhaul for an entire rural cell tower. And if too many people use full-out LTE on a tower, even one that has clustered dark fiber direct to a core Internet router, the tower can only broadcast on so many frequencies at a time, and towers that use the same frequency have to be separated to eliminate crosstalk (hence why all the carriers went whacko bonkers trying to buy more frequencies a few years ago).

When AT&T introduced the iPhone, everyone and their twice-removed cousin pissed and moaned about dropped calls, slow data, etc etc. And that was on their HSPA+ network. AT&T has since put in billions of dollars in upgrades to HSPA+ and started LTE deployment, but they also learned that even if 1% of their customers used their HSPA+ connections full-on 24/7, not only are that 1% of customers unprofitable, a half-dozen of them at a specific tower can reduce the quality of the experience for everyone else on that tower. Bad experience = defecting to other carriers.

T-Mo and Sprint don't have enough people connecting to each tower to worry about this, yet. Heck, around here, T-Mobile is EDGE and Sprint might as well not exist. It takes a LOT of people on EDGE to do any serious degradation to quality on a single tower. It probably takes about a dozen on HSPA+. It probably takes about 5-6 on LTE.

Until unlimited spectrum and unlimited backhaul become available, the only carriers who will be able to offer unlimited service are the ones that have far more capacity then their current demand requires, and they can use that overcapacity as a selling point. But if enough people buy it, they'll start running out. They'll start by kicking off the heaviest, most unprofitable users (just like AT&T and Verizon did). Then they'll introduce a cheaper plan for those who want to accept limited service and don't use 400GB a month (just like AT&T and Verizon did). Then they'll eliminate even being able to buy new unlimited plans and start throttling usage for those on them (Again, AT&T, Vz). Then they'll do their best to get people off the unlimited plans (AT&T/Vzw).

But, even so, money is the significant motivator. Having a subset of customers who are paying the same as everyone else but costing the company more money than they pay, and/or degrading the experience for everyone else and forcing the company to pay for expensive upgrades to keep a decent customer experience is bad for profits. Jettison those customers and you make more money.

If you get a chance to look behind the counter at most local buffet restaurants, they often have a series of pictures of people the employees are instructed to refuse to serve. These customers are either really big eaters to the point where they lose the restaurant huge amounts of money, or have a habit of wasting large amounts of food (taking ALL the crab legs, eating one or two, saying they are full, and throwing $75 worth into the trash uneaten). Sure, there are hard feelings, and occasional bad publicity, but there are some customers you just don't want and will take some bad publicity to avoid serving.

 

[Almeuit]

Very true and good post btw. I hope one day the caps will increase.. I've never been fully against caps (of course I like unlimited with no worries) but I just feel that a 2 GB cap may work for some.. But others who stream and use media heavy applications it isn't enough. In today's age you really can blow through a few GB easily if not watching.. And sure there are bigger caps for plans but when your data plan for your phone is only 10-20GB but costing you more than your home Internet.. It's like.. Not worth it. I just say the caps need to be reasonable and then some people won't be so against them.

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[dpham00]

You're right it is not 100% for money but I'd say about 95% is for money. The networks can handle it.. If we go back to what AT&T said... 98% of their users don't use 2 GB... So... That's 2% utilizing it a lot when they had unlimited... And you're telling me it's not mainly about money?

Sent from my T-Mobile HTC One using AC Forums.

Money is one factor. Spectrum is another. Speaking of my personal experience on Verizon, there are times that it's 4GLTE network gets very congested, to the point where even reading e-mail or browsing the web is extremely slow. Sometimes, it is faster for me to force my phone to 3G. During peak times, Verizon has reached and exceeded capacity in some areas on their 700mhz upper block C spectrum. That's why they are working on implementing 4GLTE on their 1700/2100mhz spectrum, to relieve congestion on their band 13 LTE. Keep in mind that this is only really in limited areas and times and usually in business areas or areas where large numbers of people congregate. I never have a problem at home or at places where there aren't a large number of people.

In a sense, spectrum does come down to money, but only to a point, a carrier cannot buy up all the spectrum, the FCC won't allow this. Verizon had to agree with the FCC to sell some of it's lower 700mhz spectrum (which it isn't using) in order to buy some AWS spectrum for it's band 4 LTE network that it is creating.

I realize this is an AT&T thread, I have heard of complaints from AT&T users similar to my situation as well.

Also, mobile data demand is increasing at a huge rate. The FCC estimates that mobile data demand in 2015 will be 25-50 times what it was in 2010.
Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note II