zkSharks
Retired Moderator
But, what is the point??
If my plan offers me 5 GB per month at "full" speed and then drops off to 2G speeds, what difference does/should it make to the carrier how I use my allotment, how quickly I use it, or what I use it for?
I think this is exactly why nearly all carriers are moving to capped data service in some form or another. Their ability to maintain control and/or limit device-specific usage is rapidly declining as the number of users and amount of data increases and, besides, there is always the risk of courts and or regulators stepping in and saying what I said above: 5 GB is 5 GB and it should not matter to anyone how I choose to distribute that amongst my devices.
Certain devices tend to lend themselves to different types of data usage. Tethered devices tend to have larger screens, and tend to favor multimedia streaming more so than a phone -- though that is not always the case. Different types of network usage put load on the network infrastructure in different ways, and controlling hotspot/tether usage allows the carriers to have more control over network strain. Two specific examples are high-priority, latency-dependent online gaming, and lower-priority, bandwidth-dependent multimedia streaming.
The carriers need to be able to balance network performance in all of these areas (response time, average bandwidth, user load, and network type [2G/3G/LTE]) to deliver an optimal experience overall.