# Data caps, bandwidth constraints, and apps



## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

From Cnet:


> ...just as the most data-hungry version of the iPhone is about to hit store shelves, wireless operators are pulling the plug on all-you-can-eat data plans. Earlier this month, AT&T announced it would eliminate its unlimited data plan. Instead it will offer new smartphone subscribers a choice of two plans: a $15 a month plan for 200 megabytes of data per month or a $25 a month plan offering 2 gigabytes of data per month. O2 in the U.K. followed AT&T's lead and on Thursday announced that it will also get rid of its unlimited data offer.
> 
> ...Since the iPhone came on the market three years ago, data consumption on wireless networks has skyrocketed . Wireless operators say the large majority of their customers use less than 2GB of data a month. But unlimited data plans allow a tiny proportion of users to gobble up much of the network resources, which degrades service for everyone....
> 
> "Once the news stories of people getting $4,000 data bills start surfacing, people will be gun-shy about data usage," he said. "It will put the burden on developers to market their apps and come up with some way of communicating how much data an app uses."


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## BAHitman (Oct 24, 2007)

most of the "all you can eat" are actually 5GB "soft" limits. even AT&T's TOS says that if you go over 5GB, they "can" suspend your data service


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## Lee L (Aug 15, 2002)

BAHitman said:


> most of the "all you can eat" are actually 5GB "soft" limits. even AT&T's TOS says that if you go over 5GB, they "can" suspend your data service


But I have seen people post pictures of their usage over ar ArsTechnica and they are going up to around 10 gig pretty frequently with no issues up till now. I bet they will enforce the 5gb soft cap on the grandfathered unlimited plans now though.


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## Grentz (Jan 10, 2007)

No offense intended towards anyone, but most who go way over the 5gb cap are just doing ridiculous things anyways. I have seen some saying they are tethering all day long at work, streaming videos all day long at work while it is sitting on a desk, etc. Things that could be done over wifi, but people just stay on 3G.


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## Lee L (Aug 15, 2002)

Grentz said:


> No offense intended towards anyone, but most who go way over the 5gb cap are just doing ridiculous things anyways. I have seen some saying they are tethering all day long at work, streaming videos all day long at work while it is sitting on a desk, etc. Things that could be done over wifi, but people just stay on 3G.


I hear you on that. It just seems that ATT did not really police things before. Since they could have dealt with peopel going over 5gig and they did not, it leads me to believe that this is less about trying to eliminate the 1-2% of data hogs and more about trying to get more money from more people (I know, its shocking!)


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

Grentz said:


> No offense intended towards anyone, but most who go way over the 5gb cap are just doing ridiculous things anyways. I have seen some saying they are tethering all day long at work, streaming videos all day long at work while it is sitting on a desk, etc. Things that could be done over wifi, but people just stay on 3G.


Over cellular I tend to agree, though I'm not sure how much things like Pandora and GPS use. Say you're taking a long road trip and using your iPhone to stream Pandora and GPS navigation. How much data could that be?

It's the companies doing caps on home connections that bother me more. Comcast's isn't bad. It's when yahoos like Frontier toy with ridiculously small caps (which still is defined in their acceptable use policy) that make me nervous, especially when if you use one of their partners for say, online backup, it doesn't count, but use a competitor and watch out. 5gb is a lot for a cellular connection, but not for a home connection.

I'll just stay with my service. No caps and they almost beg you to bit torrent. What else would someone use 10mbps upload on a residential service for?


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## BubblePuppy (Nov 3, 2006)

Oh those stupid, ignorant people that think "unlimited" actually means UNLIMITED. 
I'm sure there well be a few law suits in the future, just because a clause is in the tos/contract doesn't mean it is legal.


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## BubblePuppy (Nov 3, 2006)

Grentz said:


> No offense intended towards anyone, but most who go way over the 5gb cap are just doing ridiculous things anyways. I have seen some saying they are tethering all day long at work, streaming videos all day long at work while it is sitting on a desk, etc. Things that could be done over wifi, but people just stay on 3G.


I just checked my att account, I used 2.8g last month just using my nexus1. Today I downloaded over 70mg just in two roms for my phone. And I checked, my account is UNLIMITED, no cap.


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## Grentz (Jan 10, 2007)

BubblePuppy said:


> I just checked my att account, I used 2.8g last month just using my nexus1. Today I downloaded over 70mg just in two roms for my phone. And I checked, my account is UNLIMITED, no cap.


So the 70mb of roms had to be downloaded over 3G?

My point is, given the restrictions, people will think more before just downloading all this stuff via 3G. They might take the time to jump on wifi for doing larger downloads and such.


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## kevinturcotte (Dec 19, 2006)

Is there a way to check how much you've downloaded? Preferably on your router, since more than just my computer uses internet.


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## BubblePuppy (Nov 3, 2006)

Grentz said:


> So the 70mb of roms had to be downloaded over 3G?
> 
> My point is, given the restrictions, people will think more before just downloading all this stuff via 3G. They might take the time to jump on wifi for doing larger downloads and such.


Yes it was downloaded via 3g because I don't have internet access here at my house except for 3g. I'm not going to run out to someplace that has wifi every time I need or want to get on the net when I can utilize my phone and my data plan the way it was designed and intended for.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

kevinturcotte said:


> Is there a way to check how much you've downloaded? Preferably on your router, since more than just my computer uses internet.


Probably not all router firmware has this. DD-WRT would have this type of info though.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

It's interesting to read this discussion. Most days we never leave home, I'm on my computer a lot of the time, my wife's on hers. We both are involved in things that require internet usage. And frequently we use iPads via wifi when not in the home office. In our "home theater" connected to the internet we have two Dish Network DVRs, a Wii, a Panasonic BD player, and the Yamaha A/V receiver.

We have two laptops set up for guests to use which happens a couple of days a month on average.

When our youngest 40-something son visits from D.C., he's usually working with his company laptop internet-connected to the company server at least 5 hours a day - and that's been for a total of 8 days in the past three months. Yet here is what Comcast says we're using:








All of which makes me wonder why people would run into a data cap problem if one is a bit careful to use wifi for large file downloads instead of 3G. But I guess I just don't understand these newfangled data hog phones.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

phrelin said:


> It's interesting to read this discussion. Most days we never leave home, I'm on my computer a lot of the time, my wife's on hers. We both are involved in things that require internet usage. And frequently we use iPads via wifi when not in the home office. In our "home theater" connected to the internet we have two Dish Network DVRs, a Wii, a Panasonic BD player, and the Yamaha A/V receiver.
> 
> We have two laptops set up for guests to use which happens a couple of days a month on average.
> 
> ...


250gb a month is pretty reasonable (especially given the nature of cable Internet). It's when they get worse than that when it really becomes an issue. I admit it's an extreme example, but as I've mentioned, Frontier (who bought a lot of Verizon land line areas) defines acceptable use on their DSL as 5gb a month. I've used 3gb in three days. Fortunately my provider doesn't cap.


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## Lee L (Aug 15, 2002)

Grentz said:


> So the 70mb of roms had to be downloaded over 3G?
> 
> My point is, given the restrictions, people will think more before just downloading all this stuff via 3G. They might take the time to jump on wifi for doing larger downloads and such.


THe issue I have with all of this that I discovered in checking when ATT announced this stuff is that the iPhone, while not plugged into a power source, will drop WiFi as soon as teh screen cuts out. So, you can be in range of WiFi that you are connected with one minute, yet it will use 3G all day long unless the phone is actually plugged in somewhere.

Between emails and whatnot, I am using about 5-10 meg a day just sitting there in range of WiFi. That can bump you right up to or over the 200meg plan without really downloading anything.

They really should fix this if they are going to start charging for overages.


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## BubblePuppy (Nov 3, 2006)

I think that it is wrong to put the blame on the "handheld internet access device" users. Like I posted above they are using the devices as they are advertised to be used....handheld access the internet every where laptop replacements. 3g access is every where while wifi is not. The blame should be with the cell providers that have not upgraded their services..All the cell phone/ipad companies that keep making 3g devices and not wifi only devices (yea, right)....The advertisements that show the ability to upload powerpoint presentations by 3g...etc...Rim/Apple/Google...the app builders. What about all the internet ready tvs, Netflix internet boxes, etc..that will use up cable internet bandwidth...are you going to give that up? 
All I can say is I'm glad I have the "Unlimited Data" plan....besides I just upgraded itunes on my laptop by tethering it to my Nexus1...didn't have to get dressed and go out searching for wifi. Love these newfangled data hog phones, it's all about convenience.


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## HDJulie (Aug 10, 2008)

I didn't think that any of the cell providers had an unlimited data plan that included tethering. I thought all of their tethering plans were capped. It is *possible* for us to get 3G service where we are (with the addition of some antennas) but we don't consider it an alternative because we can't tether our phones (without violating the agreement) & the 3G data plan for PC access is capped at 5GB.


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## BubblePuppy (Nov 3, 2006)

HDJulie said:


> *I didn't think that any of the cell providers had an unlimited data plan that included tethering.* I thought all of their tethering plans were capped. It is *possible* for us to get 3G service where we are (with the addition of some antennas) but we don't consider it an alternative because we can't tether our phones (without violating the agreement) & the 3G data plan for PC access is capped at 5GB.


They don't. But in a sense "data is data"...I don't tether except a couple of times a month, some government job search web sites will only support a version of IE....soooo.... if I have to do intensive "laptop" based web searching I will go to the library for the wifi.


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## flexoffset (Jul 16, 2007)

No 3G for my iPhone here yet, but I looked at my data usage and noticed I've never exceeded 50MB. So I went with AT&T 200MB plan.
I'm still waiting for Comcast to tell me how much my data usage is but I suspect it's less than 20GB per month.

I considered myself a heavy user. :lol:


edit - Just checked Comcast and they put the usage meter up.
March 21GB, April 19GB, May 21GB


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## ncxcstud (Apr 22, 2007)

Just checked mine...

March - 20GB
April - 40GB
May - 47GB

As of June 17th, I've used 23GBs this month.

Of course, I watch A LOT of streaming Netflix in HD.


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## Lee L (Aug 15, 2002)

Well, you better just stay on that grandfathered unlmited plan then!


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

Now AT&T has announced that if you bought one of their Microcells, use will count towards the data cap.

http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010...-microcell-usage-against-customers-data-caps/


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## Lee L (Aug 15, 2002)

Ok, that is total crap. How can they even do that legally, much less ethically? You are not using their bandwidth, yet you are charged for it?

And Bubblepuppy, I must really be stupid, because I just don't get your snide comment? Please explain to me how I was long in arriving that some should stay on unlimited plans?


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

Grentz said:


> I have seen some saying they are tethering all day long at work, streaming videos all day long at work while it is sitting on a desk, etc. Things that could be done over wifi, but people just stay on 3G.


For my workplace, Internet access is to be used for the betterment of the business, not the acquisition of personal entertainment media. We keep our WAP locked up most of the time for this reason.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

Lee L said:


> Ok, that is total crap. How can they even do that legally, much less ethically? You are not using their bandwidth, yet you are charged for it?


Well, they say that you are using their bandwidth, it ends up on their network. But, the thing is that it ends up on their backbone network, which has to have fewer costs etc than their wireless network per user, not to mention less congestion. If they cap, it should be based on the standard dsl/uverse cap (which I think is about 150gb), not the wireless cap.


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## pfp (Apr 28, 2009)

Lee L said:


> Ok, that is total crap. How can they even do that legally, much less ethically? You are not using their bandwidth, yet you are charged for it?


Can't agree more. I'm fairly happy with my AT&T service but just reading this makes me want to dump these _<insert expletive here>_. :flaiming


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## BubblePuppy (Nov 3, 2006)

Lee L, Perhaps I mistakenly took you comment as being snide, for that I apologize. Post deleted.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

ncxcstud said:


> Just checked mine...
> 
> March - 20GB
> April - 40GB
> ...


I don't know exactly what you mean by "A LOT of streaming Netflix in HD" but it is informative to me that you haven't even reached 1/5th of the Comcast usage cap. And I have to wonder what someone is doing in their home to run into that cap.


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## Lee L (Aug 15, 2002)

BubblePuppy said:


> Lee L, Perhaps I mistakenly took you comment as being snide, for that I apologize. Post deleted.


No biggie, its so hard to tell over the net.

Hey, I'm keeping my Unlimited iPhone grandfathered plan too, even though my usuage is usually around 750 megs at most right now. Just too many unkonwns coming and none of them seem like they will reduce usage.

ncxcstud, are you on an iPhone or landline based internet? We kind of have all that mixed up in here.


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## ncxcstud (Apr 22, 2007)

phrelin said:


> I don't know exactly what you mean by "A LOT of streaming Netflix in HD" but it is informative to me that you haven't even reached 1/5th of the Comcast usage cap. And I have to wonder what someone is doing in their home to run into that cap.


My wife and I usually watch at least 2 or 3 episodes of HD TV through Netflix a day. Or at least, we have been for the past few months. Mostly Weeds, Arrested Development, and Better Off Ted (we'll be watching the first season of "24" sometime soon as well).

I play a lot of games online as well with the 360 and the PS3, have downloaded/streamed a few movies through XBOX Live and even the PS Network as well.

Download at least a demo every few weeks through the 360 and PS3 as well (usually those run anywhere between 700-1200MB).

I was worried about data caps and such... I'm not really worried about Comcast's data cap at all...though I am worried about the cap TWC thought/is thinking about implementing nation wide... especially if it is at like 40GB and a dollar more per GB that you go over...that'll suck for me.

Lee L - I guess since it is so mixed up, I am too...it is just my ISP (don't have an iPhone at all, so this isn't a 3G data usage). Still though, bandwidth caps are pissy no matter where you come from.


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