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Comments on news posted 2012-09-28 16:34:47: September data from the NPD Group indicates that Android users now consume an average of 870 MB of data per month over cellular networks, and 2.5 GB per month on Wi-Fi networks. ..

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Heh213
join:2012-06-16

Heh213 to elray

Member

to elray

Re: Caps scaring users?

said by elray:

Rural folks do have options.

But it remains simple fact that a majority of non-subscribing rural households are simply disinterested, or unwilling to pay - even when offered urban rates.

Fair enough, going to be interesting to see what things are like in a few years. Who knows what might come along and change the playing field.

I really wish I could get something lower latency than sat without massive restrictions (I've pulled 60GB in a month due to Hughes' free zone), but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

Probably will happen a day after I move out of here :P.

Dones
join:2008-02-14
Toronto, ON

Dones to Selenia

Member

to Selenia

Re: Home vs Away

It does. I think its been there since the first iPhone.

Selenia
Gentoo Convert
Premium Member
join:2006-09-22
Fort Smith, AR

Selenia

Premium Member

Then public wifi should not be such a big trust issue for the OP of this subtopic. I specifically use l2tp. Sometimes over the Gae proxy via tor if the wifi spot only allows port 80/443 traffic.

trparky
Premium Member
join:2000-05-24
Cleveland, OH
·AT&T U-Verse

trparky to coreyography

Premium Member

to coreyography

Re: Caps scaring users?

I have unlimited on Verizon 4G LTE too. But I usually stay below 2 GBs of usage anyways. Last month I used only 1 GB. The month before that, half a GB.

I don't even come close to the 2 GB caps that most users have now. I'm not really worried. Will I give up unlimited? No, because I don't want to have to worry about some arbitrary number just yet.
silbaco
Premium Member
join:2009-08-03
USA

2 edits

silbaco to elray

Premium Member

to elray
My rural telecom is now running fiber to every customer in their service area, no matter how remote they are. The beauty of small companies. They are willing to invest in infrastructure and make long term investments. By mid next-year I will have ftth and I am in the middle of a corn field on a gravel road with my nearest neighbor over a half mile away. It will take a long time for my telco to make a serious return on their investment, but they have all the numbers figured out and strongly disagree with you. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that rural households are unwilling to pay urban rates. That simply is not true. At least not in this area. And when it comes down to price per mbps, it is even more so.

BTW, EVDO sucks as your only internet connection. Especially in rural areas where a single T1 feeds the tower and is shared by all. But most rural people cannot get that plan anyway because Sprint does not target rural people.
jjeffeory
jjeffeory
join:2002-12-04
Bloomington, IN

jjeffeory to aaronwt

Member

to aaronwt

Re: only 870MB...

Good for you, I'm in Dale City on Vz using my Thunderbolt and have TONS of issues.
jjeffeory

jjeffeory to elray

Member

to elray

Re: Caps scaring users?

Thanks, been here (21st Century) for a while. The caps are pretty low for regular home usage for a family of 4.

The rural folks, by and large, probably can't pay what they would be charged for the services. I dunno, I'm not rural, but I've been there and understand that they also need some higher speeds. Nothing insane, just something along the lines of 10 Mbps would be great and shouldn't be that expensive to provide...
jjeffeory

jjeffeory to elray

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to elray
elray,

Looks like you're in Santa Monica, CA. Funny thing with California: Even in the sticks ( You know, like Oxnard or Indio) there, you can get FiOS...

You simply live in a different world with little frame of reference.
silbaco
Premium Member
join:2009-08-03
USA

silbaco to 88615298

Premium Member

to 88615298

Re: No problems here..

Well it's unlimited until they cut you off.

Heh213
join:2012-06-16

Heh213 to jjeffeory

Member

to jjeffeory

Re: Caps scaring users?

said by jjeffeory:

elray,
Looks like you're in Santa Monica, CA. Funny thing with California: Even in the sticks ( You know, like Oxnard or Indio) there, you can get FiOS...

You simply live in a different world with little frame of reference.

Didn't know Oxnard was the sticks xD.

I'm in California also, but I'm still isolated enough to where I don't have any internet, next town is 50ish miles away. Nobody is going to bring service out here unless they're forced to.
silbaco
Premium Member
join:2009-08-03
USA

silbaco to jjeffeory

Premium Member

to jjeffeory
said by jjeffeory:

Thanks, been here (21st Century) for a while. The caps are pretty low for regular home usage for a family of 4.

The rural folks, by and large, probably can't pay what they would be charged for the services. I dunno, I'm not rural, but I've been there and understand that they also need some higher speeds. Nothing insane, just something along the lines of 10 Mbps would be great and shouldn't be that expensive to provide...

Slow speeds and low caps. It is nearly impossible to escape both in a rural area unless your telco deploys fiber. If you go the DSL route and can get it, it will probably be unlimited but only be ~1mbps. If you go the HomeFusion/Exede route it will be fast, but suffer from extremely low caps. A 30GB cap is very low, and it is the highest you can buy.
silbaco

silbaco to iansltx

Premium Member

to iansltx

Re: Interesting.

True. Sprint does have a decent sized 4G WiMax footprint though. I have no idea how that performs for phones since Sprint does not have WiMax in my state, but I would think that would deliver decent speeds to users.

ARGONAUT
Have a nice day.
Premium Member
join:2006-01-24
New Albany, IN

1 edit

ARGONAUT to 88615298

Premium Member

to 88615298

Re: No problems here..

I'm using t-mo network on straight talk.

Straight Talk will allow you to use unlocked/GSM phones. I'm using a HTC Amaze 4G with a custom rom.
Crookshanks
join:2008-02-04
Binghamton, NY

Crookshanks to silbaco

Member

to silbaco

Re: Interesting.

said by silbaco:

This kind of disproves all the mainstream media outlets who claim Sprint's unlimited plans are unsustainable.

Unlimited is perfectly sustainable, it just requires a greater infrastructure investment than tiered plans. The question is, should a provider make such an investment for a small minority of its customers, or is it better to monetize them? Verizon and AT&T have chosen the latter. Sprint and T-Mobile the former. The question that has yet to be answered is this: Will the simplicity of unlimited attract enough people to make Sprint and T-Mobile more competitive? If the answer is "Yes" then they have made the right choice and a handful of data hogs won't matter. If the answer is "No" then they've gained a bunch of data hogs for nothing.

My hunch is that this decision will prove to be a smart one for T-Mobile and Sprint. People like "unlimited", even when they don't need it, and they've proven willing to pay a premium for it in the past. Sprint and T-Mobile aren't even charging a premium for it, so it stands to reason they'll gain quite a few customers this way.
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx to silbaco

Member

to silbaco
WiMAX is nothing if not inconsistent on the mobile side. In some areas you can get 10 Mbps down or better and 1.5 Mbps up. A mile away, you might have no 4G at all, or 4G that is slower than good 3G.
arahman56
join:2011-08-11
Etobicoke, ON

arahman56 to 88615298

Member

to 88615298

Re: only 870MB...

Luckily, seems like my GS3 does. Even though my router is 2.4GHz.
arahman56

arahman56

Member

Guess I'm among the top 10%

With Wind, Unlimited Canada-Wide Talk/Text+Unlimited Data. Not as fast as the Telcos, but still racked up ~1.5GB this month. And I am relying on Mobile data for a small part, I keep Airplane Mode when travelling in subways (as it's hard to get connections, I might be taking a rest anyway, and it saves some battery), and I have Wifi at school and home.

Wii-Fi is a whole new ballpark. Thanks to Unlimited Internet (Distributel) and School's Wifi, I have racked up an impressive 17GB of data usage. And that consists of watching Youtube videos (High Quality), tTorrent, or streaming/storing videos from Dropbox.

Neither of them would have been possible with Rogers.
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned) to arahman56

Member

to arahman56

Re: only 870MB...

said by arahman56:

Luckily, seems like my GS3 does. Even though my router is 2.4GHz.

Well you're picking up someone else's 5 GHz connection obviously. I think within a year this will be a standard feature on new phones.
88615298

88615298 (banned) to ARGONAUT

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to ARGONAUT

Re: No problems here..

said by ARGONAUT:

I'm using t-mo network on straight talk.

Straight Talk will allow you to use unlocked/GSM phones. I'm using a HTC Amaze 4G with a custom rom.

Awesome. Maybe if T-Mobile ever comes within 70 miles of me I'll try that.

redxii
Mod
join:2001-02-26
Michigan

redxii to elray

Mod

to elray

Re: Caps scaring users?

The only option I have is 3G and get the best signal from Verizon. I would pay any monthly rate for DSL or cable but I don't have the cash (at least $10000) to pay the cable company to extend their service about 1500 feet.
34764170 (banned)
join:2007-09-06
Etobicoke, ON

34764170 (banned) to 88615298

Member

to 88615298

Re: only 870MB...

said by 88615298:

said by arahman56:

Luckily, seems like my GS3 does. Even though my router is 2.4GHz.

Well you're picking up someone else's 5 GHz connection obviously. I think within a year this will be a standard feature on new phones.

Within a year phones will be up to 802.11ac so of course it will be.

djdanska
Rudie32
Premium Member
join:2001-04-21
San Diego, CA

djdanska to coreyography

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to coreyography

Re: Caps scaring users?

said by coreyography:

I wonder how many people are "scared off" by their capped plans, or feel, as I do, that one day they will be capped.

It's easy to tell which people have what carriers. The higher the need for wifi, the worse his or her cap is. I have unlimited with t-mobile and i don't even think of using wifi anymore. Hell, my tmo connection is faster than any free wifi at starbucks or mcdonalds.
djdanska

djdanska to iansltx

Premium Member

to iansltx

Re: Interesting.

said by iansltx:

WiMAX is nothing if not inconsistent on the mobile side. In some areas you can get 10 Mbps down or better and 1.5 Mbps up. A mile away, you might have no 4G at all, or 4G that is slower than good 3G.

Isn't that the truth or what! My laptop has clear wimax. Trying to get a good connection is near impossible. I can go half a block away and have my speeds go from 16Mb down to 1Mb down.
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx

Member

...and yet I'm still tempted to grab a FreedomPop data stick, knowing full well what speeds are like here (I won't get the Spot because its speeds are poor compared to the stick...but then again the stick might have poor speeds as well).
elray
join:2000-12-16
Santa Monica, CA

elray to jjeffeory

Member

to jjeffeory

Re: Caps scaring users?

said by jjeffeory:

elray,
Looks like you're in Santa Monica, CA. Funny thing with California: Even in the sticks ( You know, like Oxnard or Indio) there, you can get FiOS...

You simply live in a different world with little frame of reference.

You would think so. But the last time I called Verizon (having seen the Fios trucks in the neighborhood for years), they still would not turn us up.

About six feet outside my window, there is a now-10Gbps municipal fiber loop. Its been there for over a decade. But neither the city nor AT&T will let us access it.

We are stuck with cable modem service as our only hard option - which in recent years has been a highly reliable and inexpensive service. I'm not complaining.

My "frame of reference" is simple economics.
I don't waste money on frivolous items, things I don't need.
We don't need "unlimited" broadband, we don't need FTTH speeds.
Don't need wireless broadband; "smart" phones have no appeal.

If, however, I "needed" any of the above, I would be willing to pay the market price to obtain same - not expect the taxpayers to underwrite my "need".
elray

elray to silbaco

Member

to silbaco
said by silbaco:

My rural telecom is now running fiber to every customer in their service area, no matter how remote they are. The beauty of small companies. They are willing to invest in infrastructure and make long term investments. By mid next-year I will have ftth and I am in the middle of a corn field on a gravel road with my nearest neighbor over a half mile away. It will take a long time for my telco to make a serious return on their investment, but they have all the numbers figured out and strongly disagree with you. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that rural households are unwilling to pay urban rates. That simply is not true. At least not in this area. And when it comes down to price per mbps, it is even more so.

BTW, EVDO sucks as your only internet connection. Especially in rural areas where a single T1 feeds the tower and is shared by all. But most rural people cannot get that plan anyway because Sprint does not target rural people.

There is plenty of evidence. Read the government surveys. Read the industry data. Read the articles Karl posts here on rural penetration rates. Examine Verizon's balance sheet.

That said, you're right, small, privately-held or cooperatively-run independent companies may prove that they can do better math than the MBA-driven big boys, and find a way to re-wire low density settings cost-effectively. Please let us know all the gory details when it is deployed.

Of course EVDO sucks as a primary connection, but if the real-world cost to reach your abode is $10K and up, and you and yours aren't willing to pay for it, what do you expect?
elray

elray to redxii

Member

to redxii
said by redxii:

The only option I have is 3G and get the best signal from Verizon. I would pay any monthly rate for DSL or cable but I don't have the cash (at least $10000) to pay the cable company to extend their service about 1500 feet.

If that 1500 feet is on your property, I'd think you could cut the cost substantially with a direct-bury cable. But if they have to plant 10 utility poles to bring in an aerial or trench and conduit, that's a realistic charge.

If you're not planning on moving, if you don't have the cash, but you're "willing to pay any monthly rate", why not finance the $10K - that's about $200/month to retire the debt on a five-year amortization?
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