Verizon Wireless Giving 3 Months of HBO Now to New Customers

You're a provider. Please be that provider. Nothing more. Strip your services down to a "dumb pipe". Give your customers unlimited data. We know you aren't charged more when your network infrastructure has to give up more data. We know your network doesn't have a data limit month to month. We know that you not offering an unlimited option is simply a money grab.

Thanks,
The Intelligent Customer
#BeTheDumbPipe

(edit: User "Corporate", probably a shill for Verizon, gave me a negative as did FailOverflow).

Unlimited data is not sustainable on mobile FACT. Do the math. If I'm lying show the math that proves otherwise. And no, NONE of the other carrier offers unlimited data. Tethering/hotspot is either not allowed or capped at very low caps. Quit asking for something that is A) not possible right now B) Not going to happen even if it was. Verizon is not bring back unlimited data so if that is important go to one of the other carriers that offer quasi-unlimited.

Also it's not up to you to tell a company that they should only be a dumb pipe. if you think that is such a profitable way of doing business. Start your own service and show us.

AOL said the same thing back in 1994 with regards to land line based internet access.

I see you failed to provide proof. Once again show me the math. Sorry but "i want it to be true so it is" is not proof. Prove your claim or shut it.

Why did VZW have unlimited in the first place if it was not sustainable? It was on the 4G network. What changed their minds? Show me the math that made it sustainable then but not now.

They had it when their network was 3G. when they got rid of the option in July 2011 only 36% even had smartphones. And there wasn't anything such as Netflix streaming for 1080p video. I'm still waiting for the math or do i have to show you?

How about you provide facts that prove the above comment made by you?

Oh since you ask for math ok. Now Verizon has LTE on bands 4 and 13. in some areas on band 2 but not everywhere. Now band 4 has the most spectrum. I some places as high as 20 MHz X 20 MHz. That 20 up and 20 down in case you didn't know. Ok with 20 MHz you can get a max speed of 150 Mbps. That's TOTAL and it's shared with all devices.

Now a tower is divided into 3 sectors or 120 degrees each so when you connect to one your are connecting to one of those 3 depending on your orientation to to tower. So each sector can handle 150 Mbps. And with 20 MHz a tower can handle up to 800 simultaneous connections at once.

So here's fun with math.

Now if you have 800 devices all trying to stream some well 150 Mbps/800 = 188 kbps per second. Or look at it another was if just 25 people are streaming Netflix in HD at 6 Mbps they are using ALL of the available bandwidth. what about the other 775 devices needing to connect?

Now I know you're going to say "well just cap tethering/hotspot like T-Mobile. well sorry butt eh FCC forbids Verizon form doing this because of upper C band rules. If Verizon offers unlimited data then tethering/hotpsot must also be unlimited. So blame the FCC not Verizon.

So why does VZW offer higher tier data plans? If the network is so bad, what would VZW do if there was a tower in an upscale neighborhood that was over-saturated with top tier subscribers? What is VZW going to do when 5G rolls around and is comparable to fiber speeds as they claim?

Ok their highest tier is 100 GB which is $750 a month. How many customers taking advantage of that? Also even 100 GB is far less than the 300, 500 or even 1TB or higher that many current cable ISP customers use.

I just showed you the math. It doesn't work and you're still arguing.

As far as 5G. Before that is even a thing Verizon will have converted all their PCS and 1x spectrum to LTE they will have have their AWS-3 spectrum deployed and and any 600 MHz they win in this years auction. They are also deploying carrier aggregation as we speak. They are also deploying 4X4 mimo. And in big cities they are also deploying micro towers. All of this will help add to capacity but it's going to take a few years for this to happen. Now with 5G this will supposedly be able to multiply that by 50X. Even if it ends up only being 10X that will help. If they had 10X the capacity now they could at least offer Comcast level caps or close to it.

Now for example carrier aggregation( CA for short ) allows for the combining of spectrum. My phone has radios for LTE 2, 4 and 13. But it can currently only connect to ONE of them at a time. CA allows for these bands to be combined. So if you combined band 4 which is 20X20 and band 2 which is also 20X20. Now you have a 40X40 swath of bandwidth which effectively doubles capacity. Now even if this was deployed everywhere now you'd large number of phones that can do this CA. The newer ones can. So you have the issue of deployment and importantly having the devices out that that can take advantage of this and that number will increase slowly over times as people upgrade to newer phones. Once again a solution that will take at least 2 years before benefits are realized.

So in the end you are just going to have to be patient since it will be about 5 years before unlimited or caps in the hundreds of GB are back.

Unlimited data is sustainable, but at high prices. T-Mobile does offer what you're speaking of, unlimited on-smartphone data with 14 GB of high-speed tethering (not a low cap). But it's also $95/mo before factoring in phone charges.

No it's not. math please. yes 14 GB is low. How can one use T-Mobile as regular internet connection. I routinely use over 100 GB a month sometimes as much as 800 GB. I can easily do 14 GB in half a day. Heck 14 GB won't even get you halfa XBOX One game download.

Bingo.

T-Mobile isn't a home ISP. A mobile connection should not be treated like one. The market is definitely there, for those using RVs or for those who need an emergency connection for a day or two, but not as a permanent stationary connection.

With that said, the mobile carriers could simply do what the wireline providers do. The plans can be sold as unmetered, but if someone is abusing the data plan, give them a warning, then boot them off (or cap). For unloaded towers, that's fine. For busy city towers where anyone should be able to get Cable/DSL, enforce it a bit harder.

But that's what people want unlimited data for. Most of the people complaining about losing their unlimited data from Verizon day "This is my only way to access the internet. I don't have cable or DSL in my area" If you have home internet thus you have wi-fi you don't need unlimited data. PERIOD.Carriers can't do that. And the other 3 already state they can throttle unlimited data customers down if exceed around 25 GB and they do cap or outright not allow tethering. Verizon is not allowed to do this per FCC rule. Verizon was going to throttle unlimited data customers juts like the other 3 the FCC said "Sorry but band 13 rules apply you can't do that". Verizon also can't offer unlimited data for phone but only so many GB on tethering. once again due to band 13 rules.

Now if you want to say Verizon caps could be higher than what they are that is a legitimate argument that I would agree with you on. Could they double what they offer now? I believe so. If it's a real bother I'll switch carriers.

If unlimited is sustainable how come T-Mobile caps tethering at 14 GB? How come that isn't unlimited or even 100 GB?

I have two lines of unlimited everything with T-Mobile for $100 per month.

you do not have unlimited 4G tethering/hotpsot. tethering/hotspot has a LIMIT which by definition is not UNlimited. Which means NO limits.

Thanks but no thanks

3 months of free HBO... no thanks, I'll pass. TWC did the same to me when I signed up with them. The sales guy gave me 3 months of HBO. Took me a LONG time after 3 months on the phone to cancel. I got so traumatize by that incident, I have been declining any free promotion that require cancellation after the promotion period ends.

Trap indeed. No mention of what this will do to the data caps on a mobile phone

Watch out people we got a big spender in the room. Verizon shelling out $45 for new users is going to "change the industry"