01-20-2011, 09:15 PM
Filliam H. Muffman wrote: I was disappointed last year when I saw the first plans for "4G" capable phones were more expensive and required a charge for a data plan on top of that. As mentioned in other threads, the US pays more, has data caps, is behind other countries for rollout of 4G, and people are going to be lucky to get data rates on the low end of early predictions with what is technically a more modern network. Did I calculate this right? If users actually got 12Mbps with LTE, they could hit a 5 GB cap in under two hours? I have a hard time understanding how someone can defend the cell companies when it seems so obvious to me that we are getting screwed.
I wasn't defending the cell phone companies, I was simply illustrating the fallacies of the presented anti-carrier argument. Outright lies (not from you, I've since decided to cheerfully ignored that user) and hyperbole won't make things better.
What's funny is that we mostly agree. Here's what I posted in the thread you were referencing:
me wrote: I want faster mobile Internet, but the problem isn't speed, it is latency and data caps. Until we work those problems out, the 4G certification won't matter.
I should have added net neutrality rules for mobile broadband are also important.
Where we disagree is that the USA is necessarily worse than the rest of the world (in many ways the USA is worse, in someways it sucks slightly less). There are data caps outside of the USA, yes even in Europe, I know for a fact that the UK has data caps (for those who like to separate the island from the mainland). Even lower data caps than the States in some cases. The "4G lie" was not a USA only occurrence. The price of wireless service is definitely worse in Canada than the USA (and quite possible other places as well, I don't track pricing as much as I used to).
Stating that doesn't make me a fan of the carriers. I refuse to sign a contract and generally buy unlocked phones where possible (generally GSM) or non subsidized carrier locked phones when required (generally CDMA phones where the unlocked phone market is much smaller). I don't think any of the contract postpaid plans are particular attractive, not Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, nor T-Mobile (T-Mobile's Even More Plus is pretty nice and contract free, but T-Mobile has gone out of their way to disavow its existence).
The prepaid and contract free postpaid carriers are better. Boot Mobile is great at $50 unlimited everything ($60 for Blackberry) if you get a CDMA phone with EVDO data instead of an iDEN phone. Virgin Mobile has a great unlimited messaging, unlimited data, 300 minutes for $25 entry level plan (add $10 for a Blackberry). Walmart Family Mobile is $45 for unlimited SMS and calliing which isn't that great, but three lines for $95/month ($125ish after fees/taxes) of unlimited SMS, calling, and 300MB bonus data is hard to beat. T-Mobile prepaid has a $50 unlimited messaging and calling with 100MB data option. That's not bad either, especially if you want a GSM phone. Three lines for my family would cost more at $150 plus sales tax, but we would get 100MB of data per line per month on the T-Mobile prepaid plan.