Verizon update data only plans

[jrollf]

Originally Posted by tetranz

...

Its not exactly crime of the century but I find that it does present a bit of a moral dilemma when looking at these hotspot plans which are relatively expensive and limited when there is a cheap but not quite honest alternative...

Kind of like the carriers selling "unlimited" data plans then throttling your connection after only 50GB or so, making it so slow you can't hardly send an email... I count that as a "moral dilemma" too that they are responsible for. To be fair, for "phone data" most have started to back off on the throttling.

What these people are doing is using their "unlimited" plan as "phone data" instead of "tether data", which puts it under the "unlimited" part of their plan.

Before net neutrality was thrown out by massive corporate lobbying, they weren't allowed to segregate data and throttle data based on type and what it was used for, unlimited was unlimited, wether you watched YouTube on your phone, or watched it on your tablet tethered to your phone.

Now if you use your tablet or laptop tethered to your phone, that data is limited, but do the same on your phone and it is not.

Want to stream movies for weeks on end without violating any terms if service? Connect your phone directly to your TV (get am HDMI dongle) and stream away. in fact they tell you it's OK. But for some reason do the same with a tethered device and the rules change.

[tetranz]

Originally Posted by smiller

Only the carriers know for sure why there isn't heavier enforcement but after a career in network operations I can tell you that such mechanisms always have a cost as well as a benefit (cost being in the development effort, added network complexity, possible unintended consequences and their effect on the larger customer base, etc.) Considering that in reality only a minute percentage of total subscribers actually employ these techniques then at some point it becomes questionable as to whether a rigid enforcement effort is really cost-effective in the long run.

Yeah I'm sure you right. It seems a lot when reading a group dedicated to doing just that but ... I guess it's like a fish thinking that the whole world is water.

Technically, I suspect it is difficult to detect devices with the IMEI changed. They could do it at the radio level because I'm sure a tablet and a router have different spectral "fingerprints" but I think that would be difficult and expensive and I doubt if they're equipped for that.

I do wonder how long the $20 AT&T tablet plan is going to last. There are people claiming to be doing a couple of TB per month on that.

I guess I can't really claim to be any more honest because I use EasyTether on a tablet but ... I haven't been over 100 GB in any month yet.

[lemodrop9344]

I don't doubt some users are consuming that much data.... You hear stories & see screen shots of it frequently.
For you high volume users (defined as close to, or, greater than s TB/mos); what are you doing to consume this amount of data? How many hours a day are you on line & how many days of the month are you on line. How may devices are connected & what sort of device are you using to support the connection(s).
I consider myself knowledgeable enough to be dangerous when it comes to cellular data consumption, but, I really struggle to rationally understand how that much data can be consumed on a regular basis.
Thanks in advance for any responses.

[tetranz]

Originally Posted by lemodrop9344

I really struggle to rationally understand how that much data can be consumed on a regular basis.

I think it's mostly streaming HD TV and movies etc. Maybe multiple TVs. Also, I think multiple remotes and devices can sometimes be a problem. It's too easy to turn off the TV but leave the Roku or whatever streaming which is the ultimate waste of bandwidth.

The guy who posted that screenshot on Facebook said that with COVID his wife sat around watching a lot of TV He was complaining that it had stopped working but has since reported that it's working again once the new month started.

[smiller]

Also many streaming devices tend to default to the highest quality possible, so an unaware user may be streaming in 4K all the time which would be supremely wasteful on the smaller screens typically found in most RVs. Set to standard HD instead in this situation and use 1/3 the data for virtually the same observed quality.

[tmandoug1]

I wonder if these plans will work on my Winegard 4G lte system.....I will let you know after I call them. The 5G is throwing me for a loop.

[Brad2018]

Originally Posted by tmandoug1

I wonder if these plans will work on my Winegard 4G lte system.....I will let you know after I call them. The 5G is throwing me for a loop.

Yes. It works fine. Installed the new sim today.

[RRR]

Originally Posted by tetranz

...

I do wonder how long the $20 AT&T tablet plan is going to last. There are people claiming to be doing a couple of TB per month on that.

I guess I can't really claim to be any more honest because I use EasyTether on a tablet but ... I haven't been over 100 GB in any month yet.

Well mine lasted about two years in my hotspot till AT&T canceled it. But we were hitting close to 200 gig/month.