Limited, Unlimited -- Who Wants To Split Hairs?

from the misinformed-or-misleading dept

Tue, Jun 13th 2006 4:36pm — Carlo Longino

IDG chimes in (a few weeks after countless other publications) with the familiar story of US mobile operators restrictive terms of service on their 3G data services -- the ones they advertise as unlimited that are anything but. There's nothing particularly new in this article, but comments attributed to a Verizon Wireless exec back in April could raise some eyebrows. The carrier's CTO, Dick Lynch, says that while its ToS forbid users from doing plenty of things with the connection, it's letting people -- for now -- violate them and use services like the Slingbox. Remember that Verizon not only balked at the idea of customers using the Slingbox without its permission, but had been kicking users off its network for months before Lynch's comments for using their "unlimited" connections too much. While Lynch may deserve the benefit of the doubt that his comments have been misconstrued or wrongly paraphrased, even if so they highlight the rampant doublespeak of the telcos on this issue, as well as proving the fallacy of the oft-repeated point that these relatively high-speed wireless networks provide real competition for wired broadband networks.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

12 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Bobby, 13 Jun 2006 @ 6:33pm

Unlimited Connection Too Much...
Why do companies stop there customers from using the products simple as they advertise?

Of course we already know that answer... $. It should and may be illegal to advertise one products but supply another.

BTW, First Post!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 13 Jun 2006 @ 6:38pm

Can't somebody be sued for false advertising here? They clearly advertise them as unlimited but have been booting people for using their "unlimited" data connection in certain ways.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- bob, 13 Jun 2006 @ 7:48pm
  
  Re:
  well its unlimited in certain respects. they may advertise unlimited bandwidth use, but that does not mean that they cant control how you use that bandwidth. their advertising isnt outright false, it just doesnt describe the entire deal.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
anonymous Coward, 13 Jun 2006 @ 8:04pm

The word "Unlimited" from Answers.com

1. Having no restrictions or controls: an unlimited travel ticket.
2. Having or seeming to have no boundaries; infinite: an unlimited horizon.
3. Without qualification or exception; absolute: unlimited self-confidence.

Because so many companies have jumped onboard to use this term it's just a matter of time till a class action suit happens and challenges them. I have seen several companies claim its unlimited, but if you read the fine print you find out otherwise. I believe it will be more like fasle advertising than anything else. One day they will have to remove unlimited from their advertisings. In my opinion they will.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
George W. Bush, 13 Jun 2006 @ 8:23pm

Unlimited service?
... That's a great concept! Name something what you WANT people to think it is and make it DO something else ...

I have a great name - The Patriot Act! I think I'll make a bill!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 13 Jun 2006 @ 9:20pm

Glad some people always find a way to make a bad political joke about something that doesn't relate in any way just so they can make a point no one cares about...

It's called false advertisement, and it is against the law, for reasons like this. If you went into bestbuy and bought a phone, say a razor, and in the box they gave you some 5 year old phone with none of the add-ons you wanted, it's the same thing. They can call it a razor or whatever, but it's not. You can't say something is unlimited, then tell people "but you can only use this much a day", because then it is quantized and it is no longer what they are selling. Pure and simple, it's false advertising, and if you buy it thinking you're going to get what you paid for, you fell into their trap, and there's nothing you can do because of that little thing called fine print that you just signed your soul away to.

Lesson: read the contract before you sign, c'mon.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Weebit, 13 Jun 2006 @ 9:54pm

You forgot one thing this unlimited stuff is also pushed to you when you call them asking about their service. You can read all the fine print and find the real facts on the unlimited in the fine print, but you will never get them to admit on the phone that their service is NOT really unlimited. They play dumb every time. How do I know? Because I read this somewhere online, and so I did some testing myself. Found out they are right they wont admit it's not unlimited on the phone. I called five places all claiming unlimited services. Try it yourself.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
|333173|3|_||3, 13 Jun 2006 @ 10:43pm

In the UK this would be illegal, but they do it there anyway. They just don't care.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
claire rand, 14 Jun 2006 @ 12:34am

adverts.
in the u.k. its *not* illegal, god alone knows how many complaints have been made over misleading adverts, the term "unlimited" is flagged as an 'industry standard term' which basically means as long as everyone is lying no-one gets an advantage so its alright.

'course the poor mug consumers get screwed but who cares bout them...

it does tend to be in the *very* small print what most of the limts are, to stop people using these limits as a reason to cancel the contract. but the info isn't easy to find, but it is 'avalilble'
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 14 Jun 2006 @ 8:00am

Read the TOS. It should be pretty clear what is acceptable and what isn't. They don't want the heavy users, they want the 80-90% of the pop that accounts for 10-20% of the usage.

This is beginning to sound like the "Comcast said "Unlimited Use" but they're terminating my account and I only DL'd 200 gigs this month..." rants of a few years ago.

Yeah, they should make the TOS/AUP clearer. But expecting them to feed your habit is pretty unreasonable. Nothing has changed; TANSTAAFL.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
anonymous coward, 14 Jun 2006 @ 10:53am

It is Unlimited*. That is completely different from Unlimited.

Caveat Emptor!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
operator, 14 Jun 2006 @ 12:15pm

they are a large corporation.
their thoughts: "laws are for the little people"

and all they're gonna get (at most) is a slap on the wrist, so why should they care?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]