T-Mobile Sends G1 Android Data Users To The Slow Lane: 50kbps Over 1 Gig
from the slow-lane dept
There's a ton of predictable press coverage and reviews of T-Mobile's new G1 phone -- the first commercially available phone that uses Google's Android operating system -- but Broadband Reports has dug through the fine print of the user agreement and noticed something rather interesting. While the marketing materials scream out about a $25 "unlimited" data plan, the fine print notes that if you go over 1Gig per month, the rest of your data traffic that month may be slowed down to a piddling 50kbps. So, before you get that G1 and plan to surf away, recognize that while, unlimited, T-Mobile apparently has no intention of letting you actually surf with any reasonable bandwidth after a certain point.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.
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Filed Under: android, bandwidth, fine print, g1, unlimited
Companies: google, t-mobile
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What's the big deal?
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Re: What's the big deal?
I have been to the rural areas of India where the bandwidth is better than the so called broadband of the USA, and they have no caps either !!
I have been to Findland, Sweden, and Germany where 1 gigbits/second is considered slow !!!, and no one would accept caps. Face it the USA is the equivalent of a country hick stuck in the backwater as far as cell phone or internet access is concerned.
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Re: Re: What's the big deal?
I pay $20 a month for 4 MEGABYTES of data through my EVDO connection. I can go up to 100 if I pay $100 a month. Rogers has a $7 a month "unlimited" if you only use their apps and their sites. Any other app or use and even apps that are pre-loaded onto Nokia phones are charged extra with that plan.
That's the best you can get now that the unlimited plans for the iPhone are no longer offered.
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Re: Re: What's the big deal?
My sister in germany would like that also.
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Re: Re: What's the big deal?
Typical speeds:
mobile UMTS in cities: 200KB/s
outside cities: varies from UMTS with 40KB/s to EGPRS to GPRS.
That also depends slightly which carrier you use, I'm using a cheap prepaid SIM from fonic.de, which charges 2,5EUR per day flat usage (throttled after 1GB per day).
DSL speeds: from not available in some rural areas, to typical DSL2 accounts with about 2MB/s, to VDSL in some limited areas.
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Re: What's the big deal?
When someone starts using that word in a fraudulent way it reflects badly on the information industry which is already dealing with mistrust from a wary public. People are often out of their element with this stuff and need all the legitimate info they can get. Filling the industry with fake promises doesn't help in the least.
If its 1GB a month for $25 at normal speed, and anything after that is free at a lower speed, then say so. I doubt you can look at my previous sentence and describe that as unlimited to a prospective customer.
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Re: What's the big deal?
To cap usage IS putting is behind what nearly every other country offers. Too bad.
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Re: Re: What's the big deal?
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Re: Re: Re: What's the big deal?
Face it, American cell and ISP providers are notorious for raking in profits and "forgetting" to keep up with their infrastructure upgrade plans. We're running last gen tech in most places, not keeping up with the times.
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Re: What's the big deal?
Yes, it is becoming more clear every day - the once great us of a is sliding down to third world status.
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Um- the term UNLIMITED is the big deal
It's a matter of truth in advertising. The wireless companies aren't exactly dealing with a surplus of consumer trust and this is just another nail in the coffin.
First Comcast throttles customers on their "unlimited" bandwidth plan and now T-Mobile is following suit.
The restaurant industry faces the same thing in the All You Can Eat Buffet. It's either all you can eat or it isn't. You don't throw out the football team because they came to take you up on the All You Can Eat offer after the big game.
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Android and "open" systems...
Start taking out carrier profits for voice minutes, SMS, or start running the mobile equivalent of a torrent system, and the carriers will scramble to shut those applications down.
Abuse the system too much, and it's entirely likely that they'll stop selling Android-based phones altogether.
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I might just keep what I have. I really like T-Mobile and am happy with the plan that I have, and all I need is a new handheld device, as the PDA I have is three years old and is now being held together with duct tape.
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Re: Does Anybody Have an Unlimited Data Plan
Their unlimited plan goes for $50 per month. There still is that vague language in the agreement about abuse, etc, but I think at this point what they're saving that for is if they do have customers doing bit torrent down load storms. Otherwise, I think their leaving it alone.
It's really what's keeping them alive.
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Re: Re: Does Anybody Have an Unlimited Data Plan
Actually, that's not true. Sprint implemented a 5GB cap this month.
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I'll keep that in mind :)
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All of Europe
Europe is about 3% of the world land mass. Or about 15 times the size of TX.
With lord knows how many integrated telecom companies.
While we have at best 7 competing ones here in the states.
With little or no uniting rules or regulations.
And you wonder why things telecom wise are better in Europe.
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But no I Tunes
http://dvice.com/archives/2008/09/hands_on_how_do.php
"But for syncing music, photos and other content — nada. If you've got a lot of ACC-ripped music for your iPod, you can't use iTunes, which doesn't recognize any other hardware other than Apple's, and Windows Media Player doesn't import AACs. "
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30 critical issues with G1
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Re: 30 critical issues with G1
The entire list is either just wrong, or touts features the iphone didn't have either. What sort of iDiots write this stuff, apple employees?
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Unlimited
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unlimited
Then you come along with the iphone and people screaming 'yes, its unlimited data rate, but we are going to tell you that you cant use voip over the data connection' and start telling us how we can and cant use our phone on the network after we bought and paid for it.
People would buy the iphone, jailbreak it and use voip over the data connection so they dont have to use minutes and that was NOT liked.
So, where does it end?
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T-Mobile Blackberry Data
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The G1 isn't T-mobile only
Of course, since it only works on T-Mobiles 3G network here in the US, it might as well be. Or are you advocating buying a 3G phone that can't never be used for 3G?
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