Mobile connectivity is essential to our life as technomads.
And over the past year and half, Sprint’s EVDO service has worked wonderfully for us. We have gotten broadband speed all over the country, and it has worked so well that we have even been able to cut the cable modem line while temporarily living here at Cherie’s house in Florida.
To connect we use a Novatel Merlin EX720 card, and to share the connection we use a small Cradlepoint CTR-350 WiFi router. This combination is small, portable, simple, power efficient, and it works amazingly well.
The reason that we chose Sprint last year was that it was the only nationwide carrier offering “unlimited” wireless data. At the time Verizon was also advertising “unlimited data”, but was attaching fine print defining unlimited as “5GB a month”.
(The New York Attorney General actually had to get involved to get Verizon to stop marketing 5GB as “unlimited”!!!)
Over the past year, Sprint won a lot of customers thanks to this “unlimited” policy, despite having inferior coverage. But the limits of “unlimited” have apparently now been reached.
Taking Verizon’s lead - Sprint is dropping the easy to understand and consumer friendly “unlimited” and is now implementing a 5GB cap.
The new deal from Spint:
Here are Sprint’s new terms, that we must either agree to or use as an excuse to cancel our two year contract:
Sprint reserves the right to limit throughput speeds or amount of data transferred and to deny, terminate, modify, or suspend service if usage exceeds 5gb per month in total or 300mb/month while off-network roaming.
*grrrrr*
How are we supposed to depend on our wireless connection for getting work done when it can be throttled down or canceled at any time without warning? The 300mb off-network roaming is particularly troubling, because there is not even a way to tell when you ARE roaming, and such roaming has always been free.
Sprint’s cap is a “soft cap” - there is no charge if you go over, but there is also no certainty that your connection will not be cut off either. Install a major OS update and you could find yourself cut off. Get a lot of work in to do, and you could find yourself unable to do it. Etc…
There is no longer ANY option for a real unlimited usage connection from Sprint, even if you would gladly pay more for it.
Verizon’s WORSE Deal:
Meanwhile, Verizon’s “soft cap” is growing painfully and outrageously hard. Rather than having a rarely enforced threat of service cancelation if you exceed 5GB of usage, Verizon is now rolling out “overage charges” of $250 per GB.
Let me repeat: TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS PER GIGABYTE!!!
In other words - the first 5GB you use are around $14 each, but the 6th you consume is suddenly 18x more expensive. This is the sort of gouging that you typically see con-men trying to pull after a natural disaster.
For an example of how easily it is to consume this much data - we have been watching the TV series Torchwood (purchased via iTunes). One episode is around 600MB - which via Verizon’s new pricing would cost us $2.00 to Apple, and $150 to Verizon to view.
Based on this math, to download the entire season will cost you nearly $2000!!! ($25 to Apple and $1810 to Verizon). This is one VERY expensive single click of the mouse!
Here are the details of Verizon’s new terms:
Effective June 22, 2008, Verizon has now changed how overage charges will affect those who exceed their allotted (5GB) usage per month. The new implementation provides for:
- All plans are now subject to standardized $0.25/MB overage charge.
- There is now a temporary “usage limit” cap of $250 for monthly overage fees.
- All customers will only have three monthly bills subjected to a usage limit of $250. After the third bill to have the usage limit applied, there will no longer be a usage limit on the monthly bill, and the customer will be responsible to pay for all actual usage charges incurred on their monthly bill.
- In addition to the changes in overage charges to existing 50MB and 5GB plans, a new plan is being made available to customers who have used up all their ‘usage limits’. This new “save plan” provides 10GB of data usage for $199.99/mo and the same $0.25/mb overage charge after the alloted data usage.
Insane.
AT&T’s Capped Plans:
In the past year, AT&T’s 3G HSDPA network has become a viable mobile data alternative to EVDO on Sprint and Verizon. But AT&T has a 5GB soft cap just like Sprint (and like Verizon used to):
The parties agree that AT&T has the right to impose additional charges if you use more than 5 gigabytes in a month. Prior to the imposition of any additional charges, AT&T shall provide you with notice and you shall have the right to terminate your service.
At the moment, AT&T is not charging for data over 5GB, and they are not enforcing their cap. But how long before they join Verizon in the gouging? I am guessing it is only a matter of time.
Alltel - The Last Bastion of Unlimited Data:
Alltel is the only nationwide wireless network that is still offering unlimited EVDO usage, for only $59/ month. But seeing as Alltel is in the process of being acquired by Verizon, my guess is that this offer will probably not be around for very much longer.
Even though the deal is likely not to last, Alltel is the only carrier with reasonable data plans. Because of this, we will probably soon cancel our contract with Sprint and switch to Alltel. At least we will have a few months before we have to cancel again and look for another alternative…
*sigh*
It looks as if the unlimited usage plans that have allowed wireless data in the US to thrive are soon to be a thing of the past. This is a shame. The wired Internet only took off once ISP’s stopped billing per hour and offered unlimited use. With usage caps and outrageous overage charges in place, users will grow very wary of actually making use of all these wonderful fast networks that are being deployed.
Why have fast 3G wireless data if you can’t actually make use of it?
Unlimited data. RIP.
