Dear Phone Company, Unlimited Data isn’t Really Unlimited
So you want to join the new age and buy a Smartphone? Or you just finally decide to cut your dumb phone lose. That’s all good but first you should know this; once you buy a Smartphone you are obligated to have a data plan (yes, it’s mandatory).
There are a bunch of data plans sold, but the ultimate selling force for these carriers is the unlimited data plan. So, all carriers sick their blood hounds (customer service reps) on you the prey, in an effort to sell you the ultimate bill of goods “unlimited” data.
The idea originally, was suppose to be great; buy a Smartphone, add “unlimited” data then enjoy the fruits of browsing and streaming limitlessly. Well, those days have long passed us by. With the emergence of streaming companies such as YouTube, Netflix, and VEVO (to name a few) bandwidth has become the number one issue for carriers and their networks.
Don’t get me wrong, bandwidth concerns are very legitimate but selling “unlimited” data isn’t. How about unlimited data but with a limit? Do you think for one minute if phone companies were to sell their unlimited data plans with an open disclaimer that informs potentially new customers of a 5GB throttle?
For the tech impaired out there, throttle is basically a term for the slowing of data speeds. For instance, in my situation (as displayed in the picture above), I reached my 5GB of data (on T-Mobile) and was instantly prompted by my carrier, that my speeds will be slowed down until the next billing cycle.
How could this be when I’ve paid for a unlimited data plan for years now. When I first bought my data plan, throttling was none existed.
Now for a little bit of truth. I admittedly happen to be in the rooted user crowd; yes, my phone is rooted, and yes I love tethering and using my wireless hot spot all off of the $25 I pay for “unlimited” data. Why should people like me have to pay an additional cost to use a service I already pay for?
I learned a long time ago, instead of allowing myself to be pimped by the phone company I decided to do the pimping. Rooting your phone allows you to pimp the phone company and since the government recently signed off on rooting devices, manufacturers and carriers are left powerless because they can’t control what you do with your phone.
So, in an effort to punish consumers of heavy data usage, throttling speeds is the move of today. The question is, how long will this dishonest sell tactic by the phone companies last?
