Any carrier is going to say that in their contract fine print, it's like the 55Mph speed limit. Nobody expects to be pulled over at 56Mph but they have found it useful to define a limit so that when they pull you over at 80Mph people don't argue with them.
The MVNO's define an arbitrary limit like 50GB so that when they have a user trying to pull 5TB data a month they can curtail them down and when the user starts screaming "unlimited" that they have some legalese to point to and tell them to pound sand. You have to actually USE the service to see what their actual data cap is. But Verizon is going to do this also, they will just have different contract language like "best effort delivery" and if you go into their high users they will start screwing with your connection to encourage you to go away or cut back. There's plenty of sites out there that discuss this. I don't know if dslreports.com is still going but that was the big one when I was administering an ISP Trust me there is NO SUCH THING as true "unlimited data" from an Internet Service Provider on a broadband connection. I DON'T use a cell plan for my primary Internet connection so that is why I use the cheapest tier capped service on my cell. I don't need any higher data than that on my cell because I don't use tethering as my primary Internet connection, so cost savings on the phone is more important than high data amounts. The main point I have tried to make is that you can save money by understanding how these data services work and matching the service you buy with your needs. The Consumer Cellular plans are all geared to older people, they sell a LOT of flip phones for example but I can tell you from experience if you call their tech support you usually get an immediate answer from a tech who actually knows his ass from a hole in the ground. They also advertise heavily in AARP and places like that. So you have a service that's geared to older people's needs. Older people usually don't have high data needs, but have high hand-holding and support costs and you have to spend a lot of money marketing and advertising to them. And usually they don't have a lot of money. So, that MVNO is designed to make money that way, they spend a lot of money on soft costs like support labor and advertising and less on data. For a techy person who just wants a lot of data at cheaper prices, you go for some MVNO that spends less on advertising that nobody has heard of and there's no phone support worth having from them it's all online chatting and email. They spend more on data than CC does and their REAL caps are higher. If you are going to eschew land lines and you need to pull a lot of data over mobile then possibly Verizon or ATT with their higher costs and "family plans" might be better than an MVNO. They run a network of stores so if your ONLY internet connection is via a phone or over their cell network then you can run into one of their stores when you dunk your phone in the toilet by accident and slap down your money and get a replacement immediately instead of calling someone and waiting a week for a new phone in the mail. My daughter is 150 miles away at college, she is a full time student and makes no money, I have to pay for her cell phone. If she breaks her phone she can't be waiting 2 weeks for me to mess around getting her a replacement I have to be able to tell her to walk into the Verizon store and slap down her broken phone and walk out with a working phone. That's why her phone is NOT on my Comcast account at $17 a month it's a $50 a month Verizon account. She uses less data and voice than I do. So I am paying for that dude standing in the Verizon store handing out sim cards all day not for her data, you see, and if she is responsible enough not to break her phone I may NEVER make use of the money I'm paying him. Ted -----Original Message----- From: PLUG <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Russell Senior Sent: Monday, March 6, 2023 6:00 PM To: Portland Linux/Unix Group <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [PLUG] Verizon towers for internet Ted Mittelstaedt <[email protected]> writes: > Consumer Cellular is $20 a month with 1GB $50 a month unlimited. >From https://www.consumercellular.com/shopping/choose/plan: "On unlimited data plans, access to high speed data may be reduced after 50GB of use, and you may experience slower speeds for the remainder of your billing cycle." -- Russell Senior [email protected]
