[ale] Metropcs 4G LTE vs AT&T DSL (ot)

Sun Feb 5 10:26:50 EST 2012

good bunch of info.

My take is all the carriers want you to _buy_ their service but not _use_
their service. On one hande they will happily sell a phone with required
big data plan fee and then turn around a whine about how much bandwidth
their customers are using and then come up with ways to cut down on the
access.

>From a technology standpoint, people want more and more data all the time.
>From a social standpoint, most of this data is little more than "TV" (and
this group has had several discussions of the quality of that :-).

I bought into Verizon with my droid (first gen). That little phone is still
running on the original battery. They keep trying to get me to upgrade. A
rep I spoke with swore that as long as I keep my service with them, my
unlimited data will remain "unlimited". My wife also has a plan from the
same time frame. My Verizon bill (4 phone, 2 data plans, large text message
package on one) is truly a horror!

I really am unimpressed with moving the data flow off the carrier and onto
local wireless. It seems to be a crutch/workaround for carriers not
investing enough to provide the services they offer. They are, in effect,
stealing carrier service from other people and as many area wi-fi hotspots
re moving towards a pay-as-you-go structure, the end result is just to
screw the customer a bit more as they have to pick the added cost of access
at a coffee shop even though they pay for access from their phone provider.

I amusing my phone for almost all personal email now as the only laptop I
use is work provided. I put NOTHING personal on that unless I have to use a
larger screen to see something. (BTW: the Lenovo ThinkPad W520 is
__AWESOME___!!!).

I keep wondering how much longer we can continue to push for larger
bandwidth data uses before we hit some physical limit on multiplexing
carrier signals. Maybe if the cell tower range were smaller and there were
many more of them. I'm thinking street lights as cell points with
power-line data feeds as multiplex sources for the common carrier crap like
cell-phone TV. You can just pick up a feed and do some local caching for
small time shifting.

Hmm. That would make for a fun, tech/sci-fi horror story: The day the
bandwidth died.

On Sun, Feb 5, 2012 at 9:38 AM, Greg Clifton <gccfof5 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Jesse,
>
> I just spent the better part of a day researching various prepaid phone
> services, not with an eye towards tethering, but what I learned may still
> be helpful in your decision.
>
> First, not all LTE is created equal, and Verizon's version is faster than
> Metro's, they run at different frequencies and are NOT compatible as the
> CDMA technology is. Be sure and check the coverage map for the area(s) you
> will be using the phone and don't plan to use it while traveling (by
> car/bus/train) except in a few large metropolitan centers (they have
> zoomable maps of all the cities where they offer LTE on their web site).
> Also note that Metro has no EVDO (3G) service, so if you don't have
> functional LTE service, you'll be running at 1X data rate on the Metro
> network. Roaming with Metro depends on Verizon (or perhaps Sprint) service
> and if you are out of a home area for 3 months (even less if you are using
> data heavily) Metro will "pull the plug," killing not only your phone but
> also your phone number. In other words, if you are roaming and costing them
> $ they cut you off forever. The technician at the company owned store on
> Steve Reynolds Blvd told me this just a couple of weeks ago. So you loose
> your phone # through Metro (not sure if you could get it back on a
> different carrier, didn't have the presence of mind to ask) and they
> essentially brick your phone. Since Verizon and Metro operate their LTE
> networks at different frequencies (I haven't looked at AT&T) the phones
> can't be taken to a different carrier. This question came up because I have
> a daughter at GCSU in Milledgeville which is in the "Extended Home
> Coverage" area and I was looking into getting the $5 off for each line on a
> "family plan." When the tech told me that, it pretty well put the stake
> through the heart of that idea.
>
> Second, if you do much multimedia streaming you would have to go with
> their $60/month plan and you can get DSL for less than that.
>
> Third, I think all the mobile carriers that offer "unlimited" web will be
> going to a throttled service sooner or later.TMobile was the first carrier
> to reduce your speed until the next month once you hit their data limit,
> IIRC. I am currently on the Virgin Mobile $25/month plan (300minutes +
> unlimited everything else) and I received both an email and a snail mail
> notification recently that they are going to a throttled unlimited service
> effective next month.
>
> Fourth, I assume you intend to use the phone as a phone when not in
> tethered mode and are going without a land line. An alternative, but at the
> cost of another plan, that might server you well if you do travel to any
> large extent, you might consider one of the data only services. If you are
> a Kroger shopper, you may have noticed their iWireless offerings (which is
> Sprint service). My wife is on an iWireless LG Optimus S phone and gets 20
> minutes added to her bucket for each $100 I spend at Kroger on top of the
> minutes we pay for monthly, and the minutes roll over (which is rare for a
> prepaid plan). Sprint is known to have a very good data network that covers
> most of the USA (esp. along the interstates) and you can get the data only
> service through iWireless for ~$40/mo IIRC. This would be EVDO data, so not
> as fast as LTE, but WAY faster than 1X and you would have coverage in most
> population centers as well as between, assuming you were travelling via
> Interstate Hwy.
>
> Fifth, another thing that carriers are doing is offloading to WIFI when
> you have WIFI available. I know that TMobile is doing this and I saw a
> Clark Howard clip saying that Metro is doing it too, but I haven't found
> any mention of it on their website. There is also Rebublic Wireless which
> is in Beta right now, but is developing a business model of providing
> "unlimited" service for $19/month. The phone is set to prefer WIFI over the
> wireless network (Sprint) so that you are using WIFI most of the time ["or
> else"]. As WIFI hot spots become more ubiquitous I think this sort of
> business model will become common at least for voice traffic, but maybe
> also for data traffic.
>
> HTH,
> GC
>
>
> On Sun, Feb 5, 2012 at 3:57 AM, jesse james <yoshi_mush_room at yahoo.com>wrote:
>
>>
>> Does anyone know if one of the MetroPCS 4G LTE phones could be
>> replacement for basic dsl. I was thinking of getting rid of my dsl and
>> getting a Samsung Indulge($200) and just tethering my laptop to it.
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-- 
-- 
James P. Kinney III

As long as the general population is passive, apathetic, diverted to
consumerism or hatred of the vulnerable, then the powerful can do as they
please, and those who survive will be left to contemplate the outcome.
- *2011 Noam Chomsky

http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/
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