When "Unlimited" Makes Sense

From a consumer standpoint, there often is little to no actual difference between an"unlimited" and a "big enough" service plan for voice, messaging or Internet access. The reason is simply that most people don't actually use enough of any of those apps to "need" unlimited usage.

On the other hand, there frequently are good reasons for a service provider to offer "unlimited" access to voice, messaging or Internet access. That especially is the case when the carrier's own usage statistics indicate that most people will not use unusual amounts of capacity, whether that is voice, messaging or Internet access.

Under such conditions, provider safely can offer "unlimited" service with no danger of unusual stresses on the network.

In other words, "unlimited" is an excellent marketing platform when a service provider knows it can safely make the offer. And, in most cases, it is a good bet.

The overwhelming majority of customers on AT and T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon networks studied by  NPD Connected Intelligence  don't even use 2 GBytes worth of mobile data per month, which suggests most consumers do not need “unlimited” service plans.

NPD Connected Intelligence tracked users on 1,000 Android smart phones as part of the study.

T-Mobile USA has users who consume more, though. Some 11 percent of T-Mobile USA customers use more than 3 GBytes per month, compared to four percent of AT&T and Sprint customers who consume more than 3 Gbytes a month. About three percent of Verizon customers use more than 3 Gbytes a month

NPD Connected Intelligence analyst Eddie Hold says Apple iPhone usage is pretty similar to that of Android users.

And even when customers had unlimited data plans, most didn't take advantage of it, the study suggests.  "In general, Sprint's usage is the same as the other networks and less than T-Mobile USA," Hold said.

Wi-Fi might now be a major part of the usage pattern, as it is possible users now know how to use offloading techniques to protect their mobile data usage buckets.

On average, smart phones are making eight Wi-Fi connections per day and offloading as much as 35 percent of total data consumption to a Wi-Fi network, while heavy users offload as much as 70 percent , according to Devicescape.

Devicescape surveyed one million smart phone devices as part of its study.

A couple of conclusions might be drawn. At the moment, most users don’t consume all that much data, so the value of an “unlimited” plan is questionable. On the other hand, “unlimited” is a useful marketing platform.

The other potential conclusion is that people might be using more data than is fully captured by their mobile usage in a typical month.