Friday, September 2, 2016

Unlimited* Plans Now Offered, in Some Form, by all Four Largest U.S. Mobile Firms

Despite the potential danger posed by truly "unlimited" usage plans, all four U.S. mobile service providers now offer some form of "unlimited" usage, though offered in ways that limit potential exposure.

Unlimited mobile data is one of those concepts that requires an asterisk (Unlimited*). Now offered in some form by all the leading U.S. mobile service providers, “unlimited” does not generally mean there are no usage limits.

Customers still buy buckets of data usage. But if those usage limits are hit in any billing period,  mobile data speeds get reduced, at some point, to 2G speeds (128 kbps, in some cases). That, many would argue, is better than losing all connectivity.

So many would not complain about that limitation, at some level. It does mean the dreaded “overage” charges are not an issue. That saves consumers money, should usage climb beyond the usage bucket the customer chose to pay for.

That is one way service providers limit their exposure to heavy users whose behavior might change, were usage literally unlimited.

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