Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Unlimited Data vs. Home Data Usage

I have been searching for a mobile Internet option to replace cable Internet for a long time. My monthly data usage is somewhere between 300 and 400 GB. I wasn't sure if this was unusually high, until I recently found a broadband data usage report on telecompetitor.com that shows that my monthly data usage is about average. So, why are Verizon and other mobile carriers offering only 15 to 30 GB at 4G speed on mobile hotspots on their unlimited plans before throttling down to 600kbps? Verizon's single line unlimited, which offers a hotspot with 30 GB at 4G, costs $90 per month. The highest single device connected home plan gives you 40 GB of 4G for $150. Each additional GB over 40 is $10. This means that if I use 300 GB per month (the low end of my range), my monthly cost for mobile home Internet would be $2750. Using 400 GB would move the monthly fee to $3750.

So, why is there such a disconnect between the average home data usage and the plans being offer by mobile carriers? Is their equipment unable to handle the data traffic? I assume they ran some tests and found that at peak usage, there would be problems with maintaining 4G speed. So, instead of fixing the 4G traffic problem, they are putting all of their resources into 5G, an even higher speed data standard that will surely have similar data traffic limits as more and more people start using it. This means that mobile Internet is not providing any competition to land based and satellite Internet providers. The cable Internet providers will continue to raise their prices. There is still a long way to go before mobile becomes a cost effective home Internet option.

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