I don’t have a smart phone - and not that I’m not totally in to the technology, because I have a Touch. But I don’t have one because I can’t justify the minimum $30/mo extra I’d have to pay to get Verizon to even let me have a smart phone on my plan. Since I work from home, I’m just not out and about and needing the Internet $30/mo worth. I can barely justify the $35/mo I am paying for phone + text.
I might buy a phone with a data plan if they came down to like, $40/mo total. But is there any incentive for this to happen? People seem to be gladly paying $70/mo or more for the data they do have, and demands on the networks are getting more robust. I imagine. I mean, no one is programming for dial-up anymore!
I can only see the prices going up, to pay for the infrastructure that will need to keep growing.
Also, is there any incentive for cell carriers to start offering the ability to have a smart phone that doesn’t have data service, but allows wi-fi? I’d be very in to that, just so I can have a modern phone and not have to carry a phone + Touch.
BTW this thread is not me looking for cheaper cell plans or how I can get a good deal on a phone, or data. I really, really could not afford a phone nor a penny more in monthly cell charges. I am just curious about the trend of availability and pricing of cellular data.
I’ve recently cut my AT&T bill by ~$35 while increasing the amount of data on my plan. While the US is still expensive compared with much of the rest of the industrialized world, prices have been coming down (largely thanks to T-Mobile putting price pressure on the big 2).
I just switched to Aio and got down to $35/ month. 2 gigs high speed then they slow down data. Just checked my usage and I’m at 138 MB about halfway through the billing cycle, and I’ve watched at least one baseball game, maybe two.
Interesting, never heard of Aio before. I see they are part of/related to/owned by Cricket which I’ve heard of.
What would be the downside of switching to a smaller/cheaper carrier? I’ve always stayed with Verizon (previously Alltel) because their coverage is 100% rock solid in my area.
Do these smaller companies have their own infrastructure or do they buy it from larger companies?
I think it’s been coming down steadily. I have T-Mobile, and they just ADDED world-wide data at no extra cost. Very handy for traveling, especially when you are in a foreign land and really need to fire up Google maps a lot. Also, they recently switched me to true unlimited data (no throttling) and reduced the plan cost at the same time.
With the Cricket-type companies, the tradeoff for the cheap price is crappy service. Depending on where you are, this may or may not be an issue for you, but generally, in my experience, their coverage is not good.
As far as I know, ALL smart phones can use WiFi instead of cell data.
The problem is Verizon isn’t going to give you any discount on a smartphone if you don’t commit to a data plan.
I bought a used verizon smartphone and I’m using it with PagePlus Cellular. It uses the verizon network. The service is only 3g. The phone HAS to be Android from (or for) a verizon contract plan, not pay-as-you-go. The phone can NOT be 4g.
My bill is $12 or $30 a month.
I almost always have the cell-data turned off on the phone (as so many apps want to use it to stay ‘updated’).
I use an app that tracks the cell-data use (3g watchdog). Howardforum.com has all the info on PagePlus.
It is possible to get an iphone to work on PagePlus, but it’s very advanced.
Obviously, these are mostly US plans. I will say that I have a $39.95/mo plan with Telecom New Zealand which gives 300 minutes, unlimited texts and 1 Gb data. No speed throttling and either 3G or 4G (if you are in the coverage areas which are not nationwide, unlike 3G). We don’t lose minutes for incoming calls either, so those are all available for outgoing calls.
Straighttalk and Virgin Mobile let you have unlimited talk, text and data for not very much money. Check for coverage in you area, but you can get a good deal with prepaid services, and you can get smart phones.
I have an iPad mini, which I rarely go anywhere with, but when I was traveling last summer, I had the Verizon data plan turned on – it was like $20 for 5 gigs, or something like that. I never got anywhere close to the limit, but it was nice to have when I needed it. Right now, it is not on the plan.
There’s also T-Mobile’s free plan, if you have a tablet. They give you 200 MB a month free. That’s enough for me to use Google Maps for route planning, check the weather, and read websites, but I have to make sure I’m on Wifi before watching videos, downloading apps, and similar stuff. Works great, but I think it’s only for tablets. And if another carrier buys T-Mobile, I suspect this plan would go away and all data prices would start climbing again.
Prices going up will be a result of profit, not necessarily the infrastructure. According to the carriers, most people don’t go over 2 GB, while wifi access is growing and applications are being tuned to use less data. That’s not to say data usage and speeds haven’t increased, but there are other markets where this operates just fine for cheaper.
Personally, I’d be fine with a data-only plan, with rollover data, priced below $30/m.
Ha! I am not considering switching to a smaller carrier. I really was just asking what the downside is and why everyone doesn’t do it, and how they are able to sell data for cheap. Honest!
I paid $21 for a dumb phone last October, and just top up when needed - no contract. I carry a tablet (Nexus 7) for use with free wifi and download a few magazines and newspapers (for free) for when I’m out of range. Or use it to watch movies, read books, listen to music etc.
I really don’t understand the ‘need’ for an internet-enabled smartphone when you’re out and about. $70/month because you don’t want to ask for directions or buy a £1.99 map? Do you need to check your emails or Facebook 10x a day?
I have internet at home, at work and can access it in cafes if I’ve got an urgent task. Occasionally I’ve been out and had to ask for a little help (went to the wrong country on a bus, but my luggage went to the right destination - long story) and it’s been a hindrance, but not enough to justify spending $500-1000 a year.
I guess I’ve saved, this past year, enough for another new tablet. I’m going away for next weekend and will probably blow the lot, so I too have my expensive vices.
You lack of a need does not mean everyone lacks a need. For better of for worse, times have changed, and there is a lot of business that can be (and is) conducted away from home, office, or public wi-fi. Embracing it give me an advantage over those who don’t.
Maybe in the UK, your gas station attendants can give accurate directions. I learned that in my area, I wouldn’t trust them to give me accurate directions to a place directly across the street. Plus, my phone navigation trumps my car navigation because it accounts for traffic.
Short answer: yes, it’s already happening in the US due to T-Mobile’s pressure over the last couple of years (the budget carriers help but T-Mobile has much more visibility and market power), and for that reason you should be extremely skeptical if any T-Mobile buyout happens.
Longer anecdote: My wife and I decided that the Verizon prices were too much, so we switched to the T-Mobile pre-paid plans. We got brand new, current model year phones for $400 each on Black Friday last year (but you can easily go much cheaper if you are fine with a 1 or 2 year old model, and even more so if you go pre-owned), and now for $30/month, we get 100 minutes talk, unlimited text, and unlimited data. Mind you, that $30 is inclusive of everything but state sales tax, and I think the final charge each month is $31.88 for each of us; a similarly priced post-paid plan would include another $10+ in various fees.
Obviously it’s a higher capital cost up front since the phone isn’t being subsidized - though like I said, we could easily have mitigated that - but even with the expensive phones we’ll save good money over the two years a contract would have covered. The other disclaimer is that Verizon really does have the best coverage… but T-Mobile, for instance, still covers 90+% of the population, and some of the budget carriers even use Verizon’s network.
Then you should have named your post ‘Will VERIZON cellular data ever come down in price?’
Yes, the smaller carriers rent ‘infrastructure’ from the big guys (there’s only so many infrastructures).
PagePlus rents theirs from Verizon, so they have the SAME coverage - except that PagePlus doesn’t have 4G (Verizon doesn’t rent that out to anyone).