Wednesday, January 12, 2011

T-Mobile have kicked up a bit of a fuss by saying they are going to cut the unlimited mobile data use for it's customers to 500mb.

For those used to getting (and as importantly paying) for "unlimited" data, this came as a bit of a shock to say the least. If it had been me I'd have been really hacked off, but fortunately I'm not on T-Mob any more, I'm on O2.
Oh hang on, I forgot, my data cap is 500mb anyway. D'oh!

Anyway, turns out T-Mobile weren't quite right in what they were saying. They are only going to apply the cap for new customers and those upgrading from (I believe) 1st February. Those currently on "unlimited" data plans can stay on their current useage plan.

But here's the rub. When they say "unlimited" they don't mean it. It's not unlimited at all. There's a fair useage policy which basically limits the data you can use to 3GB. If you go over that (routinely) you'll be told politely by T-Mob to stop using so much, and if you persist they might well take more heavy handed action (knocks on the door in the middle of the night?).

I'm not sure how often that happens in reality, but that's not the point. The point is, today you get unlimited (sorry, 3GB) for your money tomorrow (or from 1st Feb) new customers or those upgrading will be getting 500mb for the same money (more or less). Hardly seems fair.

And in an increasingly connected world, giving people the tools to use data easily, but then restricting what they can do with those tools seems a bit arse about if you ask me. and it's not OK to just say find a wifi hotspot, because in many places - including most of the places I go, they're not abundant.

The theory is that a few data "hoggers" are ruining the bandwidth for the majority, but penalising everyone because little Johnny is misbehaving doesn't seem to be the right way to go about solving the problem.

I'm going to stop now, and enjoy using my 500mb data cap by browsing and tweeting and so on.

Remember though, use wifi where you can and it won't be an issue!

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