SMF 92412, unlimited data plans

As I mentioned previously, many cell phone companies are getting sheisty about unlimited data.  That's because soon, all we'll need is a good data plan.  Voice and Text are going to be the wave of the past.  Right now, I can make a call to anyone with a google account for free, with video, for $0 because I have unlimited data.  The more people have google, the more cheaply I can do this, because I won't use any minutes or any text messages if I just use VOIP instead.  I'll channel the information through the internet instead of over a phone.  I can do the same thing at home over my charter account using my laptop, which is why I feel my landline is a little passe.  I still keep it, since it's nearly free (<$10/month), but that's for another post.  For now though, don't upgrade your phone if it means losing your unlimited data plan.  The savings you'll be afforded, even if you have to buy a replacement phone outright, will more than pay for the upgrade cost.  Imagine, if you will, the following scenario:
a) The first month, your voice and text rate is just fine (they're unlimited now) but you go over on data to the tune of $30.
b) the same thing happens for the next 2 years.

You're now at $720, much more than you'd have paid for a phone if you bargain shop and buy it without a contract.  You're also free to get rid of your phone company if they start doing something stupid like throttling your data that you've paid for.  For instance, Verizon advised my wife to upgrade to a 4g phone instead of her iphone and that it would be much faster (this was before the iphone 5 came out).  She likes her droid, but they still throttle her data.  In places with high usage, like her office in Bloomfield, she still doesn't get full 4g service despite full bars and a 4g icon.  Verizon is mad because we use the plan as much as we want to, to stream music etc.  Once you get over a certain usage (I think it's 2.5 gigs of data) in a month, they begin to choke your internet speed to a near-standstill, until you are lucky if you can download a text message.  They are hoping that you'll relent and use the service (again, the service you paid for which is unlimited) less, so that your speeds will be greater.  This, of course, is silly.  They should instead increase their bandwidth to account for the number of users and their usage.  I'm sure my view on this is a bit myopic, but I like to think that if I ran a business that big and profitable, I'd still be nice to my consumers, and that doing that would ultimately make me more successful.

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