The UK's 5-Minute 4G Data Cap 261
Barence writes "The tariffs have been announced for Britain's first 4G network and they include a data cap that customers will break within five minutes. EE's high-speed data service will start from £36 a month — or £21 a month SIM-only — although the lowest package's 500MB download limit might put data-focused early adopters off. With EE claiming average network speeds of up to 12Mbits/sec, that means users could theoretically exceed their cap in just over five minutes of full-speed downloads — or a little over ten seconds a day. There are no unlimited data deals."
Re:Mobile bandwidth (Score:5, Interesting)
Do we have any evidence that competition in such fields works as it normally does?
Judging from the US mobile market I have to say it does not look likely.
Real competition would have to be regulated into existence. Force compatibility of technology and radios, force cross network compatibility and legislate costs for using other networks. We would probably also have to set a maximum subscriber count or region limits. Might even be easier to just make the actual gear owned by a non-profit and let the profit seeking enterprises act only as MVNOs.
Re:Mobile bandwidth (Score:5, Interesting)
While that works, part of the problem in modern society is the cost involved in starting up a competitive business. Most of the tenants of capitalism were thought up when the largest companies around would qualify as a small business by modern standards. The industrial revolution saw the rise of megacorps and the problem has continued to rise into the digital age. It costs a fortune to start a telecom company to compete with an existing one - not quite the same as wholesaling your apples for less than the competing cart next door.
What the solution is I'm not sure, but I think it will eventually have to involve government ownership of some of the very core services or at a minimum some rather strict regulation. We already have that with some things - where I live the power generation is handled by a government entity (Santee Cooper - a SC state agency), as is water and sewer services. Ambulance/911, law enforcement, and military are already handled by the government. Its just a matter of deeming telecommunications a critical public service.
Re:Mobile bandwidth (Score:5, Interesting)
Also considering the initial startup costs, just to break in would be very difficult.
Cell towers are not cheap, nor the network wot support them.
Re:Mobile bandwidth (Score:5, Interesting)
Reminds me of an amusing story.
In one area in rural upstate New York, just a few dozen miles outside of Albany, there was a small town where they wanted cell coverage, but nobody wanted to allow the tower to go up on their property.
Eventually, one local celebrity stepped forward and said enough was enough. He didn't need the income, and didn't (at the time) have a cell phone. He just was sick and tired of hearing about it. He had done well enough for himself and had plent of land in a good, high location and let them build a tower on it.
His name was Andy Rooney. Yes, that Andy Rooney [wikipedia.org]
Re:Mobile bandwidth (Score:5, Interesting)
Well that's utter crap for a start. I guess you're either not from the UK or simply haven't followed this whole debacle. The prices are high when compared to comparative 3G services - I pay £15 per month for an unlimited 3G service, but for £6 more (nearly a 50% markup) I can get a 4G service with a paltry 500mb of data. The only difference is 3G and 4G and guess what - there's several 3G providers and currently only one 4G provider. What a shock, their prices are over-inflated. It's not a case of "people paying what they're willing to", it's a case of people not having much choice - if you want faster data, you WILL have to pay just one provider and you will not have a choice about it. That might sound like a stupid thing to say, but there are plenty of people who don't have access to a decent fixed-line broadband service that would make good use of LTE.
The reason this all happened was because OFCOM allowed two huge mobile networks to combine and then allowed them to use "spare" spectrum for 4G - meanwhile, the rest of the mobile operators don't have spare capacity (and aren't allowed to use it for 4G anyway as it has already been allocated for 3G services) and have to wait and fight it out for a spectrum auction that has been delayed for years now (admittedly, this was somewhat self-inflicted but all the same - they shouldn't have greenlit EE to launch 4G this soon). EE will be the only 4G provider for about a year now and low and behold - inflated prices.
Why on earth would they charge less, anyway? No competition so no need. If you want 4G, you're stuck with them.