Is data plan truly unlimited?

[chicagoastro]

As a new LG Ally user with the alleged "Unlimited" plan....I fear for my first bill.

Let's just see.

Chicago Astro

[jkb1983]

One thing that you have to know about life is that nothing is unlimited.  Effectively, the unlimited data plan for Verizon (I believe) DOES have a limit of 5gb.  The reason for this is if it was truly unlimited, Verizon would be losing money left and right providing a totally fre

But you have to know that 5GB is a very large amount of data; and if you monitor your usage on your account (and know how to convert kb to Mb (and therefore GB) you should be okay. 

 I bought a new Android-powered smartphone last month, and as of today (one day before my next billing cycle begins) ,my useage is topped out at 480500kb. 

one kb is roughly 1024 bytes.  a Mb is 1024kb or 1048576 bytes.  a GB is over 1 billion bytes.  (or 1000 million bytes). 

by converting my usage for the last month, my total of 480500kb is equal to 469mb of data used in my plan.  So therefore, not even 1/10th of the 5gb limit has been used. 

I bought a new android-powered phone for this plan, and I have played with it a lot (especially since it is wifi capable and I have a fiber-optic hookup for my wifi at home !) and I have done a lot of surfing, youtube watching and the like.

however, you have to know your limits.  A mobile phone with internet capabilities is very useful and fun, but you cannot use it as a replacement for a PC/Mac in regards of internet useage and daily work.  If anything, a mobile with a data plan is more or less an supplement to your main computer usage.  Depending on what you do each day (work or play) on a PC / Mac you can use well over 5gb to 20gb.

so there is a limit, but you will not reach that limit unless you go completely wild over data usage. 

[reallyniceguy]

I have been monitoring usage on my brothers line. He uses over 5 gigs on his phone because he has no computer and hes on the internet all day long. No charges on my bill yet. it truly should be unlimited unless you are using it for something other than data on the phone. Im sure maybe data speeds may be throttled down but you wont get overages unless you do not have unlimited data.

[armymil]

I dont think that is fair to say Jkb1983. There are a lot of people who like to have internet but can't afford an additional fee for dial up, a PC, computer tune-ups, a phone line or cable service, etc. It is much easier to add it to your cell phone for a few bucks more per month. There are many people who are going wireless and getting rid of the land line phone in their house. It would just make sense that we are all going away from desktop PCs as well.

I think that if a cell phone company offers internet service, there should be fine lines of what it can be used for but no different than say an ISP. You shouldn't abuse the network but you shouldn't be punished for listening to Pandora 24/7.

If VZW had to go tier'd internet, they should offer the first month with more Megs so customers can try out their new "smart phones" and download all the apps and whatever they need without the worry of going over. I know my friend just got the "I Phone 4" and he was already 63% of his 3 Gb plan from the first weekend. I know when we got our Droid Eris's, that we went into "download frenzy" and tried every app. Now, we are just idle and download if we need or rarely YouTube/Pandora/etc.

Just saying...