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Unlimited is Limited - More on 3G bandwidth restrictions |
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Written by broadbandreports.com
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Wednesday, 14 June 2006 |
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InfoWorld (via Techdirt) has more on the limited "unlimited" offerings by 3G wireless providers we've been discussing for more than a year. We mentioned in April that Verizon may dump the "unlimited" pitch in favor of metered use. The company already outlaws nearly every form of data consumption in their TOS. The piece succinctly illuminates what's behind these miserly methods: "The existing backhaul was built to carry voice calls and simple data services offered over 2.5G networks such as GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), both of which demand far less capacity than 3G can, he added. Though some base stations have fiber connections with high potential capacity, many are on microwave wireless links or on leased T-1 lines with 1.5M bps (bit-per-second) capacity. Both are expensive and time-consuming to upgrade."With data plans for these services out of range of many consumers (frequently $60 and up), this discussion will only grow louder as adoption increases.
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