SISAREA

After a flood of leaks, Verizon’s just officially announced its prepaid data plan for smartphones. The new 3G Prepaid data package will offer smartphone users “unlimited” data for $30 a month, while feature phone users can score 25MB of data a month for $10 with a 20-cent-per-meg overage fee — all contract-free, of course. The prepaid smartphones include all of Verizon’s Android phones, the Pre and Pixi Plus, as well as most recent BlackBerrys, which is a pretty solid list of choices — and you can sign up for them today or online on September 28. Of course, you’re still on the hook for a full price phone and a voice plan (and there’s no mention of texting), so whether or not this works out to be a deal is up to you, but we’re definitely seeing the prepaid data market start to significantly heat up, and we like it. PR with full device list after the break.

Continue reading Verizon officially announces prepaid smartphone data packages

Verizon officially announces prepaid smartphone data packages originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Whereas AT&T’s move to tiered smartphone data pricing signaled “the end of unlimited” to some, Sprint subsidiary Virgin Mobile USA has just defied that notion with an all-you-can-eat broadband buffet priced at $40 per month. First reported by IntoMobile and confirmed today on the carrier’s Facebook page, the plan will replace existing $20, $40 and $60 monthly offerings that currently top out at just 5GB, so only those accustomed to paying $20 a month (for 300MB) won’t get a totally sweet deal. As you can see above, the $10 for 100MB over 10 days plan will still stay pat, so you can still choose whether to sip or gulp down Sprint network packets when the plans purportedly go into effect on August 24th.

Virgin Mobile USA fortells unlimited prepaid mobile broadband for $40 a month originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 Aug 2010 22:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  IntoMobile  | Email this | Comments

Here’s something we can all agree on: data caps are a bummer, especially now that we’ve all got smartphones capable of gobbling literally gigabytes a day. Unfortunately, they seem to be a necessary evil in this crazy supply-versus-demand world of capitalism we all call home, particularly in light of the spectrum crunch the FCC keeps warning us about. Or are they? One great band-aid rarely explored by North American carriers is the concept of bandwidth throttling, whereby you don’t have a hard cap that results in overage — instead, you just get slapped with a lower data throughput if you blow past your quota. That’s what regional value carrier Cricket is doing with the launch of its new data plans today, offering buckets of 2.5, 5, and 7.5GB for $40, $50, or $60, respectively, at maximum speed on its EV-DO network — but additionally, the quota is on a rolling 30-day basis, which means you can potentially free up some of that bucket each and every day of the month (depending on your usage patterns). If you exceed your cap, you risk falling down to a lower speed where you “may only be able to do basic email and web browsing.” The downside is that this represents a $10 increase in the cost of Cricket’s 5GB plan — and bandwidth throttling still isn’t fun, of course — but at least you can keep using your modem without the dread looming in the back of your mind that you’re going get a 20-page bill at month’s end.

Cricket’s new tiered data plans seem like a model for the industry to us originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Aug 2010 15:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink FierceWireless  |  Cricket  | Email this | Comments

Continue reading iPad data cost by country analyzed and charted

iPad data cost by country analyzed and charted originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Aug 2010 16:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Wired  |  Tableau  | Email this | Comments

The iPhone 4 may be launching on all the major Canadian carriers tomorrow, but we’re only just now starting to get the actual details on what they’ll be offering. Rogers is the first out of the gate and, for a change, it looks like folks in the US may just be a tad jealous of their northern neighbors. It’s not only offering the iPhone 4 for a further discounted price — $159 for the 16GB and $269 for the 32GB on a three-year contract (for both new and existing customers eligible for a hardware upgrade) — but it’s bringing back its 6GB data plan for $30 a month as well. On top of that, Rogers is also offering a new iPad sharing plan that will let you share those 6GB between the two devices for an extra $20 a month. Still no official word from the other carriers, but MobileSyrup has turned up a leak that suggests Bell will be offering 6GB for $30 as well, and iPad sharing for just $10 a month — although that’s yet to be confirmed. We’ll keep you posted as more plans are announced.

Update: Bell just flipped the switch, and their numbers are largely the same with one notable exception — iPad data sharing is an additional $10 a month instead of $20, just as had been rumored. Thanks, everyone!

Canadian iPhone 4 launch details emerge: Rogers offers 6GB for $30, iPad sharing for $20 (update: Bell’s iPad deal cheaper) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink MobileSyrup  |  Rogers Redboard, MobileSyrup  | Email this | Comments

Hang on to your megabytes, folks, because it looks like the Brave New World of limited data is truly upon us. AT&T and Verizon tend to follow each others’ moves pretty closely — the two carriers regard each other as their nearest competitors, after all — and we’re hearing that Big Red intends to move to some sort of tiered bucket strategy on July 29. We don’t have details on whether the pricing will be identical to AT&T’s ($25 for 2GB, $15 for 200MB), but we imagine it’ll be within shouting distance if not. Of course, Verizon has been sending this message for a long time — even before AT&T was — so it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that this is going down. You might say that Droid Does Caps, eh?

[Thanks, RBF]

Verizon switching to AT&T-style limited data plans later this month? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Jul 2010 19:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/tech_news/Sprint_to_begin_throttling_data_this_summer’; You know the fine print of your EVO 4G contract that gives Sprint the right to limit throughput speeds without notice? Skipped past that part? Well, consider this your unofficial notice. If what we’re reading above is accurate, then Sprint appears ready to introduce data throttling this summer. Where and how are the big questions. The image above received from a tipster appears to have been grabbed from Sprint’s own “The Playbook,” though we have no way of confirming that at this time. It certainly make sense though given T-Mobile USA’s recent move away from overage charges in favor of throttling.

Update: We’re hearing from a couple sources that the shot here from The Playbook is a little out of context, and actually refers to a new feature for businesses looking to restrict disproportionately high usage by employees with company data cards. That sounds a little less painful, does it not? Thanks, everyone!

Sprint to begin throttling data this summer? (update: not exactly) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Jun 2010 14:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

UK’s O2 to impose 3G data limits for iPhone 4 users originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Jun 2010 09:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  O2  | Email this | Comments

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/apple/AT_T_forces_you_to_choose_wisely_young_grasshopper’; There’s naturally been a ton of feedback in the past few hours on AT&T’s new data pricing strategy, and the company has been responding to comments all morning over on its Facebook page; one of the key tidbits that’s come out of the discussion so far is that folks on the current $30 smartphone data plan will be able to keep that plan when upgrading hardware. Translation: yes, you’ll be able to get a new iPhone without switching to the $25 / 2GB DataPro plan if you so choose. What you won’t be able to do, though, is keep the $30 plan and add on the $20 tethering option — tethering specifically requires DataPro, so your hopes and dreams of a soft 5GB cap are quashed (unless you want to pay $30 for 3GB of overage, of course).

On a related note, we’ve been tipped that some folks’ iPad orders from Apple have been pushed back to June 7 — an interesting coincidence, considering that’s when DataPlus and DataPro go live. If true, it’s likely so that Apple can pre-install new orders with updated software for managing the new plans, but it’s also a preemptive strike against a horde of people trying to grandfather into the $30 plan over the next few days.

[Thanks, John and Aaron]

AT&T users can keep $30 unlimited data when upgrading phones… unless they want tethering originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Jun 2010 12:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink MacDaddyNews  |  Facebook (via AT&T)  | Email this | Comments

var digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/apple/iPhone_tethering_and_new_price_plans_coming_to_AT_T_June_7′; You might think that AT&T would hold off for a national HSPA+ deployment or a full-on LTE launch before tweaking its data pricing strategy, but not so much — the carrier is coming out swinging today with some significant changes that should benefit the overwhelming majority of its smartphone users (and could stand to harm a select few). Let’s break down the major points:

DataPlus / DataPro

• The existing $30 fair-use “unlimited” smartphone data plan is being replaced by two new options: $15 per month for 200MB and $25 for 2GB (called “DataPlus” and “DataPro,” respectively). Customers currently on the $30 plan are welcome to stay on it, but they can switch at any time without extending their contract.
• AT&T’s new overage system is arguably the game changer: on the $15 plan, you’ll pay $15 for each additional 200MB, but on the $25 plan, you’ll pay $10 for each additional GB. It’s simple and straightforward — but most importantly, it won’t bankrupt you if you go over by a gig or three in a month. This compares to $50 per gigabyte of overage on AT&T’s 5GB DataConnect plan for laptops.
• The carrier’s going to be very flexible about changing between the DataPlus and DataPro plans — if you’re on DataPlus, for example, and you discover that you’re blowing past your allotment, you can choose either to start DataPro the following billing cycle, pro-rate it, or apply the higher plan retroactively to the beginning of your current billing cycle. That’s pretty wild.

Tethering

• Tethering will be offered as an add-on to the DataPro plan for an additional $20 per month, which means you’ll pay a total of $45 a month for 2GB of data shared between your phone and your tethered devices. If you’re light on the usage, it’s a sweet deal — but if you scale it up and you’re using the data almost exclusively on your laptop, it compares unfavorably to the traditional DataConnect plan: $60 versus $75 for 5GB (and in the unlikely even you’ve got a webOS device on Verizon, it compares even less favorably). If you’re striking a balance of data use between a smartphone and tethered gear, AT&T’s new setup is still pretty solid considering that you would’ve been paying $60 for the USB stick plus $30 for smartphone data before.
• Yes, it’s finally happening: AT&T’s iPhones will get access to the tethering option, too.

iPad

• iPad users are also affected by the change. The $30 iPad data plan — lauded for being labeled by AT&T as truly unlimited — goes away to be replaced by the same $25 / 2GB plan that smartphone users will see, though current subscribers to the $30 plan can continue unaffected.

Everything launches on June 7, except for iPhone tethering — it’ll launch when OS 4 does. In the meantime, we’re told users can sign up for the $30 plans both on their phones and iPads if they’d like to be grandfathered in. Follow the break for more details along with AT&T’s full press release.

Continue reading AT&T makes sweeping changes to data plans, iPhone tethering coming at OS 4 launch

AT&T makes sweeping changes to data plans, iPhone tethering coming at OS 4 launch originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Jun 2010 03:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments