opencircles wrote:
Thats pretty good what is the maximum download a month?
Depends on what you buy. For my wireless connection from ATT I'm buying 4 GB a month, for $40, shared among up to 10 devices (currently five active) with per device connection fees starting at $10 a month (i.e. a tablet) but other devices like hot spots have different charges. Overages on this plan are $15 per GB, added in 1 GB chunks.
Other mobile data plans might go to 20 GB or 50 GB at rates somewhat under $10 per GB, but you have to be careful, because if you buy a lot more data than you use, you end up paying more per GB than you should. Just like calling plans, if you buy "unlimited" calling for $50 a month and make only 10 five minute calls, you are paying $1 a minute and you get pay-as-you-go for a small fraction of that cost.
Land lines, I can get U-verse (DSL) for $25 a month, 150 GB data plan. $10 for each 50 GB overage. But that's slow (0.5 Mbps) at that price, and I think it is an introductory offer, might actually be $40. Higher speeds for higher prices, but what they are currently offering me maxes out at 1.5 Mbps, too slow for what I do.
All of these phone company prices, those are just the fees for service. Whether mobile or land line, you might also see $10 to $30 in taxes, universal access fees, 911 fees, regulatory fees. How this works out depends on how many lines you have, as some fees are per connection, others flat rate per customer, and some a percentage of the bill.
Cable company is usually the bargain for bandwidth. I get 50 Mbps down, 3 Mbps up for $30 a month, 50 GB plan (but they don't gripe until I hit 300 GB in a billing period). They do throttle, however, but on the 50 Mbps plan they throttle me to 5 Mbps, which is still fast enough.
Other cable companies have similar rates, sometimes different rates for different speeds and usually commercial plans with higher limits and more speed for uploads. Just how far any wired provider will go with speed and data limits depends on your location and the equipment available. You don't get fiber optic speeds if you are beyond the range of where they've strung the fiber. You don't get cable at all if they haven't brought the cable out to you.
On top of whatever the rates for service, with cable you also pay sales tax and service fees, but no Federal excise tax.
Sometimes where there is a demand, and there is no fiber, cable, or DSL strung, someone may be providing direct microwave service, but you have to be able to put an antenna line of sight to their nearest antenna, and if that takes a 200 foot tower you have to buy the tower.
What you can get always depends on where you are. People who live in densely populated areas are accustomed to having whatever connection they are willing to pay for. 4G LTE, sure, just a matter of how big a data plan you want to buy. Get out of those areas, you might be 3G, or less than 3G.
In 15 minutes I can drive to a location where I can get no mobile data at all from any provider, there is no cable, there are no landlines because it is rangeland and horses and cattle don't watch TV or make telephone calls. In 40 minutes I can drive to where there is no mobile voice service. Huge areas of the middle of the country are like that.
Where I go camping? The past two years I've had intermittent mobile voice, and a GPRS connection. If I can find a high enough spot, I might get EDGE or I might get 3G. To get 4G I have to drive six miles to the highway, where there is a cell tower serving a truck stop; I expect that is the source of my lesser services when out at the campground.
Besides the what service you can get where issue, there is also a length of contract issue. Particularly where someone has to install equipment, there is usually a minimum contract for service, and there might be a high buyout price if you are on the move.
I suggest you consider Verizon mobile, because you can take that anywhere Verizon has service, which includes most heavily populated areas. Your contract does not require you to stay in one particular location, the only hitch being if you move to someplace where the service provider is a Verizon roaming partner and stay there too long. I had Verizon's predecessor cancel my contract because I lived in an area where they no longer had a license to provide service, and I was permanently roaming (that's why I had to switch to ATT).
Verizon, ATT, T-Mobile, Sprint all have pay-as-you-go plans, and there are other data service resellers that use one or more of these networks. What I've found with provider-branded pay-as-you-go is that the service does not roam, like contracted service does. If it is not the provider's tower, the pay-as-you-go instrument does not use it.
Tom Test
Itasca Spirit 29B
