Forums Forums Enthusiast Forums A - Z Gadgets & Tech T-Mobile Slashes Mobile Data Allowance

Feeling sorry for Android users!

Im with o2 and they (and Vodafone) did the same last year, to try and stop the iPhone users (and as ive since discovered, the Palm Pre users as well lmao) hammering the network (iPhone users streaming pointless video constantly of the inside of their pocket or the surface of thier desk, just for the sake of it etc (because they think its somehow impressive?) springs to mind), fortunately I renewed my contract just before the limit came into force and its not retrospective on o2, im alright for a good while yet lol.

BBC News Report

It isnt just Android users.
I have WM6.5, as does my wife. It affects every T-Mobile user by the looks of things. MSE has a 4 page thread on it so far.

This will start heppening with all the mobile operators.

You will still be able to get an internet allowance, but unlimited access via the handsets over the mobile network will become a thing of the past.

Yes, but to drop from a 1GB allowance to 500MB is bad... but Android users were blessed with a massive 3GB allowance, and are also being dropped to 500MB!

I too run WinMo, WinMo ftw (at least till I throw Android on my TP2 anyway) . The future is Android (unless Palm pull their fingers out with WebOS.

Again, not just Android users. We both have a 3GB allowance right now on our WM phones, and its dropping to 500meg by all accounts.

Good point well made Chewy! Ive been touting it for years, it will happen on both fixed and mobile connections more and more as time goes on and the internet increases in popularity, dealing with IP Transit every day and the costs of it for the last 8 years, makes you realise pretty quick that there is a. no such thing as unlimited, and b. it will get very expensive to provide such a service in the longterm, should people start taking advantage of it.

But Three have other idea's - they have just removed all the caps!!

Having said that, I much prefer QoS than unlimited, so I don't mind what happens, if it stops the plebs with iPhones handshank the networks just for the sake of showing off (because they honestly think their phones can do things other phones running the likes of WinMo and Symbian etc wernt doing 5+ years ago hahaha), then the networks can cap all they want imho.

My monthly usage is between 60 and 150MB, thanks to a mixture of Opera Mini (meaning I used practically nothing whilst surfing the web) and falling back onto wifi when possible. And running and internet business requiring connectivity to the net (hence im still on WinMo), id like to think I actually have a reason to be eating silly amounts of data.

Aha, well the new report does not make that clear. I guess WinMo is just too last decade for some lol! The stylus-happy operating system of yesteryear, as I have seen it referred to recently - they obviously havent met 6.5.5 though thats probably because it never made it out of BETA lol. Ive been running it for 8 months and not had a problem with it, Microsoft wouldnt want to take the limelight away from Windows Phone 7 and remind us how many features it is lacking though would they!!

A lot of it is to do with who gets all the money too.

Over the past few years mobile traffic has rapidly increased from voice and text to the majority now being data, and the only people who make money from that is the mobile operators.

Its been unreasonable to "share" the revenue, so the only other option is to limit how much the mobile operators customers can clog up the IP network.

We had a meeting about it in work a few months ago, but I think I nodded off

Agree 100% with the above.

Typical, miss out on all the inside info!!

Not sure I could talk about it in any detail anyways

Basically data usage is going up and up and up due to new phones with internet capabilities and video calling. The operators charge you for your contract and give you x amount of usage.

However, who is going to pay for the capicty increase which is needed on the IP network to cope with all this extra data? Mobile operators......?

Easier to cap usage than work out who owes who what.

Good to know im not alone in my admiration for WinMo. It may no longer be in fashion (in fact, it never has been in fashion), but it still does everything I need, and want, it too, and was busy doing most things iPhone users rave about today, when they were still dreaming that some day Apple would release a mobile phone. We were munching data on the www via full-colour touch-screens when iPhone users were still being wowwed by WAP on their monochrome Nokia screens lol. Even today, though at the core WinMo is a 7 year old operating system, it does almost everything other modern phones can do, and gives the user much more control, allowing you to hack everything to just how you like it. It's a damn shame Microsoft dumped the Photon upgrade and changed to Windows Phone.

Having said that though, im planning on jumping to Android this year, now that Microsoft have washed their hands of WinMo, though ive been saying that for some 6 months now, and still not found a real reason to justify the changeover. I havent even bothered to see if there are apps available for Android for it to be possible for me to actually replace WinMo as yet!!

Exactly. The dream of an open-peered world is long dead im afraid, they eventually realised that someone has to pay something to keep it all running lol.

I'll be honest, I have considered Android (on a HTC device or course) but its Tomtom thats stopping me. I spent a lot of money on the app and maps for WM. There is no TT app for Android, and with the word that they are working on an app for WP7 it looks like that might be my next upgrade in a years time (if T-Mobile get this debacle sorted out).

Matt, have you heard much about WP7 Pro? Its supposed to be much more like WM6.5 for configurability.

If im honest, I lost interest in WP7 the minute they released details of all the basic things that are missing, features that we have become used to within Windows Mobile for many many years!!

Not heard anything about WP7 Professional, I know originally there was supposed to be different versions aimed at different market sectors, but they scrapped that, hence they dropped the "Series" word from the name.

Ive read recently that Microsoft are releasing the first major update for it soon, and it will finally get some of the core features from Windows Mobile, including copy+paste and multi-tasking - though quite why such basic features were left out, when they have been present in WinMo for many many years, is beyond me!

I think Microsoft's Kin is a sign of just how shoddy their mobile division has become, what was it, 5 years to develop, $2billion spent on it, a close cousin to WP7, and they withdrew it from the market after 48 days, due to a complete "lack of sales".

To be fair, WP7 is a lovely OS to use, not sure if its as good as WebOS yet, but its different, and its very smooth and fast running. Ive only had demo's on them in the shops etc, as I don't know anyone who has a WP7 handset yet, but it really does seem a pleasure to use, and quite refreshing from the usual boring offerings from it competitors (one of the things that makes WebOS stand-out). But it simply lacking too many features from WinMo, the non-backwards compatibility with WinMO/PPC/CE applications is a major no-no, and it could end up going the way of Kin, so it makes it a very risky (and quite expensive) proposition.

I think if I were going for a non-HTC phone now, it would be a Pre2 or even a PrePlus, WebOS makes every other OS look so clunky and slow. But as it stands right now, the only thing im likely to change to, is to upgrade the software on my TP2 to Android. Though I have a feeling ill still be saying im going to ditch WinMo in 6 months time (unless I get a Pre2) lol.