Are you going to cancel Sprint EVDO because of 5GB cap?

radiorange · EVDO User Joined: 28 Jun 2005 Posts: 52

* your estimate of average monthly data usage

less than 5GB. hard to know considering that Sprint withholds the info from me

* whether EVDO is your primary or secondary internet connection

tertiary when at home, where I have two ISPs; primary when I'm on the road

* whether you use EVDO from a fixed location, or while traveling

while traveling and at fixed, remote locations

* whether or not Cable/DSL or other 'mainstream' internet access is availabe to you

yes

* how many people typically use the connection at any one time

one

* what kinds of activities you routinely use the connection for

business and emergency services

* how many hours a day you think your connection is 'active'

on average .5/day

* whether or not you use an EVDO router with your device

yes, for myself and in meeting with emergency services personnel

Five years ago I signed up with an unlimited plan, which is the only reason I've stayed with Sprint even after having done side-by-side comparisons with Verizon and determined that Verizon has better coverage. Lacking this unlimited feature that gives me piece of mind in pricing and the data throughput when I need it, I will be moving to Verizon or AT&T. Same cap, better coverage.

Further, I'm told the overage charge will be $.03/kilobyte. I could inadvertently be $15,000 in debt overnight for downloading 500 megs of updates for the two computers I take on the road or with heavy traffic when in use for emergency services.

In emergency services we talk about risk assessment. My assessment is that Sprint has become too risky in relation to the poorer coverage.

They are making a business decision (ill-formed from my point of view), so I have to make mine to leave at the earliest opportunity (a well-informed decision).

Bob White, Senior VP Corporate Communications, wrote to me and told me that this change is because of less than 1% of users. This drastic and risky change put on the 99% of the users is simply mind boggling.

If the cap were higher, it might make sense to stay with Sprint.

If the cap were higher AND the unused usage would rollover like some cell phone minutes do, then it would be an easy decision to stay with Sprint. However, the option Sprint offers -- 5GB or leave -- makes the decision easy: leave.

burntcrispy · EVDO Newbie Joined: 13 May 2008 Posts: 2 Location: Ohio

I came from satellite hoping to get away from the FAP (Fair Access Policy and bandwidth limit) or at least latency. On Wildblue usage averaged around 9 GB, with minimal usage.

Cable and DSL are not available.

Needless to say 5GB limit is unreasonable to me. I have been frustrated a long time seeing all the cool things available on the Internet but never being able to use them because of usage limits. Technology is supposed to get better over time but instead Internet access seems to keep getting more and more restricted.

Sprint is talking about there new high speed wimax network but what is the point of a high speed connection if you are not allowed to use it. With a 5GB limit you can use your whole months usage in a few hours time now, downloading just one file.

Sprint is also talking about using your phone for all the great things it can do. I would like to be able to use my Internet for the great things it can do.

SammySlim · EVDO Newbie Joined: 19 Nov 2007 Posts: 10

I am not likely to be affected; I use EVDO only when I am traveling, which is not likely to be frequent enough to hit the cap, although I have downloaded the occasional movie for airplane viewing.

But the main reason I don't think it will hit me is that my company has a business account with Sprint and I was able to get the account transferred to the company, so I think we'll be ok on that score.

As for the collusion suggestions, I doubt it. That requires some actual communication on the point -- this is probably what's known as "conscious parallelism," which means I see what my competitor is doing and decide (on my own) to do the same. Same thing happens when airlines monitor fares and restrictions offered by their competitors and do the same thing (or not) depending on where they want to sit competitively.

Definitely sucks for a lot of folks on this forum. It will be interesting to see if there's enough demand that another carrier (with good EVDO coverage - ay, there's the rub) steps up.

Cheers

jfulmer · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 30 Jun 2007 Posts: 136

This will affect me because I am in the rurals, and it is my only access to the Internet.

While I would say most months I use significantly less than 5GB, some months it's more. Especially with a teenage daughter who watches YouTube videos, update software, etc....

I can't take the risk of being charged overages, or having my connectivity cut off or severely degraded. That's why I got off of satellite, for cripes sake.

sandmanfvr · EVDO User Joined: 15 Aug 2007 Posts: 36

Nikodaemos · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 20 Dec 2007 Posts: 25

yeah, ill be leaving.

SMBB is the only type of high-speed service we can get out here where we live. we NEED to have a high-bandwidth, high-speed service.

I'm perplexed at the attitude of a lot of people here who seem to think that people who use more than 5GB/month of traffic are somehow criminal or shut-ins is just preposterous.

do you realize how *little* 5GB is?

I can burn through 5GB downloading a single game patch and the latest Linux Distro.

What use is internet that you cant actually use?

as someone said, the internet, and technology, is rapidly advancing.. what use is a service that doesnt allow me to take advantage of that technology?

None.

Looks like ill be getting an ISDN line; may only get 16K up/down but at least ill be able to get that 24/7.

andy6432668 · EVDO User Joined: 02 Jun 2005 Posts: 50

Yes I will be leaving A.S.A.P. Sprint please send me the letter for the 5 gig cap so I can cancel E.T.F. free please Sprint send the letter sooner the better.

nickjacket · Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 6:15 pm Post subject:

Yes, with a 5GB limit, I'll leave the contract. Just making a few Vonage voice terminal VOIP calls through a capped EVDO would be gordo demento.
If Sprint adjusts the rate for like $50/mo for 5GB or $60/mo for 15GB or $75/mo for 100GB or $80/mo for unlimited, I could see doing that because they'd have to pay for infrastructure to provide the bandwidth.
And besides, having Sprint board members decide between the Silver Cloud lease for themselves or the BMW for their kids in law school (tort law, of course) is a tough decision.

Today is the 31st day of my Sprint signup and the 30 day guarantee won't work so the change in terms letter will.
I'm going to give Sprint a friendly nudge to give me back my Sprint Broadband Direct unlimited account if I do leave the EVDO side.
My Sprint BBD planar array is still pointed towards Gates Pass, ready to go.

Someone, please tell me this is a bad dream and the alarm is about to go off.

isocketnetworks · EVDO Newbie Joined: 22 May 2008 Posts: 2

Anybody do the math?

5120MB / 31 days = 165 MB per day.

HughesNet Satellite limits you to 200 MEG per day.

pakkman781 · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 29 Apr 2008 Posts: 11

-Average Usage - Dunno, had it for less than a month, but I'd say 10-15GB maybe.
- Primary and only connection
- Fixed Location
- It's either EVDO, Satellite, or Dialup for me. WiMax Rollout may happen by 2009...
- Variable
- Downloading media from iTunes, Amazon, and other stores. Downloading games from PSN, XBL, and Wii Shop Channel. Downloading software updates. Music streaming from Pandora. Administration of my company's website. All the normal web browsing and email stuff.
- Constant
- CTR350 Router

Regardless of the speed, 5GB/mo isn't worth $60/mo. Methinks we'll get a second phone line and dial it up with an Airport router until WiMax is available...

Falsely promising Unlimited and giving 5GB is deceptive and wrong. I just hope that Sprint realizes their folly and retracts this before it is implemented. If not, I hope their business feels the wrath of thousands of scorned customers, and tumbles down a pit of bankruptcy that swallows up the other big telcos with them. I know, that's both mean and unrealistic, but I still honestly wish it would happen. They obviously don't care about me, so why should I care about them?

larrysano · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 17 Jul 2007 Posts: 15

This is ridiculous. As SOON as it's possible for me to leave ETF-free, I will be doing so, even though EVDO is my only option for web access (besides satellite and dial-up). Which in and of itself is insane, seeing as how I live 20 minutes outside of a city whose metropolitan area exceeds 1 million people.

Seriously, internet access in this country is such a load of bull. I bet people overseas (Korea, Japan, etc.) are laughing their a**es off at us stupid Americans as we shell out $60/month for a pitiful excuse for broadband service, while they enjoy >30mb connections for half that cost. Then they'll hear the actual punchline that said crappy service is actually CAPPED at 5gb/month by stupid American companies, and they will then literally die from laughter.

Nice one, Sprint. May you go bankrupt within the year.

amanda · EVDO User Joined: 19 May 2007 Posts: 38

mlar · Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 2:01 am Post subject:

I will cancel as soon as I can. It is a secondary connection that I use mostly when travelling. I use very little data. I've probably never gone above 1GB per month, but the reason I picked Sprint over the competition was that it came unlimited. It was one less thing to worry about. With a cap in place, the main differentiator would be coverage, and where I am Sprint does not have the best coverage.

jackrodgers · EVDO Addict Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 1131

Fortunately my days of 500 Meg downloads and uploads of a client's files are coming to an end.

This leaves me with software updates every so often, movie trailers and online poker. I don't think the poker sites use that much bandwidth but the movies and updates will.

The sneaky stuff is the flash ads, who knows how much they use.

I do think they should offer tiered useage like on the phones where you get so many minutes real cheap and then can go for the full plan

The per K or M plans are horrendous and really exploit the user. Since you could easily have a second card to use more, why should they be allowed to charge such outrageous overages instead of $59 per each 5 Gig? Or stagger it to $10 per gig rather than $1000.