Except it's not going to space at all. It's just going to the nearest cell phone tower, where the electromagnetic radio waves it's translated into patterns of blinking lights running through microscopically thin wires of glass, across oceans at the speed of light, into a data center the size of two football fields, and back into the palm of your hand. Oh.
This makes no sense - you're scaling your network based on existing data usage patterns, which only does one thing: keep existing data usage patterns constant due to constraints on the system.
It's like sticking up a big "speed limit: 20mph" sign on a road, and then claiming that your observations indicate drivers don't WANT to drive above 20mph.
The fact that the majority of your users are dealing with your system is not in and of itself evidence that the system is good, or even well liked.
I still think it is a valid question. If you purchase an "unlimited" data plan - just how restricted a service are you prepared to accept?
Until some sort of consensus is achieved for the term "unlimited" I can't see how anyone can have a sane conversation about such plans. Of course you could just go with the normal English usage...
AT&T's network problems go well beyond speed - dropped calls, disconnections, and just plain it-don't-work. Not to mention a great many countries (including Canada, a much more sparsely populated country than the USA) have zero problems running a stable, speedy network with the iPhone. And no, it doesn't cost $10K/mo either.
Being sparsely populated makes it much easier to run a stable network, so that's not a very good comparison. It's not that AT&T's network is bad everywhere, but places with lots of people in a small area cause problems. Where I am the service is excellent. I've never had a dropped call here and the data speed is always high.
Well, the problem is that densely populated countries and cities like most of western Europe also don't seem to have any issues running a stable, fast network.
So... density really isn't much of a variable here.
Oh, also, I have it on reliable information that iPhone network stability and speed in Toronto, Canada is very, very good. This is a city that's denser than most major American cities, especially notable cities where network stability sucks.
That seems like a much better comparison. However, what it leaves out is the network usage. Maybe there aren't as many people using one carrier's towers in those other places or maybe the usage isn't as heavy. So while we know that AT&T's network can't handle the load we don't know if it's because of an inferior network or because of higher usage. I would be interested in seeing those kind of statistics compared for well performing and poorly performing networks, but I don't know if that information will ever be available.
I don't get how an iPhone can be considered solely a rich person's toy. I'm not claiming to be hard up, but I live a pretty frugal lifestyle, and I consider it a completely reasonable expense. It's my phone, it's my map, it's my address book, it's my calendar, it's my handheld gaming device, it's my alarm clock, it's my reading device, etc. ad nauseam. It, my laptop, my apartment, my utility bills, clothes, and food are basically my only expenses. From that list, clothes are the only thing I'll spend less money on, and nothing will spend more time within arms reach.
When I bitch about AT&T's service, it's because they told me they would give me something for my money, and they aren't following through. How that gets conflated as privileged rich white-person whining is beyond me.
"And yes, I recognize the irony that the very system I oppose affords me the luxury of biting the hand that feeds. But that’s exactly why priviledged fucks like me should feel obliged to whine and kick and scream- until everyone has everything they need."
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[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 63.1 ms ] threadJust asking.
It's like sticking up a big "speed limit: 20mph" sign on a road, and then claiming that your observations indicate drivers don't WANT to drive above 20mph.
The fact that the majority of your users are dealing with your system is not in and of itself evidence that the system is good, or even well liked.
Until some sort of consensus is achieved for the term "unlimited" I can't see how anyone can have a sane conversation about such plans. Of course you could just go with the normal English usage...
So... density really isn't much of a variable here.
Oh, also, I have it on reliable information that iPhone network stability and speed in Toronto, Canada is very, very good. This is a city that's denser than most major American cities, especially notable cities where network stability sucks.
When I bitch about AT&T's service, it's because they told me they would give me something for my money, and they aren't following through. How that gets conflated as privileged rich white-person whining is beyond me.
"And yes, I recognize the irony that the very system I oppose affords me the luxury of biting the hand that feeds. But that’s exactly why priviledged fucks like me should feel obliged to whine and kick and scream- until everyone has everything they need."