Time to face the music.
These companies are here to create money. That's priority numero uno. Good customer service, good prices, and good plans only exist to show a profit.
Additional hints used to provide unlimited plans until they weren't making just as much (read: we downloaded too much). That led the industries to create the popular structure of:
Basic Plans - 50 Megabytes (MB) or less
'Average' Plans - 5 Gigabytes (GB)AC
Unlimited Plans
Okay, most people get what unlimited means, but what on earth is 50 MB or 5 GB?
It's not like cell phone companies where one can count minutes. We realize what minutes are. Gigabyte b450 aorus pro read the time, on a regular basis!
Tell someone you will be there in 5 minutes plus they get that. Tell 'em you're exceeding your usage cap within the next 10 Megabytes and expect the "lost in space" look.
Today we will demystify all of the jargon. I'll walk you through:
You skill with 50 MB of data
You skill with 5 GB of data
Everything you can't do with unlimited data
How to pick brilliantly pick a plan to steer clear of the fret of using too much bandwidth.
Basic Plans
They are well, pretty basic. If you're not careful, you'll blaze through the 50 MB faster than Michael Phelps in water at the Olympics. It's just not a lot. Does which means that not to get it? Definitely not.
An efficiency plan could work in the event that you only check email or see the web. Large files become questionable. Definitely watch out for windows update. Some updates can be 100 MB or more. Last thing you need is to get slapped with a gazillion dollar bill and whatever you did was restart your personal computer. Thanks Microsoft!
Downloading movies or music is merely out the question. The average album is approximately 80 MB while movies are 700 MB at best. Needless to say, this leads us to elusive questions like "What's the meaning of life?" and...
"Man, so what can 50 MB get me?"
Nielsen-netratings.com says the common U.S. websurfer loads 1,500+ web pages per month. Popular webpages could be junked up with ads so each one of these makes up about 100-200KB of data downloaded.
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- CNN.com is 93kb while Google is really a mere 6 kb -
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This means that normally, a typical user will download over 20MB of data just doing 'routine' web surfing. read more , doesn't include email you might download using desktop clients like Outlook.
The issue isn't so much the e-mail here, but spam. When possible, stay away from using Outlook to download all your email. Try a web-based email service like Gmail or Yahoo. This way, should you choose get spam, it's in a folder you do not download (read: you pay for it).
Here's a table that summarizes what we've spoken about so far:
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Activity/Download | File Size | # of times before you hit 50 MB
1 email | 10 KB | 5,000
1 webpage visit to CNN | ~100 KB | 512
1 downloaded song from iTunes | 4 MB | 13
1 typical 3 minute video on YouTube/Google | 5 MB | 10
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So, just need email? Then you can get a basic plan. Or even, then maybe you have to consider:
5 Gigabyte Plans
I'll give it to you straight. A 5 GB plan will cover most people's needs. It is not for power users. Now, how would you figure out if you're regular or a power user? Ask yourself these questions:
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Questions | Average User | Power User
Use the internet a lot more than 3 hrs/day? | No | Yes
Will an aircard be your primary connection? | No | Yes
Do you download movies or music regularly? | No | Yes
Can you stream movies/music regularly? | No | Yes
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Answered yes to more than 1 of these questions? Then you're probably a power user and should have a look at an unlimited plan. Uncertain? Check out:
What can 5 Gigabytes get me?
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Activity/Download | File Size | # of that time period before you hit 50 MB
1 email | 10 KB | 500,000 times
1 webpage stop by at CNN.com | 100 KB | 5,242 times
1 downloaded song from iTunes | 4 MB | 1,250 times
1 typical 3 minute video on YouTube/Google | 5 MB | 1,000 times
one hour of 56k audio stream | 25 MB | 200 hrs
1 typical 5 minute video on iTunes | 30 MB | 167 times
1 hour of video stream or 2-way video chat | 52 MB | 97 hrs
1 typical 45-minute Television show from iTunes | 200 MB | 25 times
1 Full-length (2 hours) movie download | 1.5 GB | 3 times
1 entire DVD disk image | 4.5 GB | 1 time
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Unlimited Plans
Just the truth that you're reading this part probably means you may want this plan.
Whether you're on the go from airport to airport, building webpages or downloading movies and music, you stay connected. You're a power user through and through.
Mobile Broadband providers may tremble at the mention of your name. Nothing else but unlimited will suffice. If that's you, there are only a handful of carriers that provide unlimited mobile broadband. Start to see the end of this article for where you can find them.
While the plan could be unlimited, 'prohibited' uses can get you banned by your provider. Those include:
Always on connections such as P2P, BitTorrent, server devices
Spam
Auto-responders that generate 'excessive' traffic
Any form of hacking
Think of it in this manner. They just don't want you to suck up all of the internet for yourself like an industrial vacuum. Though it might be fun, it'd be selfish. Other than that, you should be fine.
So, to recap on which we covered:
Basic plans are great for browsing the web and checking email
Average (or 5 GB) plans work well for most people
Unlimited plans are for power users who make an online search 'intensively'
Avoid mobile broadband for 'questionable' activities (If you do, I 'didn't see no thin!')
Now guess what happens each plan will get you. Heck, you probably know which one you'll get.
Hold up though.
What if you obtain it and it's no longer working out for you personally? Or, You've already got it and you realized that it is not for you personally? It'd really bite to be stuck for just two 2 years paying for something you don't like.