Watch the data caps! Who will have the first $1000 phone bill?

[Scott Bennett]

As the season gets going I thought a thread to remind everyone of the somewhat new data caps on aircards may be in order.

Most of the cell phone companies put a 5gb cap on their aircards with some massive overage charges, Sprint even has a 250mb roaming limit.

Might be a good time to log into your respective companies website and review your plan, even if you think you have unlimited plan or you are grandfathered it make be a better idea to confirm it.

Obviously with streaming and all the other data intensive tasks someone will have the overage horror story this season, make sure it's not you!

[Robert Edmonds]

Sorry, had to post, while still able too... Ahhh, alltel and their no limits on data! However, I have been there too when going over with plan agreements. Sucks to get an extra $50 dollar phone bill, just because you ran way over your minutes trying to talk to doctors for some medical issues.

[Ric Burney]

No worries here. Dedicated Verizon card, no streaming plus two phones on different services for voice only but can be used as backup tethered internet if needed.

[Robert Edmonds]

In related news...

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2009/04/23/howard.62k.movie.cnn

and from xkcd

http://imgs.xkcd.com/verizon_billing.mp3
just take a listen...

http://xkcd.com/verizon/


cellphone data rates are ridiculous, especially when their own reps don't understand!

[Ric Burney]

Oh my! Let's see... using Verizon math... one plus one equals cow. Yeah, that must be right.:rolleyes:

[J Kinkaid]

Not worried I have both AT&T and Alltel and they don't have caps

[Jason Foster]

A good idea would be to just call in and check your usage every couple of days or so, you can map your usage on a graph. Also, be familiar with the software, or lights on your card to know when your roaming.

While I don't have limits with Sprint (I'm not on a standard/public plan), I do have to watch the usage because if I'm starting to spike usage, it'll get flagged, and might loose my arrangement.

However that said, I remember my phone bill in 1998 being $1700. That was back in the day with $0.99 roaming charges, and data came in at 9600 baud (a vis-sat took about 5 minutes to download). I'm not missing those days.

[Lou Ruh]

Not worried I have both AT&T and Alltel and they don't have caps

If you don't have a cap with AT&T, I guess you've been grandfathered on an old plan (or you have a plan not available to the average consumer). Based on what I see on their website, they will only sell a plan with a 5GB cap (or a cheaper one with a 200MB cap) for any plan that involves using a device as a computer "modem" (tethered device or data card).

Alltel is still unlimited on their plans, last I heard.

[Bart_Comstock]

I had an old account with AT&T and I wasn't grandfathered in, I know this because I had to pay $400 dollars extra with overage charges last February so be careful.

[Andy Wehrle]

Has anyone tried the "Cricket" service I've been seeing ads for lately?

[Jeff Snyder]

Has anyone tried the "Cricket" service I've been seeing ads for lately?

AFAIK, Cricket is so inexpensive because they only operate on their own towers (i.e. they don't have roaming agreements with other providers). This allows them to keep costs down and provide rather cheap service. However, the coverage area, from what I've seen, is rather limited, making it a poor choice for Plains chasers.

[Mark Blue]

I just satisfied my 2 year contract as of midnight last night, so I'm wondering if anything changes at this point? I started the plan in April 2007 before they came up with the 5 GB cap and 300 MB for roaming off-network. When I login to my online account it still indicates my plan is unlimited, but there are also references to the cap in there as well if you look hard enough. My usage starts a new cycle on the 25th of each month, so that will work out perfectly with our chasecation this year that runs from May 20th through June 1st. I'll be able to split up the usage between two billing periods and hopefully not exceed any of the limits. I've often wondered if I'm grandfathered in or not. I just have this gut-feeling that they can nail anyone if they really want to by the way they word the cap language.

[John Wetter]

Interesting though with Sprint at least... Just looking at my online account, it only shows you the total download total, not on-network and off-network, just a total... So how would one know?

It does peeve me a bit though that in the 'included' column, it still says unlimited...
http://www.wxchaser.com/forum_posts/sprint_screen.jpg

[James Siler]

Regaurding this cap. I have some friends with at&t and she got a $600.00 in overage cause her daughter was using it to watch movies online. She thought it was wrong so I pulled up all the info on overage and calculated it. It was very correct. She tried to deny it but ended up having to pay it. I wish I could afford to jump on the Alltel bandwagon her since Verizon hasn't moved in yet.

[Jim Edds]

John:

According to the guy at Sprint (800-639-6111) tier 2 technical support - there are no more "unlimited" cards. Everybody has been converted to 5GB max. If you have any roaming MB used the Sprint site will separate those out - well that's what he said. Probably a good idea to check the usage at the end of each day. I do know that there is a 24 hour delay for data to be posted on the site so keep that in mind.

[John Wetter]

John:

According to the guy at Sprint (800-639-6111) tier 2 technical support - there are no more "unlimited" cards. Everybody has been converted to 5GB max. If you have any roaming MB used the Sprint site will separate those out - well that's what he said. Probably a good idea to check the usage at the end of each day. I do know that there is a 24 hour delay for data to be posted on the site so keep that in mind.


I know there are no unlimited options on sprint, but I also know I did some roaming data a few days ago and pulled that image off my page this morning...

[Jim Edds]

to be more specific, there is a 24 hr. delay for the Sprint data to be posted - the roaming data? who knows? I don't trust any info about roaming since they have to get that info from someone else anyway. Back in 2003 when I first had a sprint card we didn't have these problems.

[J Kinkaid]

Regaurding this cap. I have some friends with at&t and she got a $600.00 in overage cause her daughter was using it to watch movies online. She thought it was wrong so I pulled up all the info on overage and calculated it. It was very correct. She tried to deny it but ended up having to pay it. I wish I could afford to jump on the Alltel bandwagon her since Verizon hasn't moved in yet.


What data plan did she have ? $15 or 20$ unlimited data plan and she wouldn't have any charges higher than that. She could have also added unlimited data and had them back date the bill and only had to pay $100 max for that $600 bill.

[cdcollura]

Good day all,

I only use the AT&T card I got (I am just over a year into the contract) for email and data when chasing / out of town in an area with no wi-fi.

I certainly will NOT use it for watching movies and such - Just satellite / radar data, responding to emails, and such.

Last year (2008) in the Plains, I used the air-card extensively for data, and I only chewed up a couple of hundred MB ... And my plan has the standard 5 GB limit. I am not sure what the roaming limit is.

I avoid connections if roaming (I get a warning message for that) unless absolutely necessary. Near De Queen, Arkansas last year I got that warning message when trying to check data from SPC - Must have been since I was in "the hills" ... But was able to connect 3G shortly after without roaming.

Keep in mind that these air-cards are NOT DSL or CABLE internet ... Heck, they are not even a land-line - They are NOT for streaming video / movies and such (unless you are streaming and a VERY low bit-rate).

With this in mind, you should be fine.

[J Kinkaid]

Good day all,

I only use the AT&T card I got (I am just over a year into the contract) for email and data when chasing / out of town in an area with no wi-fi.

I certainly will NOT use it for watching movies and such - Just satellite / radar data, responding to emails, and such.

Last year (2008) in the Plains, I used the air-card extensively for data, and I only chewed up a couple of hundred MB ... And my plan has the standard 5 GB limit. I am not sure what the roaming limit is.

I avoid connections if roaming (I get a warning message for that) unless absolutely necessary. Near De Queen, Arkansas last year I got that warning message when trying to check data from SPC - Must have been since I was in "the hills" ... But was able to connect 3G shortly after without roaming.

Keep in mind that these air-cards are NOT DSL or CABLE internet ... Heck, they are not even a land-line - They are NOT for streaming video / movies and such (unless you are streaming and a VERY low bit-rate).

With this in mind, you should be fine.

If you are just over a year with your contract then you have no data limit so don't be scared to use your card all you want. Stream some dash cam video, and watch some slingbox. All accounts before before OCT 2008 still have unlimited data so have fun and go mad.

[Eric Friedebach]

Sprint legacy customers with business accounts are grandfathered with no cap. As for roaming, every now and then SmartView “warns” me that I am roaming but I’ve never seen anything show up on the bill.

[Brian Kluck]

If you are just over a year with your contract then you have no data limit so don't be scared to use your card all you want. Stream some dash cam video, and watch some slingbox. All accounts before before OCT 2008 still have unlimited data so have fun and go mad.

Yup, very happy with my AT&T set up. It's nice not having to worry about how much data I have used every month. I have the service into my Blackjack II and connect to my laptop via blue tooth. Can still stay connected to the internet, use my phone for calling or text messaging all at the same time.

[Tony Laubach]

From what I've gathered, the max overage they will charge you is $99/month. I don't know if it cuts you off service-wise at that point, but I've been told and read on numerous occasions that the maximum charge is $99/month extra.

[Marcus Hicks]

Hey Tony,
I see Art Monk in your avatar! Aswesome. Been a Skins fans since yay high!
Live in So. MD and been following them all my life!

Jim

Die Hard Skins fan here too!

Keeping an eye on my Verizon bill. I never saw any overage charges but I'll be using more this year. We'll see