wifi plans - 10 GB per what?

[Stephen Tashiro]

I can readily find information about various wifi hotspot plans. They tout "10 GB" of high-speed data, but that makes no sense unless we are told 10 gibabytes per what? day? week? billing period? For example, on the t-mobile website, I can't find the technical statement of their plans. Is there some legal convention about what period of time "10 GB of data" refers to?

[Yonak Hawkins]

Stephen, a couple of years ago when I had a hot spot device, 2 iPhones and 2 iPads, I had a 6gb / billing period limit for data, so I guess your 10gb limit is per billing period.

[Curt Harms]

I can readily find information about various wifi hotspot plans. They tout "10 GB" of high-speed data, but that makes no sense unless we are told 10 gibabytes per what? day? week? billing period? For example, on the t-mobile website, I can't find the technical statement of their plans. Is there some legal convention about what period of time "10 GB of data" refers to?

Probably per month, or per billing period as Yonak suggests.

[Jim Becker]

That's 10gb of transfer per billing period. If you go over that, they tack on additional charges or degrade the speed considerably, depending on the carrier and plan.

[Steve Peterson]

Yes, it would be per monthly billing period.

Our family has a cellular plan with 12GB of shared data for 4 users including 2 young teenagers. This includes all usage outside of our home wifi range. We often get emails when we have 10% of the usage remaining before the cost jumps to $15 per GB. The high cost seems to be Verizon's way of pushing us towards their "unlimited" plan with around 20GB per user before speeds get throttled back. The monthly cost for this option would be around $80 extra, so we live with the limits of our existing plan.

[Carlos Alvarez]

If AT&T works where you are, take a look at Cricket, which is just rebranded AT&T. We have five devices with 5GB each and unlimited calls/SMS for $100 total per month. In my area, AT&T is the most reliable (and the only service that works in my house).

[Jim Becker]

Carlos, does Cricket also support voice over WiFI? (ATT Wifi on the ATT side) That's a requirement for us because we live in a dead spot and using WiFi for calls within our WiFi network replaced a microcell.

[Carlos Alvarez]

Carlos, does Cricket also support voice over WiFI? (ATT Wifi on the ATT side) That's a requirement for us because we live in a dead spot and using WiFi for calls within our WiFi network replaced a microcell.

Yes, I use it. Our AT&T coverage is kind of ok, not great, but the wifi calling is great. The other carriers go from bad to unusable here.

[Jim Becker]

The other carriers go from bad to unusable here.

Less than a half mile "as the crow flies" to the tower, but we're right at the end of the low mountain that the tower is on and said big hunk of rock blocks signals horribly right where our house is along the road. It matters not what carrier, either. That said, ATT, while insisting that they made improvements to the cell about a year and a half ago, actually caused coverage to degrade significantly for some reason which also doesn't help. But yea...ATT WiFi is working extremely well now that I have our mesh network APs all hard wired (including in my shop building) and that also benefits getting calls outside where the tower signal, while there, is one-to-two bars max. If you hop on one foot, rubbing your head and chewing a piece of 4 leaf clover all simultaniously. (regardless of carrier)

[Matt Meiser]

Yes, it would be per monthly billing period.

Our family has a cellular plan with 12GB of shared data for 4 users including 2 young teenagers. This includes all usage outside of our home wifi range. We often get emails when we have 10% of the usage remaining before the cost jumps to $15 per GB. The high cost seems to be Verizon's way of pushing us towards their "unlimited" plan with around 20GB per user before speeds get throttled back. The monthly cost for this option would be around $80 extra, so we live with the limits of our existing plan.

It was 15/gb for overage long before the limited unlimited plans were introduced.

[Carlos Alvarez]

It was 15/gb for overage long before the limited unlimited plans were introduced.

When I had Verizon it was $10/GB for us. I was surprised to see $15 as $10 seems to be the industry norm. Our current plan (not Verizon) is also $10/GB.

Verizon never fails to be sleazy however. "Unlimited" plans, yeah.

[Steve Peterson]

When I had Verizon it was $10/GB for us. I was surprised to see $15 as $10 seems to be the industry norm. Our current plan (not Verizon) is also $10/GB.

Verizon never fails to be sleazy however. "Unlimited" plans, yeah.

Verizon used to be $10/GB a few years ago. They must have added extra capacity to support the new unlimited plans. Common sense would indicate that the cost per GB should be going down, but the over usage charge is now $15/GB.

Unfortunately we live just outside the range of most of the other carriers. Verizon is our only reliable option.