I don't have a data plan for my smartphones yet because I use them as fancy alarm clocks and never really carry them around. I don't like having a "phone" on me. I guess it's because I don't like talking over phone AT ALL - which is a funny excuse considering only a handful of people actually have my phone number and I don't talk to them using the phone at all.
I exclusively voice/video conference through Google's services or very rarely through Skype. I am subscribed to pre-paid international talktime via Google which enable me to call family using any internet access anywhere. {I think it doesn't work without internet access - in which case, I have emergency international call minutes from Reliance.}
According to this tool:
- I occasionally stream videos - almost all from youtube.
- I seldom stream music. If I do, it's from pandora.
- I never use apps or play online games.
- I send and receive photos, files and documents all the time (with more documents than any other kind of files - but they obviously don't factor this in).
- I surf the web all the time. Eh? Who doesn't. Everything is online. I wonder what their definition of "surfing the web" actually is.
- I check email all the time. I am always connected.
My monthly estimated data usage is 8.27 GB/month. Does that make me an average or above-average user? I wonder...
I still don't know if I really need mobile broadband internet access. If I do get a mobile internet plan, I am not sure it makes sense to have the wired plan as well. I am thinking about this because mum wrote to me today about how she has finally ditched traditional wired access for a 3g/4G enabled USB mobile broadband access - as the primary home internet connection. She wondered if I could do this in US at reasonable costs.
Do any of you use 3G/4G networks for internet access at home through your laptops? Do you find these mobile broadbands completely replacing the need for your wired DSL/cable-modem access? What are your data estimates like? Which mobile and traditional internet providers are you with?
LOL, were you watching the revival or the classic 70s version? So many Indian connections in that show. Somehow I never had the time to get into it. :::link:::
My large amount of data usage can be summed up in two words; Upstairs, Downstairs.
Hmm. , , 12 GB/month is top 1%. Interesting. So everyone must have a wired home connection. Mobile broadband has not replaced traditional internet quite so massively as cellphones have replaced landlines.
Matt hit 12GB on mobile? Wow. What takes it up the most, do you think? Streaming videos? Or just uploading/downloading large resolution pics?
yes, you do have a point there. Having limits every month is no fun. Back home, I regularly went over the limit every month and paid extra sums all the time. My parents, on the other hand, seldom use even the minimum allocated data limits. So maybe mobile 3G/4G plans might work out great for them...
I think the cost is too extreme for your consumption. Maybe sprint with its unlimited plan. Although I have heard mixed reviews on the speed. I have AT&T unlimited which is no longer offered as an option. However, when Matt hit 12GB one month they wrote to tell him to use less or get canceled as he was in the top 1% of mobile data users. He switched to using wiring when at home which brought it down. However, if you canceled your home internet, it wouldn't work out.