this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2024
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Why do cell phones have a data limit but home internet doesn't? I understand bandwidth limits, but how can home internet get away with giving users all the data they can use, but cell phone providers can't?

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[–] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 4 weeks ago

Neither of those statements is universally true. It is a tendency, but not a universal rule.

Mobile internet is newer, less essential to many people, and I think mostly more costly to operate for the ISP per amount of data transferred, so this is why it tends to be the case. But there are unlimited mobile plans and limited home plans too in the world.

[–] kmartburrito@lemmy.world 4 points 4 weeks ago

My Comcast has a terabyte monthly data cap. They will send you an email if you get close to it, and if memory serves they allow you one time to go over it before they charge you some.

Even with downloading many big games sometimes when I refresh my PC and using streaming video apps all the time, I've never hit it but have come close several times. I also work from home.

[–] jbrains@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Where are my Rogers home internet customers at? 🇨🇦

[–] adespoton@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 weeks ago

I moved to Telus when Rogers bought Shaw and screwed up my billing plan, and were unwilling to be competitive.

Both Rogers and Telus have capped plans and more expensive “unlimited” plans.

[–] bluGill@fedia.io 3 points 4 weeks ago

It is a proxy for don't use too much on the busy towers. In small towns it doesn't matter, but if you are in a downtown the tower will have many people connecting to it and the radio frequencies are shared. By putting a limit on everyone they force better sharing of that limited bandwidth. The limit is very large - far more that than the large abusers will use alone, but in a dense areas it is less than the common person will use all at once.

Tmoblie has (or had?) a binge on plan - if you used video (which we quickly figured out meant low quality - but probably good enough for a tiny phone screen) or audio you were using a lot of data, but it was consistent all day and so they didn't have to count it - if the tower doesn't have enough bandwidth for everyone on the first day of the month they have to fix that. That is the real worry: the tower running out of bandwidth on the first day of the month.

[–] card797@champserver.net 3 points 4 weeks ago

I am lucky to have a local ISP that is amazing. I'm hoping that they never change.

[–] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

Not all of them do, I've seen that in America data limits on home internet is common, and here in Europe unlimited phone data is common.

[–] hperrin@lemmy.world 2 points 4 weeks ago

Home internet usually does, it’s just pretty high.

[–] nimpnin@sopuli.xyz 2 points 4 weeks ago

Neither my phone internet nor my home internet has a GB limit. The phone internet costs 25€ a month, and home internet 30€.

[–] GGNZ@lemmy.nz 2 points 4 weeks ago

It depends where you live, Here pay $45usd for unlimited 1Gb/500Mbps Fibre and it is truly unlimited (usually 15-20Tb a month) and  $35usd for unlimited 5G tho it's throttled abit after 60Gb.

[–] CaptDust@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 weeks ago

My previous home line had a hard cap at 1TB per month. That seemed like a lot at the time, but I think as the internet grows and requires more bandwidth these "sky high" caps will feel smaller and smaller.

[–] Steve@communick.news 2 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

They convinced the FCC, cellular networks are different than wired, and should have different rules.

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 2 points 4 weeks ago

Limits on home service used to be more common, but some plans still have caps. My home internet has a cap, it is just really, really high and they charge you more for exceeding it instead of cutting off access.

My phone also has a cap, but the cap means the connection is throttled instead of charging more.

I have had a home plan in the past woth no limit, but they didn't offer service to my new house when I moved.

[–] PhotatoMan@lemmy.world 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

My cell provider Telia gives me unlimited internet and calls in all nordic countries, pretty sweet deal as I need to use my phone in more than one of them.

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[–] spiderman@ani.social 2 points 4 weeks ago

They do have unlimited data plans here and it's at same price as your average wifi plan.

[–] astrsk@fedia.io 1 points 4 weeks ago

I pay an extra $30/mo on top of the $100/mo for comcast to not charge me extra when we shatter 1TB usage every single month (average 3.5-4TB usage in this home). They absolutely do have caps on home internet, always have, at least in my state. During the pandemic they relaxed the fees so going over didn’t cost but as soon as they could, they went right back to charging $10 per 50gb over 1TB usage with a max fee of $100. It’s bullshit but we don’t have a choice here, can’t even get satellite internet as an option because the complex doesn’t allow dish installation on the building.

[–] mesamunefire@lemmy.world 1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Home internet did happen to have a limit in most places prior to the pandemic (at least in California). It was one of the big quiet changes that occurred. For example, ATT used to have 150GB limit about 5 years ago but it kept getting bumped up.

[–] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 3 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

That is exactly the reason.

Those caps also prevent the small percentage of people who would abuse the system from having as much of a negative impact on other users.

Back when the company I used to work for offered an unlimited voice calling deal (we're talking 25 years ago on the old analog cell system) there were a few people who decided it would be a good idea to use their phone as a baby monitor, which tied up a voice channel for days at a time. There being only a dozen or less voice channels on most towers at the time made that kind of thing a signifigant cause of congestion.

[–] mesamunefire@lemmy.world 2 points 4 weeks ago

Yep. And to add to your statement, its probably to make torrenters/massive downloaders pay or curtail their activities. Then streaming came along, voice chat, etc... that both helped us entertain ourselves and work within the home from the pandemic. If people didn't have unlimited plans, they would switch ASAP because it was no longer a want, it became a need.

[–] ohellidk@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 weeks ago

greed. some home internet services are also capped too for the exact same reason.

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