Aterlo Networks wants to put a Netflix cache in your router
Satellite internet subscribers often can’t use Netflix at all for fear of exceeding their data caps. Nightshift wants to change that.
Data caps
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AT&T, Verizon boost caps on their cheaper shared data plans
We’re seeing another round of plan tweaks from the big mobile carriers, and as with previous offers, they aren’t cutting prices so much as they’re bundling more data into their existing plan tiers.
Verizon will start restricting LTE speeds for its heaviest unlimited-plan customers
Verizon’s 4G networks soon will start favoring customers who pay for mobile data by the gigabyte over customers who draw deeply from Verizon’s unlimited plans. The new policies will only apply when the network gets crowded.
AT&T’s Sponsored Data plan isn’t the end of net neutrality but it is a new model for wireless
AT&T’s Sponsored Data plan is a potentially new advertising and revenue model for the wireless industry. But is it a problem that regulators or startups should fear? Not on mobile networks.
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Looks like Comcast is quietly pushing a 300 GB cap and overage charges
Comcast is expanding its usage-based broadband trials. Given the larger roll out, it looks like a 300 GB cap plus a $10 overage fee that gets you 50 more GB is the winner.
Comcast testing a 5GB plan for subscribers. But don’t worry, you get a $5 discount!
Like Time Warner Cable, Comcast is introducing a low-end capped broadband plan that gives users a $5 discount if they agree to a 5 GB cap. This is a crummy deal for users and they broadband-buying public.
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AT&T’s new shared data plans: Can you split a measly 300 MB of data?
AT&T is introducing a new shared data plan that lets you divide 300 MB between multiple mobile devices. That may seem minuscule, but it could fit the needs of a many a consumer.
How Aquto plans to turn mobile ads into free megabytes on your data plan
Telecom veteran Susie Kim Riley lived in the mobile network core for 8 years. She’s putting that experience use with a new startup that is making mobile data a currency consumers can earn and spend.
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As broadband caps turn 4, it’s time for the FCC to take action
Broadband caps are spreading like Kudzu but the FCC has no oversight of how ISPs implement them or who they affect. While, the agency is showing signs of waking up to the problem, we’ve laid out three areas where it needs to take action.
New Netflix iOS app capitulates to bandwidth caps
Carriers like Verizon and AT&T are trying to convince Netflix to pay for the bandwidth its subscribers consume on their networks. Rather than fork over the money, Netflix is giving its iPhone customers the option of turning off cellular access to Netflix completely.
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Here’s what our web addiction looks like in 2016
We’re on pace to send 1.3 zettabytes of data in 2016, about 4 times more than we send today according to data out from Cisco. To put that in perspective, that’s more than 38 million DVDs sent per hour. It’s a 1 followed by 21 zeros.
U.S. Cellular ends punitive overage charges on mobile data
U.S. Cellular has finally done away with that relic of a bygone 3G age: punitive overage charges on its mobile data plans. Almost all carriers have stopped charging exorbitant rates the slightest breech of the cap, but until this week U.S. Cellular was the exception.
AT&T boosts mobile data caps but hikes prices as well
On Sunday, AT&T is reconfiguring its mobile data plans in a way that will anger many customers but may actually please others. It’s raising its smartphone and tablet data plan rates, while simultaneously offering customers a better deal on the data they do consume.
Sprint: Unlimited still means unlimited
Sprint is walking back comments from CEO Dan Hesse on Thursday about Sprint throttling data speeds of its heaviest data users. At a conference Thursday, Hesse clearly stated Sprint was reining in bandwidth for its greediest smartphone customers, but Sprint maintains unlimited remains unlimited.
Consumers coming to expect free carrier Wi-Fi
Devicescape customers may not be your average mobile data users, but they almost uniformly expect that wireless operators provide some kind of mobile data service and that they provide it for free. Devicescape’s study also found many consumers are unaware that operators are capping data.
Capped data plan got you down? There’s an app for that
Mobile data efficiency isn’t a sexy feature that moves a lot of apps and devices, but it’s increasingly going to be a selling point, as mobile consumers look for savings in an data-capped world. Onavo says it can save iPhone users about $1 billion a year.
Facing data caps, consumers keep turning to Wi-Fi
As network operators drop unlimited mobile broadband data plans, consumers continue to shift their data needs to free or low-cost Wi-Fi hot spots: nearly 90 percent are hitting hot spots at home and on the go. Once a lowly home network standard, Wi-Fi is king of the road.
