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1:14 pm
October 31, 2013
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No where in the SpeakOutWireless.ca forums can I find a clear answer to the question of whether the new $10/100 MB/month data plan is a "real" data plan.
#1 Can anyone confirm whether the new data plan(s) are "real" data or are there still restrictions in place? I've seen the question asked a few times but invariably there hasn't been an answer. For me, I'd like to know if Apple's maps app and Apple's iMessage feature will start working on the new data plan since they don't work with UMB.
#2 (more a technical question, I suppose) I suspect that to get "real" data to work I'd have to remove the proxy settings from my iPhone that I had to insert to get SpeakOut UMB data to work. Can anyone confirm that as well?
Background:
So, in the UMB (unlimited mobile browsing) world that I've been used to with Speakout, unlimited data isn't "real" data. Many protocols are blocked (e.g. Apple's own maps app, iMessage, and all VOIP apps) and images are invariably hypercompressed, usually to the point of uselessness on the iPhone.
I guess that's why it's called unlimited mobile browsing. Fair enough!
Happily enough Google Maps has worked just fine, faithfully downloading maps and street view images while the likes of Apple's map completely failed and the "side loaded" (well, not really side loaded, just loaded with a third iTunes account… love the fact that I can have apps from three different countries' app stores on my iPhone ) American version of Bing maps used such insanely compressed images that the maps were effectively unusable.
3:55 am
April 22, 2009
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The new data plans are no longer proxied UMB, meaning there are no longer any restriction on what you can run any more. It is as good as any 3G data out there, which in my not so humble opinion is pretty bad. VOIP still runs into the same problems like high latency, and high jitter. I do not believe LTE is currently supported by Speakout. You need a special SIM for LTE.
From what I gather, you have to switch APN's to get 3G data.
9:52 am
October 31, 2013
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Thank you for the response and the confirmation.
Yes, I agree. The new data plan isn't terribly bad. Bell/Rogers/Telus don't even come close to offering pay-as-you-go for $0.25/min with a $10/month data option.
What I fear is that UMB was the best of both worlds for me. $10/month and I was able to do pretty much everything I needed to, within reason with a built-in restriction that meant I never had to worry about data usage. The fact that most non-http protocols were barred meant high-data usage apps couldn't quietly use up all my data. My only wish would've been that pictures weren't compressed to the point where they were useless.
Without the check provided by the UMB proxy I fear that 100 MB/month won't be enough. Most months I'd use 20 MB-30 MB with unlimited MOBILE browsing. Now we'll see since images won't be compressed anymore and apps may be able to sneak in hidden data usage .
Hmm. I wonder if I can still use some sort of mobile browsing proxy to restrict my data usage? Crazy thought, I know.
2:02 pm
April 22, 2009
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I was kind of shocked I, on average,use about 40 megabytes a month on mobile browsing, and it was not hard. I never updated anything, or ran any streaming media while on 3G. I could do all that when I had access to wifi.
However, there are months I could do much more than 100 meg a month. I do not want to get billed the ridiculously overpriced overages, so that is what is going to stop me from being a Speakout data customer. I will pay $25 a year, throw the phone in the glove compartment, and be done with it.
1:34 pm
March 20, 2013
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bridonca said:
I was kind of shocked I, on average,use about 40 megabytes a month on mobile browsing, and it was not hard. I never updated anything, or ran any streaming media while on 3G. I could do all that when I had access to wifi.
However, there are months I could do much more than 100 meg a month. I do not want to get billed the ridiculously overpriced overages, so that is what is going to stop me from being a Speakout data customer. I will pay $25 a year, throw the phone in the glove compartment, and be done with it.
ARE the overages really that ridiculous, though? It says it's 10 cents per MB over, which is exactly what the regular plan is. So if you use 20MB over your 100MB allotment, you only pay $2 more in that month. Is that unusually high?
5:13 pm
December 30, 2010
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yes it is. If you use 200MB, we are talking 20 dollars which many other plan gives you 500MB or even 1GB
11:30 pm
December 2, 2010
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Does anyone know how accurate speakouts bandwidth meter is? I.e. does 1mb from the usage calculator = 1mb on speakouts usage calculator?
