AT&T's iPhone plan s*cks
Quelle surprise that AT&T's iPhone plan s*cks! Oh well, it's worse in Canada unfortunately. I still want an iPhone though of course. The user experience alone is worth it for mobile enthusiasts.
FROM What's Hidden in the iPhone's 'Fine Print'? : Doug Ross @ Journal:
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Telecom Analyst Bruce Kushnick has inspected the iPhone's terms of service and offers some surprising revelations :
...4) All Use of the Networks Are Always Rounded Up to the Nearest Kilobyte or Minute.
...This practice is now standard and is anti-competitive. In the 1990’s, phone companies, to be competitive, created “6 second billing”, where the call was rounded to the nearest 1/10th of a minute. This change adds 15+% to the average bill. Moreover, the companies now have all gone to full minute billing, full kilobyte billing, so that they can make an extra minute on almost every transaction...
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13) Prohibited Uses and “Unlimited” Sales Hype.
Even though the service is called "unlimited" they are simply using that word as a marketing concept, not an actual service description. You can't use the service for VOIP and worse "unlimited plans cannot be used for uploading, downloading or streaming of video content (e.g. movies, tv), music or games." Here are just some of the restrictions [prohibited services]:
* With server devices or with host computer applications, including, without limitation, web camera posts or broadcasts, continuous jpeg file transfers, automatic data feeds, telemetry applications, peer-to-peer (p2p) file sharing, automated functions or any other machine-to-machine applications...
* for voice over ip...
* in conjunction with wwan or other applications or devices which aggregate usage from multiple sources prior to transmission...
* Except for content formatted in accordance with at&t's content standards, unlimited plans cannot be used for uploading, downloading or streaming of video content (e.g. movies, tv), music or games. Furthermore, unlimited plans (except for dataconnect and blackberry tethered) cannot be used for any applications that tether the device
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