How on earth do the cell phone companies avoid suspicion of collusion?

Example: I have pretty decent smartphone rates on T-Mobile. Well, at least when compared to the other guys. I get unlimited talk for $50, and "unlimited" data for $25 (unlimited up to 5GB, of course).

So recently I've been looking into getting my netbook connected to 3G, either using a MiFi from the CDMA carriers or a USB adapter from the GSM guys. The costs of the devices, as we all know, aren't the issue. It's the plans. What I want to know is why EVERY carrier charges $60 a month for a data plan for these devices. Every single one. Even T-Mobile, who can really only hang onto having lower prices than the competition, doesn't have lower prices here.

I'm only slightly complaining that the plans are different than what you get on a smartphone. In their minds, I'll use more data with a MiFi than on my Nexus One. This is debatable, but whatever. I'm more upset that there is no competition here.

When is something going to be done about this?

ps-the only advantage any of these carriers has is Sprint, where if you get 4G, your bandwidth is uncapped.

You can get a T-Mobile data-only plan for as little as $30 a month (for 200MB a month). You can also get a bare SIM card from them. I imagine you can also probably find some sort of device to put said SIM card in.

Them using unlimited when there is a limit should be stopped that, really is false advertising.

I have noticed prices coming down just maybe not as fast as you would like. A few years ago you couldn't get unlimited talk for 50 dollars a month. Boost mobile has unlimited talk, text, and web for 50. I saw some carrier in Georgia offering it for 40.

I am sure the data only plans will get cheaper like the voice ones did.

Well, if we go into the way-back machine, ten years ago, we also had four carriers, at least here in Houston. Let's see... Houston Cellular -> Cingular -> AT&T, Aerial Communications -> T-Mobile, SBC -> Verizon, and I guess Sprint -> Sprint.

(Well, we also used to have Nextel, which was absorbed by Sprint. Does that still exist, or can I legitimately claim that we've lost a carrier over the past ten years?)

Actually, ten years ago, what I remember was that there was a lot more wheeling and dealing on rate plans. At one point, for example, I had a T-Mobile plan for which all of the U.S. and Canada were my home area. Now, it seems there are assorted deals and discounts on the phones, but the diversity of rate plans just isn't there.

I don't have my ancient phone bills around, but in real (inflation-adjusted) dollars, I'm pretty sure I'm paying about the same now and I used to pay, but now I've got effectively infinite talking minutes and effectively infinite web bandwidth, which of course didn't exist back in the day.

Collusion only applys if you negotiate in order to defraud or get an unfair advantage. The fact that every airline charges the same thing for a ticket between NY and SF is not evidence of collusion -- it would be collusion if they announced price changes at the exact same time. (This just means we see them negotiate in public -- Party A raises price, sees if party B will raise price to match. If they don't, party A lowers the price back down. Completely legal)

Pricing on mobile data is still a rapidly evolving space. After years of two years at $60 and we'll throw in an air card, we're finally starting to see carriers realize there's money to be made from people not on an expense account.

Some new business models:
The Kindle
The iPad
Data Jack
Verizon's Palm plans they released last week

This space is going to look entirely different in six months, and within two years the $10 a day for internet charge at hotels is going to seem as quant as their telephone pricing.

You're right that the iPad is fortunately getting a great plan. But to me that looks like it's entirely Apple's pressure. I doubt AT&T came to them with that idea.


Wasn't someone in Congress looking into the carriers for just that as it applies to SMS rates? I thought I heard a podcast about that months ago. Probably didn't go anywhere, but they were curious why all the carriers were increasing their rates at nearly the same time.


A 200MB cap for $30 is an believable rip-off. Sure, that's mostly okay for web surfing and emailing, but what if I'm at a client's home, their computer is all messed up, and I need to download some programs to help them clean it off?

Besides, I look at it this way: with the GSM carriers, they only have USB adapters. That means that at the lowest price (T-Mobile), I can connect only my laptop to the internet (I don't count sharing the connection). That adds $30 to my monthly cell phone bills.

On the other hand, one thing I thought of was to get a MiFi (or Overdrive), drop my current data plan, and put my phone on WiFi only. This would still raise my bill $30, and it would complicate my phone usage, but it would let me connect any WiFi device I had (like my Zune, Netbook, phone, other people's devices, etc.). I also wouldn't have to have a little dongle hanging off my netbook, which I can't stand.

The only thing keeping me from doing that is the added complexity with my smartphone. First off, I don't know if I can turn off all data usage over the cell networks. And second, it would require me to always have the MiFi with me, charged, and turned on. That's a pain.

Ideally, my business would pick up a lot more, and I'd be able to afford the $60 a month and not worry about all this crap. That's easier said than done.

You charge them for the overages on your data plan?

For what it's worth, I dislike these MiFi gadgets. I understand the benefit, but it's also yet another battery powered doodad to carry around. I want to carry exactly one battery-powered gizmo on me at any given time.

I suppose that means I could jailbreak my iPhone, but the iPhone is "good enough" that I rarely feel the need. Still it gnaws at me when I just want to do something quick from my laptop and I have to pony up for some hotel wireless monstrosity.

If the phone doesn't offer a hard data off switch somewhere, go in and change the APN settings to gibberish. Then the phone won't be able to find the data gateway and it will be effectively disabled.

On a more practical level, there's an Android app that lets you tether without rooting your phone: PDAnet. I think that it requires that you load a network driver/client on your laptop. Some say that if you use Bluetooth, you don't have to use their client. I haven't tried it, but it's worth looking at.

Are you sure ? My 3G dongle will connect fine even with blank APN settings.

It's possible the dongle is defaulting to something if the APN is left empty. Try filing in a gibberish value to see if it disables data services.

Yeah, I've looked at PDAnet. Aside from the $30 entrance fee (granted, only one time, but still annoying), it really only helps me with my laptop. I can't get other devices online, and it's a good deal of annoyance if I need that software on my laptop.


I can understand that, and I would completely agree with it in a perfect world. There are a few phones out there that the carriers will actually let you use as a MiFi, which I think is the ideal solution. But they're terrified of running out of bandwidth or losing another revenue stream they can gouge customers with.

The charging part doesn't bother me, either. I charge all my devices every night, so adding another one is merely a matter of adding another mini/micro USB cable to my hub.

Rooting is trivial and I don't know any good reasons to not do it. Here's a good reason to do it, though.
http://code.google.com/p/android-wifi-tether/

Yeah, I did that with my G1. The main reason, though, was to help with speed through the memory and CPU usage optimization the Cyanogen MOD offered. The trade-off is that my phone started getting pretty flaky towards the end there, and I always suspected it might be due to the rooting I did on it.

I used the WiFi tether fairly often, which essentially turned my phone into a MiFi. The problem, though, is that I couldn't connect to it with my Zune HD, because the phone hardware/software is apparently only capable of doing ad-hoc wireless.

*edit*
One of the other nice parts about rooting the G1 was that I got many features of Android 2.0 that hadn't gotten to the official G1 phones yet. But now I have the Nexus One, which should be the first to receive any future updates, since it isn't held back by the carrier.

Again, I don't think you even have to pay that if you use Bluetooth. That's what I was told. I can check it out tonight.

And just use your laptop to share the internet connection it's getting from the phone. I know, it's not ideal, but if you have some sort of network switching utility (buy a Mac), it should be fairly painless. Any remaining configuration (of the other clients) is the same effort as with a MiFi, unless you're thinking of other devices of yours that might be connecting via the MiFi at the same time the laptop is not.

Nope, I've run it with three different SIMs from three different networks, all with the APN details blank.

Until recently I've slavishly entered APN details and my old WinMo phone definitely didn't work without them correct. But my brother mentioned to me the other week that he never bothers to enter APN details and so when I setup my dongle I didn't bother.

Maybe it is something unique to the three UK networks I've tried it on.

Hmm, weird. I know filling in bad APN data on an iPhone will kill data for both AT&T and T-Mobile. It's how a coworker disabled data on his (not jailbroken) unlocked phone with T-Mobile. I tried a similar trick and found it worked for AT&T as well. It's also how I disabled data on my old RAZR with Cingular to avoid being dinged for accidentally hitting the stupid web button.

Seems to work just fine for me using Bluetooth DUN.

Just load the PDAnet app on your phone and configure your OS to dial up using Bluetooth. All I had to do was enter the APN, username, and password, which is the same stuff already configured on your phone automatically, and is readily available on the Intergoogle anyway.

Once I did that, it worked perfectly.

I suppose it's possible that the Android app itself has a 30-day trial, but I don't see anywhere I could enter any licensing information. I think that the $30 charge is just for the USB tethering client application.

Should be better prepared that that. no/yes?

edit: so eat the cost.

Yes, of course! I should have my netbook open and ready every time I want to connect with my other devices?


That was one tiny example, and yes, I'm always ready with all the common apps I need on a USB stick, updated constantly with the latest virus definitions, etc, etc.

Fine, lets say I want to use my Zune HD to connect over WiFi so I can stream any song in the Zune Marketplace. That's something I can do on any WiFi network. I'd run out of bandwidth pretty quickly doing that.


Sorry, I mostly started this thread to blow off some steam There is a very clear solution to the complaints I have: make more money I could easily deduct a MiFi/Overdrive and its plan for my business. I just need to grow the damn business, which I'm finding is extremely difficult to do, so I suppose some frustration is coming from that as well.