Virgin Mobile capping monthly data usage >:-(

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I got a message from Virgin Mobile this morning reminding me that I had reached 85% of my monthly data limit; when I reach the limit, I will be facing slower data speeds until my next monthly period begins on the 8th of next month. While I was warned about this some time ago, it still angered me that they would do this. This, by the way, is the most affordable and reliable mobile carrier I know, and have been with them for ten years now. It would be a shame to leave them for a more expensive carrier.

Yeah and chicken nuggets are smaller then they used to be, too. And toilet paper too. I noticed the brand we were buying suddenly started selling rolls about 3 millimeters shorter then before. If they keep that up, it'll be like wiping our bottoms with a handful of ribbon.

Quality and fairness appear to have been sidelined. Gotta keep the shareholders fat and happy.

When the cost of doing business goes up, the prices of products go up and/or size or quality goes down. You can't have your cake and eat it, too. That's simple economics. You cannot fault entrepreneurs for making a living. They are not in business to give you something for nothing, or to lose money and you'd feel the same way if it were you who had put your investments at risk to create that business.

Try looking at other factors that might be causing the cost of doing business to go up - like taxes, regulations that require expensive changes and expenditures, wage increases, the cost of transporting goods to market (fuel prices) and things like that. What has been happening recently that's impacting businesses' overhead costs? You can usually look at Big Government and find several culprits right off the bat. You can't give to here, without taking from there, and anyone who tries to tell you different is not only lying to you, they're asking you to believe they can defy the laws of physics.

Well I had an unlimited data plan I was grandfathered under. I never abused it at any rate but the pressure to leave the plan got worse. I was with this carrier for over 10 years. Never late, missed a payment, etc.

When we had slow 3g they were fine with giving us unlimited data. Of course 3g was rather SLOW so they came out with 4g so we could stream music, surf, even play videos. Then they cut back the amount of data to where you couldn't even finish a video with a month's allotment of data. Seems rather contrary to me!? Thankfully I had wifi and when out and about could connect to public wifi as needed. Long story short is they kept raising the price, and lowering the darn speeds for the few times I would use it. It got so the 4g was less then half of the 3g speeds I used to enjoy. And forget 3g as even trying to update the weather or pull one email took FOREVER. Why? I assume either they are throttling it or the networks are beyond capacity. Either way, why would I continue to pay for something I CAN'T use?

I went with a smaller provider using the SAME phones at 30% of the cost I was paying. Instead of xxx mins of calls a month I now have unlimited calls, texts, etc. No, the data isn't unlimited but for the price I am NOT complaining. I am getting way more then I was under the crummy contract. Especially since they quit providing a new cell every 2 years. I will pay cash for my phones from now on tyvm!!

Willard was talking about financial economics. Let me tell you about another kind of economics, one of a technical nature. As you are aware, your mobile phone is wireless, right (DUH!). Well in order for your phone to be wireless, it has to send a signal via radio waves and any time you use the radio waves, you are using a resource called Electromagnet Spectrum(ES). For those of you who are not aware, ES is a limited and very "scarce" resource. In fact, did you know that if ES was an unlimited resource, We would have had HDTV(B&W HDTV but yes, 1080p HDTV) and every car on the road could have had a telephone in it in the 1940's. Yes the 1940's, I am not making this up. Not only was it technologically possible, but economically practical as well. The only reason why we can do it today is because digital technology has made it possible to cram a lot of information into a small space. Digital technology has allows us to utilize the limited ES real estate much more efficiently. BTW: ever wonder why there are cell-phone towers scattered all across town and not just one on top of the hill where the other radio and TV transmitters are? Well, to get better coverage, right? Not necessarily. The main reason for doing this is to maximize the use of the ES. For example. While you are talking on your phone, you are communicating to the nearest tower in your area on one frequency while someone else on the other side of town is talking on the tower that is nearest to them, and yet, both of you can use the exact same frequency without interfering with each other because the two towers are far enough apart and transmit power levels are set just high enough to talk to your phone but not the other person on the other side of town and vise-versa.

Getting back to you data plan issue. What you need to realize is that the more bandwidth/speed you need for the internet connection on your cell-phone. the more ES space it needs and when you are competing with hundreds, if not thousands of other users. You can see that thing can get rather chaotic in that cramped space.