By 
In case you haven’t heard, Verizon is pretty cised for its 4G LTE network, and they have good reason to be. Initial speed tests have been pretty astonishing, and Ivan Seidenberg, CEO at Verizon, is pointing to this and more as reasons why their new network will grow into a “modest substitute” for home cable and internet. His view isn’t that this will happen instantly, but as infrastructure grows and pricing settles down Seidenberg expects more and more people to cut the cord of traditional wired services.
And while I have spoken on this before, and am excited about the idea of mobile broadband replacing home internet the way cellular phones have made obsolete the landline, current bandwidth models just seem ludicrous if this is to happen. For $50 and 5GB per month, good luck downloading any high quality movies or streaming HD content without reaching your cap well before the moon has cycled around.
On a somewhat promising note, at the same conference Seidenberg mentioned that VZW is still sorting out how they will handle bandwidth and pricing for 4G smartphone plans. He suggested that on the low end of the scale, 10GB would be the “floor of what people will do.” So perhaps we can expect higher monthly caps at similar pricing to current data plans once the first 4G handsets launch, but we will have to wait and see. And we will all look back to a time when there was such a thing as “unlimited” data and remember the good old days.
[via Engadget]
If only we gave them the entire spectrum to prove it… oh wait.
At home I have 101Mbps service so good luck with that :) Also with the current data caps I wouldnt even be able to watch netflix without going over.
Wow, he looks like a douchebag. There is no way as lossy as all cellular data is I would use that for home internet service. Great netflix will be totally unusable the minute it starts raining.
Considering the data caps and pricing structure I don’t think so.
Must have smoked crack before that statement.
Hopefully one day they will offer an account that you can access with any of your devices. Right now we have to have a separate account for each device. This is a bummer.
Maybe he doesn’t realize that his customers don’t actually get unlimited data (like I would certainly expect he enjoys).
Reality says, “Verizon’s Seidenberg is full of shit.”
I got Sprint’s Overdrive 4G mobile hotspot back in March, and since 4G usage on Sprint is unlimited, I immediately cancelled my Verizon DSL service, and never looked back.
When they can provide consistant 10Mbps down/1Mbps up and 200GB per month for $45, then we’ll talk Verizon. What a bunch of douchebags.
I have to agree with everyone else here…this guy is nuts. What the hell world does he live in? I am moving roughly 100GIG a day….He who builds the biggest pipe and alloweth unlimited access will winneth. Cable here in upstate though does the same thing. I live in the area that beta tested fiber communications for the planet. We are capped at 20Mbps down and 1Mbps up. While just to the north of us 100miles away, same provider 20 up, 20 down. There needs to be someone who polices the utility companies…it is nuts how they are raping people.
I’ll be beaming up to spaceships before this is economical for me.
#1: Latency, latency, latency! Anyone think this will perform well enough for online games?
#2: Neutrality. I’ve seen mention of at least one bill on neutrality *exclude* wireless access.
#3: Quotas, as already mentioned. ‘Nuff said about that.
#4: Coverage. My parents live in a small town that has one or two broadband providers. Although it’d be an ideal solution for this area, I seriously doubt Sprint is going to sink any money into rural areas that would benefit greatly from such coverage. “Broadband stimulus will make it aaaaalllll better, right?” mmmm-hmmm.
Verizon would love that so they can start implementing data caps and price gouging at home now. Fuck you Verizon; I’ll never over pay for your shit so douche bags like Seidenberg can own 10 house and 50 yachts.
Perhaps people are looking at this a little wrong. I do thing it’s a bit of a long shot…but perhaps he is hinting at a reasonably priced unlimited plan for 4G? As mentioned, there is absolutely no way in hell 5 or even 10 gigs a month would work for home internet. ( Don’t forget people… 5 gigs of bandwidth does NOT mean you can download a 5 gig movie…more like 4 gigs due to overhead. ) So, if theres no way we could switch over with caps…perhaps there will be a version without caps? Granted…unfortunately I think it will be over the $30 a month, in which case they can go to hell.
@Teckel, re: 1
Yes, I do. I’m moving so I have been using 3g successfully for my online gaming. Even twitch games are mostly playable. Most people do not understand what the ping numbers actually mean. I just did a pingtest and got 183ms. The first thing that should be noted, is 183ms = 0.183 seconds. Next, this number is round trip. So, time between me clicking a button and the server receiving it is 0.0915 seconds. Less than 1/10 of a second. It probably took longer to press down the mouse button than for it to reach the server. Now yes, this can skew the results ( and when playing with/against other people with high pings it compounds. ), but it isn’t anywhere near as big a deal as most people think. Usually it takes a ping in excess of 400ms to become a true problem for twitch gaming, 600ms for non-twitch online such as RTS, and 800ms for MMOs ( most MMOs have a 1.5 second GCD after all, though LoTRO is I believe 1.4s )
In Summary: I pretty much agree with people: Based on what we know so far, theres not a chance due to download caps being obscenely low. As such, I hope there is a reasonable unlimited plan.
Rest assured that Verizon will do all they can to screw their customer, throttling included, which they try hard to legalize at the very moment…
Verizon want your blood! Verizon and att been sucking peoples blood for years..
I cant wait for wireless tech to mature where it will be a viable competitor to wired connection, but thats a few years off still imo.
exaggeration by the comments here…..the point he was making that the technology would replace cable or even fiber optic internet and therefore be a consolidated effort for a home user. they are already testing home/cellphone rerouting in some areas of the country and by no means does verizon imply they are going to have caps for home usage….this is talk for 3-5 years down the road…not next week so i think everyone going ape shit over caps for home usage when they play WoW or use netflix can relax…. time warner, comcast, or cablevision can suck your blood in the mean time
this guy says the obvious! ok not everyone has 100mbit/sec bandwidth but if wireless networks deliver anything more than 10mbits/sec i think they are a candidate! >20 makes them competitive > 50 they start stealing market share!
Landlines will be cheaper though for now.
When it comes to pricing Verizon and AT&T are the twins of evil
Heck, I live in a rural area where only lite high speeds are available and this still rivals the numbers of 4G speeds. Plus I have a 90 GB cap, which can be upgraded to 125 GB for just a few bucks more. I think that they would realy have to blow me away with speed and date allowance for me to switch. It would be sweet to be able to have a single home and mobile plan though.
The guy is talking years down the line guys!
And the fact is that most broadband markets are served by ONE cable provider and ONE DSL provider (if that, considering that often one or the other is not available to your particular house). Adding competition from VZ, T-Mobile, Sprint AND AT&T can ONLY HELP keep prices down and quality up.
Give the carriers 2 years to beef up their LTE capacity and I think you will start to see people cut cords. Then in 5-10 years when we have LTE Advanced I think you will really start to see the carriers take share from cable / dsl.
I think it was Bill Gates who once said that we overestimate how far technology can advance in one year but underestimate how far it can advance in five years
Correction, here’s what he said:
“We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don’t let yourself be lulled into inaction.”
-Bill Gates
Let’s get FIOS out to where I live first and then we’ll compare.
That’s actually the reason I got theEVO. I get 4G IN my apartment so I just tether w/pdanet, and save $40 pr month. I can and do stream netflix no problem but an occasional time out. Unlimited data with Sprint Bioch! I also got rid of cable TV and just do a digital antenna. Better HD anyway. Cut the cord and live free baby!!
I have a dedicated Clear home modem and I am doing about 90gig a month. No Verizon for me. No Comcast either.
Yeah, enjoyed your tiered pricing plans and don’t forget TIERED ACCESS plans. Remember Google and Verizon agreed on a common recommendation to the FCC that Net Neutrality be extended on wired services, but not applicable to wireless.
Here goes Verizon thieves trying to rip off the average consumer again….any person with a brain won’t pay for data caps on a home network!!!! Don’t believe the Verizon hype.
Cable is faster but unless you are downloading movies all the time the 4G is fast enough for everyday work. Make sure you have a good signal where you live though. It would stink to be in a low spot for coverage and get intermittent connectivity.
It will be to expensive. Verizon like throwing extra charges on your bill sometimes over a hundred dollars sometimes well over. These little fibbers like to fib. Yes ya do and shame on you. It’s called theft, you don’t take what doesn’t belong to you.