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Comment by syphilis2 | Hacker News Reader

Is there any plan that offers truly unlimited "3G" equivalent speeds? "Up to 2G speed" is an unusable scam. I used to tether to my phone on a truly unlimited 3G connection and that was what I used for home internet. Netflix, YouTube, etc worked great. Online games did not due to latency.

It seems that most carriers are trying to implement this in a roundabout way by letting services send video at reduced data rates in exchange for the data not counting against the user's data plan. What a complicated mess, and very scary with regards to net neutrality.

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Using 3G for home internet is an extremely poor allocation of resources. You have a less constrained alternative (wired infrastructure to your home), and your use deprives mobile users (who have no alternative) of bandwidth. The market is doing exactly the right thing by waving people off of this behavior through prices.

Bandwidth is limited and has to be allocated somehow. Prices aren't the worst idea.

LTE at home however is pretty great and quite good use of resources. In countries it is available it quickly replaces wired internet for casual users.

When he says "good use of resources" he doesn't mean "good value for the money" like you do. He meant that we can't all use wireless signals for all of our internet needs because it will literally run out. Just like there can only be so many radio stations on your dial.

If people who are at home, can be persuaded to use wired connections, it frees up the wireless signal for people who don't have access to a wired connection.

That's not really an issue in practice though. Austria and Finnland already push a lot more traffic and users per base station and there is ample room to grow even before opening up more frequencies or changing the underlyong technology. LTE is an incredibly efficient use of spectrum.

> He meant that we can't all use wireless signals for all of our internet needs because it will literally run out.

We have the wireless infrastructure in place, but it's just not open. He probably has at least 5 WiFi APs in range with 20mbps connections sitting idle. It seems that Comcast is in a good position to pull off some sort of carrier deal with their WiFi hotspots.

Calyx Institute is a non-profit ISP that provides Sprint-backed hotspots with 'unlimited' data at full speeds. It's $500/yr the first year, and tax deductible as a charitable donation.

https://calyxinstitute.org/

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