[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Five Ways to Solve the 4G/LTE iPad Data Consumption Dilemma here

[JamPhil]

So, your ideas all simply amount to having the carrier lower their prices. Genius. I'll take that same idea and package it as "Five Ways to Solve the Gas Consumption Dilemma", all having to do with the oil companies and gas stations lowering their prices.

How about some real ideas that users can do? It's really simple, if you actually think about it for a moment:

In iOS devices:
- Switch from push email to pull, and set the frequency to once an hour or so, if you do not need to get your emails right away, which MOST non-business people do not need.
- Switch from Safari to a browser that supports Google Mobilizer to reduce download size of images and CSS, etc. Better yet, switch to Opera Mini.
- Turn on restrictions (iOS 5) and restrict the purchasing of apps and Music, etc. When you need them, you can turn restriction off. This way, you won't willy-nilly use up your data allotment.
- Tuen off iCloud sync. Why sync emails with iCloud? Most email that people use are hosted on servers that will always have a copy of the emails there. Why sync another copy to iCloud?
- Turn off notifications. That takes up the data allotment too.

See, it's easy to come up with 5 points for the USER to actually start saving on their data usage.

Maybe I should be paid for actually doing the work you should have done in this article.

[Mike921]

Nice ideas, dream on......

[tonybradley]

JamPhil, on 23 March 2012 - 07:23 AM, said:

So, your ideas all simply amount to having the carrier lower their prices. Genius. I'll take that same idea and package it as "Five Ways to Solve the Gas Consumption Dilemma", all having to do with the oil companies and gas stations lowering their prices.

How about some real ideas that users can do? It's really simple, if you actually think about it for a moment:

In iOS devices:
- Switch from push email to pull, and set the frequency to once an hour or so, if you do not need to get your emails right away, which MOST non-business people do not need.
- Switch from Safari to a browser that supports Google Mobilizer to reduce download size of images and CSS, etc. Better yet, switch to Opera Mini.
- Turn on restrictions (iOS 5) and restrict the purchasing of apps and Music, etc. When you need them, you can turn restriction off. This way, you won't willy-nilly use up your data allotment.
- Tuen off iCloud sync. Why sync emails with iCloud? Most email that people use are hosted on servers that will always have a copy of the emails there. Why sync another copy to iCloud?
- Turn off notifications. That takes up the data allotment too.

See, it's easy to come up with 5 points for the USER to actually start saving on their data usage.

Maybe I should be paid for actually doing the work you should have done in this article.

Thanks for sharing those ideas.

Users can, of course, do those things. However, I disagree with limiting the use of a device as a "solution". To that end, you could solve the gas dilemma by simply not starting your car.

Essentially, I covered all of your points in the first sentence of the fourth paragraph: "The solution for the issue can’t be to reduce the value and functionality of the device in order to accommodate its weaknesses." The article is focused on five ways to solve the dilemma, not "Five Ways Users Can Cripple Their Device Functionality as a Band-aid to Cope with the Dilemma."

[tonybradley]

Mike921, on 23 March 2012 - 07:39 AM, said:

Nice ideas, dream on......

Perhaps. It will come in time, though. The current business model is unsustainable, just like the original model of simply billing all cellular calls by the minute couldn't last.

Verizon has already stated that it has some sort of pooled data plan in the works, and I'm quite sure AT&T is working on it as well. I don't know about the rollover bandwidth, but it would fit nicely with AT&T's rollover minutes concept, and provide a unique advantage for AT&T.

We'll see. They can't keep hyping 4G devices and trying to sell their 4G services if the 4G data plans are useless because they can't meet the demand.

[HH]

It's like having a dragster on a road with a 10mph speed limit. If you can't use it it's not worth having.

[Stitch65]

I think ultimately it will come down to the price you are willing to pay for a specific Quality of Service (QOS). From what I understand about wireless data networks - This has always been the plan and becomes much easier for operators to implement on true 4G/LTE networks.

If you want a guaranteed 3 mbps speed then you will have to pay alot more than someone who is happy with a best effort QOS which will likely still give them very good speeds in low traffic times but not so good in peak traffic times.

As an operator - Who cares if Joe Bloggs wants to download 20 gigs of data in low traffic times but hey if you want to download 1 gig during peak traffic - then you will have to pay for it.

Most people will be happy with a Beast Effort quality of service as it will probably be hard to notice any impact on most applications like email etc.

Not sure how Icloud works but you could schedule all your backups for say 2am.

Actually now that I think of it - kinda makes sense to encourage data use in low traffic times (like free calls on weekends).