Jan-Lukas Else

Thoughts of an IT expert

What do you do with unlimited mobile data?

Published on 2021-11-15 in 💭 Thoughts

Short link: https://b.jlel.se/s/513

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Do any of my readers have unlimited mobile data? If so, what do you do to with it? How has unlimited mobile data changed your usage behavior?

I picked up a good deal a few days ago (by German standards – such contracts are usually very expensive here) and the SIM card is on its way to me now.

With this contract, I have unlimited data available at a speed of 10mbit/s. This is especially good if my DSL Internet should ever fail (as it has happened more often lately), so that I can continue to work from home and do not have to go to the office just to have an Internet connection.

But also on the road or in the train I probably don’t have to log into WiFi networks anymore and can watch videos, listen to music or create a mobile hotspot and do programming without having to think about data limits.

Tags: Mobile data

Interactions & Comments

Arun @en In India, I paid about 1k INR a month in 2010, for less than 50GB of data (don't remember the exact number at the moment) but today, I pay about 450 INR a month, for 3333GB. This is broadband/WiFi, not mobile data. Comparing 2010 and now, my browsing patterns have changed a lot; today I consume about 30GB a day, most of the data goes in streaming.
Arun @en Unlimited mobile data is available too, but is actually throttled after a limit, which is 2GB if I remember well, per day. Since 2020, I am mostly home, so I haven't been paying for mobile data. It's just WiFi at the moment.
Jan-Lukas Else @aruns Thanks for the reply! 1k INR (around 12€) sounds incredible cheap for broadband. I pay 40€ per month for 100mbits broadband and now +20€ for mobile data. 😅 But of course you also have to put the purchasing power in proportion... Currently I use around 5-15 GB of broadband data per day (virtual desktop and streaming).
Anonymous We don't even have any 10mbit/s internet. The Philippines has the worst internet speed. We sometimes go for 100mbps (the fastest) but it'll cost us ~$200-300 per month.
R Neighbouring country here (NL). EUR 25 /month for "unlimited" mobile data, at around 200 Mbps. After 5GB/day I need to send a text to get more (free) data. (T-Mobile) For me it's mostly just not worrying. No need to keep checks on data usage, one less mental thing. I could easily have a limit, both android and iOS give you great control, but just not worrying is way better. Also I'm using it as a hotspot on the go.
N "without having to think about data limits" - this is the main thing for me, like bandwidth on my website, or sending and receiving limits set by some email providers - it's great not having to think about getting cut off or receiving a 'surprise' bill for going over the limit.
soeren From my experience, you don’t have a stable mobile connection on German trains. So I don’t have much benefits from my 10GB contract :-/
Henrique Dias I’ve had unlimited data since I moved to the Netherlands.… I’ve had unlimited data since I moved to the Netherlands. I had very few GBs when I was back in Portugal and it was a bit stressful towards the end of the month to always make sure to not go over the limit. It’s quite nice now. And I can just create a hotspot for my laptop in case I don’t have Wi-Fi somewhere.
Estonian Used to pay 3€/mo for 15G (moderately generous, compared to public offerings). I upgraded to 50G (+5€, 8€) during last winter, due to video calls and blackouts (networking, also ISP's stations, run around 15m afterwards). A competing SP started offering unlimited (as the first public and not insanely-priced), with a half year of half the price, and now at 15€/mo. Still, unlimited wasn't offered to me, I got offered 30G, 50G, and 110G as alternatives. 50G is enough for me to not worry about. I…
Jan-Willem I have the same option as R mentioned. I don't need unlimited data, but the idea of never having to worry about it is very nice. I never watch videos (on mobile) but listen to a lot of podcasts.
Jan-Lukas Else How to remove bloatware After I put my new SIM card in my phone today (yes, the one with the unlimited mobidata volume - thanks for all the replies to my recent post!), I noticed that there suddenly appeared a new app that wanted to offer me additional services via SMS, of course for a fee. An app with no benefit for me, even annoying me by the presence of the app icon in the app drawer and the missing possibility to deactivate the app! But there is a relatively simple way to remove system apps even without root, at…
- Henrique Dias I did not even know that SIM cards could trigger an app t… I did not even know that SIM cards could trigger an app to get installed. I’m shocked. Happy you managed to remove it though!
- bodqhrohro Why do you suppose it's some kind of an “app“ that “appeared“ at all? “SIM toolkit“ is just a user interface (yet implemented as a system app on Android) for apps stored on the SIM, so-called Cardlets made in a pretty scarce version of Java: Java Card. This technology exists for decades, from times before the mobile internet and even before the WAP, and UIs for it exist even in the most basic phones. Mostly, the SIM Menu cardlets are just catalogs of USSD requests, which you can manually invo…
Jan-Lukas Else First experience with my new unlimited mobile phone contract while traveling: The phone hotspot works much better than the ICE (German high speed train) WiFi usually does. At most, there are small interruptions in tunnels, but otherwise surfing, writing e-mails, and listening to music work perfectly. Even remote programming works. It was worth it…
- pantos @en What contract do you have?
- Henrique Dias @hacdias' corner