[EVO 4G General] ZachPA:
This has nothing to do with Apple or anyone else caring what you transfer over the air on 3G/4G. Sprint couldn't possibly care less what data you transfer as long as they don't get federal warrants, subpoenas and takedown notices directly related to your account.

The problem is that bandwidth is not an infinite resource. It's definitely not infinite on fiber optic lines that traverse continents and oceans, and it's most certainly not infinite on the limited number of frequencies that Sprint is permitted to use to transmit and receive.

Data caps are put in place because carriers need to ensure that there is fair access for all of their paying customers. If one customer uses 84 GB of data per month on the 3G network and that customer is sitting right next to the tower, chances are that the network is scheduling his transfers with higher priority than someone sitting further away from that tower. That means that slots that could be used to transfer a little faster to the distant device are instead used to transfer a lot faster to the near device. It's how EV-DO works.

That might be a worst-case scenario....or is it? A while ago, there was a "post your abuse" thread in this forum in which the OP was on track to use over 100 GB of data in a month. He was within his rights to do so, but I wonder how many slots he had while someone else was trying to download an email attachment, etc.

I believe in unlimited data. I believe that ALL internet providers--cable, DSL, fiber, satellite, wireless, etc--should offer unlimited and ONLY unlimited data. Tiered plans are a scourge. Tiered data plans are a way for carriers and ISPs to extract the most money from our wallets. They scare us by promising big per-GB overage prices if we don't select a high-enough tier, in the same way they used to scare us with high per-minute prices of .35 or .45 or more if we went over on talk time.

It seems to me that the best way to ensure the fairest system for all is to use bandwidth-shaping technology. Some ISPs already use it. It might go something like this:

Keep track of data usage using a counter. Use 15-min, 30-min, 60-min, 3-hr, 6-hr and 24-hr counters.

Set boundaries based on a certain number of standard deviations a customer's transfer is away from those counters.

Throttle customer's connection accordingly based on the data from ALL the counters. Either give increasing weight to each counter as time increases or make the bandwidth allotment reductions cumulative.

Treat customers who pay for tethering capability with priority over those who do not (because it's likely enough that those with such high bandwidth requirements are actually tethering anyway).

Create differing levels of throttle based on cell load, network load and time of day.

So here is a possible scenario using 2 Mbps EV-DO as "top speed":

15 Minute Counter

Over 50 megs = drop 0.1 Mbps off bandwidth

Over 75 megs = drop 0.2 Mbps off bandwidth

Over 150 megs = drop 0.3 Mbps off bandwidth

30 Minute Counter

Over 100 megs = drop 0.1 Mbps

Over 150 megs = drop 0.2 Mbps

Over 300 megs = drop 0.3 Mbps

60 Minute Counter

200 = drop 0.1

300 = drop 0.2

600 = drop 0.3

3 Hour Counter

600 = drop 0.1

900 = drop 0.2

1800 = drop 0.3

6 Hour Counter

1200 = drop 0.1

1800 = drop 0.2

3600 = drop 0.3

24 Hour Counter

4800 = drop 0.1

7200 = drop 0.2

14,400 = drop 0.3

Is this fair? Maybe. It penalizes those who suck up all the resources by preventing them from continually sucking at top speed. It gives priority to those who download in short bursts and those who save big downloads for non-peak times.

There is a scheduler in the EV-DO spec. It prioritizes devices that are closer and have better signal and gives larger slots with less bandwidth to devices with poor signal in hopes they get better. With no direction, the tower will continue to do that regardless of how much the near device is suckling. This application would put the brakes on the near device so that the far device might have more slots and even marginally better bandwidth.