[EVO 4G General] ohiojoe:
Sprint's 5GB cap form my experience.

I just saw the other posts talking about the 5GB cap. In *my* experience, and this may not be true for others, there is no 5GB cap on any Sprint phone, and never has been, but there IS a 5GB cap on the Sprint data cards. Years ago before smart phone was a household word (we're talking 1st generation Compaq iPaq era), I used my Sprint Sanyo clam-shell and "Snap-Dialer" to make Internet calls at a respectable 25KB (not Kb...KB) per second tethering it via USB to my laptop. I felt I was cheating, but loved it. The ability to tether standard Internet phones to one's laptop became more widely known, and all the carriers, except Sprint, put caps on the Internet useage. I watched closely for Sprint to make any comment on the tethering issue, and eventually, I believe it was PC Magazing covering the phone tethering story, quoted a Sprint Exec as saying something akin to "Sprint does not have a data limit on policy, and there are no plans to limit data useage anytime in the near future. Our unlimtied plan is unlimited". I breathed a sigh of relief.

Now, later I was to hear that Sprint did not have a stated limit, but if they find what they believe to be "excessive" bandwidth use, they'll step in and do something. Well, I got to see that in a real-life scenario as I clued my brother in on this cell phone tethering bonaza, and he used the **** out of it. Considering he was running his own multi-media advertising firm in the outskirts of an already outskirted town to Columbus, Ohio, it wasn't difficult for Sprint to notice the huge amount of bandwidth he was using and indeed shut him down until he made amends. However, I surfed to my hearts content without once being contacted.

Later, I got the First generation HTC PPC (6300? 6600? Can't recall... still have it in the basement) and tethered that via USB, then later got the Touch Pro and used wi-fi tethering with that as well on a regular basis. My useage was recorded on my account page of Sprint.com (was sprintpcs.com at that time) but still said "unlimited" for the limit column. So, Sprint maintiained their policy to be truley unlimited, possibly to retain a customer base that was quickly dwindling.

Enter the data cards. That was the first time I saw Sprint limit data useage, mainly because that is the cards sole function, to pull down data. But the phones remained unlimited. Funny thing was, I got just as fast of speeds tethering my Touch Pro via Wi-Fi to my laptop as I did my data card, only, the phone was unlimited and the 3G data card was capped at 5GB. Oh well, I ended up dropping the data card and just used my touch pro for my mobile 3G connection. Granted, that meant I got kicked off line if a call came in, but it was worth it.

Now with my EVO 4G, when I use the wi-fi tethering feature afforded by being rooted, I can use the Internet connection simultaneously with a voice call. 3G does not have that technology (as far as I have heard and directly experienced being kicked off line as a call came in), but 4G does have the trunking technology (again, so I have heard from someone who knows about radios and communication technology) to carry a voice call with a data connection. So, that is a use for the 4G, and as I find more uses for it and better ways to manage my battery power, I'll be glad I paid $10 month for it not having it or not using it, to be grandfathered in to that plan once they start charging more to all the newer customers.

Joe