Whats your Mobile Internet Data usage?

Lately, it seems like everywhere you look, the topic of unlimited internet usage "cap" seems to pop up and upset the general public either for your smartphone or home broadband. While I find it as much oxymoron calling a plan "unlimited" data with a cap as the next guy, I was curious to find out just exactly how much unlimited data I was using up, the results are not that extreme (approx.):

July: 89MB
June: 76MB
May: 114MB
April: 125MB
March: 63MB

I am using an iPhone 3G with AT&T's $30 unlimited data plan (w/ a 5GB cap). I use my iPhone in the morning and afternoon to get the latest news and check on emails. Occasionally throughout the day, I'd check on emails, weather or directions/maps. I find myself using the mobile internet more when I am out of the house (waiting for an appoint), out of town(business trip) or on vacation. I'm kinda curious to know how many of you actually come close to the 5GB cap because you stream live music via Pandora or listen to MLB broadcast through respective apps. Furthermore, if you are a Palm Pre, Android user, what is your monthly data usage?

Some interesting data I found on the web:
Hong Kong: average 44MB per user (as of April, 2009)
UK Orange: mobile data doubled year over year (as of May, 2009)
Sweden: increase 4.5x year over year (as of Aug, 2009)
Australia: iPhone Browser avg session is 2.07MB vs. 0.30MB (as of Sept, 2008)

My First Mobile Purchase over a Smartphone

I placed an order on my iPhone with the Amazon.com App on my way to work this morning. This action signifies a number “first’ moments: 1). this is the first time I’ve ever placed an order over a mobile platform. 2). this is the first time I’ve ever placed an order on an iPhone and 3). this is the first time I’ve ever placed an order over Amazon’s iPhone app.

Prior to this, I’ve always felt there was something missing with the mobile commerce. Either the speed is too slow or the interface is not big enough for me, a very research-oriented shopper, to do my homework before placing a purchase. Back then, my mobile experience was limited to basic utilities (checking news, weather, stocks, directions, maps, score, etc…). With my recent acquisition of a 3G iPhone and the progress made by the app community, things are starting to cook for the mobile commerce.

Here are the reasons why I finally made my purchase:

3G Internet – Wireless data plan is a must for mCommerce to take off. Having 3G network more readily available across the coverage map will convince more people to do more transaction over their mobile device. As for me, I recently upgraded to an iPhone 3G. The data speed is consistent enough for me to be more involved with the apps downloaded from the iPhone store. It has turned my commute into a more productive session, reading up on emails, news, and social media sites without having to wait until I get to the office. (If only it can make me a cup of coffee too!). All said, the 3G data empowers me to shift more of my tasks towards an otherwise in efficient use of time.

iPhone – the iPhone is just a marvelous device in doing the following task: receive information, extract the relevant parts and present it in a simple and powerful display. The concept is simple but no one (thus far) does it better than Apple. With the App store, Apple has given developers the power to expand on that concept and thus challenging the mobile community to take after that philosophy. The end result: consumers are the winners benefiting from some of the most powerful apps ever made, period!

Amazon App – The Amazon iPhone application is a perfect segue from the last paragraph. These guys get eCommerce and they also understand how to build a solid mobile application. Utilizing iPhone’s UI, Amazon dev team created, in my opinion, one of the best mobile application. All the things we love about Amazon is here: product reviews, images, pricing, add to cart, save for later, move to cart, one-click checkout. It is so intuitive that I don’t feel like I have to have a desktop to do anything. My purchase was not an easy one. From prior desktop sessions, I had already added the Henckels Knife Block to my “Save for Later” cart. Amazon’s iPhone app was able to let me see that list and move it into the cart easily (much like the edit function in mail). I was also able to switch the payment type in the one-click checkout setting as well as choose the right shipping address from my contact book. Finally, I was even able to add in an e-certificate code to my order before checking out. All of this is taking place while I am on my morning bus ride into NYC. If you look at the time sequence on my screen shots, within minutes, I was able to receive an email confirmation on the my iPhone for my purchase. The only question I have for Amazon is: Where is your app for the Android?

This is by far, the best mobile experience I have had. It was a flawless and smooth transaction and I can see myself shifting more transactions on my iPhone. Excellent job to Apple, Amazon and 3G mobile internet(AT&T).

Whats the Deal with Mobile Roaming?

The year is 2009, cell phone technology for consumers has been prominent for 10+ years by now. Its hard to imagine that we are still limited to where we can use our mobile phones due to physical or financial restraints. Case in point: Roaming. The concept of roaming is for when you are in an area not serviced by your carrier; at which point, if another carrier's service can be used, you can jump on their network for an incremental fee per minute. Back in 1998 when I got my first "digital" cell phone, I would often get no signal on my drive from Los Angeles to Needles, California; friends with dual mode phone can switch to Analog signal for more coverage. In the beginning, the mobile market had more carriers in different market zones, and they tend to invest more along the coast and major cities throughout the country. As the cell industry morphed into four dominate players and as their technology improves, the coverage map starts to get bigger and more carriers started to overlap in serviceable areas. Today, its safe to say that if you are with one of the four large carriers in the U.S., then you should be able to make and receive domestic calls without incurring roaming charges since most plans offer a free roaming feature where they've worked it out amongst the carriers.

There are some roaming charges that you do have to worry about in today's mobile environment:

International Roaming
When traveling aboard, and if you use a GSM phone (AT&T and TMobile with a sim card) you are likely able to hop on a foreign carrier's network to make or receive calls. Sprint and Verizon are on CDMA network which is intended for the U.S. only; unless you have one of their newer world-phones (featuring a GSM slot for roaming purposes), you may not be able to use your phone in other countries.

Most phone companies offer an elaborate "world plan" which is a fixed fee plan for traveling abroad. Depending on how much you would use your phone, it might work out cheaper to pay for the fees/minute according to your plan. You should always call to confirm the roaming fee by country for voice minutes and SMS/Text.

Traveling tips:
* SMS/Text: I rely on SMS quite often when traveling abroad, its much cheaper than voice minutes and gets my communication needs done; just make sure you study up on the country code first if you have to text with a foreign friend or family member
* If your smartphone has a domestic data plan, unless you enroll in an international data plan, I would advise turning off the data function of the phone to avoid any accidental roaming fees. Some mobile applications may be running and refreshing in the background and you may not be aware that it is downloading data, it can be very costly upon your return

For more information on international roaming, here are the links for the big four carriers in the U.S.: AT&T, Tmobile, Verizon, Sprint/Nextel

Cruise Roaming
This is something interesting that I just learned from my friend Dan who'll be taking a cruise ship vacation soon. While you are on open sea, international waters, there are no cellular signals since you'd be too far away from any tower. Some cruise ships have been retro-fitted with cellular service by one of the four carriers. Chances are, the carrier is not going to matter since they are contracted to support all domestic phones (GSM and CDMA). You should inquire with your telecom to get a "cruise" rate per minute before use. Based on my research, its roughly $2.50 per minute while you are on a cruise. Most of the carriers have a list of supported cruise lines on their webpage. I am going to guess this will be similar for when they finally put in cell phone access in the NYC subway.

For more information on cruise ship roaming, here are the links for the big four carriers in the U.S.: AT&T, Tmobile, Verizon, Sprint / Nextel

Early Problems with the "3G" in the iPhone 3G

It appears that on my 3G iPhone, it is doing a poor job switching back to EDGE network when 3G connection is weak. This often leads to an error message prompting me that the iPhone has failed to establish data connection. Since I've owned other 3G devices in the past (AT&T 8525 and Nokia N95-3), I am not surprised that 3G connection is not always available depending on where you are. However, in all my historical mobile experiences, those 3G devices would quickly downgrade it's network into 2/2.5G or EDGE(GPRS) network thus providing seemless internet access with seeing the full signal bars.

To my knowledge, the iPhone 3G has the same ability to auto-detect and switch down to EDGE; however, I think the way its setup is not sensitive enough to coop with real world needs. For instance, I should never have been prompted a failure to establish data network until the iPhone has attempted to kickdown to a slower speed network; because as is, leaving me hanging without any data connection is not a desirable mobile experience.

A work-around is to manually turn 3G off, it will force the iPhone to run on EDGE, and you'll see more bars.

iPhone 3G Pricing is Outrageous

As the global iPhone fan-boys and fan-girls hold their breath waiting for this Friday's 3G release; one can't help but wondering if the pricing structure set forth by all the carriers globally will cause a setback in sales. AT&T has raised its unlimited data plan to $30/mo (from $20) while text message will cost $5 extra. Canadian telecom Rogers is flat out pissing everyone off (including Apple) with high cost and data cap of 400MB and now I am hearing New Zealanders are getting upset over similar matter.

Raising the unlimited data plan is wrong at so many different levels. My primary objection is the fact that it simply becomes too expensive for the mass public to afford; hence discouraging the public from adopting to wireless data usage. It is also distasteful since adding a 3G chip on the iPhone didn't change the outcome for AT&T's infrastructure. We knew from two years ago, 3G data is made available, it wasn't our fault Apple left it out. Now that they've decided to add it in, why should the data rate increase? Shouldn't cost of technology decrease over time? AT&T must think it's technology premium can defy gravity.

Personally, I think the iPhone 3G has taken a step back in the mobile revolution. The original iPhone's business model was ahead of the curve. Buy an unsubsidized phone at full price (albeit it was $600 in the beginning) and you can take it home and do what you wish. If you choose to go with the "intended" carrier, then simply activate it via iTunes. No need to deal with pesky sales people or talk to anyone under normal circumstances. Should you decide to use the device with other GSM carriers, although not technically permitted, you can still get pass the B.S. and do as you wish.

Apple is a hardware manufacturer and they should have stuck with making and selling hardware for profit. Instead of creatively subsidize the iPhones and making it exclusive through one carrier in each country, they should have made it available to all carriers. For the iPhone 3G, they should have at least kept it the same as the original procedure. Not only did the price of subscription go up, Apple is expecting everyone to bust out their personal information and run their credit history in store in order to buy and activate an iPhone. Talk about taking steps backwards in procedure.

As mentioned above, so many articles in the blogosphere have expressed anger over the new pricing plans. In the U.S., with the current state of economy possibly in recession, consumers are already fed up with paying $4 for a gallon of milk and $5 for a gallon of gas. I am not surprised if U.S. customers simply can't afford to pay $35 on top of a $40 monthly voice plan. Remember, the $199 8GB sticker price is only applicable to new subscribers or selected eligible existing customers. For non-qualified customers, it's likely they will have to pay the full non-subsidized price of $399 on top of the 2 year contract and insane data plan. Just this afternoon, I spoke with my buddy Yasir who is certifiably a hardcore Apple fan-boy. Weeks ago, he said he would buy the new iPhone 3G without hesitation despite the fact of the rising data cost. Today, he told me he is not so sure about buying the iPhone on Friday due to all the incremental fees and costs. If this is keeping a true fan-boy from making a move, I would be a little concerned if I were Apple.

Update: Glad to see Walt Mossberg openly addressed the pricing policy in this very first review of the iPhone 3G. Source: Engadget (most commenters agree as well!)

iPhone 3G - The Good Times are Over!

Its a big day today in the mobile world regarding to the iPhone 3G news. All the goodies are there (3G, WiFi, AGPS) and some bad (cheaper plastic housing, no copy and paste)

Couple of thoughts before calling it a night:

* Although 3G iPhones are priced cheaper, you must sign up 2 year contract up front, in store
* The days of unlocking iPhones are over... I mean you can still do it, but must stick with AT&T contract regardless
* The new low price of $199 and $299 for iPhones are not really cheap. Data plan is $30 now (shame on Apple and AT&T); I can't stress how important it is to keep unlimited data plan low to encourage the mass to sign up

This new change to $30 data plan is a big shocker for me. I was about to upgrade my existing iPhone until I saw that...

AT&T 3G Expansion Just in Time for 3G iPhone

Wired Gadget Blog got confirmation from AT&T indicating the roll out of HSUPA 3G network up to 350 markets just in time for the looming 3G iPhone arrival. I read similar updates confirming the June implemntation date from InformationWeek as well.

HSUPA is a faster 3G data network, supporting up to 800KB uplink while maintaining a 1.4Mbps downlink speed. This speed is approaching DSL/Cable modem for your home. Just to give you some reference, EDGE (aka 2.5G) is often rated between 100-200Kpbs while current 3G HSDPA(UMTS) is rated approx. up to 700kpbs.

With HSUPA, it will bring AT&T's mobile brandband service on par with Verizon and Sprint's EV-DO 3G network via CDMA. According to Wikipedia entry, HSUPA is included in the Universal Mobile Telecomunication system which leads me to believe that exisiting HSDPA handsets like the AT&T Tilt, 8525 and Nokia N95-3/4 should be able to leverage this upgraded network (unconfirmed). Furthermore, HSUPA offers up to six different categories, each level provides a different max uplink speed. It appears this rollout would be a category 1 at 800kbps uplink while at category 6, it is capable of an uplink speed of 5.76Mbps.

AT&T Data Network Down in NYC? 05-17-2008

I've been having trouble accessing my MediaNet data network using Nokia N95-3 all morning. At first I thought it was because I was tampering with the WiFi/3G setting with Fring last night. But it doesn't look to be the case. Since then, I've done the following:

1. Reset the Nokia Factory Setting (Tool/Setting/General/Factory Setting with default code 1-2-3-4-5) - still has no internet connection
2. Soft Reset the phone by typing in *#7370# unlock code 1-2-3-4-5 - still has no internet connection
3. At this point, the phone is back to barebone factory OS setting, no applications impacting what-so-ever...
4. I called AT&T support, and they were very good about troubleshooting for me. Today, the lady rep registered my unlocked phone's IMEI to their system to match with my SIM. They checked out my account and everything looks fine as well as gone through a process called "provisioning" to ensure I have all the settings. Just before she past to off to "tech support" team, I was disconnected.
5. Thinking it might be due to the 3G network down, I switched my phone into EDGE network only, and problem persists.

Prior to being disconnected, there are some known technical issues around NY area, says the rep. I am hoping that is the reason why I am having so much trouble... however, my iPhone's EDGE data seems to be uneffected.

I am at lost for words and solutions.

2008 Mobile Experience Wishlist

I came up with a wishlist, it would be interesting to look back a year from now to see where we stand.

1. Google Talk Mobile (w/ full VOIP on iPhone, Symbian S60 3rd, WM5/6)
2. Skype Mobile (w/ full VOIP on iPhone, Symbian S60 3rd, WM5/6)
3. Skyfire Browser for all Mobile OS (in Beta currently)
4. Google Talk on OS X (w/ full VOIP stand alone or via iChat)
5. iPhone to support Flash (this one is hopeful!)
6. Picasa Mobile for all devices (WM6, Symbian S60 3rd Edition)
7. Real-Time Stock Ticker/App integrated with Brokerage Account (come on TDAmeritrade or Schwab…)
8. US Carriers to enable Video Conferencing using front/2nd camera (w/o extra cost in addition to data plan)
9. Unlimited Data Plan in the $5 - $10 Range for all carriers banking on the economies of scale
10. More ultraportable laptops(3-4lbs.) costing less than $1K

TMobile Unlimited Data Plan $5.99

I must have been living in a cave or something, apparently, there is a famous hack for Tmobile customers to sign up for a $5.99 unlimited data WAP/T-Zone plan and turn it into the full-on internet package ($19.99 value) allowing full HTTP/HTTPS and IM access.

Simply Google the phrase "Tmobile $5.99 Tzone Hack", you'll find plenty of references. Apparently, folks with various HTC smartphones (ie. Tmobile Wing, Tmobile Dash) and jailbroken iPhones have been taking advantage of this. Hackszine has a coverage of this and a couple of links for the instruction for iPhone.

I have always believed the current cost of mobile data is too expensive and one day, unlimited mobile data plan will be in the range of $5-10. Some carriers are currently charging upwards of $35-40 which is ridiculous. Apple iPhone Data Plan ($19.99), AT&T MediaMax 200 ($19.99) and T-Mobile's unlimited internet plan ($19.99) are leading the way to lower monthly charges, but I see some ways to go before mass-public can afford to be more engaged in the mobile convergence. This is the second time I've noticed about Tmobile's advance thinking on data charge strategy, I've written about their $9.99 unlimited email plans once.