How much data does this 3G stuff use?
So today I’ve been looking at the G1, and I love the idea of the thing even if I’m not convinced of the hardware yet. But I started wondering… how much data is all this connectivity going to use? And as such, how much is this going to cost me every month?
What triggered this was the G1′s GPS functionality. Lovely, my traditional gps got stolen from the car earlier this year and I have a habit of getting lost every time I have to drive to some new town or city. So this’d be perfect, but… it uses Google Maps. Which means it has to download data. Which means I’m downloading data from the moment I drive off to the moment I arrive. That’s potentially a LOT of data.
And I’m not even going in to instant messengers to which you’re logged on 24/7, push mail, regular browsing and all the new stuff we don’t even know is coming.
So what would my monthly data usage be?
Reading the fine print on t-mobile’s site I see that in the US you can get a flat fee data subscription for $25 a month, I hope they’ll go the same route here. The G1′s release in the Netherlands has been pushed back to 2009 so let’s see how others like it first.
So, do you have a smartphone? An iPhone perhaps? How much data do you use a month and how much does it set you back?
Thoughts of Imbalanced Mind
Usually the maps are stored locally and either built in phone style receiving kit or an external dongle just gets the location info from the phone network points or the satellite or wherever it comes from. That part seems to be free as I couldn’t see any way it was charged for. It looked like a passive receive situation rather than an active verified download, though I may not have that right.. all I did was install the stuff.
I know a little about these things as I spent a fair chunk of the summer installing tomtom software and the whole of Europe maps on Nokia N80′s and 95′s for the Polish lads to use traveling back and forth from the UK to Poland.
Don’t panic.. if you have enough memory to hold the maps locally they will never need to be downloaded from the server using the device. About 2 gigs on a memory card holds all of Europe with room for a couple of games too… the entire world (tomtom v5.00) maps fit on one dvd, and I got them from “the usual placez” cough cough…
Just looked some more at the thing.. I wouldn’t have one.. far too google oriented and limited.. why not just get a more general purpose pda and have the freedom to run whatever software you want instead of the pre defined locked stuff they allow you to have?
While it does look cool I looked past the bling and saw what it really is.. a google locked mini notebook. Can’t say I know anybody who has bought in to the new google world, and some of us don’t trust them as far as we could throw them these days.
If pushed I would be more likely to go for something like this.. old.. but I put software freedom above proprietary any day. http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS9213992134.html
ps.. no 4 minute edit on your comments ;)
http://whoyoucallingajesse.com/past/2008/7/18/iphone_3g_data_use_a/
Thanks for the technical details, as for the Google paranoia, hold on to a next post. And yeah, still need to add the ‘edit comments’ plugin. It’s somewhere on the todo list, heh.
why don’t you take the web’n'walk plus option from t-mobile , you pay 15 euro / month and you hav e unlimited internet on your phone :P
hehehe.. the T-Mobile deal looks pretty good.. trouble is they have no network around here so we are stuck with Orange.. Just shows it pays to get planning permission for those masts.. not all local authorities will allow blatant flouting of the planning regs ;)
It’s not “google paranoia”.. I just don’t trust em after the China situation and the data profiling revelations… which is why my search engine is dogpile.
I do have a HTC Tytn 2 with a t-mobile subscription the web ‘n walk option. The mda checks for new email on 2 different email addresses every hour or so. I never use a navigator programm on the thing, that’s build into the car. (come to think of it, I think I have my gps laying around somewhere, remind me saturday, you can have it if I can find it ;))
And I never have to pay extra. Even more so, I save up my left over credits every month (by now there is somewhere around 350 euro’s worth on my subscription. I have the version where you savings have an endless lifetime) So no, costs nothing extra.
The reason I haven’t got myself an iPhone yet, is that the subscriptions they sell with those things don’t have the endless saving credits (credit savings are lost after 2 months) And that’s going to cost me a lot of money ;)
Looks like I need to look into Web & Walk some more to see if that fits my needs.
And I’ll poke you for the gps, thanks!