Some Cellphone Questions

[Joe]

Walmart/T-Mobile are advertising some low priced (?) cellphone plans. I am totally lost in trying to figure out what they mean.

Unlimited Talk, Text and Data -- 1 GB 4G LTE Data then 2G

What does LTE mean? I don't mean just spell out the words, but please explain what it is.

What is the 1 GB Data used for?

What is the 2 G used for?

Sorry to be so clueless.

 

[KLS52]

Not sure I’m going to be much help...it’s 3 am and I’m tired and cranky so I can’t look up info right now.

My best guess is, LTE is when you are not hooked up to wireless so you are using your data plan. You have just so much data so you want to be hooked up to wireless whenever you can. And I think it has to do with speed. LTE is better/faster than 4G.

1GB has to do with storage, I think? If you go over your data you get charged. So I lied...I ended up getting up for tea and Advil so I am doing a little research. This seems helpful:

A data usage calculator found 1GB of data would allow a user to do the following:

- Send 100 emails with an attachment.

- Visit 100 web pages.

- Upload a post and a photo 50 times.

- Stream videos for 90 minutes.

- Stream music for 90 minutes.

- Use map navigation for 60 minutes.

- Do a video call for 30 minutes.

- Download 17 apps or games.

 

[Second Summer]

Unlimited Talk, Text and Data -- 1 GB 4G LTE Data then 2G

You can make as many calls, send as many texts, and use apps that transmit data over the cellphone network, as you want, for the price stated. As for the network data, the first gigabyte is able to use the so-called 4G LTE standard / service (which is a very much improved version of 3G, and appears to be the de-facto implementation of 4G at this point. See the Wikipedia article for details.) This is assuming the network in the areas you go actually has this service, obviously. If not, it will choose the best available option "below" 4G LTE.

For what it's worth, I had a monthly 3G plan (supporting up to "H+" service) with a 250MB allowance for a while. I managed to not go over the allowance, although I was careful not to stream any videos or music over the cellphone network. (I only streamed anything when I was on Wi-Fi.) When I upgraded to a new phone and a new 4G plan, though, it was an amazing difference.

Also, I did some reading: 2G is very low (with max speed of 50 kilobits per second). As of early 2016 this network was being turned off in large parts North America and Europe.

For an overview of different network services / standards, I found this page quite useful: EDGE, 3G, H+, Etc: What Are All These Mobile Networks?

 

[Andy_T]

1 GB per month should be quite fine for normal access to the internet, reading the forum, following facebook, using navigation apps and so on, as long as you do not stream any videos. Once you reach that total amount of data exchanged, the speed will be turned down, but at least you will be able to get access (though slowly).

I was living fine for some years (2013-2016) on 1 GB a month plan on my business phone (now I have 2 GB, which is also fine for me), until that day when I, at home in the evening hit the "update all apps" button in the appstore, not realizing that I was not connected to my wireless router (so the data plan was used instead).

The next morning, my 1 GB was used up, and it was only the 8th day of the month, so for the rest of the month, my access was much slower....