For a couple of releases now, there\u2019s been a problem with iOS. Either it clings to bad wifi like a Demigorgon to a peripheral character\u2019s throat (of which more later) or it won\u2019t connect at all, especially where an interstitial page is concerned (the pop-up pages you have to click through to connect at Starbucks, or Whole Foods, or basically any hotel, or\u2026) – and then, iOS 11 added cellular support for areas of poor wi-fi coverage, which is meant to help, buuuuut…<\/p>\n
I pulled my numbers from work, where my cellular service is provided gratis as one of the few perks this job can offer. And sure enough, coincident with the release of iOS 11, my cellular data usage spikes by 25% and stays spiked. It\u2019s not a function of the device, or going out of town, or anything else I can pin down – the shift happens with iOS 11. Which couldn\u2019t be more annoying, because it\u2019s not like you can easily stay on an older OS without compromising your security or your ability to interact with other users at some level or another. And obviously there\u2019s no going back once you take the plunge.<\/p>\n
But it brings up another point. My data use jumped from 8 GB and change to 10 or 11 GB and change. Which is enormous, because once you get over the 8 GB mark, you don\u2019t really find inexpensive prepaid solutions for mobile phone data in this country. As little as a year ago, you could still get a 5 GB prepaid plan from T-Mobile for $30 a month. US Mobile will let you pick and choose, and if I throw 300 minutes and 100 texts on top of it, I can get 5 GB of data on VZW\u2019s network for $37 a month or 8 GB on T-Mobile\u2019s for $44 a month. But as soon as you go past 8, forget about US Mobile or Cricket or T-Mob\u2026you\u2019re in the realm of \u201cunlimited\u201d plans and your baseline just jumped from somewhere in the $45 range to somewhere $70 and north.<\/p>\n
And here\u2019s the thing that\u2019s really problematic: I don\u2019t stream on the phone. So many people rely on Spotify or Apple Music, or constantly watch YouTube or Netflix or what have you, but I don\u2019t. I do download a bunch of podcasts, and that\u2019s gotten more difficult now that the Junks post them as hours rather than segments so I have to download more data to get the same content (thanks for nothing, donkeys), but that\u2019s a development in the last week. The bigger issue is this: combine the FCC\u2019s neutering of net neutrality with the increase in data usage across the board, and we\u2019ve basically given AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Charter and everyone else free reign to squeeze the shit out of us. The baseline cost of what it costs to have a smartphone is greater than it used to be with no appreciable change in usage or consumption, and it is now free to go even higher.<\/p>\n
Because let\u2019s face it, there\u2019s not a lot of competition. There are four cellular networks in this country, constantly trying to merge into three, and the MVNO dodge won\u2019t save you any money if you can\u2019t use it. And although phones are getting better, there\u2019s still a lock-in where if you\u2019re on Verizon\u2019s network you can\u2019t roam onto the lower-speed GSM options once LTE runs out, so (as I proved from 2012-14) if you fall off LTE you\u2019re back to a battery-killing 1X network. Conversely, if you\u2019re on AT&T or T-Mobile, maybe you can roam onto Verizon\u2019s LTE, maybe you can\u2019t (spoiler: probably not). But since this country went on multiple tracks instead of standardizing on GSM, and still sells mostly locked phones, you don\u2019t have nearly the flexibility to move back and forth.<\/p>\n
And here\u2019s how it shows: when I went to Ireland, I laid down 20 Euro (at the time, about $23) and got unlimited calling for a month and 15 GB of data. Read that again. $23 for unlimited calls and 15 GB of data in Ireland vs $44 for 8 GB of data in the US via T-Mob or Cricket. \u00a0Twice the data for half the money. Go across the water to the UK and EE is offering 16 GB and unlimited texts for \u00a330 (which today is about $40) while Three is offering 12 GB, 3000 minutes and 3000 texts for \u00a320. Because phones are separate from service, and because all service uses the same technology, you\u2019re actually in a competitive market and can go back and forth.<\/p>\n
But in this country, the companies will actually argue that your cell phone is competition for your home broadband, which – unless you live somewhere with fiber – is a choice between The Baby Bell and The Cable Company if you\u2019re lucky and one or the other if you aren\u2019t. If you live someplace like Chattanooga, Tennessee (!!) you have cheap municipal fiber that can actually offer competition for the local duopoly, and if forced to compete they\u2019ll bring down the price. But if they aren\u2019t, you wind up paying ridiculous money. It wasn\u2019t like this when the phone lines had to be free and open and you had dozens of dialup operators to choose from and the likes of Earthlink making $20 unlimited ISP service a routine thing, or when the incumbent local carrier had to open the loop to competitors and you could get DSL from other providers (like the late and dearly missed Speakeasy.net). But noooooo\u2026now, somehow, the phone in your hand is somehow competition for the line in the wall. Maybe you want to squint at Stranger Things on a 5.5\u201d phone screen, but most people would rather lean back and look at the big screen (without streaming it through the phone, because if one hour of HD video takes up 4 GB of data, that\u2019s your phone reduced to dialup speed halfway through the first season).<\/p>\n
The brutal fact of the matter is that everything that comes to your computer is just some sort of data over a dumb pipe. Bits are bits are bits.. The massacre of Net Neutrality is about allowing your cable and phone companies to slice and dice that data and charge you more for the stuff you want. It should be called the Middleman Protection Act of 2017. But then, when you let a Verizon shitpile determine what should be the policy for internet use, you should hardly be surprised that a dumb pipe company wants a nickel on everything.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For a couple of releases now, there\u2019s been a problem with iOS. Either it clings to bad wifi like a Demigorgon to a peripheral character\u2019s throat (of which more later) or it won\u2019t connect at all, especially where an interstitial page is concerned (the pop-up pages you have to click through to connect at Starbucks, … <\/p>\n