| > Sometimes it seems that HN and HN-like users like to argue for the sake of arguing. Sometimes. But sometimes, they actually disagree with the official/majority/whatever opinion, and this is this case. I disagree that the way "unlimited" is used in marketing is honest, or desirable, or should be allowed. > Everyone knows what unlimited means in the dictionary definition and in the marketing definition. Not everyone. That's literally the point of using this kind of language - some people will not know that marketers have their own dictionary that's different from the one normally used, and the way most of those people will use the service will not reveal the difference, so it's one of the cheapest lies the marketers can tell to pull in extra customers. It's a lie nonetheless. > The first is a lot of mobile US carriers. They have unlimited plans, but after n amount of data, your throughput is throttled. You don't even have to do something crazy like use your data plan as an ISP for you and your neighbors in your apartment. It's as plain as day when you sign up. It is, or it isn't. Where I came from, there are plans that offer you e.g. X GB of Internet, and then you're throttled. It's plain as day, says right so on the offer. Then there are other plans, that say "Unlimited", where what they really mean is ~5X GB of Internet and then you're throttled. It's dishonest, especially because those offers are created to make them look more competitive against real ISPs who do offer actual, unlimited Internet, usually by cable. > I understand why people want to be so skeptical about unlimited offerings, but are you really doing yourself any favors by intentionally spitting in the face of an offered service? It's called "voting with your wallet". Doesn't really work at scale, but still, it sends some market signal. |