[nikanj]

I wonder if we'll still be stuck with our puny data caps when this arrives. Blowing through your monthly quota in a minute might be astounding from a technical point of view, but it only takes one broken page with an ajax infinite loop to get you.

[rayiner]

Data caps are a form of price discrimination, and will evolve with supply and demand. It's like Apple's upcharge for each jump in flash or SSD size--it's a way to push a higher proportion of costs onto those who value the product the most. The brackets will keep going up and be priced such that lots of people will pay it.

[sparaker]

Yes very true. But i think mobile data has to be cheaper as increased data speeds are achieved and users are promoted to make more use of the excess speed on portable devices.

[grecy]

Here in the North we have insane data caps on our regular DSL and Cable internet.

On a couple of the packages, it's possible to blow through your entire monthly cap in 6 hours - and I've seen people do it.

[adventured]

If you look out to 2020, and assume 5G will be ready, what you'll get in production is nowhere near 1tbps. You might see 500mbps - 1gbps commonly deployed across the US and Europe during the 2020-2025 time frame. Deploying the initial infrastructure was very expensive, but now it's in place. That's part of the reason why the US was able to transition relatively quickly to 4G LTE, there was no need to build 200,000 towers again.

Data caps will rise substantially over the next five years. By 2020x, they'll be commonly at several hundred gigabytes at 5G speeds across the US and Europe, with unlimited data at lower speeds as a universal feature. No doubt numerous carriers will offer variations of unlimited data.

[FireBeyond]

You're entirely optimistic, I fear:

"One of the new AT&T plans will cost $25 per month and offer two gigabytes of data per month, which AT&T says will be enough for 98 percent of its smart phone customers. Additional gigabytes will cost $10 each."

This is in 2010.

Today that $25 will actually get you HALF the data it did in 2010, five years ago.

[irishcoffee]

This is why I buy phones outright to keep my unlimited data plan from verizon. I tether it for my home internet as well, usually use between 80-100gb/month.

I'm waiting for the day they just take it away.

[jen729w]

[Citation needed]