I will be tempted by the Galaxy S II.

Right now, that's the only phone that tempts me. A9 binned higher than the Tegra 2, and Samsung finally fixed their crappy pentile matrix on the SAMOLED. If they fixed the GPS as well, which it seems like they have, that's a quality phone.

If I can resist the lures of the GS2, I'll probably wait and see if Motorola really releases the rumored vanilla Android Targa phone.

 

I was going to wait for the Targa to be released. But VZW just keeps wanting to push me away. Between monitoring who is rooted by seeing if people take updates, to the tether crackdown (instead of cracking down on people abusing the unlimited data), to tiered data...it's just going to get worse. So I'm headed to an Evo3D on Sprint.

 

Nobody has any evidence of this, it was pure speculation, doesn't even make any sense and won't be acted upon anyway so let's not spread this rumor any further. Please?

Why should they not crack down on people who violate the terms of service?

Tiered data will, and should be, everywhere. It will probably always be a refuge for the lower tier providers to run to in order to compete with the big boys, but the reality is that unlimited data is stupid. It doesn't make any sense at all. It's completely unsustainable, and is a basic falsehood anyway - it is not actually unlimited, so advertising it as such is ridiculous.

Just MHO. If Sprint gives you a plan option you like, go for it... but basing the decision in any part on ridiculous rumors is not a good idea, and it seems odd to me that ceasing lying to the customers results in driving people away. Unlimited is not unlimited. It's a lie. This is a measurable service that costs money on a per-unit basis, no different from electricity or gasoline or water.

On one hand you're mad that they crack down on tethering, on the other hand you're mad that they're doing away with unlimited plans... you can't have it both ways. Unlimited is not sustainable. Let's go to a sustainable billing plan and then the problems with tethering go away.

 

I think the reason you have so few responses thus far is because most of us DX users don't see a compelling reason to switch yet. I know I don't.

 

If I was upgrading today, I would go with the TBolt or the Charge. If it was this summer, I would be looking at the Bionic (whatever it is) or the SGII. Alas, I don't get to upgrade till March 2012. The good thing is a lot of the phones that will be shown off at CES 2012 should be available by then.

 

Except you're not destroying bits by using them. Bits are manufactured and are limited only by the infrastructure in place to support them. They are absolutely renewable in the utmost sense. One could go so far as to say not using all of the available bandwidth all of the time is a waste of network potential. Hence, it is not anything like electricity, gasoline, or water. It is not a scarce resource.

 

Bits aren't the service.

Infrastructure is the service.

Water is a renewable resource. It's not destroyed by usage - even most contaminated water is cleaned in some fashion, either directly by the city or indirectly by the earth, before recycling itself into the atmosphere or the water supply. What you're paying for is the pumps, the cleaning stations, the workers - all of the infrastructure.

Transmitting data over the infrastructure costs money. It is a measurable service, and it costs actual money to Verizon to transfer data over the towers. Are you nitpicking just to be pedantic or do you have an actual argument that it somehow doesn't cost real dollars to transfer data? Every single bit of data transferred has a value attached to it.

 

Water is slightly different, but I notice you didn't bring up gasoline or electricity again. The costs to Verizon are in the hardware, the electricity it takes to power the hardware, and then the wholesale bandwidth costs to them. They own a lot of internet backbone, so maybe they don't incur bandwidth costs at all, except for the initial investment. If Verizon, AT&T, and the like were responsible enough then part of everyone's monthly unlimited fees should be going towards upgrades and expansion of the original network. The bandwidth used and network capacity should grow at the same rate. The idea that all of a sudden there's a dire need for tiered or pay-per-byte data is a strawman used for killing internet video, protecting existing revenue streams, and creating a new one in pay-per-byte.

 

I realize this is the wrong thread to continue discussing this issue, but just a quick thought, before Steven gets mad at me. I see a good example of what SaurusX is saying in Sat radio. They beam the data. Anyone with an unlocked receiver can receive the data. It doesn't cost the provider any more in infrastructure. The signal is there. The more people they sign up, the more money they make. Data on a cell system is entirely different, as binary is saying.

That said, I don't plan on upgrading to any phone anytime soon. I am very happy with the DX...besides, I have until 11/12 before I can get the upgrade discount!

And now, we should really take this discussion to the existing thread HERE.

 

The point still stands, even with gasoline or electricity. The fact that we don't strictly consume a bit is a red herring, it's still a quantifiable service that costs more as you consume more.

And in the personnel used to support that hardware, and the software and personnel used to analyze and predict growth patterns and in a million other parts of the business. Let's not downplay it. Bandwidth is their primary business. It costs money to run a business.

First of all, the initial investment is amortized over the expected life of the pipe, and growth is part of the end-of-life of any given bandwidth pipe. Second of all, hardware isn't the only cost. These pipes are massively tuned, with all traffic getting tagged and retagged, monitored and modified all the time. There is software and manpower all associated with any bandwidth. Not to mention costs associated with traversing other networks.

It's not a sudden or dire need. It's just a need. Unlimited data is totally unsustainable over the air right now. OTA data is orders of magnitude more expensive than landline data and it's simply impossible to support the level of bandwidth consumption that smartphones have suddenly handed to millions and millions of people. It's not that suddenly we need this, it's just that it is a need, and IMO, it's better to do it sooner rather than later.

 

A very beneficial and thoughful discussion about data plans, but I don't think it was what the OP was looking for. The question was realy directed to what phone are folks going to upgrade to on Verizon.

 

My overall empathy comes from the way they handle the pricing. Especially when it comes to tether. I know it's in the TOS (which is a part of the reason why I'm leaving) that you can't tether without the tether plan. However, the more I investigate into it, the more I disagree with what VZW/ATT does. I know bandwidth is finite, so unlimited is technically impossible. But, as it stands, people have more bandwidth than they can use, so it is virtual unlimited. If someone can use their phone to download 10gb worth of data, why is that allowed, but if someone tethers for 10 mins, but don't excede 2gb for phone and tether data usage, they have to fork over an extra $20 (with root tether exploit ignored, obviously).

If they went to tiered data plans, but got rid of the tether restriction, I wouldn't really care all that much. Because $20 for 2gigs is equal to using 2gigs over your normal data cap, anyways. But do you really think they will think of it like that? I doubt it.

Another reason why I'm going to Sprint is that I can use my Gvoice number as my phone's number.

 

I disagree. I think that data plans are going to be something people are going to have to weigh in on in the next couple of months. In 6 months, or whenever VZW actually implements the tier system, it won't matter because only tiered plans will exist and the discussion can go back to discussing just the models by themselves.

For the OP, it may not matter. Because he said he has to wait until August, and these tiered plans may be in effect before then. However, everyone else who is in their upgrade window has to make a choice. As it stands, if you want 4G...you can get a TBolt or a Charge with 'unlimited' data or you can wait for the next generation of 4G phones and likely have a tiered system. If you're not a heavy data user, you'd probably be better off and waiting for the next batch of phones so you have a wider selection. If you go over 2GB a month regularly...it may be best to start thinking of the Charge or TBolt.

 

I won't be eligible for an upgrade discount until March 2012, and I have no idea what phones will be out by then. Even still, I am very happy with my phone and won't be ready to move on for a while.

How is it that so many people are going to be ready for upgrades this year? One year contracts?

 

I upgraded last May (2 yr. contract), and I'm eligible for an early upgrade at the end of the month for some reason.

 

An oversite, or just luck maybe I singed a 2 year contract last July and I won't be eligible until March 2012.

 

Get that in writing. It's not uncommon for me to call Verizon three times on the same day and get 3 different upgrade dates. They don't know what they're doing over there.

 

BGuys lets keep this thread on topic as JB has asked.

Continue the unlimited/data/4G HERE

 

I would love a Nexus Verizon variant, but as it stands, I'm waiting for something worth upgrading to, which as of yet has come come along.

 

I stopped by the Verizon store over lunch last week. I really, really liked the Charge. I esp liked running speed test on it's LTE connection. Even if I could upgrade now, it's hard to justify the cost of it or the Thunderbolt. Neither seem THAT much better considering I'd only get LTE coverage at work, but not at home. Maybe if it was $199...

 

I have one more early upgrade available in July, not sure what I am going to get yet but there are a lot of good choices. This is a great time for phones right now.

 

may be monitoring rooting...but that is not how they are doing it...too many people out there that don't ever update their phones for this to be a viable option for tracking down rooters...

what company doesn't do this? does AT&T allow free tethering? Sprint? T-Mo?...no, none of them do...

huh? what is there to crack down on?...if you pay for unlimited data...how can you abuse it?...

everyone except Sprint has tiered data...and its truly the way to go...

Sprint ain't exactly perfect...i wouldn't buy into their TV commercials too much...

just a couple of the tidbits stuffed away in their TOS/EULA...

same here...new contract started about 15 minutes before midnight when the VZW website let me order my X...

 

I came to this thread to find out what folks would be upgrading to, instead I got a slew of whiners talking about something totally different. As for me, my contract is up in March 2012 and hopefully by then something will be worth my while... otherwise i will just keep my X.

 

Next phone might be the ever-elusive Bionic (eligible March '12). I don't give a hoot about locked bootloaders and such. Love my X, and rooted it for insignificant reasons, but if I couldn't do it to a future phone, I don't think I would miss much (and this is only based on my experience as I know tons of folks love to tinker much more than I do/would) And besides, if I upgraded anytime soon, I would be wasting the deal of the century I just got ($20 for the accessory pack w/ cables and docks!)