The Demise of Data
Clearwire’s recent response to AT&T’s decision to remove the unlimited data option from it’s pricing plans may be a glimmer of hope, but most commentators say the end is near for all-you-can-eat data, and other carriers will quickly follow AT&T’s lead. Most of the tech faithful have responded with outrage at the news, but anger doesn’t seem to be the right fit for the immense sense of disillusionment that I’m feeling – a feeling that comes from all of the lost possibilities that unlimited data brought to the world of mobile computing and the future innovations that now may never exist.
Three years ago Apple broke the smartphone market wide open with the iPhone, but it was the unlimited data plan that came with the phone that really allowed mobile computing to proliferate. For years, unlimited data has brought us countless YouTube clips, endless Pandora and SiriusXM music, live streams from Qik and Ustream, and more recently, shows from Netflix. It’s allowed us to start using our phones as mobile shopping assistants, a portable news crew, and a GPS system to name a few. With the promise of two-way videoconferencing just days away, how can this be the end of unlimited data? It’s as if Wonka lead us in to the Hall of Liquid Chocolate and then forbade us to drink any more than two sips from the fountain.
It’s been rumored for years that Google has been building a nationwide internet service system and even that they are working on their own wireless carrier options. Some of those rumors have proven to be true. Perhaps Google will be the savior of unlimited data.
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