When the wireless companies started cutting back on their unlimited data offerings last year, I was a little confused. AT&T went first, then Verizon.

Don’t worry, they said—hardly anyone goes over these new limits. It seemed strange to me that they’d go out of their way to upset so many just to catch a few heavy users.

But they did and here’s why: 4g. And the future.

Sure it’s hard to use much data with a 3g device now. Some day you’ll pick up a fancy new 4g phone or tablet. And the data will be a flowing. Once it’s easy and practical to stream Netflix on our phones, we will. And the phone carriers seem to have had the unusual foresight to position themselves accordingly.

They’re getting us to abandon our unlimited plans when it’s painless, and then a year or two from now it’ll be our fault when we start hitting our data caps and upgrading our plans accordingly.

And that sucks.

1 comment

Unknown said on 2012-12-13

I hadn’t looked at it from that angle - great point!

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