Hasta La Gadget!

As most carriers have now moved toward using data caps and effectively got rid of unlimited data plans, it seems there are still some big companies out there that feel bad for the users, ESPN being one of them. The sports media network has reportedly been in talks with at least one major carrier about paying them as a subsidy so that streamed ESPN video wouldn’t count against users’ data caps.

According to the Wall Street Journal, ESPN has been discussing possible solutions for the data cap issue, but the specific carriers that are said to be in talks with ESPN haven’t been disclosed. Essentially, ESPN wants to pay carriers to not have their mobile streaming content count against users monthly data caps, since many data plans only allow for a couple hundred megabytes per month.

If these discussions are true, the possibility of this kind of deal happening would still be up in the air, and they know that. The company says that they’re not sure if the deal would work financially, but at least they’re giving it a try, and it goes to show that not all company’s are evil — some actually want to make life easier, even if that also helps out the company.

However, data caps can also have a direct negative effect on companies like ESPN, where they partially rely on mobile ad revenue. With data caps in place, smartphone users are less likely to stream mobile content knowing that it will obliterate their monthly usage in no time. So, by going to carriers to make a deal like this would not only benefit ESPN, but also ESPN customers.

This kind of deal could also bring in more money for carriers. While they would have to give up a portion of their bandwidth, they would be getting paid by content providers on either a monthly or yearly basis (or possibly just a multi-year contract of sorts). The WSJ reports that both Verizon and AT&T are at least interested in this kind of concept, and it would introduce new sources of revenue without having hike up fees for customers.

SOURCE: Wall Street Journal

ESPN streaming content subsidization: mobile carriers mull partial payment is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

While smartphones may be the way of the dragon for a lot of subscribers nowadays, there are still plenty of luddites to go around. It turns out that feature phones (a.k.a. not smartphones) are still fairly prevalent in today’s world, and Verizon just announced a new plan for those types of users to take advantage of. $35 per month will land you 500 voice minutes and unlimited texting and mobile web data.

This new $35/month plan will be added on to the other prepaid options that Verizon offers, including $60 and $70-per-month plans that give you unlimited voice and texting, as well as 500MB and 2GB of data, respectively. Verizon says its new basic plan is great for those who don’t talk a lot, but would enjoy unlimited texting and data.

Verizon also offers a $50-per-month plan for feature phones that comes with unlimited everything. Of course, not a lot of users need this, and voice calling isn’t as widely used as it used to be thanks to text messaging, so you can now save yourself $15 per month extra by going with the cheaper new plan that Big Red now offers.

Of course, in this day and age, it might just make sense to upgrade to a smartphone and go for the cheap $60 plan, especially since you can get a new smartphone for the price of what a feature phone costs. In any case, if you’re looking to save some money on your mobile phone plan, $35 per month is the cheapest you can go on Verizon.

Verizon introduces $35 prepaid plans for feature phones is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The iPhone is now available on all major U.S. carriers. But is T-Mobile’s unique pricing plan worth it?

If you’re a data-hungry mobile user, you’ll know just how precious an unlimited plan can be, that is, if you were lucky enough to have such a plan before some of the US carriers decided to introduce tiered data plans. There are some mobile users out there that can’t live with a normal data plan due to their above-average use, which is why AT&T is introducing a number of new data plans that may or may not entice you.

AT&T will begin rolling out new data options on March 22 giving its subscribers an allowance of 30GB, 40GB and 50GB per month. The pricing for these new data options will cost AT&T customers $300 a month for 30GB, $400 for 40GB or $500 for 50GB with a $15 per gigabyte fee if users go over their allotted amount. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: iOS 6.1.3 Released To Fix Passcode Security Vulnerability, Minuum Is A Virtual Keyboard That Defies Convention,

Remember Republic Wireless? Those guys who promised to change the world of mobile with a $19 per month unlimited talk, text, and data plan? Remember how it sounded too good to be true? I dove in head first when it came out as a beta last year, and I can tell you from experience that it both is and isn’t. Republic is onto something, yes. But it’s getting there slowly. More »