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New Mobile Plan Pools Data On Unlimited Devices

Posted by Soulskill on from the new-avenue-for-family-strife dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "PC Magazine reports that Ting, a new reseller of Sprint's voice, 3G and WiMax services, has a new approach to mobile pricing that lets customers buy minutes, messages, and data separately, and allows households to pool them to an unlimited number of phones and data devices on one account. 'Household data plans are the next step for consumers, mainly because people are adding more connected screens and devices to their lifestyle,' writes Kevin Tofel. 'And different household members have different data needs; some use a little while others consume gobs of gigabytes. Why not average out the usage across multiple devices?' Both AT&T and Verizon have hinted at offering shared data plans in the future, but the devil's in the details, says Tofel. 'My hope is that family data plans come soon, to all carriers, just like we have for family voice and messaging plans.'"

6 of 68 comments (clear)

  1. Re:A bit too specific isnt it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    We are discussing mobile plans from a specific country
    Isnt that news a little bit too specific for a global tech site?

    That's paid spam.

  2. Good idea by Hatta · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Why stop there? Why not pool everyone's data together, and charge us all the same price?

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    Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    1. Re:Good idea by Zouden · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What would you prefer, being charged per megabyte or per device? Because most people are charged per device. $40/month for data on your phone, fine, but then you want a sim card in your iPad? That's another data plan at $40/month, regardless of how much you use.

      The article is proposing a usage-based system that's independent of the number of devices. That's a much better arrangement IMHO.

      --
      "A week in the lab saves an hour in the library"
  3. Re:A bit too specific isnt it? by CrackedButter · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not if this is the first of its kind and could be copied around the world. That's the hope right?

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    Jonathanjk.com
  4. 'My hope is that family data plans come soon' by exploder · · Score: 4, Insightful

    'My hope is that family data plans come soon, to all carriers, just like we have for family voice and messaging plans.'

    The family plan will come to your carrier just as soon as they've worked out the necessary details, i.e. made sure you'll end up paying just a little more than you do now.

    --
    Yo dawg, I heard you like the Ackermann function, so OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD
  5. Wow, "New"? Really? by iONiUM · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm in Canada, with Rogers, and while they do suck, I have had a family data plan for 1GB (actually I share everything else too) with my wife for 3 years now..

    I find it extremely odd that the US does not have this... it's like hearing they don't have wheels, or fire.