I have unlimited cellular data on my phone but not if I use it as a hotspot.

Flying Squid@lemmy.world to Mildly Infuriating@lemmy.world – 853 points –

What is the difference between cellular data being used on my phone and cellular data being used on my notebook? Data is data.

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Which is bullshit. Who cares if you download something at full speed on your phone or through the hotpot? A bit is a bit, doesn't matter where it ends up when received by the phone's modem.

It’s a sneaky way of having a bandwidth cap without having a bandwidth cap. Mobile devices have smaller storage, so you’re less likely to use as much bandwidth compared to a laptop. Also a single device going to use less data than multiple devices sharing a hotspot.

Jokes on them, I have a 512GB micrSD card and I use Termux to archive videos through YT-DLP.

Was just going to say… my phone has 512GB storage and can do direct WiFi file transfer to my computer without a hotspot. All without using the mobile hotspot feature.

You can burn through a huge amount of data streaming 4K video on your phone without using any storage. You can also plug a 20TB USB hard drive into your phone, connect to a VPN and torrent away.

But most users don’t. And that’s what they’re counting on.

The carrier who's paying for your traffic. You're most likely going to use a lot more data on a computer than actually on your phone.

The carrier who’s paying for your traffic.

soooo...... what's with the monthly bill then?

I mean let’s be real, it’s incredibly complex and amazing technology. Borderline magic. And depending on where you are, yeah consistently using large amounts of bandwidth can and will impact other users.

So a policy like this makes sense, to a point. It’s when they auto charge you for hitting a “limit” that grinds my gears.

And I’m sure we can all acknowledge what would happen to prices if there were zero restrictions. A top budget blogger tip would be “stop paying for your expensive broadband service! Plug your phone in and tap “hotspot” in settings to save $50-$100 a month.“

Normies (grandmas using Facebook, not WFHers/gamers) would be frivolous to pay for two “equivalent” Internet services.

(Before you think me a corporate lobbyist, know I submitted a complaint to the FCC when Comcast first implemented broadband bandwidth caps in the USA. Saw that BS in Canada.)