Why are operators collectively canceling “unlimited data” packages?

China Telecom announced that it will stop selling the Enjoy Package from September 1, which means that Telecom’s “unlimited traffic” package has withdrawn from the stage of history and is now called the “data limit and speed limit” package.

After cancellation, users can change to an optimized package. The optimized package changes the speed limit rules for the portion exceeding the unlimited traffic package to a charging model, that is, after exceeding 20G of traffic, there will be no speed limit, but a charge for traffic use.

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China Telecom's optimized packages: For ordinary packages priced between 79 and 129 yuan, any excess traffic will be charged at 5 yuan per GB; for packages priced at 199 yuan and above, any excess traffic will be charged at 3 yuan per GB.

The monthly data consumption outside the package is capped at 600 yuan. Once the amount is reached, the user's Internet service will be suspended and will be enabled again the next month.

According to the disclosure of Tongxunren.com, yesterday's suspected internal document of China Unicom is about to follow China Telecom to cancel the unlimited package. The terms and conditions are surprisingly consistent with the previous documents of China Telecom, which makes netizens sigh that it is worthy of the 5G era, 5 yuan for 1G!

What are the pitfalls of unlimited data plans?

Although China has launched 4G networks for many years, it was not until 2017 that "unlimited data" 4G packages were launched. The first was the "Ice Cream" package launched by China Unicom, and China Telecom soon followed up with the "Hi Unlimited" package.

The three operators all launched "unlimited data" packages two years ago, but this attracted the attention of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. On June 7, 2018, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology required China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, the three major operators, to immediately conduct self-examination, standardize the promotion of unlimited data packages, not exaggerate, and clearly mark the restrictive clauses to ensure that users are clear about their consumption.

Why did the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology take such a measure? The main reason is complaints from consumers. The "unlimited traffic" packages of the three major operators do have unlimited traffic, but after exceeding a certain traffic value, the speed will be limited.

Without internet speed, no matter how much data you have, it will be useless. If you are given a straw, how long will it take for you to finish drinking the water in a reservoir?

Since there is no limit on traffic, what does it mean to limit the speed? It is precisely because of these terms that users who were deceived by advertisements and signed up for "unlimited traffic" packages are suffering, so the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology began to intervene and regulate.

After that, the three major operators changed their advertising words, and the promotional language was changed to "use as you like" and "enjoy unlimited use", and the package name was changed from "unlimited traffic" to "speed reduction after reaching the limit". In fact, it is just a change of soup but not the substance, the packages and restrictions are still the same, but this time the speed limit policy is stated in the promotion.

Why is there a speed limit for unlimited plans?

The main reason is that the technology is not up to the task. We are currently using cellular networks to access the Internet, which means that our data transmission must go through base stations, which are commonly known as signal towers.

Since the cost of building base stations is very high, the number of base stations in a certain area is limited. Therefore, the number of mobile phone users who can connect to the base station in an area is also limited, and the bandwidth of the base station is also limited.

Therefore, the base stations of the three major operators are already operating at full capacity. If the traffic is not limited, the base stations will collapse due to excessive data transmission for a long time, which will create the risk of network disconnection.

This can also explain why we often experience unusually slow 4G network speeds in places with full signal, because the capacity of the base stations is insufficient.

Why are operators canceling unlimited data plans?

There are actually two reasons why the "unlimited traffic" package was cancelled. The first is to meet the basic needs of users, and the second is to pave the way for 5G networks.

In fact, the "unlimited traffic" package was not cancelled directly, but the speed limit after reaching the data limit was changed to charging after reaching the data limit.

Another reason is 5G. The 5G era has arrived. Although it is now in trial operation, the official 5G commercial network will be launched soon.

The network speed and traffic scale of 5G are not on the same order of magnitude as those of 4G. Therefore, if we continue to launch "unlimited traffic" packages, it will be an inappropriate move in the 5G era. For example, no one has a clear concept of how much traffic should be limited.

There are also some voices that believe that 5G commercial use is currently in the initial construction stage, and the reason for canceling the "unlimited traffic" package under the guise of 5G is untenable. It is just a means for operators to increase profits to make up for the losses caused by their own revenue decline.