The Joy of 2G

I was reviewing plans from one of our advertisers, Twigby, and was struck by how much they were offering.  For the rock-bottom promotional rate of $9 they provide 100 Talk minutes and 150 Mb of  high-speed Data.  Not a big deal, right?  What is a big deal is what shows at the top of each plan: "Plans Include Unlimited 2G Data for Free!". Before you recoil in horror at a 2G download, let me share my experience traveling in Europe. I made the mistake of bringing my most expendable phone, some base model LG phone, which, unfortunately, did not have access to the high-speed spectrum used by my randomly-chosen carrier in Italy.  Yes, I was stuck in 2G hell...but I didn't know it.

I hopped on the train and began following my trip on Google Maps.  The train's Wi-Fi was hopelessly slow so I switched to Cellular Data and was able to easily follow the map and keep tabs of my email at a much faster download rate.  Distracted by the passing scenery of Tuscany, I did not notice the 2G symbol on my screen until some time later in the trip.  Yes, I did not notice that my data was coming in at a maximum rate of 128kb, and until then, it didn't matter.

                                   Related: Unlimited Data: The Alternatives

This leads me to believe that cheapskates like me can get a bargain-basement data plan with a few hundred bits of data and still find our phones quite usable.  What doesn't work well? Streaming video and poorly-constructed web sites, something I rarely use.  To make these cheap deals even sweeter, carriers like Twigby also offer, "Unlimited Global Texting...FREE." This is actually a lot of Unlimited for only $9.

Keep in mind this is artificially-created 2G, not the old 2G that carriers like AT&T have stopped providing on their network.  It's also called "throttling" and I now see it as as my way to get the lowest-price wireless.