[citation][nom]dark_knight33[/nom]If you get someone who ditches their home cable/internet package and likes to tether their cell for Hulu at home, that is abusing the network IMO.[/citation]
One could easily argue the same thing - someone who streams video on a shared cable internet broadband connection should be equally in violation of abusing the network. After all, the internet was and should always be about sharing text-only documents, like email or imageless pages.
My primary use of my cellphone is to get me email via push - an I get a lot between work, school, and my personal life.
My secondary purpose is to have the internet with me on the go - whether I use it with the built-in GPS and google maps or On Course Navigator, browse the web to find a good restaurant or movie when on the go, check prices at competitors when in the store, or read reviews of products I forgot to look up.
My third use is to tether (which I pay extra for an a plan they are allowed to call "unlimited" but is defined as 5 GB - I believe I heard someone mention regulation, which I am all for). Why? Many of the spots I like to go to do not offer free wifi, or if they do they block so many different type of sites I use that it is useless. (For example, I was trying to update my system on the go last week and the free wifi blocked any site with an exe or driver download on it - so I tethered.)
However, I need to note we are not talking about tethering - we are talking about in phone usage. If you make a phone flash capable and sell HDMI cables to connect it to your TV, do you think people won't use sites like Hulu? If you market it as a multimedia phone with FULL web browsing capabilities, am I suppose to set it to text only and limit my usage? If you market it as an always-connected-to-the-internet 3G tablet, am I not suppose to use it like my netbook?
I think those of us upset about the plan change comes mainly from the lack of choice. IF I know I will use 10 GB of data, and you know there are 5% of your customers that use that much regularly, WHY don't you have a premium priced plan option for that?
Additionally, what is going to stop them from culling the "top 5%" of abusers in another year. They can just keep claiming that the majority of their users "only use" x MB per month, and thus having "unlimited" plans of y MB plus 1 cent per KB over makes sense. Net result, if you use a smartphone for what the carriers and manufacturers advertise it as being able to do, then you may wind up paying thousands of dollars a month. That would be equally unfair as allowing for unlimited plans.