Data caps are pretty bad. They restrict how much I can download on our smartphones when all I want to do is stream Pandora on the way to work. I should move to Russia where you win money for downloading all you can.
The Next Web is reporting that Russian mobile carrier MegaFon not only has unlimited data, but they encourage their users to download as much as they can. They even offer prizes for those who downloaded the most data over a given period of time.
Between November 1, 2011 to January 31, 2012, MegaFon customers who bought a 3G moden were asked to download as much data as they could. The person who performed the herculean task was rewarded a $5,000 holiday overseas trip.
The winner downloaded a whopping 419GB of 3G data in one week. He won the contest, but MegaFon used the event to showcase their data network.
The company covers 80 percent of north-Western Russia with its 3G service. According to the company, the second and third place winners come from small Russian towns. MegaFon used this to flaunt their ability to offer 21Mbps download speeds in rural areas.
This is the kind of unlimited data plans that need to happen in the U.S. Our Internet infrastructure is so pathetically behind every other country now that it’s kind of embarrassing. It would go a long way to give users unlimited data again. The majority of users would still use the same amount of data like always while still allowing those who need to download a lot the ability to without data throttling or extra charges.