Well, first of all let me say how happy I am that FINALLY all major US cellular carriers are offering flat rate unlimited calling. But as with all things unlimited, people tend to abuse the unlimited nature of things (Hey is 7,000 texts a months too much?).

According to a report by ABI Research says that these new unlimited plans will “test the limits of 3G networks” and potentially cause capacity strain.

Unlimited Internet access will have the biggest impact on the network, especially if users begin to visit sites such as YouTube to download videos. Continuous use of video applications, whether streaming, downloading or uploading pose the biggest challenge by significantly increasing network utilization and reducing per-subscriber data rates, or the number of subscribers able to access the network. There are reports that two majors Korean operators (SKT and KTF) offering video calls and global roaming on WCDMA networks are experiencing degraded voice quality.

Backhaul is also affected. As operators’ 3G backhaul requirement increases and they plan for network migration, higher capacity backhaul becomes essential. Operators have been evaluating alternative backhaul solutions for some time, but higher utilization of 3G networks will drive this requirement faster than 4G requirements. “The cost of increasing backhaul capacity, handling more calls to service centers, and potential increases in customer churn can quickly erode any gains from flat-rate plans,” Manjaro concludes.

I find it funny that the single feature that was designed to attract customers may be the single feature that ends up repelling them because a particular companies network is too overburdened.

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