How much does $50 buy you on AT&T’s LTE network? Not much. Although Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos made a big, big splash with the announcement that consumers will be able to buy a 4G Kindle Fire data plan for just $50 a year, the monthly 250MB data cap isn’t enough to watch a single HD movie.
Here are the things you can’t do in a single month if buy a Kindle Fire (HD) and Amazon’s $50 a year 4G LTE data plan:
• View more than 900 webpages (about 30 a day)
• Watch more than 120 minutes of standard definition web video
• Listen to more than 600 minutes of low-fi streaming audio
• Watch a single 1.5 hour HD movie
Mix and match, and that’s one not so long afternoon at Starbucks. In fact, it might all be gone before the barista finishes pouring your second Americano.
Kindle Fire Data Plan: Can’t Get There from Here
So, boys and girls, 250MB of data on AT&T’s LTE network won’t get you very far, but you will get there really fast. Moreover, when you hit that cap, Ma Bell shuts you out until next month.
Whereas there’s no risk of data overage fees, users will be immediately choked off — the Amazon/AT&T Kindle Fire Data Plan doesn’t allow any overage at any price.
And, if you want to upgrade to a higher data cap — 3GB for $30/month or 5GB for $50/month – be ready to pay a $36 activation fee, an egregious charge that doesn’t apply with Amazon’s 250MB plan.
Or, put another way, Amazon and AT&T are selling 3GB (12 x 250MB) of data for $50, but you can only have a little nibble of that every month and they’re asking for a 66 percent mark up over their regular price.
Are you buying the Kindle Fire data plan?