Unlimited mobile rates have always been that dark object of desire for users. When we heard that other countries allowed their users to navigate with their mobile without looking at the megabytes consumed, we could not help but feel envy. However, over time they finished arriving in our country and it is quite common to be able to contract rates with unlimited calls and data. However, not everything is as beautiful as it is painted, or at least we should know these 5 drawbacks, problems or disadvantages of the rates that offer unlimited calls and data .
Unlimited rates are no longer exclusive to large operators. In fact, there are more and more virtual mobile operators in Spain that have this type of plan in their tariff portfolio. Next, we are going to see some drawbacks that these rates have, both in the section of unlimited calls and in the section of unlimited data.
All calls
We started the review with unlimited calls. It is normal for us to think that we can use the mobile phone to call as much as we want without any type of limitation. However, you always have to read the fine print for concepts such as maximum minutes or number of destinations per month. Some operators speak of unlimited call rates when in reality they offer 1,000 or more minutes, but always limited. A number of destinations such as 150 or similar figures is also usually specified.
On the other hand, it must be taken into account that unlimited calls refers to national landlines and mobiles. If we call premium rate and premium rate numbers (905, 80X), we will have to pay more. The cost of making these calls is specified in the official tariff that we find on the website of the operator in question.
Roaming
With roaming we have to differentiate between free roaming in the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and the United Kingdom , and in the rest of the countries. The first is required by law for all operators, but that does not imply that we can make full use of the unlimited rate.
With calls, limitations are not usually indicated, but without with navigation. Without going any further, Movistar allows us to consume 50GB in roaming, Orange 20GB or 27GB depending on the rate, Vodafone 20, 21, 22 or 28 gigabytes also depending on the rate …
Share data
Some think that they can contract a single unlimited rate and take advantage of it both with the rest of the lines of the same name and by sharing the connection with other devices (tethering). Here we have to differentiate two things. In the first place, operators do not usually allow data to be shared with other lines under the same contract. For example, Movistar converts the unlimited rate into a rate with 25GB if we activate another option. With regard to tethering, we do not usually find too many problems, although the ambiguous “responsible use” is always appealed to.
Maximum speed / Quality video streaming
Here we enter marshy terrain. As operators cannot differentiate too much between two rates with unlimited calls and data, a new limitation was pulled up their sleeve: browsing speed . This is something that is usually indicated, but that we must take into account. At Vodafone, with the new rates, we have options with 10 Mbps or with the maximum speed of the line.
Another limitation that they have invented is the quality of streaming . In the case of Orange, we can watch the videos in HD or 4K depending on the contracted rate. For its part, Yoigo directly indicates that “it will try to provide an optimized resolution and speed for the consumption of multimedia services on mobile devices (minimum quality close to that of a DVD)”.
Hidden data consumption limit
And we couldn’t finish without reviewing the most contentious issue of all. No operator is going to recognize that it applies limits to the consumption of its data rates since they always speak of “reasonable use”, “conditions of use” and similar concepts . Here we will have to trust both our own experience and the opinions of other users on the network. However, we must know that these limits, if they exist, are usually 400GB or such high amounts of data.