Stingy Data Plans Have Made Our Smartphones' Coolest Features Completely Useless

For the first time in a very long time, I downloaded an app, fired it up, and was immediately wowed. Within seconds of starting Periscope, I was talking to people (I don't know who) and they were talking back. A coworker pulled up the feed and showed it to me as it was happening. It all felt very much like the future.

As an Android user, I'm late to the Periscope game, and thus, this is not another Periscope-or-Meerkat-is-cool article. Instead, I was immediately hit with the realization that I will not be a Periscope user. Not because it's not cool (it is), but because the number of instances in which I both have something interesting to share on Periscope and am connected to WiFi is going to be very close to zero.

Unless you want to livestream your house party or a video of your TV (and lots of people do, it seems), Periscope and Meerkat are functionally useless apps, as are anything else that streams data, such as Snapchat discover. According to Gizmodo, Periscope sucks through 250 megabytes of data an hour; Meerkat uses 400 megabytes an hour.

I have two gigs a month to play around with, and I push up against that limit every month simply with casual Instagramming, occasional Spotify streaming of songs that I absolutely can't wait to sync on WiFi, and an accidental Reddit press to a video here or there. (OK, and obsessively checking and using my phone for basic tasks all day, every day.) That I am unwilling to do my own Periscope data usage test speaks more to my data use anxiety than anything else.

Anyway, yes, there are still unlimited data plans out there through companies like T-Mobile and Sprint, but those services don't appear to be long for this world. Last week, Sprint's CEO said unlimited data plans aren't feasible for the company (or anyone else) long term. T-Mobile has come under fire in the past for throttling its heaviest data users (excuse me, "de-prioritizing" their data usage).

In any case, a majority of smartphone customers don't have unlimited data and few have carriers that even offer unlimited plans without any sort of throttling. Despite this fundamental truth, mobile carriers are quick to trumpet mobile video streaming, which is impossible with today's data plans. We're shown commercials of people watching NFL games at weddings or catching ESPN on the train. But how often do you actually see someone streaming mobile video?

I've already adjusted to a reality in which I can't stream YouTube or Netflix videos on my phone without triggering severe data anxiety. I can't download anything of note without chewing through tons of data, meaning I'm doing lots of preplanning: Better download a week's worth of podcasts if I'm going out of town, or better, put entire albums' worth of songs I may or may not end up liking onto an offline playlist while I'm connected to WiFi. If I want to watch Snapchat Discover, I can, but only when I'm already at home. And then, what's the point?

Most of these problems are, for the moment, more or less circumventable with a bit of planning and sacrifice, in a totally first world problems sense. But our smartphones aren't going to start using any less data anytime soon.

At every tech conference I go to, this is a major point of discussion: Our infrastructure is not getting better. There is a limited amount of spectrum out there, limited by the laws of physics. Better compression and perhaps services like SpaceX's array of internet-providing satellites will ease some of the burden, but nothing appears imminent.

Meanwhile, developers are designing amazing apps and features that rely not only having a data connection, but on being able to use that connection at will.

Our phones are incredible devices. But when will we be able to use them?