Limited Internet

Many people believe the internet is something that can be used as often as they desire. These people post multiple times a day on social media without worrying about running out of data access. However, there are internet providers who restrict data to the point where their customers cannot do as much online as those with unlimited access. While a company or person without data limits can create websites with dozens of photos, videos, graphics, and more, some data limits only allow for a couple photos or videos to be uploaded per month. As a result, the data limits enforced by internet service providers prevents their customers from using the internet to its full potential, especially for creative projects.

A prime example of this problem is on a site like YouTube, where people can share videos with the world for free, and start conversations in each video’s comment section. It is possible to calculate the maximum length of a video that someone can upload with a data limit by finding the file size per second of video, which is also known as the bitrate, and dividing that into the maximum amount of data a specific company allows. T-Mobile’s mobile internet plans limit the amount of data in gigabytes a customer can use per month. The different monthly data plans are listed on T-Mobile’s website.  The plan from T-Mobile that allows for the most gigabytes of data usage is 11 gigabytes at 4G LTE speeds for $70 a month. This means a T-Mobile customer cannot upload more than 11 gigabytes worth of video per month under this plan. Now, the bitrate allowed by YouTube must be known.  In an online help page for YouTube, the bitrates recommended for videos to upload to and play on YouTube are listed by resolution. The recommended bitrate for a HD video with a resolution of 1080p with a frame rate of 48-60 frames per second is 12 Mbps. Using this information and some calculations, a person is able to upload no more than 15 minutes of video per month. If someone wishes to grow and maintain an audience for their channel, which will help get their videos viewed,  there needs to be new content uploaded regularly. New videos give subscribers and viewers a way to engage with a channel. Plus, adding more content increases the chances of a channel being found in search results. YouTube itself encourages people to upload often in order to build and maintain their audience. A post published on the Google+ page called YouTube Creators, which is managed by YouTube, states, “Feed your feed! Upload frequently and aim to publish a minimum of one video per week.” This sets an expectation for people running channels on YouTube to upload at least once a week, or four times a month to maintain their audience. 15 minutes divided by four videos a month is 3 minutes and 45 seconds of video a week. The length of a person’s videos will continue to decrease the more often a person uploads, or if someone uploads a video at a higher resolution than 1080p. In reality, data would also be used from going to youtube.com, displaying graphics on the page, saving changes to the title or description of the video, and whatever else someone does while uploading. Therefore, the maximum number of minutes a month is going to be much less than 15 minutes. Plus, if someone uses all of their data to upload videos, this person will have no data left to do anything else online. This maximum of 15 minutes of video, which is further cut down by every time a webpage loads, prevents a person from reaching the full potential of a large channel that uploads often in which unlimited data would otherwise allow.

Videos are not the only type of large file someone may want to add to an online project. Another example is audio files, which are posted as songs and podcasts. The amount of data contained in an audio file is determined by its bit depth multiplied by the sample rate. Adobe Audition is a computer program that allows users to record and edit audio. According to a post in Adobe Audition’s online help page, audio files record in Adobe Audition automatically save at 32-bit, and be compressed to lower bit depths. An audio file with a high enough sample rate for a CD is at least 44,100 samples per second, or Hz. Therefore, each second of audio for a file with a bit depth of 32-bit and sample rate of 44,100 Hz requires 1,411,200 bits a second, which equals 176.4 kilobytes a second. NetZero is another internet service provider who limits data. According to NetZero’s website, their plan with the highest data limit is 6 gigabytes for $79.95 a month. With a 6 gigabyte limit, someone could only upload 9.45 hours of audio. If someone, for example, wanted to run a weekly podcast with this data limit, each podcast must be under about two and half hours. If someone wants to upload more than two and half hours a week, the data limits from NetZero prevent them from doing so. This prevents someone from reaching the full potential of a daily podcast or online radio station, which unlimited internet would otherwise allow.

Although people with unlimited data might not care that some people do not have as much, this situation causes the work of some people to never be seen. If someone who has limited data creates an amazing podcast, video, or other media, they are not able to upload their work and share it with the world. In addition to the data used by uploading large files, data is required to open web pages, display graphics, listen to audio or video online, and save changes to online posts. Everything someone does online within a month takes away from the size of any creative project a customer may want to post online. On the other hand, if people with unlimited data creates the content, not everyone who wants to see it can. If data limits continue to exist, only large companies and people rich enough to afford unlimited access will be able to publish creative content, and this media will just reach wealthy customers. For companies, this also means that customers with limited data cannot download their content, such as songs on Itunes or applications from Google Play. As long as internet providers continue to add data limits to their plans, the internet will be exclusive.

Works Cited:

"Recommended Upload Encoding Settings (Advanced)." YouTube Help. Google. Web. 9 Oct. 2015. <https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1722171?hl=en>.

Google. YouTube, 12 Jan. 2015. Web. 9 Oct. 2015. <https://plus.google.com/+YouTubeCreators/posts/FHuDD6uNus7>.

"The Simple Choice Plan." T Mobile. T Mobile USA, Inc. Web. 9 Oct. 2015. <http://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phone-plans/mobile-internet.html#tab-navigation>.

"Mobile Data Plans." NetZero. NetZero, Inc. Web. 9 Oct. 2015. <http://www.netzero.net/start/landing.do?page=fd/plans-mobile-static-s>.

"Digitizing Audio." Adobe Audition Help. Adobe Systems Incorporated. Web. 9 Oct. 2015. <https://helpx.adobe.com/audition/using/digitizing-audio.html#WS58a04a822e3e5010548241038980c2c5-7dba>.