| ▲ | Aurornis 6 hours ago |
| > Three days into the month these phones are just ewaste. If someone needs a phone like this for email and job searching and has no other option, 2G speeds will work. It’s not e-waste for the intended purpose. It would be great if they got higher days caps, though, because let’s be realistic in acknowledging that they’re not only going to use it for Google Maps, email, and job search apps. |
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| ▲ | smelendez 5 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| In my experience, a slow connection can be less usable for some apps than none at all. If there’s no connection or you’re in airplane mode, some apps will let you access locally stored/cached data, but as soon as there’s a bad connection, they’ll wipe that data by trying to unsuccessfully refresh it from the server. |
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| ▲ | throwingcookies 39 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | Not sure if you are aware that with throttled 2G slow you can't even open a package tracking website these days, because the connection times out before you have downloaded all their asset dependencies. And those kind of websites do not support resumes of downloads (or partial content requests). So you're stuck in a loop of not being able to use the web because the websites keep downloading stuff you don't need. | |
| ▲ | nathanmills 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | This is an easy fix: Just cut off their data after it runs out instead of falling back to 2G speeds. Sounds like a win-win for both the data provider and the user. | | |
| ▲ | TheDong 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | I hope you're joking. The obvious easy fix is to give them unlimited data. If the intent is to give them internet, they should give them internet that functions for the modern web. | | |
| ▲ | nathanmills 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Unlimited data! You make it sound so easy. | | |
| ▲ | hackpelican an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | I hope you’re still joking. Data caps are to an extent “fake”, in that telcos’ costs aren’t measured in how many bytes their customers download/upload. Telcos’ costs come from renting bandwidth from tier 1 and tier 2 ISPs. This bandwidth is constant. And for popular websites, they will cache lots of content on their own network or peer directly with data centers so they don’t have to pay for the bandwidth there. The routers will continue routing and the switches will continue switching whether you download 5GBs or 5TBs. One more way to understand how much of a scam mobile data caps are, is that the same ISP will sell you unlimited fiber plans even though essentially your traffic goes through the same backbone. Data caps may help lessen congestion on their cell towers, but they don’t need to be as low as they are today. | |
| ▲ | asdff an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | It was seemingly easy for every cell provider to give it to every teenager in america just 10 years ago. What is a few marginalized adults in 2026? |
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| ▲ | what an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | They’re already given unlimited data? It just gets throttled the 2G speeds. They can also just go to the local library or Starbucks for the WiFi if they need more. | | |
| ▲ | virtue3 an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | Please go try and do anything on the internet at 2G speeds in todays world. You can barely even use FB messenger (you need to get messenger-lite). I only know this cuz tmobile would give you free 2g all over europe. it was JUST BARELY helpful. mostly just sms and email. google maps was unusable etc. This only got worse over the years. They now give you free 3G and it's bearable. 2G is insanely slow in the 2020+ world. 2G ~= 5 KB/s. That means 40 seconds just to download a properly optimized react bundle. 5MB site? 16+ minutes. | |
| ▲ | TheDong an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | 2G speeds isn't really full access to "the internet" for some parts of the internet. My experience with 2G speeds is: 1. Open job application site 2. Upload resume pdf 3. Upload required picture of ID 4. Server's nginx config has a hard-coded timeout after 1 minute. Connection error 5. Try to upload again 6. Connection error A huge number of pieces of the web have hardcoded timeouts and limits designed to stop slowloris style attacks, and if your connection is slow enough, those will prevent you from ever being able to complete some tasks. | | |
| ▲ | coryrc an hour ago | parent [-] | | You'll need to go to the library then, if you can't manage to watch your data use and use your free phone only for important usage. I've paid for 2GB/mo for years now. I think I ran out once. | | |
| ▲ | lukevp 34 minutes ago | parent [-] | | This thread is about how a static text article loaded 500 megs in the background. How would someone prepare for that exactly? This is effectively malware as far as your bandwidth is concerned. |
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| ▲ | lukevp 35 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | | People on government assistance are just casually going to Starbucks for free wifi? They probably don’t even have a reliable way to get around. Let them eat cake? |
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| ▲ | DrewADesign 33 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| If 2G speeds were what they were when it was heavily used? Sure. Nowadays? Not in my experience. I got downgraded to Google Fi’s 2G in a well-traveled part of Virginia using a flagship Samsung and I couldn’t even load directions on Google Maps where I’d already downloaded most of the map for offline use. 2G ain’t like it used to be when it was still given a second thought by providers. |
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| ▲ | jagged-chisel 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| How are they supposed to know which job search platforms (app or web) aren’t going to blow their bandwidth limits? |
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| ▲ | tbossanova 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | True, and also when you actually go to apply for a job it often kicks you out to another website, that will use who knows how many mbs? And you have to fill in your details again and again. Each one a different flavour. Sometimes saying the same thing multiple times for the same job ad. |
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| ▲ | tormeh 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Email and chat apps will work, but everything else will slow to a crawl at best and time out at worst. |
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| ▲ | NullPrefix 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | by email you mean pop3, imap and smtp or the heavy html web client? | | |
| ▲ | hedora 13 minutes ago | parent [-] | | I doubt email would work, even with imap or pop3. I get a lot of spam per day, and imap clients typically download unread messages. I guess you could configure it not to do that, or write your own imap client with better behavior -- on your 2G smartphone. |
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| ▲ | jasonlotito 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| For those who can't understand this comment, here is what it means: "I mean, it's one banana, Michael. What could it cost? 10 dollars?" |
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| ▲ | reaperducer 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| If someone needs a phone like this for email and job searching and has no other option, 2G speeds will work. It’s not e-waste for the intended purpose. Guess how I know you've never actually tried this. Part of my job is testing the web sites I build in the terrible real-world conditions where our customers are. Places like machine rooms, deep basements, and small towns with only municipal or small-carrier 3G cell service. (In spite of what HN believes, there are plenty of places in America with 3G or even zero cell service.) 2G speeds will not work. The device or one of the essential thousands of processes in it will time out because they were designed by tech bubble tech bros who never use their apps in the real world. |
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| ▲ | qingcharles an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | Thank you. I often get people responding that 2G speed will work fine for email, chat, Google Maps etc. Maybe if I installed an IMAP client on their phone, maybe. But I can promise you from sitting with them dozens of times things like Google Maps are unusable once the connection is throttled. It might load some of the map, some of the time. But it never loads all of it and it is just plain unworkable. Even if it loads some of it it takes so long that the busses have gone past by the time they've tried to figure out what direction they need to go. | |
| ▲ | MBCook 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | There is a spot near me near a local college that is a worthless dead zone for data. The signal is terrible, but it’s there. You can talk on the phone or send texts. Surfing is horrible. At times you get great speeds. Two seconds later it feels like slow dial up. Really that’s what it feels like most of the time, any kind of speed is the anomaly. As said in other comments, very few apps actually handle this well. They seem to expect that you either have a good connection or nothing. It’s been like that for a decade plus. I assume it’s just overloaded and will never be fixed. | |
| ▲ | kuschku 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I used to have an extremely cheap phone plan that had 500MB data, then 64kbps for the rest of the month. You'd be surprised how far you can get with that. IRC works just fine (as long as you use Quassel w/ Quasseldroid), HN works well, so does reddit (via redreader). RSS readers and wikipedia work as well, and for general web browsing you can set up a readability proxy (basically Firefox' Reader Mode, but server-side). And of course email works really well, too. | | |
| ▲ | II2II 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Been there, done that, and all without the benefit of a home Internet connection. I also created a couple of scripts that I could run on my desktop computer to install new software or update my operating system. After running the scripts on my computer, I would wander over to the library with nothing more than my phone to download the packages along with grabbing some videos to watch offline. The issue isn't really living with 500 MB/month of data. For most people, it will simply be knowing that you can do that. The next issue they will face is having the technical ability to actually do so. Then, once you've done all of that, the question will remain: will they be interested in the stripped down Internet. A lot of us who frequent HN may be since the results will still reflect our interests. There are people on IRC who we would want to talk to. There is a slant towards tech sites with RSS. And so on. That isn't going to be reflected in sites targeted at a general audience. | |
| ▲ | qingcharles an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Sure, me and you and everyone here can open a shell connection and do everything with text and it'll work great on 64kbps. Some of these guys have been locked up for 40 years straight. They're not doing all that extra stuff. They want to go on Indeed or Monster or YouTube. One job site I had to load on my desktop to find out why it wasn't working for them, only to discover the pages had a 250MB payload of random crap downloading, including videos. | |
| ▲ | roywiggins 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | The COTS solution for some web browsing is Opera Mini, which may still work? It also uses a proxy to prerender and compress websites, and worked ok at 2G speeds last I used it. It used to work well as a java applet and made the wider internet functional on feature phones. Very solid software. But as a practical matter, what people rely on phones for are services that are app-based. Good luck completing a Venmo transaction or any amount of banking. |
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| ▲ | zamadatix 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | > (In spite of what HN believes, there are plenty of places in America with 3G or even zero cell service.) 0 of course, but wasn't 3G all shut down in the US in 2022 to open up the airspace? | | |
| ▲ | reaperducer 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | 0 of course, but wasn't 3G all shut down in the US in 2022 to open up the airspace? One of those HN myths that comes from only being willing to Google (or ChatGPT) information, rather than encountering it in the real world. 3G still exists in rural and remote areas that no major carrier wants to serve, at least as of April, 2025 — the last time I did a round of real-world web testing. Next round is in September. Maybe with 5G in the cities, some hand-me-down 4G equipment has made it to the places where I test. | | |
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