A closer look at the MiFi’s 5GB monthly data cap

The recent rise in popularity of Novatel MiFi technology has people interested in getting their own subscriptions for wireless broadband internet. MiFi has made it possible for everyone from casual to hardcore internet users to connect to the internet from anywhere and at anytime, practically wherever a cellular signal is available.

Along with this instant popularity come a few questions. Is this mobile hotspot really that fast? Could this tiny, self-contained device really connect five devices to it all at once? And one of the most asked questions regarding this – just what exactly does that 5GB MiFi cap mean?

For starters, this five gigabyte (5GB) cap is imposed by cellular networks to keep the load within their networks manageable. 5GB doesn’t sound like much (probably because five isn’t a number you’d associate with a lot), but take these into consideration – to reach 5GB, you’d need one of the following: 500,000 e-mails (10KB each), 33,333 webpage visits (150KB each), 1,250 downloaded songs from iTunes (4MB each), 1,000 3-minute YouTube videos (5MB each), 200 hours of 56K audio stream (25MB per hour), 167 5-minute iTunes videos (30MB each), 25 45-minute TV show episodes from iTunes (200MB each), 97 hours of video stream or video chat (52MB per hour), 156 hours of World of Warcraft online gaming (32MB per hour), 7.5 hours of Netflix standard streaming (660MB per hour), 3 hours of Netflix high definitions streaming (1.67GB per hour), 3 full-length MPEG4 movie downloads (1.5GB each), or 1 entire DVD disk image (4.5GB each).

That’s an overwhelming storage capacity. Probably more than an average internet user would consume over a couple of months, maybe even three.

When you divide the 5GB capacity into 30 days, that’s roughly 167MB per day. For average users who frequently check their e-mail, surf for a couple of hours, and watch YouTube videos whenever something viral comes up, that’s a lot of MB's to spend. Even more prolific users would need to make an effort to fill that 5GB monthly cap. Verizon and Sprint allow you to check your exact usage for the month with a simple click, so you can monitor how much you’ve spent and how much you’re under the 5GB cap.

What people are fussing about over the 5GB cap is the mere presence of it. Why is there a cap? A lot of people think that the cap is very limiting, that it doesn’t really give room for the user to do much with the internet. As discussed, 5GB is already a lot of content, and considering that wireless broadband connections are usually the secondary method of connection for most (with a stable WiFi server at home, and the mobile hotspot to bring along when on the go), the 5GB is very much adequate for what the laptop or portable device is assigned to do.

So when you hear the 5GB data cap, don’t be alarmed. It’s not something which limits your internet experience. It actually enhances it, ensuring the providers 3G backplane can handle the load of all the connections. The 5GB cap isn’t a hindrance, but a necessity for good service to all MiFi mobile hotspot users.