How the iPhone 4 and iZ could cost more money for Deaf users

Let's look a little closer on this iPhone 4 and the recent iZ news on Video Relay Service (VRS) for iPhone 4 along with the reality of real time video bandwidth it can consume each minute. Let's see how this could put Deaf people at a financial disadvantage using the two technological wonders. Instead of getting overly excited, people should be concerned on how this could hurt their wallets if they're not careful.

With the recent AT&T change on how it would charge cell phone users on data download and upload it reverted to a capped usage amount for their tiered pricing plan which began last month.

For $15 a month, the DataPlus plan offers smartphone customers 200 megabytes of data. If customers exceed 200MB in a monthly billing cycle, they receive an additional 200MB of data for $15 until the end of that billing cycle. For $25 a month, consumers sign up for the DataPro plan and get 2 gigabytes of data. If subscribers exceed 2GB during a billing cycle, they will be charged $10 for an additional 1GB of data.

So, 2GB a month sounds alot doesn't it? When it comes to video downloading or uploading like real time video chat, real time video VRS, or uploading video shots to your Facebook page that 2GB limit could go fast before the end of the month is up in a non-WiFi scenario here.

Here are some numbers :

The front-facing camera resolution is 640×480. At 30 frames per second, with H.264 encoding, this would result in 5 MB per minute video.

The back-facing camera resolution is 1280×780. At 30 fps and H.264 encoding, this would be 12.8 MB per minute video (note that H.264 is generally more efficient at higher bitrates).

Netflix streaming onto an iphone would be about 2.8 MB per minute video.

Let's assume a 5 MB per minute through iZ VRS relay using the iPhone 4. Let's use the 30 frames per second (fps) standard since at a minimum for clarity sake in seeing clearly the signing a 15 fps would be required. And let's assume you only make one VRS call a day for 5 minutes which equates to 25 MB used for one day VRS call. All done on non-WiFi calls. Do that each day for 30 days you would then have used up 750 MB already, almost half of the 2 GB capped limit. But add the constant real time video chatting with your friends and any videos uploaded for email, on social networking sites, or even YouTube. Do all this along with checking your emails and surfing the internet would certainly and easily push you over the capped limit of 2 GB per month with AT&T's new tiered pricing plan for smartphones. But I think the additional use of the VRS with your smartphone streaming video could turn out to be the potential hidden killer here. And how it could help take a hit on your wallet and get slapped with overusage charges by going over your capped data limit.

Looking back now and into the future one will need to develop a strategy to prevent any possibility of going over the capped limit if you plan on getting the iPhone 4 and use iZ VRS. The key is to recognize and understand these things that could end up costing you an expensive monthly telephone bill. There are other ways to keep in contact and communicate like texting, email, or IM. After all, not everybody will use the video phone to communicate all the time. Especially not when you have AT&T and other telecommunication companies coming up with their tiered pricing plans. This marks the begining of the end of unlimited download on your smartphone. Watch your wallet.