Kindle Keyboard 3G web browsing limited to 50 MB monthly only

[baggio]

I have a Kindle Keyboard with me which I have purchased just a week ago. I have enabled 3G on it and I use the 3G network to download eBooks on it. I have been using Amazon.com to download the Books to my Kindle Keyboard. Today while I tried to access internet, a message popped up on the screen saying that the 50 MB limit for 3G usage was over and I only have a grace period remaining using which I can only visit Amazon, Wikipedia and Kindle Store. After which I can only use Wi-Fi. I think that this is completely wrong from Kindle and Amazon’s side, what do other people think about it?

[Tech^Geek]

I too find this very bad. I mean we paid $50 for the 3G + Wi-Fi version of Kindle Keyboard and after these extra payment, we cannot get full access to 3G. I still can’t understand why Kindle and Amazon wants to restrict us to use of 3G only for first 50 MB of data. Also the grace period allows us to visit only restricted sites. I mean, we aren’t going to download each and every eBook we get on Amazon. I don’t think that most of the people would be downloading new book until they are finished with a new one. Maybe they could have put some restriction on people downloading too many eBooks. I think it would be a logical solution to overuse of Amazon.

[Lennon Norris]

I find the restriction of 50 MB only data download in Kindle Keyboard very silly. It is like we are visiting a mall to buy things and the mall puts an entry fee for entering the mall. Again after entering the mall, we have to spend more money on buying things. After accessing Amazon.com to buy eBooks, we have to pay for most of them. I don’t think that any person will go on spending on eBooks that he won’t be reading. Also if a person wants to download free he will use Wi-Fi anyways. It is the last time I am buying Kindle’s eBook readers. I think that I will buy some other eBook reader next time.

[Esmond Ivers]

This restriction of not being able to download anything over 50 MB using 3G on Kindle Keyboard is so weird. It is like Kindle is imposing rules on us which decides how much we should use it and what not we should do. I don’t think that much of the Kindle Keyboard with 3G buyers must be happy with it. I think that person who designed the things this way must be thinking that ‘Let the users pay to pay more for getting eBooks’. This whole concept is so bad; I think we should all write to the developers. Maybe they’ll scrap out such bad ideas for next version of Kindles.

[Non-$ensoi]

Amazon is a professional organization and putting such restrictions on the users must have some motive behind it. I think it must be the piracy of eBooks they are trying to control. With high speed of 3G, if no restriction was put, user would have downloaded numerous books. They would then have put it on sale on their websites which would have been a loss for Amazon. With this restriction, I think that the piracy of eBooks might get under control up to some extent. I am in full support for the restriction that is put on use of 3G from Kindle Keyboard.

[Anuja Darzi]

I don’t think that restriction on use of 3G from Kindle Keyboard is going to help in any way to curb the piracy of eBooks. A person who intends to make pirated copy of the eBooks will find alternate way of one way is blocked. If anybody wants to curb the piracy of the eBooks, I think that they should be made available for cheap and not by putting extra cost and restrictions on them. A person who truly appreciates books will pay the author even if he is getting it for free. A person who wants to rip a book and offer it on his website will buy (more easier, he’ll borrow it) the hard copy and scan it to create more copies of it.

[Sib Bachchan]

Also Kindle tracks the progress of the readers in their Kindle. So if some user is downloading too much, they can easily figure. Instead of 50 MB restriction, Kindle could have designed techniques using which would restrict user from downloading eBook using 3G until he finished reading previously downloaded 2 books. I know many people will just go on flipping the page still they reach the end and the again go for downloading new books. But Kindle can also track the speed in which the book was read. Just flipping the page means reading the whole book in five minutes is impossible, so this won’t count. So anyways a person would not be able to download new book for at least 2 to 3 days.