[red arrows and ovals pointing out the error are mine]
Now, I make typos all the time, but this was a big one, IMHO. With their resources, CNN should know better than to display a graphic like this on live TV.
If I had been the "expert" they used during the story and I saw this mistake later, I'd have been pissed.
I probably wouldn't have minded the typo, except for this additional error: they reported that 1 GB of data == 1024 bytes * 1024 bytes * 1024 bytes == 1,073,741,824 bytes. This is technically correct, but in fact it's an industry standard these days with hard drive vendors and network vendors that 1 GB ==~ 1,000,000,000 instead, a 7.3% difference.
According to the story and to vendors, new rates based on usage will be approximately: $30 per month for 2 GB, $50 per month for 5 GB, and $80 for 10 GB.
So therefore, additionally, while I personally do not use a cell phone for any data uses other than the occasional picture or text (at 20 cents per), I also think the prices per month for this amount of data usage is absolutely absurd. These days you can get a 1 TERAbyte hard drive for around $100, or about $1 per 10 GB or 10 cents per 1 GB. While I understand there's a difference in price between hard drives and bandwidth, I don't believe the difference should be 100-fold (100 to 1 or 10,000 percent), especially with the new 4G and 4G LTE networks that actually deliver that data so much faster. At this rate, if you watch a single HD movie on your mobile device, you've already exceeded your monthly allotment of 10 GB for $80. Yikes. $80 to view a movie. And this fee is collected monthly.
Good luck, all. This change in data rates has made me re-think my upcoming decision on what mobile devices to consider.
--SDP
