[JRTJH]

Cell phone companies are just that: Cell Phone Companies. They sell communications devices that focus on what we consider cell phones and smart phones. You can see that for yourself by walking into any "cell phone provider's store". There are racks and racks of displays of cell phones and smart phones, tablets and now watches/wrist worn smart phones. Back in the corner, you'll find the Jet Pack/Hot Spot (or whatever that company calls their modem/WIFI devices). They aren't "up front where they hit you in the face" like the $1200 Apple's latest.......

From a "sell every bit of tower capacity" and "wring out every byte of tower capability" (maximize profits) they have come up with access plans (read that as product selling where the product is information flow).

Their main focus is on mobile communications, texting, voice and download streaming on the singular device. That's what they "support consistently" and they've found a way to "make money off the excess tower capacity" by selling it as "internet connectivity for computer devices" (read: Jet Pack/Hot Spot).

The priority is to support smart phones, so when tower capacity becomes saturated, they start turning off (slowing down) the lowest priority devices. That's the Jet Pack/Hot Spot devices. Throttle them back to keep "seamless support for mobile communications"....

Some locations have overlapping towers, larger capacity and seemingly unlimited capacity. Using a Jet Pack in one of those areas can offer "no slowdown of download".... Then there are those areas (like where we live) that have sparsely placed towers with older technology (read: less capacity) where the cell phone providers can barely keep up with the smart phone/cell phone usage. Connect a Jet Pack/Hot Spot to one of the towers in this area and you'll get "throttled back" around 4PM and stay at less than 600 megs download speed until about 1AM. Then the speed picks up significantly until about 8AM when it slows again until about 1PM when you get good download speeds until about 4PM and the cycle starts over again.

Go 15 miles east of our house and the download experience is entirely different, they have more towers, more overlapping and more capacity. That also, is in a much denser populated area.....

So, in places where there are lots of towers and lots of capacity, cell phone data is available without slowdown. Not so much in rural areas where most campgrounds are located. When you get "excellent service" at home and at work, you may not find that same "satisfying download experience" at a campground where you're running on a small generator to power your laptop and the kids want to watch a movie. Streaming in that type of situation will probably be much less satisfying than at home, in the suburbs of a larger city/population area.

So, essentially