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Data Hogs: the Monsters Carriers Created
jfruhlinger writes "A recent study claimed that the top 1 percent of mobile data users eat up half of the available bandwidth. But assuming it's true, who's at fault? Stats show data usage has increased radically with each new model of the iPhone, and similar phenomena are in place for Android phones — all of which are gleefully sold to the public by the same people who complain about 'data hogs.' Isn't this the equivalent of a car dealer heavily promoting Cadillacs, then complaining about poor fuel efficiency, then charging a ton for extra gasoline?"
A US friend of mine boasts of going into the hundreds of gigs on his mobile plans, because he can, when we in Australia are stuck on 1, 3, maybe 10gb plans at the most. As a user of one of those 'data hogging' iPhones, it certainly uses more mobile data than my previous nokias (1-2gb now, compared to a few hundred mb) that's a ridiculously huge scale difference between the increase of the iPhone in natural use over phones before it, and those who'd *bittorrent* from their phones just because they can.
If you look at that study, it appears that 3G modems are the real culprit - unsurprisingly, since they can be used as a broadband replacement in areas where landlines aren't available. It's not really the phone users who are the heaviest, probably the people using a 3G dongle with a router. I quote:
Uplink data volumes:
3G Modems (various): 2654%
HTC Desire S: 323%
iPhone 4S: 320%
Downlink data volumes:
3G Modems (various): 2432%
iPhone 4S: 276%
Samsung Galaxy S: 199%
The carriers have the ability to measure usage, and they are using it. Any whining from them of "we can't identify who the hogs are" or "we don't know where the traffic is coming from" is simply lying. They're already measuring these things for billing purposes. Taking that data and using it for planning purposes only requires some investment in software to sort through the data they already have.
I'll note too that they fail to provide incentives for keeping your usage low. For example, from AT&T, for $15 a month, I can get 200 MB / month of data. For $25, I can get 2 GB / month. So, my wife, who was routinely using around 250 MB a month, upgraded to the 2 GB a month... and once she did, she started doing things like frequently streaming video to her phone. After all, she'd have to use eight times as much data as she used to before she'd exceed her new cap, so why shouldn't she?
It gets worse, though. For my work, I need to be able to remotely access the machines I work on at a moment's notice. I can't guarantee I'll always have a wi-fi connection available if I get an emergency call from the boss, so I have tethering. However, AT&T won't let me pay, say, a few extra dollars a month and use tethering with my 200 MB / month plan. Instead, I have to pay for their tethering plan, which gives me 4 GB / month of data, with tethering, for $45 a month. There is no lower option that allows tethering.
So now I've started watching videos online. I didn't bother getting 3g on the iPad I got myself for Christmas either... why pay the carrier another fee, when I can tether the iPad to the phone and actually get some use out of that 4 GB a month I'm having to pay for?
I would've been happy to give AT&T $5 a month for tethering and stay on my $15 a month, 200 MB / month plan, and not change my habits of using the phone at all. But if they're going to require me to pay $45 a month for a 4 GB plan in order to get tethering, I'm going to damn well increase my usage! Otherwise, I'm paying an additional $20 a month for nothing.
If I wind up using, say, 1 GB a month, I'm actually being charged 4.5 cents per MB. Before, with my 200 MB plan, I was being charged 7.5 cents per MB. If I somehow managed to use all 4 GB in a month, I'd be charged 1.125 cents per MB.
When the carriers effectively are giving steep discounts to "data hogs", what do they think is going to happen? If I had to buy 4 GB at my old plan's rate, I'd pay $300 for it. You can bet I'd be watching my usage carefully in that case! As it is, I *have* to pay for 4 GB a month, so I try to use as much of it as I can!
That only works in the functional industries because they improve infrastructure to match demand. In the non-functional industry of telco/cable they refuse to improve infrastructure.
I would assume this happens because electricity, gas, food, coal, etc. are "necessities" (at least in a modern society.) As such this will probably tip over once internet tips from luxury to necessity.
I finally figured this out last fall when Comcast came down on me for going over their cap. "This is the first I've heard of any problem. Can I pay a higher rate to have a larger data allowance?" "No. Absolutely not. And if you go over 250 gigs in any of the next six months, your account will be closed and you won't be able to apply for service with Comcast again for 12 months." I pondered that for a while. It just didn't make sense. They're offering a product. I like their product. I like it so much I'm willing to pay additional money to get more of their product. They refuse to let me pay for additional product.
THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO PAY FOR THE DATA YOU TRANSFER. THEY WANT YOU TO PAY FOR DATA THAT YOU DON'T TRANSFER.
I don't think enough people have had that light bulb moment yet.
The cable company's favorite customers are grandparents paying for 250 gigabytes of data every month and only firing up the computer once a week to look at the latest pictures of their grandkids. They use maybe 0.1% of their allotment and that's the way the cable company likes it.
I bought a game this month that was 22 gigs. That's almost 9% of my data allowance. I pay $55/month for my internet connection so it cost me an extra $4.84 to buy that game thru Steam. These days, 250 gigs is nothing for people who actually use their tubes.
Cellular data plans are even worse. In Q4 2010, Verizon started an advertising campaign telling people all of the wonderful things they'd be able to do with a 4G connection. Then they rolled out service with 5 and 10 gig caps. You couldn't do ANY of those wonderful things with a cap like that. Download HD movies? Sure. One at a low bitrate. Then you can't use that 4G data connection for the rest of the billing cycle. The funny thing is this action has had the effect of locking in the very customers they don't seem to want. Old-timers with unlimited data plans were able to keep those unlimited plans and roll them over to 4G phones. Not only that, my unlimited data was only good for the phone, not tethering. That had a 5 gig limit. Now it's unlimited across the board. Oh, and I've noticed that, rather than offer larger data plans as they roll out media-centric mobile devices, Verizon is chopping the pricing plan into smaller and smaller slices. And they keep changing what they offer like they're trying to fine-tune it. Right this very moment (it could change any second), they're offering 2, 4, 5, 7, 10, and 12 gig data plans. And $10/gig for overages.
I suggest everyone make a point of using 99% of your "allowance" every single billing cycle. Run that shit right up to the limit every single month. Maybe that will skew the data enough to make data providers come up with a more logical billing method for consumers.
It's like some sort of corporate schizophrenia where the policies being implemented are completely disconnected from what marketing promises and the reality of consumers.