Slashdot Mirror
NTT DoCoMo Asks Google To Limit Android Data Use
An anonymous reader writes "NTT DoCoMo has had enough of Android's effects on its mobile network in Japan. Following a service disruption due to Google's Android VoIP app, the company is now asking Google to look at reducing Android's data use. In particular, the amount of time allowed between control signals being sent either by official apps or 3rd party ones. Typically these occur as often as every 3 minutes, but scale that up to thousands of apps on millions of handsets and you can see the issue DoCoMo has. So, does DoCoMo need to invest more in its infrastructure, or is Android a data hog that needs reining in?"
Having been to Japan, and several locations around the world, I can say with fair certainty that NTT DoCoMo has the best network service I have *ever* seen. It allowed me to measure what is due to the iPhone's failings, and what is due to the network operator's failings. By contrast, in New York, AT&T makes getting signal a game of hide and seek. France stands somewhere in between the depths of AT&T and glory of NTT DoCoMo.
All this to say that if NTT DoCoMo feels Android is unoptimized... than I pretty much take their word for it.
Uh... Control signals have nothing to do with overall data consumption quantities. When you send a text message, you send the 160 or so bytes of data through control signals. The issue here is that Android doesn't control the way its apps try to contact the towers, basically hammering them if they don't respond properly. This issue is one of the reasons Android has massive standby battery drain problems, as detailed in this 300 page xda thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179809
The galaxy nexus has its own 100+ page thread dedicated to battery drain on standby.