Study: Data Throttling is a Money-grubbing Ploy
Study: Data Throttling is a Money-grubbing Ploy
Posted 02/24/2012 at 8:12am
| by Paul Lilly
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Wireless carriers will have you believe that data throttling is a necessary evil to prevent a small number of bandwidth hogs from ruining the data party for everyone else. But is that really the case? A new study suggests that data throttling might be nothing more than a ploy to get grandfathered unlimited users to ditch their plans and switch to a tiered plan instead.
Validas, a company that analyzes cell phone bills for a living, combed through data from over 55,000 mobile phone bills in 2011. What it found was that data throttling appears to have little impact on easing network congestion.
"When we look at the Top 5 percent of data users, there is virtually no difference in data consumption between those on unlimited and those on tiered plans -- and yet the unlimited consumers are the ones at risk of getting their service turned off," Valipas states in a blog post. "So it's curious that anyone would think the throttling here represents a serious effort at alleviating network bandwidth issues. After all, Sprint gets by fine maintaining non-throttled data to its customers."
Source: Validas
One thing that's interesting to note is that Verizon Wireless customers subscribed to an unlimited plan use less data than those rocking a tiered plan, according to Validas. The same isn't true for AT&T, though the disparity is less than a gigabyte.
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pet789
February 29, 2012 at 8:49pm
my roomate's aunt makes $83/hr on the laptop. She has been without work for 8 months but last month her pay was $8682 just working on the laptop for a few hours. Read more on this site...Nuttyrich . com
batgirl
February 28, 2012 at 8:00am
a classmate's step-mother makes $75 every hour on the laptop. She has been fired for 5 months but last month her income was $19722 just working on the laptop for a few hours. Read more on this site NuttyRichdotcom
LatiosXT
February 28, 2012 at 7:50am
Data throttling should be the least of our issues. Providers charge an asinine amount for what amounts to no bandwidth on their network... And I'm referring to text messages.
OCFRED
February 25, 2012 at 8:06pm
Can't we just buy devices and access without all this monkey business, just wait till whitespace starts getting crowded.
dstevens
February 25, 2012 at 11:06am
omg i would have never thought that was possible, i mean they look so trustworthy and honest in thier stores, and on tv. oh my gawd how could i have not known that att and verizon and tmobile were all just trying to rape me and the public in general by using lies and misdirection..... i thought that was reserved for the guy im told to vote for president for
and sadly, thats what most people really think...
if they think at all
sheep
mysteriousgamer
February 24, 2012 at 5:14pm
I've been a Sprint customer since 2003 and have been all over the US with very very few service interruptions in my travels. In my home town, I get decent 3G speeds (about 500 Kb/sec) and it's unlimited so I'm pretty content.
My monthly bill after fees and tax is $141.50 which includes two lines (both smartphones) and 1500 anytime minutes shared between. Not too bad.
Unlimited is the way to go because I do not like having to keep track of my usage. I already do that with calories consumed. I don't want to do it with bandwidth too!
ThunderBolt
February 25, 2012 at 6:07pm
$141/month not too bad????!!!
I have Sprint, 2 phones, and pay $149 for the same 1500 minutes plan. And that doesn't even include the $10/smartphone Premium Data. Once I change a phone, it will kick in, so I'll end up paying $170. It's fucking ridiculous.I'm seriously considering switching to MetroPCS or BoostMobile.
MetroPCS:
- shit phones
- shit customer service
+ 4G
+ $100 for 2 phones
+/- I'm a shareholder
+ no slave contractBoostMobile
+ shrinkage
+/- okay phones
- no 4G but I dont care
+ uses Sprint's network
+ $100 for 2 phones
+ no slave contractPaying over $60 per phone for unlimited everything is just too much.
Inglburt
February 26, 2012 at 8:55pm
I'm with T-mo. I personally don't have any problem with their coverage. Although admittedly traveling is not always the greatest but sufficient. I have sprint for work and I more often have service on my t-mo phone than my Sprint phone in town or out of town believe it or not. I personally have 3 phones on my home plan, 1000 shared minutes, unlimited text on all phones, and grandfathered 5 gig/month plan on my phone ($15), no internet on the other 2 (wifi is good enough for them, it's almost everywhere)and pay $120 a month. It would be another $20 per month each for data for the other 2 phones. Although I don't like the 2 gig limit these days. I usually get about 1 to 1.5 down and 800mg or so up at home, and almost 9 meg down and 6 or so up in Portland. Not the greatest I guess, but for the cost it works fine for me. And T-mo has always taken very good care of me for the 15 years I have been with them.
Just in case anybody cares I guess.
dgrmouse
February 24, 2012 at 8:14pm
More than $1,500 a year for cellular service is insane, 500 kb/sec is not decent. Don't you people ever stop drinking the Kool-Aid?
dethduck
February 24, 2012 at 11:31am
In other news,
The sky is blue.
The moon is NOT made of cheese.
Water is wet.
Politicians lie, no really.
chipmunkofdoom2
February 24, 2012 at 10:36am
Is this really a surprise to anyone? Telecoms (ISPs, Wireless Providers, Cable companies, etc) are host to some of the greediest people alive and walking the face of this earth. Do you really think that they would give up their 4th yacht or 7th vacation home in the Swiss Alps just because they want to treat their customers like human beings and give them acceptable usage terms? Keep dreaming. Welcome to corporate America (and soon enough corporate world).
Hey.That_Dude
February 25, 2012 at 10:05pm
What planet are you living on. It's already Corporate World... except for some tribes in rural parts of the world that haven't been taken advantage of... yet.
dgrmouse
February 24, 2012 at 9:39am
If you look at the numbers, it's absolutely shocking how few neighbors you'd have to gather to build and operate a "community" 4G network to bring the amortized cost down to the levels the commercial entities charge. It's even more shocking when you learn that it's impossible to achieve because the telcos have everything so tightly locked down. The FCC and most PSCs are lapdogs to big business. At least with the cable television monopolies, rates are highly controlled (although it is perverse that the same kind of regulation isn't applied to all the other services that come down the same cable).
Mortal_M
February 24, 2012 at 9:02am
Let's put everything on the "cloud" and stream everything... oh, and btw we are going to put a data cap and charge you for how much bandwidth you use.
makes sense /s
skirge01
February 24, 2012 at 8:51am
...and in other news:
The sky is blue*!
*Individual results may vary. Not responsible for acts of God.
Zoandar
February 24, 2012 at 8:47am
A corporation doing something underhanded with only increased profit in mind? I'm SHOCKED!
ApathyCurve
February 24, 2012 at 8:28am
Or they could just pull the Verizon trick: 4G up, 4G down, 4G up, 4G down... Been down since yesterday in Houston, outages still reported all over the country. I'm so glad I pay extra for the premium service.
I suspect that the marketing department drove Verizon's 4G project rather than engineering. That's nearly always a bad business practice.
Peanut Fox
February 24, 2012 at 12:56pm
I've still got 4g here in Ohio. Though it is up and down from time to time I can't say I find it hugely problematic for me.
dgrmouse
February 24, 2012 at 8:24pm
Behold the ITU standard for 4G. Hell, even look 4G up on the Wikipedia. What you have, sir, is most definitely NOT 4G. That carriers started advertising their services as 4G is just another sign of their overarching dishonesty. That you believe them is just another sign of consumers being too ignorant to notice the difference.
Hey.That_Dude
February 25, 2012 at 10:16pm
OH LOOK!
ANOTHER person who can't read! Go to school and learn, then come back and realize that in the ITU specs that they are defined as MAXIMUMS and in a PER TOWER way. No phone is capable of pushing data at the max rate for more than a few minute before burning it's battery out. No tower is ever placed in an area where there are fewer than 100 people.Math says (metaphorically)
(1 Gbps / 100 people) = 10 Mbps! OMG! That's totally the speeds i get on 4g's! Wow, Dude, your math is so amazing! Show me how you did that!Add into that, most of these companies don't even own more than one or two chunks of of spectrum together. They are spread out in 5 MHz chunks all throughout the spectrum. IF they had them all together then data rates would be MUCH higher.
dgrmouse
February 26, 2012 at 1:42am
@THAT_DUDE: I don't know why you're lashing out at me with your ignorant hostility, but the standards are very clear and they are not being met. That current technology or spectrum holdings prevent a carrier from offering 4G service that meets specification isn't at issue - they shouldn't market something that they can't provide. And even carriers readily acknowledge that they are not meeting the 4G standard. The LTE networks that are being billed as 4G are not even in the same league as the LTE-/Advanced/ networks that the ITE considers adequate for 4G. It's not just the speed, it's fundamental differences in network orientation. And when Sprint finally rolls out the LTE-Advanced, what do you think they're going to call it? 5G?
One merely has to look at the phones to see the plain truth in my argument. Why do you have to upgrade a 4G phone when your local provider moves from HDSPA to LTE (Infuse 4G, anyone)? And, of course, when they finally meet the 4G standard, you're going to have to buy yet another one. So, three generations of phone to support one freaking standard that hasn't changed substantially in three years?
Hey.That_Dude
February 28, 2012 at 4:48pm
ITU hasn't defined the term 4G. It just means 4th Generation. If you have an issue with their marketing, that's fine. But don't just go spouting about the ITU specs. and how they are taking advantage of them.
Strait from the ITU
"As the most advanced technologies currently defined for global wireless mobile broadband communications, IMT-Advanced is considered as '4G,' although it is recognized that this term, while undefined, may also be applied to the forerunners of these technologies, LTE and WiMax, and to other evolved 3G technologies providing a substantial level of improvement in performance and capabilities with respect to the initial third generation systems now deployed..."
Source:http://www.itu.int/net/pressoffice/press_releases/2010/48.aspxHave fun.
dgrmouse
February 28, 2012 at 10:48pm
... Which reads as an acknowledgement that WiMax, HSPA, and pre-advanced LTE are calling themselves 4G without meeting the fourth-generation ITU specification. I don't understand how anyone can be stupid enough to defend a telco, so perhaps you can share your motivation. Are you really trying to say that it's coincidence that everyone is looking to the ITU for the standard? Personally, I'd be very upset if I bought a TV marketed as "true HD" that had a resolution less than 1920x1080. Just like the "HD" designation, 4G carries with it a very specific connotation. There is not a single 4G system in the US at the moment, but services have been labeled as 4G for a long time. This is very dishonest marketing, and it is indefensible.
NcOle
February 24, 2012 at 10:28pm
I'm intrigued, seriously, do you suggest a reliable site for info? My contract is up in a month...
dgrmouse
February 26, 2012 at 1:33am
Unfortunately, NcOle, I can't tell who your question is meant for. Nor can I determine which information it is you'd like. For the information on standards, I'd recommend starting with the Wikipedia entry on "4G." From there, you can use the well-annotated references to delve further into areas that interest you. The bibliography includes links to papers detailing the standard, the progress of 4G candidates, and much more supporting information. If the terse reading of the tech. details turns you off, you can always Google for "true 4g", and I'm sure you'll turn up interesting facts and fiction.
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