Comments on: Verizon forced to stop calling limited cell data plans "unlimited" http://boingboing.net/2007/10/23/verizon-forced-to-st.html Brain candy for Happy Mutants Sat, 25 May 2013 21:33:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 By: Ian70 http://boingboing.net/2007/10/23/verizon-forced-to-st.html#comment-60946 Ian70 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-60946 Is this like that unlimited freedom I keep hearing Americans have? Is this like that unlimited freedom I keep hearing Americans have?

]]> By: Andrew Denny http://boingboing.net/2007/10/23/verizon-forced-to-st.html#comment-60694 Andrew Denny Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-60694 I'm in the UK and I have a roughly similar service from T-Mobile. They are very careful to call it a "3gb/month" service, but I've sometimes been over the limit without them saying anything. I phoned them up and they say they advertise it as 3gb/month, but don't really enforce it unless someone shows signs of <i>really</i> abusing the excess -in which case they warn you for the following month. I think that's a much healthier attitude. Deliver more than you advertise. I’m in the UK and I have a roughly similar service from T-Mobile. They are very careful to call it a “3gb/month” service, but I’ve sometimes been over the limit without them saying anything.

I phoned them up and they say they advertise it as 3gb/month, but don’t really enforce it unless someone shows signs of really abusing the excess -in which case they warn you for the following month. I think that’s a much healthier attitude. Deliver more than you advertise.

]]> By: Cory Doctorow http://boingboing.net/2007/10/23/verizon-forced-to-st.html#comment-60700 Cory Doctorow Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-60700 The problem with per-bit pricing is that -- unlike per-minute pricing -- there is no natural human faculty for determining your bit-use. Quick: how many bits did you download when you loaded this page? It's also not auditable -- there's no way for you to know how many bits you're drawing without relying on your telco's total. Since telcos have a long history of bad billing practices, this is an attractive nuisance at best, an invitation to fraud at worst. At the end of the day, "bits transferred" is a crummy way to sell Internet service to individuals. We generally have little control over how many bits we download (the 12k html file you download might have 250 400kb images on it) and even less sense of how much we download. The problem with per-bit pricing is that — unlike per-minute pricing — there is no natural human faculty for determining your bit-use. Quick: how many bits did you download when you loaded this page?

It’s also not auditable — there’s no way for you to know how many bits you’re drawing without relying on your telco’s total. Since telcos have a long history of bad billing practices, this is an attractive nuisance at best, an invitation to fraud at worst.

At the end of the day, “bits transferred” is a crummy way to sell Internet service to individuals. We generally have little control over how many bits we download (the 12k html file you download might have 250 400kb images on it) and even less sense of how much we download.

]]> By: Bill Barth http://boingboing.net/2007/10/23/verizon-forced-to-st.html#comment-60972 Bill Barth Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-60972 Cory: Not to be snide, but Ubuntu can tell you how many bits you've downloaded. You have to open a terminal, but I assume you're up for that. Check out /sbin/ifconfig (you'll have to know which interface is active and be able to work in deltas, but it's not impossible). All that being said, I agree that selling the internet by the bit is pretty silly given that bandwidth is the actual commodity. Trying to download 4 GiB on one day is much harder on my ISP than spreading that out over the course of a month. Of course, individuals don't really have good tools for controlling their own bandwidth use either, but my ISP does a pretty good job of capping my bit rate (either by having enough customers that I can't go over my max or by actually capping it). Cory: Not to be snide, but Ubuntu can tell you how many bits you’ve downloaded. You have to open a terminal, but I assume you’re up for that. Check out /sbin/ifconfig (you’ll have to know which interface is active and be able to work in deltas, but it’s not impossible).

All that being said, I agree that selling the internet by the bit is pretty silly given that bandwidth is the actual commodity. Trying to download 4 GiB on one day is much harder on my ISP than spreading that out over the course of a month. Of course, individuals don’t really have good tools for controlling their own bandwidth use either, but my ISP does a pretty good job of capping my bit rate (either by having enough customers that I can’t go over my max or by actually capping it).

]]> By: Brian Damage http://boingboing.net/2007/10/23/verizon-forced-to-st.html#comment-60974 Brian Damage Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-60974 I had an unpleasant altercation with Rogers' cable internet service a few years ago. I was a subscriber of their "unlimited" internet service yet received a phone call one day stating I'd been downloading too much per month. When I challenged them about their liberal use of the word "unlimited" in their advertising, they claimed that this referred to my ability to always be connected to the internet. "So you're saying that I'm free to be connected to your service as long as I don't use it?" "Yes." "Isn't that the very definition of a limit?" "No." I had an unpleasant altercation with Rogers’ cable internet service a few years ago. I was a subscriber of their “unlimited” internet service yet received a phone call one day stating I’d been downloading too much per month. When I challenged them about their liberal use of the word “unlimited” in their advertising, they claimed that this referred to my ability to always be connected to the internet.

“So you’re saying that I’m free to be connected to your service as long as I don’t use it?”

“Yes.”

“Isn’t that the very definition of a limit?”

“No.”

]]> By: johen http://boingboing.net/2007/10/23/verizon-forced-to-st.html#comment-60864 johen Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-60864 @ Cory: I would argue per minute pricing is also a poor way to go, given lag, and a different manifestation of wht you just said: you dont know if the page is 12k or 300k in general, but the 300k file takes longer to load. Unlimited data plans should be just that: unlimited. Up the cost if need be to keep it that way, but dont futz with per bit or per minute. @ Cory: I would argue per minute pricing is also a poor way to go, given lag, and a different manifestation of wht you just said: you dont know if the page is 12k or 300k in general, but the 300k file takes longer to load.

Unlimited data plans should be just that: unlimited. Up the cost if need be to keep it that way, but dont futz with per bit or per minute.

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