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QSX

QSX

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#191177 26-Jan-2016 20:15
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I would like to voice my opinion that mobile carriers in NZ should move to 1kB data blocks. By starting this post, I hope to gain some public support and hopefully the carriers will listen.

 

It's fairly common knowledge that a number of NZ mobile carriers charge above the 1kB block size. My current provider is Skinny, but I see this as a broader problem for all mobile customers. After a spot search, far from comprehensive, I found the following examples (please correct me if I am wrong):

 

Skinny: 5kB blocks with 15 minute session time (for both mobile and Broadband)

 

Spark: 10kB blocks (session time not verified because they didn’t say on the page I visited, but I have heard it's also 15 minutes)

 

Warehouse mobile: 8kB blocks, Minimum 1c charge per session

 

Vodafone mobile broadband: Usage is measured in 10KB blocks, rounded upwards at the end of a data session or every 20 minutes, whichever comes first.

 

So you get the picture. The ultimate impact of this depends upon the session time, the data block size, how much data one downloads in a session and how much data you have purchased. A skinny Broadband customer on 60GB may not be as concerned as a Skinny mobile customer with only 250MB or less.

 

The worst case scenario is a user that only consumes small amounts of data spaned by session closures or timeouts. For example, making lots of tweets or constantly registering a VoIP client on one's phone.

 

An example (which could be wrong due to assuming worse case): Assume a VoIP client registers every 4 minutes, and consumes 2.601kB per registration and each registration is constituted as a session (because the data stops in between (i.e. worse case, so the impact would be less if every 15 minutes). After a month one has consumed a real total of 27.4MB. Rounding each session to 5kB however results in a total of 52.7MB, 48% more data consumption due to rounding in 5kB blocks.

 

Of course if you stream video on line then the relative effect of this rounding is going to be fairly insignificant.

 

I think it comes down to a point of principle and integrity by the mobile carries. They should charge customers for what they really use in 1kB blocks without inflating consumption by large rounding margins and minimum access fees (fortunately I have not seen any 1MB rounding, but some providers in Australia have done this!). To my mind, this would be in keeping with other industry sectors (apart from money rounding due to not having 1c coins). For some reason the mobile industry in particular seem to feel it is OK to charge their customers in larger blocks, be it for data or voice (per minute billing vs per second billing).

 

In Australia most mobile carriers now bill by the 1kB block. Optus used to bill in 10kB blocks but most of changed, though I am sure some still do. I therefore see no reason why New Zealand cannot follow suite too. After all, there obviously is no technical impediment in implementing such billing increments, the system presumably counts in bytes anyway.

 

Time for change, I think. I am interested to her your views. Mobile providers please feel free to join the conversation. We want to hear from you too.

 

QSX


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freitasm
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  #1479327 26-Jan-2016 20:21
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Interesting argument and you make it sound.

 

I expect other comments around this...





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sbiddle
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  #1479334 26-Jan-2016 20:33
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Billing in smaller blocks requires more resources and with devices that are always on I don't see it as a big issue - whereas 10 years ago I saw Vodafone's 10kb blocks as an issue.

 

Optus and all their MVNO's still use 1MB rounding. On the 3-4 occasions  I used to use an Amaysim SIM I estimated I use to use around 300MB of actual data before I'd burn through a 1GB pack. It's truly horrible, but at least they've moved to smaller sessions for 4G.

 

Remember a SIP registration isn't just a registration every 360 seconds (or ever you set it to), you'd normally have a SIP OPTION being sent regularly as well for UDP

 

I'd pick that for the average user rounding of sessions is not a big issue - rounding is minutes is still a much bigger scam.

 

 


johnr
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  #1479349 26-Jan-2016 20:54
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This could / would cause over loading on the
GY interface with signalling, Real time data slicing / counting does put load on a number of systems if not balanced correct



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  #1479352 26-Jan-2016 20:57
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I wasn't aware my usage wasn't being measured in the exact number of bytes.. that's what I'd expect. Anything else is simple theft on the part of the Telco's

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





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sbiddle
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  #1479355 26-Jan-2016 21:01
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Lias:

 

I wasn't aware my usage wasn't being measured in the exact number of bytes.. that's what I'd expect. Anything else is simple theft on the part of the Telco's

 

 

 

It's simply not possible to measure in realtime due to the way mobile data is metered and being session based. Nobody in the world does realtime rating using the exact number of bytes used and doing so would require very fundamental changes in the way data is metered, and could certainly never be changed in the GRPS/3G world because the way it works is by design.

 

 

 

 

 

 


andrewNZ
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  #1479356 26-Jan-2016 21:01
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Lias:

I wasn't aware my usage wasn't being measured in the exact number of bytes.. that's what I'd expect. Anything else is simple theft on the part of the Telco's


NOT theft.

Theft is taking something without permission. You have agreed to their terms and so given your permission.

johnr
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  #1479359 26-Jan-2016 21:08
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Then you have the speeds of 4G up to 150Mbp/s and 4G+ of over 400Mbp/s depending on number of carriers used, The signalling load of slicing / counting I just can't imagine what would happen

I/O overload and lots of smoke and very upset JohnR as I help look after this kit

 
 
 

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  #1479361 26-Jan-2016 21:11
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BIG DATA! DATA LAKE! INSTANT CAPACITY BOOST! SCALE OUT! SCALE UP! CLOUD COMPUTE!

 

IT can come with lots of nouns when selling the stuff but can't use these really...

 

/sarcasm





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QSX

QSX

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  #1479363 26-Jan-2016 21:13
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sbiddle:

 

... - rounding is minutes is still a much bigger scam.

 

 

 

Yes I agree roundingn in minutes is a bigger scam.


sbiddle
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  #1479366 26-Jan-2016 21:17
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QSX:

 

sbiddle:

 

... - rounding is minutes is still a much bigger scam.

 

 

 

Yes I agree roundingn in minutes is a bigger scam.

 

 

 

 

Roughly 23% gain to the provider using 60sec rounding vs per sec after the 1st min.

 

 


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