Orange to 'dump unlimited data tariffs'

Not an issue for a high percentage of users

Even on my most heavy of months I struggle to break 100MB, often far less. From what I have read and people I know this is pretty common.

So it seems that this isn't as big a deal as it sounds and will only really affect a small percentage of users who really hammer it, or have this as their only connection.

In other words...

... they (or rather the billing system provider - is it AMDOCS/Excalibur all round the telcos now?) have finally worked out how they can calculate how much someone has gone over their allowance, and can thus charge for it now. If they'd have been able to charge for it before, they would have!

It's like with roaming MMS messages - they don't charge the same for them as UK-sent messages because they're generous... it's because they can't differentiate between and MMS sent from their own network and one sent from a roaming partner. Ergo, they can only charge you as though you sent it while in the UK!

Thanks, Orange

That goes a long way to helping me decide whether or not I stay with you at renewal time.

Cartel ?

First 02 : http://www.reghardware.com/2010/06/10/o2_limited_data_plans/

Now Orange.

OfCom - where are you ?

Typical - Again

Bastards all !

But seriously, when the whole world is going Data intensive and major hardwares becoming so (Apple I's Htc, Streaks etc), these assholes going backwards when the REAL scenario and possibility of data intensive and streaming applications are coming online,

They had their hands (not only thumbs) in their backsides when the clamour for 3G licenses was over and instead of providing content and data intensive must have apps., they decided to screw customers by charging per Kilobyte on WAP. IMAGINE that greed!

They just want to screw you for every penny (kilobyte & NOT MB) instead of upgrading their network and facilitating this onward push.

Build and they will come is the moto applied by S.Korea, Sweden, Norway and elsewhere.

Its the reverse here. Entice them and give them a sucker punch!

And when the going gets tough, go moaning to the government and Ofcom for relief, since they cant make enough money!

Ripoff Britain? Understatement of the decade!

Paris, cos I dont mind her suckerpunch!

Insider trading?

This all seems a little too convenient....

Accuracy

Something that comes to mind about this sudden mad rush to have hard limits for data and data charging is: How accurate will this be? and What layer will they measure at?

I have an Android handset and use the (highly recommended) Data Counter widget to keep track of my data usage (500Mb/month fair usage limit and Voda now charge if I exceed). It does an excellent job, and the dev was brilliant in sorting out some bugs I found.

Thing is that now its working well but in testing it always logs about 10% below what Voda bill me for. The figures from Data Counter were within ~1% of those logged by a another data counting app so the app isn't underestimating.

Neither me or the Dev could figure this one out, and to be fair to him we put it down to the way his widget gets the data transfer counts from Android itself which at v1.5 could be reporting inaccurate values.

I'm sure Voda will measure what ever will get them the most cash, so that would be 1kb=1000 bytes (SI) rather than 1kb=1024 bytes (IEC), and also measure it on OSI layer 1. But if the handset is reporting only layer 2 or 3 that makes it kinda hard to keep track of.

Yes this could be a handset firmware issue in that its not reporting the data usage accurately to apps that request it, but if usage above a given limit now costs real money the networks need to be more transparent about how they're calculating the data usage, as otherwise its harder to check that the figures reported on my monthly bill are at least vaguely accurate!

Orange/dump

I wonder whether they're also going to dump their dodgy infrastructure and unbelievably appalling 'customer support'. I strongly suspect not.

Same as when all providers removed international SMSs

This looks like the same collusion as when the mobile operators all removed international SMSs from their free texts in their bundles within a month of each other.

Did they _really_ all just come up with this idea at the same time, or is there a back-room conversation happening to ensure that end users have no choice ?

It feels like we're going backwards at exactly the wrong time. We had unlimited bandwidth when we couldn't run streaming apps in the background on our iPhones. Now that we will be able, the bandwidth required to do so goes away.

Bah!