So mobile data caps are all the rage, what with AT&T moving toward them, Verizon seemingly thinking about it and Sprint/Clear daring users to blow past them. But how about some different approaches – such as by the (more data consuming) device, or by the hour? Today we look at a couple of interesting, albeit still theoretical new approaches to managing mobile data usage.
The first idea was floated by Wired.com, which asked: Why Not Mobile Peak Data Hours Rather Than Data Caps?
We’ve all gotten used to the idea of peak hours with our phone minutes — and understand they idea of nights and weekends, where calls are cheaper or free because fewer people are making calls at that time. So why not offer data pricing that offers (say) 1GB per month of peak data, with extra gigs priced at peak and off-peak rates? This way I’d be able to make better decision about how many YouTube videos as I care to watch, or decide to listen to all the NPR I’d like from my phone after I get home from work.
The peak hours could even be dynamic — so that if you say go to the geek-extravaganza Maker Faire on a Saturday or South By SouthWest and, like all the other people who think different, you have an iPhone, the phone and network could tell you that you have entered a peak zone and that you’ll be eating away at your cap?
That would be a reasonable way to deal with what’s surely going to be a longstanding problem.
Not exactly a new idea, but interesting to see it floated by a mainstream tech publication.
Meanwhile, the second idea came to us as we read about data consumption on the DroidX. Seems as if these new Android-based uber-devices (think about the HTC Evo too) are encouraging even heavier data usage given their faster processors and large screens built for high-bandwidth video consumption.
The DroidX, for instance, is reportedly pulling down five times more data than other devices, according to reports. AT&T has already tweaked its data plans for the Apple iPad, another device that encourages heavy data usage.
It may be that high-consumption smartphones could get a similar “data tax” someday too.
Connected Planet’s Take, Kevin Fitchard:
Oddly enough there are carriers implementing the kind of policies Wired proposes—they just happen to be in Eastern Europe or Africa. Using Camiant policy servers, Vodafone Hungary has implemented ‘soft’ data caps. When a customer goes over his monthly allotment, he isn’t denied access to the network or charged any additional per-megabyte fees. Instead, Vodafone just ratchets down the customer’s available bandwidth to 2G levels—and only during peak periods or on congested cells.
Another example is Vodacom Tanzania, which is working with Aircom to dynamically charge varying fees at different times of day or different network conditions. If the network is at normal or congested traffic loads normal rates apply, but if the network happens to be uncongested in a particular location or particular time, the operator notifies its customers that discount rates are in effect, allowing them to surf, download and stream at far cheaper the cost than they would normally.
Deep packet inspection vendors like Allot Communications are proposing policy architectures that can constrict or open up the network pipe depending on the type of application used and the type of plan subscribed to. Customers who subscribe to a more expensive video streaming plan, for instance, would find traffic jams cleared for them as their multimedia content would through the network, while regular subscribers might be forced to sit in congestion.
So why can these things be implemented in Tanzania and Hungary and not here? Are they smarter than us over there? I suspect it has to do with our culture. We’re the land of the all-you-can-eat buffet and the one-size-fits-all T-Shirt. It’s not that we couldn’t sit down and think about varying data options offered by our operators and decide how best to use them. It’s that we just don’t want to.