Communication Breakdown
Communications from the world of, er, communications. And other stuff.
Wednesday 29 July 2009, 3:59 PM
O2: £200-per-gigabyte data charge a 'deterrent'
On Wednesday, the price comparison site moneysupermarket.com issued a statement in which it pointed out that O2 charges 20p per megabyte — or £200 per gigabyte — to those who go over their 3GB-per-month bundle limit. Rival operator 3 also charges what works out at £100 per gigabyte for those going over its bundle limits.
"3GB per month is roughly equivalent to a few hours of surfing per week, downloading three music tracks a week, watching two hours of video a week (YouTube/ iPlayer) downloading one film a month and spending a few hours a week on Skype," James Parker, the site's manager of mobiles and broadband, said in the statement. "You'd only need to double that usage to find yourself with a £600 bill from O2."
"The most important thing is to know what type of user you are, dongles with higher limits are available for heavier users which can safeguard against exceeding the limit, but an unlimited fixed line package is the safer option for those planning to download a lot."
A spokesperson for O2 told ZDNet UK on Wednesday that the operator's heavy out-of-bundle charges were "set as a deterrent to stop customers from going over their limit".
"Very few of our customers ever go over the bundle," the spokesperson said. "We don't want our customers to have their experience deteriorated by those few customers who are using it to excess, so there are a number of mechanisms that we put in place to ensure that our customers don't go over their allocated limit each month."
These mechanisms include notifications issued to the user through O2's Connection Manager software, and text messages sent once certain usage thresholds have been crossed.
"We give the customer every opportunity to be aware of how much they're using, and they can upgrade their package at any time," the spokesperson said. "Thereafter, it's up to them how much they use."
PreviousComments on this post
Very insightful David thanks,
I'm currently considering buying one of these so this was a great help - especially the quote as to what 3GB typically equates to.
Now, if I could just find a unit that seems to work with Mac - and even Linux on my Acer Aspire, then I would be sold.
But that seems to be an impossibility - they say it works, you try a test unit, you plug it in, it doesn't work. They aim, like everybody else, for major compatibility in the PC space it seems.
AdrianB
Attn AdrianB...
Three does a 'sharing adaptor' which seems to be a wi-fi router that the USB modem plugs into. So if you can use 802.11 devices with your systems, you should be able to use the Three connection without needing any flavour of Windows (must admit I never made the switch to Vista, though I might try Win 7 to be able to support client needs).
I'm not using that, but with (Windows) Internet Connection Sharing enabled on an XP box, can use my iMac and linux boxes to access the net via the XP. It might be cheaper to get an XP machine on Ebay for 30 quid and use ICS to plug into an existing wired LAN than wonder if the Wi-Fi or the Three link is down... Put a free firewall (old version of Kerio or Tiny Software) on the XP box and you can track/limit access to the outside world, determining what you allow to 'call home' out of the mobile network 'quota'. No need for automatic updates on the XP box, it can sit quietly as a router (and emergency browser if everything else is kaput).
With the 15 GB for 15 pounds/month option from Three, many people with fairly heavy usage could use the Three service from home (and may no longer need a landline, in some cases) but coverage and speed will vary of course. I'm using Three in N Wales for my home connection and it has been reliable over past 9+ months .
Wouldn't it be easier for them to send warning message and then throttle the connections? £100 - £200 charges is plain stupid that will just drive people away.
re 100 or 200 in charges - I think they like the idea of 'creaming off' a nice profit as a penalty for that infrequent 'accident'. Now and again one hears horror stories of massive bills because someone went abroad and then watched something on iPlayer (or their teen did).
T-Mobile does throttle, I understand, unless you keep on going over the quota, when they request you upgrade, but my 5GB is (usually) plenty each month for the bits of browsing and so on I do from home...
Three didn't offer the 15 GB/15 pound deal at the time (Sept 08) and still have 18 or 24 month contracts - it just happened to suit my needs at the time (still no landline, considering whether to go for a free BT install, but restricted from switching to use some other firm for BB + line rent + calls if I do, as BT has its own minimum contract period and heavier penalties for switching than in days gone by - used to be only 3 months rental before one could switch, where it is now 18 months).
I think the pricing plans are all pretty daft - on PAYG WAP it costs something like 0.15p per kb which seems cheap until you see how it can mount up - of course on WAP it may well be a total of 2p to login and check for e-mail so one doesn't spot the true charge.
Of course, it might be cheaper if one gets close to the quota limit on O2 or Three to just go and pay for a PAYG SIM with 1 GB for a tenner or whatever - cheaper than the ridiculous penalty amount - just not as good as the 1-2 pounds per GB one pays for long term plans offering a few GB a month.
