The weapons of mass distraction - UK minister Jack Straw, obviously distracted
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Orange defends throttling Iphone customers
AS IT PREPARES to flog Apple's Iphone in Blighty, Orange has come up with a novel idea that should send users rushing to its rivals.
Apparently terrified that Iphone users might actually use their smart looking Jesus phones, Orange will enforce some strict bandwidth limits.
Orange has been looking across the pond, where AT&T has claimed that Iphone use broke its network.
The problem is that Orange has been selling its 'unlimited' data service, which actually has a limit of 750Mb per month. Obviously the outfit is about to be crucified by the Advertising Standards Authority, as with a cap set at that level you are not going to have much opportunity to use many of the the Iphone's features.
Orange's excuse is that the average Iphone user, in other European countries where it offers the handset, such as France, consumes about 200Mb per month. We guess that a lot of Orange's Iphone users have not worked out how to download anything yet.
Conor Maples, part of Orange UK's marketing team, using Twitter to defend the operator's plans said you can get a lot of data for 750Mb five hours of video downloaded from YouTube, 75,000 mobile web pages or 30,000 normal web pages. And only then will you have to mortgage your house to pay for the extra changes.
O2 has fallen foul of its smug phone customers before, mostly about upgrading and data pricing. So far network performance or bandwidth capping has not entered into the picture.
It will be hard for those Iphone punters choosing which network to sign up with to justify opting for Orange with a cap limit that low. µ
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Lots of words!
I was told it was unlimited,it's not! end of!!!
They take the money every month!
If the infrastructure isn't in place yet for true unlimited then don't charge me for unlimited contract.
I bought my wife a 22 carat gold ring the other day, and picked it up all polished and resized the following day.She loved it but said why is it only 9 carat...I went immediately to the shop and asked why it was sold as 24 carat,the guy said the woman next door to me normaly wears 9 carat so we presume she will wear the same.....but of course well keep the excess!!
do you see were this is going?
Thanks for that. Good to have some support.
Look maybe I got off on the wrong foot but I still firmly believe it is unrealistic to expect to get anything over 1Gb per month on a mobile network.
When the infrastructure is there then you can have it and all will be well but at the moment you can't. I still don't understand how anyone can use this much on a mobile device in a month though.
I'm a techy person and have a Touch HD (bad choice). I have 500Mb per month (Unlimited) and I never get near it.
I have Exchange email (4 accounts coming in) I do regular browsing during my day. I download the odd tone or game or music track. I watch quite a bit of Youtube video and still my highest month was 345Mb!!
particularly the bits/bytes stuff up there. Anyway, Andrew is making a valid point: There isn't enough bandwidth in the system to sell unlimited dataplans. It's a fact folks.
Also, the correct for a limited dataplan is "limited" -using the word unlimited, which means the opposite, is a blatant lie. Here in Norway it is illegal to put blatant lies in advertising and this not just a paper clause. Many adds have been pulled/altered because of such wordings after customer complaints to our consumer rights agency. Do you not have a similar thing in UK?
Hey, look I said I'm sorry OK. I really mean it. When I left The "sad" post I had had a bad day and I took it out on the wrong people ok. I'm sorry I offended or upset anyone. I admit it was narrow minded but could you please stop the moron stuff.
You make some very valid points and I do agree with most of them but I still think the networks couldn't cope with true unlimited data at the moment. I like your idea of more expensive phones. Why the hell don't they offer the current standard prices for set caps and then just charge £100 more for the phone on an 18 month contract to have unlimited data. You would get what you wanted, Unlimited data and the nework would get managable usage through limiting connections to the unlimited data.
Have you ever thought that people "only" use such a small amount of bandwidth because they have to pay for it?
And as for this "most people" scenario...I bet people with no actually-unlimited data plans who have to pay for data at an extortionate rate are included, as surely this would dramatically bring down the so-called "average" data usage?
I think it's a load of BS.
I for one would easily be able to download WAY past the VirginMedia's daily cap if they didn't throttle the connection. I'm sure Virgin Media say that "Even out most bandwidth hungry customers don't download more than 10Gb in a day", meaning that because they have throttled them, you CANT download that much. (I made the 10Gb cap up, so don't try and 'catch me out' on that, it's the scenario that's the important part)
In throttling everyone to this maximum, and then including people who only check their emails every 3 days, of COURSE the 'average' is going to be artificially lower!
Anyway, back to the 'unlimited'...
What have they got to lose by actually giving out unlimited plans?
Screw it - why not just charge MORE for the phone? I'm sure people would pay for it - especially those who want it!
I'm under the firm impression that if what you want covers everything you need, then the price is ALWAYS right. Period.
Look at Intel...The i7 Extreme 975...You pay a hell of a price premium for it, but if that's what you need, then you can justify the cost.
Likewise with the "actually unlimited" data plans...if you *NEED* unlimited, then you should be willing to pay.
If you get what I mean ;)
And Andrew...Just because your job is different to other peoples', doesn't mean that they dont have spare time.
I for one used to be a sales person where I'd frequently have hours to wait in the middle of nowhere waiting for the next appointment. Some places it's just completely impractical to get out your laptop, but to get out your iPhone and watch some TV or catch up on the news for 20 minutes or so at a time is ideal.
Also...The iPhone's location based finder thing...that uses data, right? I would have used that SOOO much if I had one back then, just so I could find where the nearest petrol station is, nearest restaurant, hotel etc etc.
How about before you tell other people to get a job etc etc, you stop being so f*cking narrow minded and shut up before even more people think you're a moron?
Ok, calling someone you don't know a moron is not nice and shows a lack or respect.
I am a lot of things but a moron is not one of them. I shall resist the temptation to stoop to your level and keep things polite. I did say that networks should not use the word "Unlimited" as it is clearly wrong. I don't need an explanation of what unlimited means thanks. I was saying that since the networks and indeed internet ISP's have been using the word "Unlimited" for years, then I and I would have thought, you guys, realise that quite simply it's not unlimited and there IS a cap. The point I'm trying to make is, I know this, I thought you knew this, so why not just ignore the unlimited thing and stop moaning about it. We know they shouldn't be using it and if OFCOM had a spine it would put a stop to it. But we just have to live with it. I'm sorry if I upset anyone and maybe the life thing was a bit strong. What I was trying to say is that the networks are simply not in a position to offer us unlimited data or even 5GB per month each as the infrastructure simply can't handle it. We (Me included) all want to pay less but the networks need Billions to keep upgrading. You can't have it all ways. I'm sure unlimited data would be possible if we all paid £60 - £100 per month. There would of course be cell sites everywhere and the planning departments would have kittens!! :-)
To sum up, for major video or streaming data use we still are stuck in front of our PC's. Mobile is still only intended to be "occasional use". This is why the cap is there. This will change in time.
Once again, sorry if I offended anyone, it wasn't intentional.
"Ordinary normal people use 150 - 350MB per month. That's it! End of. If you expect more then you are being unreasonable. I DO agree the networks should not use "unlimited", this is wrong but inteligent people know that means some sort of cap."
When did the "intelligent people" get the addendum to the word "Unlimited"?
Unlimited-
1 : lacking any controls : unrestricted
2 : boundless, infinite
3 : not bounded by exceptions
Not to be a word Nazi but..WTF?!?
Well congratulations on displaying just how single-mindedly arrogant and utterly ignorant you are. I mean, sorry, God-forbid people do other things than you with their iThingies.
Moron.
It's very sad to see people moaning about all this really. Who the hell in their right mind watches that much TV an a bloody Smartphone. Get a life.... or a job and you'd find you don't have time. Ordinary normal people use 150 - 350MB per month. That's it! End of. If you expect more then you are being unreasonable. I DO agree the networks should not use "unlimited", this is wrong but inteligent people know that means some sort of cap. I'm very pleased with 750MB, I use around 250MB per month. I'm afraid you people don't understand just how difficult and expensive it is to get massive bandwidth to every cell site. You want it, but don't want to pay for it.
Every transmitter has limited channels available. Yes you could have a constant 2Mbit connection, but only if no one else was using that cell.... this is not practical. Everyone has to share. Some rural cells only have a 2Mbit incoming connection. Get 10 people connecting and they only get 200Kbps each!
1 million iPhone users doing loads of downloads would overload the network and I certainly don't want to see this.
I can't stand to see bloody moaners going on about how much they're not getting of a technology that was just a dream as little as 10 years ago.
Don't you people have Family, Jobs, hobbies, interests that are actually fulfilling?
I'm a customer who held back on buying an iPhone from O2 to see what Orange come up with, since, hitherto, I've been happy with their services.
I was very disappointed to find the restrictions in place, one should also note that they are restricting the use of IM (Including that which you find on Facebook) and P2P softwares including those for video streaming. They've attempted to justify themselves and hoped that people don't realise that 5 hours of video streaming on Youtube works out to 10 minutes per day, and that's assuming you use the connection for nothing else.
It's extremely pitiful and, unless the Orange shop have a hypnotist for a sales assistance, I see myself going down only one path and this is despite of the poorer network coverage.
"5 hours on Youtube"
So once I've watched 5 hours of youtube vids, that's it for data for the rest of the month?
WHAT A F*KING BARGAIN!!!!!
Where do I sign up? I just cannot wait!!!
I hate the networks here...they're so f*cking retarded...what's the point of advertising something that's a complete lie!?
If I advertised my house as having unlimited garden space, but really it was 10ft by 10ft, then I'd be forced to change the advert, even if the 'average' person only used 10ft by 10ft...
The ASA are soft as sh*t to these nobs.
Congratulations to all those intellectuals out there that managed to see past the Mb typo and 'get' that it meant MB. Well done.
It's still wrong, though. Stop defending it and get some standards.
Yeah, I always read advertised materials with Mb as megabits cause so many people look at it that way. Get back to your D&D game dork.
It's insulting and a complete rip-off when smartphone manufactures partner with network providers that can't handle the bandwidth in the first place. The stupid idiots were in it for the cash. Who cares if the consumer got anything good out of it? Right? I reeeally hate those guyz. The extra fees, the contracts, the ultra-fine print... Forget them!
If you need more bandwidth than the cap allows, just rape someone's poorly configured, unsecure wireless network. God knows there's too many of those around. ;)
I wouldn't put it past Orange to put the contract in megabits, not bytes, then bill the f*** out of you!
"Well you signed the contract... Do you regularly sign things you don't understand sir?"
(Nick does!)
What a great example of people that have nothing of intelligence to contribute. Why do such brainless idiots feel the need to ridicule others with such irrelevant basic comments. Does anyone realistically believe that a phone company would sell an unlimited data service with a 93 MB cap? Stop with boring 7th grade IT bullshitting already.
the case of the b in Mb or MB denotes whether you are talking about Megabits(Mb) or MegaBytes(MB).
though noone has taken the time to explain this to you, just because you dont understand what people are talking about doesnt make you smarter than them.
Look in the small print and O2's "unlimited" iPhone tariffs cap at 500 megabytes per month. That is half a gigabyte or 250 megabytes less than Oranges proposed "cap"
750mb is 750 mb, the fact they write mb means its mb! not 93 migabites or terraflaps, its 750mb which is 250mb short of 1gb.
WTF do you think writes a cap in Megabits???
People please turn on your brain before writing.
Is it 750Mbits (which is 93Mbytes) or 750Mbytes?
Unlimited capped at 750 GB, interesting.
Rogers (in Canada) offered a promotional 6 GB plan for CDN $30/month with an Iphone purchase. You had to sign up 3 years, but with that plan, you stopped worrying about data and started investing in things like car chargers and extra data cables to keep the device charged.
exactly 750Gb roghly = 93GB, it's a typo i guess and should be 750MB instead and not Mb
1Gb < 1GB
I was gonna move to Orange with my iPhone due to their better 3G coverage, but i'm sticking where I am now. I stream telly to my iPhone and use way more than the 750MB.
I fear o2 may also implement a data-handling charge soon too, once everyone is hooked on smart phones
Yeah just like 750gb would equate to approx 93 gigabytes!! ;)
i have been using an iphone on orange for 2 yrs and only use around 200meg a month, checking emails every 5mins and always on facebook,teitter etc
@Faisal
god you're dumb.
750Mb should equate to approximately 93 megabytes right? id be surprised on seeing many users actually using all of that bandwidth up and needing more.
Having said that I completely agree that if they advertise unlimited it better mean exactly that.