Apple iPhone: Phantom Data Outstrips Bandwidth Supply?Apple iPhone: Phantom Data Outstrips Bandwidth Supply?
The data consumption of smart phones may be in fact heavy or burdensome but one has to ask the simple question: why?
February 3, 2011
The data consumption of smart phones may be in fact heavy or burdensome but one has to ask the simple question: why?
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said at the CES show in Las Vegas:
As evidenced by the trade show floor, the consumer electronics industry is going wireless, and the future success of this industry and our innovation future depends on whether our government acts quickly to unleash more spectrum--the oxygen that sustains our mobile devices. We’re in the early stages of a mobile revolution that is sparking an explosion in wireless traffic. Without action, demand for spectrum will soon outstrip supply. To seize the opportunities of our mobile future, we need to tackle the threats to our invisible infrastructure. We need to free up more spectrum.
The phantom data usage being billed against customer accounts, contributes to bandwidth depletion in our "invisible infrastructure" and without action, demand for spectrum will soon outstrip supply.
Apple isn't the only one having problems. A few days ago, Microsoft Windows Phone 7 users complained of inexplicable data usage being charged to their cell data accounts. The difference is Microsoft, to their credit, tracked down the "phantom data" bug that they attributed to a third party. Apple continues to remain silent and some customers of the iPhone in the U.S. and abroad continue to complain to their carriers about "phantom data" usage.
Users that remain on unlimited plans have no incentive to check their data usage or complain. The carriers are absorbing data traffic whether it is justified or not. This mindset isn't surprising since the same mentality has always existed in the carrier space. I have to wonder what an ounce of being proactive could do for this business.
Apple continues to rock the industry with sales of iPhones and iPads. Soon enough Verizon will attract AT&T customers and it will be interesting to see if AT&T's problems move over to Verizon. Sprint just announced they are increasing their data plan costs due to the smart phones wireless data explosion.
It seems that smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices are an indicator that people are addicted to their mobility while carriers are chomping at the bit to monetize the opportunities without minding what matters.
Unexplained phantom data usage: Customers complain of data usage and traffic that they are charged for by AT&T that, customers say, "is not attributable to their usage." Customers have called both Apple and AT&T tech support and the answers range from elusive to ridiculous in explaining why customers' data traffic is high. Customers are told to call back each month after reviewing the data usage to receive a credit after challenging the bill, track their data consumption by purchasing an application such as DataMan and/or turn off and disable applications and functions generating data traffic. Some users have found since Apple's iPhone OS update 4.2.1 with over 40 security fixes, that their data traffic is aligned with AT&T's billing, however, many users still find huge discrepancies. (Here is an earlier posted customer complaint September 2, 2010)
Many customers that are either grandfathered on AT&T's old data plan (Unlimited Usage) or upgrade or sign up for the current unlimited usage plan do not complain since there is no incentive. For those that have data plans it is seemingly impossible for them to stay within the usage guidelines of those plans. I have found this both in the USA and abroad with carriers other than AT&T. The fallacy is that smart phones consume too much bandwidth and the iPhones do not enable users to consume what they want when the features, applications and other characteristics of the hardware and software remain out of control of the customers. As reported in the WSJ there is also a privacy concern of iPhone Apps and Apple or Application makers harvesting customer data. These activities also consume bandwidth.
Many customers that are either grandfathered on AT&T's old data plan (Unlimited Usage) or upgrade or sign up for the current unlimited usage plan do not complain since there is no incentive. For those that have data plans it is seemingly impossible for them to stay within the usage guidelines of those plans. I have found this both in the USA and abroad with carriers other than AT&T. The fallacy is that smart phones consume too much bandwidth and the iPhones do not enable users to consume what they want when the features, applications and other characteristics of the hardware and software remain out of control of the customers. As reported in the WSJ there is also a privacy concern of iPhone Apps and Apple or Application makers harvesting customer data. These activities also consume bandwidth.
The data consumption of smart phones may be in fact heavy or burdensome but one has to ask the simple question: why? None can give accurate accounting of what is being billed to customers as data usage. Then to think that AT&T or any carrier wants to beef up their network to handle iPhones and other smart phones/devices is another mistake when they haven't assured customers that each user's data traffic is accountable, accurate, believable and justified.
I can appreciate the need to "free up more spectrum" since Cisco predicts in their Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast a 39-fold increase from 2009-2014, or a compounded annual growth rate of 108 percent. The impacts of the iPhone, iPad (3 million sold in 80 days) and smart phones are striking. Growth continues in spite of changes in consumer behavior to move away from cell plans to prepaid blocks of minutes. According to Mr. Martin Cooper on C-Span "The Communicators" segment of March 7, 2010, "We need better use of spectrum, not getting more spectrum."
However, until the efficiency, security and assured integrity of Apple iPhone (iPod touch & iPad) concerns are addressed and settled openly, bandwidth efficiency can't be claimed. The iPhone's data consumption is questionable due to either Apple practices, application behaviors unknown to the end users and/or billing practices by the carriers. Given the extremes that Apple iPhone users demonstrated to eliminate or minimize data consumption billed to their accounts, the produced effect is a dumbing down of the smart phone. Efficiency still remains vital as an industry best practice but it is apparently ignored.
I filed an informal (non) complaint (no monetary issues) about the iPhone Phantom Data Usage on November 3, 2010. I just received a response from the FCC closing the complaint and referencing a letter I never received from AT&T. I contacted the FCC and a copy of AT&T's reply is being mailed to me. Next, I contacted Matthew Nodine, FCC Chief of Staff of Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and I directed a letter to two other contacts that he suggested.
Later that day, a key contact that has been working to isolate and identify the phantom data issues sent me notice of a lawsuit posted on Court House News Service: Class Claims AT&T Rigs Bills for iPhones
In the new complaint, named plaintiff Patrick Hendricks claims that AT&T's over billing "was discovered by an independent consulting firm retained by plaintiff's counsel, which conducted a two-month study of AT&T's billing practices for data usage, and found that AT&T systematically overstate web server traffic by 7 percent to 14 percent, and in some instances by over 300 percent. So, for example, if an iPhone user downloads a 50 KB website, AT&T's bill would typically overstated the traffic as 53.5 KB (a 7 percent overcharge) to as high as 150 KB (a 300 percent overcharge).
(Parentheses in complaint.)
But wait, Hendrick's claim continues:
It gets worse. Not only does AT&T systematically over bill for every data transaction, it also bills for phantom data traffic when there is no actual data usage initiated by the customer. This was discovered by the same independent consulting firm, which purchased an iPhone from an AT&T store, immediately disabled all push notifications and location services, confirmed that no email account was configured on the phone, closed all applications, and let the phone sit untouched for 10 days. During this 10-day period, AT&T billed the test account for 35 data transactions totaling 2,292 KB of usage. This is like the rigged gas pump charging you when you never even pulled your car into the station.
Apple iPhone customers have chatted up many ideas and methods to trim data consumption, to no avail. Customer complaints have seemingly fallen on deaf ears and this lawsuit follows two previous cases allegedly over privacy concerns of the Apple iPhones and Application makers. Apple mobile devices must consume bandwidth to track users, and whether or not this data is billed to customers is unknown and while it may have a "modest effect" on one customer's bill there is a bigger potential impact on the network. AT&T is certainly in the hot seat but this issue is far from over or being settled. The past dismissive attitudes towards this problem stand to be a lesson in social networking for those involved.
