...specify that during the import — and do with them what you will. We suggest setting up a set of formulas that take into account any recurring monthly fixed bill and inclusive megabytes for each tariff you're interested in, then just sum the totals you've acquired, multiply them by the cost per megabyte and that's how much your usage would cost. If you can't quite get the figures up into the stratosphere, try BitTorrent or a couple of hours spent listening to streaming radio or watching online video.
Chances are, you won't need to try too hard. There are two main reasons why you'll use more data than you'd think. First, there's no easy way to know how much data will be loaded every time you click on a link, and speculative searching can easily bring up many hundreds of kilobytes of high resolution graphics per page. Then there's the sheer noise of modern network-aware applications. With probes for updates, new emails, IM contacts, VoIP calls and so on, a reasonably well equipped installation can be sending and receiving many tens of kilobytes a minute even if nothing's apparently happening — and if an auto-update is triggered, tens of megabytes can appear unbidden. If you can, leave your computer online for 24 hours without touching it and see how much data it consumes and produces. Even something that looks as if it's very low bandwidth, such as sending IM messages, carries a proportionally heavy overhead per message of between ten and twenty kilobytes. Or as the mobile operators prefer to think of it, 20p to 40p.
All of this is normally invisible because such behaviour has been designed to be unobtrusive on broadband, and indeed it normally doesn't matter. With a tariff charging £20 a megabyte, invisible equals inexcusable — and there's no easy way to turn off all this activity just because you're on a mobile data connection.
Even considered purely by itself, mobile data is scandalously expensive. Roaming costs border on the criminal. Compared to the price of fixed broadband and Wi-Fi hotspots — so cheap that pubs can afford to give away free — the cost of GPRS and 3G is beyond ridicule.
Talkback
I find it ironic that the pages outlining the rip off charges of roaming mobile internet sports numerous adverts from the actual company who's practice is being slammed.
My name is Roger Steare, the Orange customer "ripped-off" whilst using my 3G card in Europe. I'm a Business Ethics Consultant - I advise companies how to do the "right thing", not just what is profitable and legal. I invite all zdnet readers to visit www.orange.com and look up the company's Business Principles, Philosophy and Values. The challenge for Orange is to justify how thier data roaming charges meet these principles both in terms of being "open and honest" and in terms of providing customers with "value". Happy to correspond with any interested parties at roger.steare@rogersteare.com.
Sounds familiair. As long as enough people use it anyway. As long as there are no alternatives used in masses. As long as governments and others don't really do something about it. As long as enough (desicion making) people get confussed by all the FUD and lobbying out there. Etc, etc. There's no way you or anyone else is going to pay less for more (rather the opposite... but look at the cool new features!!! that cost even more and really don't amount to much).
If it were truly criminal it would be easier to stamp. The rates are certainly from a another world.
The data volumes for which customers are charged, include the TCP/IP overhead. So if you download, say, 100kilobytes of user data, you may generate anything from 140 to 240 kilobytes of billable traffic.
Lets support Roger's case by asking Orange to reconsider. I did try to email Orange but can find no email address. They are happy to ring us though, just visit the following URL to ask for their attention:
http://businesscontact.orange.co.uk/obs/callme.asp?link=284
Stephen
no wonder the providers need to advertise with these costs going on -
on the plus side it makes it handy for visiting their sites and checking out the costs!
As if there were such a thing as business ethics. Business is business, whatever the market will bear. If you don't want to pay, don't play. This is especially fun if the business is health care. Cheers to a post-capitalist future.
Given the auction frenzy by most of the telcos several years ago, I can't help thinking that this is the operators way of recouping the exorbitant cost of buying their 3G licence from the government!
Any company will charge what the market will pay for a product or service, not what it costs to provide. And comparing mobile data with broadband is somewhat meaningless - most operators 3G networks aren't configured to support thousands or even millions of people using mobile data, so it's in the networks interests to maximise revenues for the minimum traffic.
In terms of comparisons, mobile data is where dial-up was in about 1995 - it would be interesting to compare mobile data charges with dial-up charges back then.
I think the charges are crazy, but making meaningless comparisons doesn't help.
Business ethics has nothing to do with this. Its about a company offering a service at a certain price of which you choose to use. You dont want to pay don't use it. You have seen your behind because you didn't read the call charges and are trying to pin the blame elsewhere. Instead of crying about it try researching how much it costs to set up a multi million pound network, roaming licence agreements with foreign networks and research how much profit Orange actually make as a company in comparison to the number of customers they have. People make these judgements against companies and expect everything for nothing. They trade to make money, its what pays salaries, increases peoples investmemts on shares etc etc. Your very nieve to think that this is an ethical issue. I think its a red face issue and your the one standing there with the red face. Use your common sense, your supposed to be a business professional.
i've been hit HARD too by GENESIS GPRS AND THEIR VODAPHONE service. i was picking up the vodaphone uk signal and understood i was connected on that but lo and behold i have been charged on vodaphone.ie gprs.
genesis really is not very customer-friendly...no roll-over for even a month of unused data mbs. a refund for a datcard promised and months later i'll have to chase them up again for the 3rd time!!!
gprs roaming charges are indeed outrageous. i protest VERY VERYT strongly.
It may have nothing to do with business ethics, but the way that the information about rates is obscured and obfuscated devalues your criticsm of the unfortunate users. They appreciated that it would be more expensive, but not absurdly so.
It hardly makes for an expanding market when we hear these stories. I have a simple pre-pay phone and I can assure you that whilst these stories and rates continue that's the way it will stay. I'm not going be part of the critical mass this technology needs.
We signed up for a mobile 3g last February 17 with Tmobile. I was told by the sales people, that it will costs us £100 for the data card if we sign up for a 100mb allowance per mo for £22 + VAT. I've asked them to give me a guideline as to the usage and they told me that 1 mb = 200 emails or 25 webpages. They have advised me that to use the internet abroad, it will cost me additional £7.5 per mb, which then I'd expect it will be £7.5 for reading 200 emails or accessing 25 web pages.
My boss who used the card went on a ski trip in Switzerland for 5 days, to our surprise receiving the bill of TMOBILE = its a whopping £868.79 (£963.99 without discount). My boss used the card for only 4 days...imagine if it was for a whole month...This is a rip off! I think we've been mislead, completely! As an illustration indicated on the bill: 69,642 kb was used in 1 day = £510.07 = 68 mb = 1700 webpages access or 13,600 emails! Who on earth, could even access or be on the internet and downloading info for that much! We have written a letter to Tmobile, and definitely we are not paying for this charge. It's really a daylight robbery!
Mobile data costs remain outrageously high. Are you planning any more coverage of this issue, Rupert?
SMS is far worse - 10p per 160 bytes! Convert that to the equivalent data transfer and that works out as £450,000 for a CD ISO image or £13 million for a typical family's monthly internet usage (30GB)!!
It's greed and nothing else. Roaming broadband should be as cheap as at home.
Where there is a monopolised interest and collusion amongst providers theft will always be rife.
and there hasn't been any r-e-a-l changes!
Mobile roaming never mind data roaming charges are still absolute ripoffs.
I have an answer for mobile roaming where my contact number when I am travelling is a UK Skype-In number and I forward my Skype to a local sim card number.
I don't have answer to data roaming --- yet!