About a month ago my Hong Kong mobile service provider offered subscribers a free local data package. Not unlimited, but a nice gesture.
Don't Terminate People's Internet Connections
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Re: Don't Terminate People's Internet Connections
#12About a month ago my Hong Kong mobile service provider offered subscribers a free local data package. Not unlimited, but a nice gesture.
What's "local" mean here?
Re: Don't Terminate People's Internet Connections
#13Eh.. there won’t be. But it’s not because of some altruistic motivations, it’s bad PR and the sheer numbers of lost customers would out weight the benefit of terminating for non-pay.
At least in the US, the few the major residential ISP's have a virtual monopoly so wont loose many customers and have proven in the past not to give a $#@ about bad PR.
Actually, Comcast has been a hero of late. The have advertised that they will give away basic internet for free, and bumped up the speed of existing subscribers in addition to bumping up their data caps.
Asking university students to leave campus is hard. Switching from on-prem to online teaching overnight is harder yet. But teaching across the connectivity divide, where students don’t have access at home and the state just shuttered all the businesses providing “free” Wifi, is impossible.
I have been wronged many times by Comcast over the last 24 years; at least from my POV, this offer—provided they abide by it—erases most if not all my ill-will towards them.
Well done
Re: Don't Terminate People's Internet Connections
#14Here in Australia, a few responsible providers like Aussie Broadband have already announced unmetered data usage and temporarily stopping all service suspensions. https://www.aussiebroadband.com.au/blog/aussie-broadband-ann... Edit: The real test though will be the bandwidth of our gov-sponsored, substandard, widely FTTN (instead of full FTTP).
I would expect rationing of the available bandwidth to become more important, not less, as the entire population is stuck at home using it all day.
Re: Don't Terminate People's Internet Connections
#15About a month ago my Hong Kong mobile service provider offered subscribers a free local data package. Not unlimited, but a nice gesture.
What's "local" mean here?
Im guessing they meter users differently for traffic going inside and outside the country. On the upstream/provider side it’s not uncommon to see a 2-10x price difference between connectivity inside an island/country vs international carriage.
Re: Don't Terminate People's Internet Connections
#16>We'll mop up society's collective bills at a later point in time
Very much doubt faceless corporations with automated billing cycles will take such an altruistic view on this but perhaps I'll be surprised.
Most will do the exact opposite I believe. The last financial crash caused massive cashflow issues for the big corps.
Re: Don't Terminate People's Internet Connections
#17Here in Australia, a few responsible providers like Aussie Broadband have already announced unmetered data usage and temporarily stopping all service suspensions. https://www.aussiebroadband.com.au/blog/aussie-broadband-ann... Edit: The real test though will be the bandwidth of our gov-sponsored, substandard, widely FTTN (instead of full FTTP).
In Canada Rogers (and I believe Bell), two of our biggest ISPs, have removed data cap fees on internet and ended long distance fees for calls in response to the virus:
https://toronto.citynews.ca/2020/03/16/rogers-waiving-long-d...
Re: Don't Terminate People's Internet Connections
#18Here in the US the vendors are not doing this.
Re: Don't Terminate People's Internet Connections
#19Here in Australia, a few responsible providers like Aussie Broadband have already announced unmetered data usage and temporarily stopping all service suspensions. https://www.aussiebroadband.com.au/blog/aussie-broadband-ann... Edit: The real test though will be the bandwidth of our gov-sponsored, substandard, widely FTTN (instead of full FTTP).
Two out of three mobile providers in Czech Republic already made their mobile data unlimitted due to the crisis:
https://news.expats.cz/prague-technology/t-mobile-joins-o2-i...
Re: Don't Terminate People's Internet Connections
#20I'll play the devil's advocate. Bandwidth is a finite resource, and it could be in critically short supply. In those circumstances, I wouldn't expect everyone to get more bandwidth, I'd expect it to be rationed.