My 3G connection has been acting up for the last ten days. From a breathtaking speed of over 4Mbps it's now reduced to dial-up like speeds of 20 Kbps. Upon enquiry I was told by the customer care executive that the speeds have been intentionally reduced by the operator because I was nearing the free data usage cap allowed under the tariff plan.
I had heard about mobile operators using throttling techniques to manage data flow in their network but this was the first time I was actually experiencing it. Data throttling refers to a technique adopted by telecom operators for slowing down the internet connection of a customer who uses too much data.
Krishna Gummadi, the head of the Networked Systems Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems, in Saarbrücken, Germany developed software that detected whether data service was being throttled by a network operator. The software, called Glasnost (after the Russian word for ‘openness') has been downloaded and used by 1.5 million people around the world since it was launched.
Tests run on Glasnost suggest that throttling is a common practice around the world. But Indian operators seem to be taking a different approach than their global counterparts.
In the US, for instance, AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA all practice data throttling. However, this policy applies only to customers with unlimited data plans, and the service providers say it is intended to prevent data hogs from overloading the network and clogging it for everyone else.
Caps on usage
In India, none of the 3G operators offer unlimited data plans. All the 3G plans available in the market have a cap on data usage and come with the rider that users will be charged extra for every kilobit of data consumed thereafter. Which is what makes their policy of throttling data even more baffling. Indian users don't even have the means to keep track or measure their data consumption on a daily basis. It's not until the data speeds start crawling that users realise that their 3G pipe has been throttled.
Telecom operators say that one of reasons for throttling speeds is to prevent bill shock at the end of the month, which is likely to happen if they were to charge extra for excess data usage. But rather than applying breaks on the speeds, the operator could inform the subscriber that he was nearing the data cap and then offer a top-up pack. Or better still, they could get creative and provide data plans for specific types of use, like consuming heavy amounts of video or playing many online games. That way the consumer would be able to continue to enjoy actual 3G speeds and at the same time, the operator would have earned more money out of the user. Throttling actually discourages consumers from using the service when it should be the opposite scenario.
Industry insiders say that operators are resorting to this mechanism because they haven't invested enough in their 3G networks. Most operators do not have the capacity to offer more data bandwidth than they already are and hence are forced to squeeze speeds. Not surprising therefore that a study done by Ericsson Consumer Lab reveals that around one-third of 3G users faced network related issue at least once daily. In addition to network quality issue, data connection reliability was a major concern highlighted by consumers.