* Double-check your contract to ensure compliant use
You’ve probably heard a lot of recent chatter about an issue called ‘Net neutrality. This federal controversy debates whether or not ISPs should be allowed to discriminate against certain content, applications, and customers by prioritizing or blocking traffic at their discretion.
For a sneak peek at a world without the fair and equal access afforded by ‘Net neutrality, take a look at the cellular providers’ mobile data service use restrictions. Today, most of the major operators sell what they call “unlimited” mobile data services packages for around $60 per month per subscriber. But what does “unlimited” really mean?
Bottom line, it means you can use your network service until your carrier, who monitors your usage, calls you up and tells you to cool it. A lot of the mobile towers simply aren’t engineered for large numbers of broadband wireless users.
If you read the terms and conditions of your contract, you’ll find that you’re not allowed to use your unlimited mobile data service, well, for some things you’d most likely want to use it for. You’re prohibited from using access to server devices with host computer applications, for example. Also a no-no: Peer-to-peer file-sharing applications, automated machine-to-machine connections, and content streaming – anything deemed “consistent, constant use.”
Be aware, too, that you’re also not allowed to install a wireless router and let multiple users share your connection as a broadband link, although you can purchase a separate service for this application.
And, above all, you can’t run VoIP. After all, today, this competes with billable usage minutes on the carriers’ traditional voice networks. This is curbing enterprises’ convergence and PBX-extension strategies, says Dave Passmore, research director at the Burton Group consultancy. “Over time, a lot of large enterprises are not going to tolerate this,” he says.
Passmore acknowledges, though, that some U.S. mobile networks currently contain too much latency to properly support VoIP. “Verizon and Sprint EV-DO networks induce latency of more than 100 milliseconds,” so enterprises would have a difficult time using softphone clients with high service-quality levels. That will likely change with Sprint’s EV-DO Rev A deployments expected during the next 18 months and with broader availability of Cingular’s higher-speed UMTS/HSDPA broadband services.
More on these and related “acceptable use” issues to come.
