JDSwho?
I presume that's JDS Uniphase, and not a juvenille delinquent State Uni?
Also low usage stats and spotty coverage are mutually self-reinforcing.
Usage of mobile data is extremely unevenly distributed. This is the conclusion of a report by the Location Intelligence business unit of a major communications equipment company. JDSU, which makes test equipment for mobile operators, looked at who is using the most mobile data and where they are using it. Its research found …
Absolutely right.
This phone is a shiny one with 20Gb a month of 4g data. How does 99%+ of the mobile data* get used? Over the crappy 2g network, patchy coverage 3g or through my own femtocell at home!
(We actually gave up on the crappy ADSL and that is now pretty much devoted to running the femtocell, as it just about has enough bandwidth to cope if nothing else is on it, as we need mobile phone signal in the house. Work, you know?)
*that's by time, not bits. Once where there is 4g signal I can download more stuff in ten minutes than in a week with barely a phone signal.
Just to add a bit of context - Ofcom (and Cisco VNI) reports indicate that UK Mobile data volume is equivalent to only about 5% the volume of fixed BB data ( 29PB vs 650PB, June 2013 data). Though of course some of the fixed BB data will include traffic from home wifi connections to phones.
Any system that seeks to spread costs around to standardize plans rather than be pay as you go always results in the majority paying for less services than the minority. That's by design. Doesn't matter if we're talking healthcare, cable/tv or mobile access.
To think otherwise is ridiculous. When companies moved off of pay for what you use plans and began oversubscribing their own networks they essential forced net neutrality on themselves.
My phone data plan is "unlimited". Which is a nice word but my providers definition of "unlimited" is very different from mine. You see, I think it means I can use this device to be online 24x7 streaming movies or whatever. They think it means i have 5gb until they put the speed limiters on. That is false advertising.
Assuming they're consistent locations over time (no doubt the likes of Glastonbury etc will show a hefty spike for a few days, and no usage the rest of the year) it seems obvious for operators to stick in their own femtocell (on their own ADSL/FTTC line) to free up network capacity for the rest of the cell's coverage area.
I just wish UMA had caught on better the first time round: nice and easy for us to use free coffee-shop wifi in busy areas if it had. (I'm sure there will be a strong correlation between peak usage areas and wifi coverage, after all.) Maybe the newest branding ("WiFi calling" in the iPhone) will finally catch on better?