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One time on a road trip years ago I downloaded the Guitar Hero mobile game to my Razr to kill time. It turns out that the game downloads song data repeatedly wh

One time on a road trip years ago I downloaded the Guitar Hero mobile game to my Razr to kill time. It turns out that the game downloads song data repeatedly when you play different songs. An hour or so of playing ended up costing me almost $100. I didn't understand how much data was being used, and I didn't ever want to use mobile data again (on my feature phone) after that point. I can definitely see regulators being concerned about this kind of predatory pricing. Carriers should price data close to what it costs them to offer it, not at outrageously high prices to milk as much money as possible out of their customers before they realize what they're spending.

fsaneq2 10y ago
Well, yes -- but the letter is to Niantic, not carriers.
- MBCook 10y ago
  This is also the developers responsibility. Last summer I was playing a fun little game on my iPhone and kept causing problems for other people on the same Wi-Fi network just me. It turned out that when you dismissed a video ad is soon as possible to skip it, it seemed to keep downloading the ad anyway. And then maybe some more. I don't know, but it was a huge data hog on Wi-Fi. If that happened on cellular (I didn't play much while out and about, and it may have changed its behavior on cell) it could've easily racked up a huge bill. And that would be the developers fault. In the two weeks I've been playing Pokémon go my iPhone says I've used 150 MB of data. I've been looking at it a lot as I drive around (whenever I stop in a parking lot), and I often leave it running while driving (to get those fake steps when I'm going slow enough) and it hasn't done much so I don't think the game is missbehaving. Given that it seems to have to constantly reload landmarks in areas I frequent some cashing might be a good idea, but it's not too horrendous.
  - TeMPOraL 10y ago
    The "best and brightests" do that too. I once wanted to test out the Google Photos app. I installed it... and it basically killed every Wi-Fi network I happened to be on - whether home or the local Hackerspace. In the few minutes I spent trying to find the source of the problem, it managed to push 4GB of data over the wire... even though I only had like 1.2GB of actual photos on my device!
ehnto 10y ago
Regardless of the pricing, the onus is still on the customer to understand the service they are using in my opinion. If I go to the gym and drop 100kg on myself then it is my fault for not understanding the risks, where it is reasonable to do so. It is reasonable to expect you as a customer of the internet service to understand the service you are using and the costs involved. It really falls on no one elses shoulders. I do agree that it tends to be over priced and the pricing structure is often confusing but I still think it's within the grasp of most to understand it.
- dasboth 10y ago
  I don't disagree that the customer needs to be more aware, but the gym analogy doesn't quite work. The risks of dropping a 100kg weight on yourself are much more transparent than an app sneakily loading unnecessary data and not caching it.
  - ehnto 10y ago
    Yeah it does seem that analogy isn't holding up. Perhaps a better analogy is monthly gas bills. It isn't immediately obvious how much running the gas hot water service will cost, but some cursory research would point you in the right direction. None the less, it is definitely a balance of transparency and I think it is fair to ask for app vendors to properly optimoze and advertise the data usage of their apps in some way.
- pjc50 10y ago
  The weights in the gym are labelled. Mobile games are not labelled with their data usage, nor do they track it themselves (although a phone will usually track it for you). People can understand it, but they usually don't habitually check it, resulting in surprise bills.
  - ehnto 10y ago
    Definitely a fair criticism of the analogy, and I think itnis fair to ask for more transparency from app vendors. I just don't think they should be held liable monetarily. Some angry support tickets might be warranted though!
Ntrails 10y ago
The one month that I had capped mobile data, they sent me texts as soon as I got close to hitting said cap, and then for every GB I went over (oi m8, buy a bundle, ur gettin wreck'd by our prices)
ximeng 10y ago
Pricing based on "value" not "cost" is a fairly common business advice mantra. Where value tends to be what you can get away with based on lack of competition.

fsaneq2 10y ago

Well, yes -- but the letter is to Niantic, not carriers.

MBCook 10y ago
This is also the developers responsibility. Last summer I was playing a fun little game on my iPhone and kept causing problems for other people on the same Wi-Fi network just me. It turned out that when you dismissed a video ad is soon as possible to skip it, it seemed to keep downloading the ad anyway. And then maybe some more. I don't know, but it was a huge data hog on Wi-Fi. If that happened on cellular (I didn't play much while out and about, and it may have changed its behavior on cell) it could've easily racked up a huge bill. And that would be the developers fault. In the two weeks I've been playing Pokémon go my iPhone says I've used 150 MB of data. I've been looking at it a lot as I drive around (whenever I stop in a parking lot), and I often leave it running while driving (to get those fake steps when I'm going slow enough) and it hasn't done much so I don't think the game is missbehaving. Given that it seems to have to constantly reload landmarks in areas I frequent some cashing might be a good idea, but it's not too horrendous.
- TeMPOraL 10y ago
  The "best and brightests" do that too. I once wanted to test out the Google Photos app. I installed it... and it basically killed every Wi-Fi network I happened to be on - whether home or the local Hackerspace. In the few minutes I spent trying to find the source of the problem, it managed to push 4GB of data over the wire... even though I only had like 1.2GB of actual photos on my device!

ehnto 10y ago

Regardless of the pricing, the onus is still on the customer to understand the service they are using in my opinion. If I go to the gym and drop 100kg on myself then it is my fault for not understanding the risks, where it is reasonable to do so. It is reasonable to expect you as a customer of the internet service to understand the service you are using and the costs involved. It really falls on no one elses shoulders. I do agree that it tends to be over priced and the pricing structure is often confusing but I still think it's within the grasp of most to understand it.

dasboth 10y ago
I don't disagree that the customer needs to be more aware, but the gym analogy doesn't quite work. The risks of dropping a 100kg weight on yourself are much more transparent than an app sneakily loading unnecessary data and not caching it.
- ehnto 10y ago
  Yeah it does seem that analogy isn't holding up. Perhaps a better analogy is monthly gas bills. It isn't immediately obvious how much running the gas hot water service will cost, but some cursory research would point you in the right direction. None the less, it is definitely a balance of transparency and I think it is fair to ask for app vendors to properly optimoze and advertise the data usage of their apps in some way.
pjc50 10y ago
The weights in the gym are labelled. Mobile games are not labelled with their data usage, nor do they track it themselves (although a phone will usually track it for you). People can understand it, but they usually don't habitually check it, resulting in surprise bills.
- ehnto 10y ago
  Definitely a fair criticism of the analogy, and I think itnis fair to ask for more transparency from app vendors. I just don't think they should be held liable monetarily. Some angry support tickets might be warranted though!

Ntrails 10y ago

The one month that I had capped mobile data, they sent me texts as soon as I got close to hitting said cap, and then for every GB I went over (oi m8, buy a bundle, ur gettin wreck'd by our prices)

ximeng 10y ago

Pricing based on "value" not "cost" is a fairly common business advice mantra. Where value tends to be what you can get away with based on lack of competition.