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I avoid video like the plague on my phone to prevent excess data charges. But it's reasonable for a single page load to use more than 1% of my monthly limit? I

I avoid video like the plague on my phone to prevent excess data charges. But it's reasonable for a single page load to use more than 1% of my monthly limit? I don't expect websites to being the kB range, but somewhere in the single digit megabytes seems to me like a reasonable limit

tw04 7y ago
Maybe the problem Isn’t the page size. Maybe the problem is the artificial bandwidth scarcity being created by US cell providers. They have no way to increase sales due to basically complete market saturation, so instead they find new ways to soak their existing customer base. People always seem to forget how horrible things were when at&t was about to acquire T-Mobile. Had they not been forced to hand TM all that spectrum we’d still be paying $100/mo for 2GB of hard capped data.
- azinman2 7y ago
  Not sure about the GP but they might not be in the US. There are many parts of the world where bandwidth is scarce and expensive (w.r.t. average income). There’s a reason why both Android and Apple have “low data modes”
  - Xylakant 7y ago
    If you read the tread that follows on the original tweet: It seems that the Apple website respects this and returns a low data version on low bandwidth connections.
- docdeek 7y ago
  > Maybe the problem is the artificial bandwidth scarcity being created by US cell providers. This. When I (in France) can €15.99 a month for unlimited calls and texts to phones in France, the US, Canada, China (plus unlimited calls to fixed lines in 100 other countries, too) and a 100GB 4G data plan included, too, it seems crazy that US carriers charge so much. Sure, there are infrastrcuture differences in serving a country of more than 300 million spread out over a landmass so big rather than a small, more densely populated country like France, but it still seems out of control.
- SECProto 7y ago
  I've lived in both Japan and Canada, not the US. All the reasonable-priced plans in both countries had limits in the single digit GBs. Japan was better in that data over the limit just got capped at a very low speed, rather than paying extra. But in all three cases, a single page load unexpectedly using 65mB is outside reasonable.
- anoncake 7y ago
  > Maybe the problem is the artificial bandwidth scarcity being created by US cell providers. Spectrum is actually limited and cell towers aren't free.
  - tw04 7y ago
    Spectrum should’ve been a shared resource from the start. It’s scarce because there’s Massive amounts that have been purchased just to stifle competition and isn’t even in use. Funny, for all those reasons 5g has moved to a shared model.
    - LeifCarrotson 7y ago
      As an electrical engineer, I am honestly astounded by how well spectrum has been allocated/shared. It's one of the greatest miracles of the modern era that tens of thousands of antennas can simultaneously jam into a stadium and still have cell service, radio, TV, wifi, walkie talkies, and Bandwidth is scarce because it's limited by physics. There's some minor inefficiencies, but it's generally pretty good, in terms of bits per second per Hertz.
- ASalazarMX 7y ago
  > Maybe the problem Isn’t the page size. Maybe the problem is the artificial bandwidth scarcity Is he using it wrong?
soneca 7y ago
I have not tested it, but I believe the site does not load 65.4Mb when on a phone (might consider bandwidth too)
- SECProto 7y ago
  Yeah. I do routinely tether my laptop, I wonder if there is any recognition of that.
  - leppr 7y ago
    There is the "Save-Data" HTTP header[0] that your browser can send[1], but the AirPods page doesn't support it (not many websites do actually). [0]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Save-Data https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Sa... [1]: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/save-data/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/save-data/
- mrtksn 7y ago
  It loads 29MB when loaded on simulated iPhone 6 screen size.
CydeWeys 7y ago
Mobile browser apps aren't doing anything in this arena; they could be doing a lot more. They could, for example, pause all requests upon hitting a configured limit for the page (like 1 MB) and then only continue downloading if you confirm. The ideal experience would be to confirm the total amount to download ahead of time, but that often isn't known.
dangus 7y ago
Sounds like your limit is 6GB. I understand that you don’t want a high phone bill, but in a lot of ways this limit is self-imposed. You chose a small limit that fits a light user. Someone who doesn’t check webpages purely out of boredom or phone addiction will have no problem staying within a small data limit like this even if they occasionally visit a large, video-based marketing site once in a while. Meanwhile, unlimited plans from various carriers in the United States are reasonably priced enough. $40/month from Visible (Verizon MVNO), for example.
- SECProto 7y ago
  If you read sibling comments, you'll see that I am not in the US, so most of your comment does not apply. A $40 plan in Canada might get me 1 GB if I was lucky (I can't actually find a plan that cheap that includes any data at all). The cheapest "unlimited" plans (which are 10gb then speed restricted) is about $80. As to 6GB being a "small limit that fits a light user" - I use my data for work, tethering a couple hours every work day. I also browse/read probably an hour a day on data. I stay within the limit by avoiding YouTube, and now apparently apple websites.

tw04 7y ago

Maybe the problem Isn’t the page size. Maybe the problem is the artificial bandwidth scarcity being created by US cell providers. They have no way to increase sales due to basically complete market saturation, so instead they find new ways to soak their existing customer base. People always seem to forget how horrible things were when at&t was about to acquire T-Mobile. Had they not been forced to hand TM all that spectrum we’d still be paying $100/mo for 2GB of hard capped data.

azinman2 7y ago
Not sure about the GP but they might not be in the US. There are many parts of the world where bandwidth is scarce and expensive (w.r.t. average income). There’s a reason why both Android and Apple have “low data modes”
- Xylakant 7y ago
  If you read the tread that follows on the original tweet: It seems that the Apple website respects this and returns a low data version on low bandwidth connections.
docdeek 7y ago
> Maybe the problem is the artificial bandwidth scarcity being created by US cell providers. This. When I (in France) can €15.99 a month for unlimited calls and texts to phones in France, the US, Canada, China (plus unlimited calls to fixed lines in 100 other countries, too) and a 100GB 4G data plan included, too, it seems crazy that US carriers charge so much. Sure, there are infrastrcuture differences in serving a country of more than 300 million spread out over a landmass so big rather than a small, more densely populated country like France, but it still seems out of control.
SECProto 7y ago
I've lived in both Japan and Canada, not the US. All the reasonable-priced plans in both countries had limits in the single digit GBs. Japan was better in that data over the limit just got capped at a very low speed, rather than paying extra. But in all three cases, a single page load unexpectedly using 65mB is outside reasonable.
anoncake 7y ago
> Maybe the problem is the artificial bandwidth scarcity being created by US cell providers. Spectrum is actually limited and cell towers aren't free.
- tw04 7y ago
  Spectrum should’ve been a shared resource from the start. It’s scarce because there’s Massive amounts that have been purchased just to stifle competition and isn’t even in use. Funny, for all those reasons 5g has moved to a shared model.
  - LeifCarrotson 7y ago
    As an electrical engineer, I am honestly astounded by how well spectrum has been allocated/shared. It's one of the greatest miracles of the modern era that tens of thousands of antennas can simultaneously jam into a stadium and still have cell service, radio, TV, wifi, walkie talkies, and Bandwidth is scarce because it's limited by physics. There's some minor inefficiencies, but it's generally pretty good, in terms of bits per second per Hertz.
ASalazarMX 7y ago
> Maybe the problem Isn’t the page size. Maybe the problem is the artificial bandwidth scarcity Is he using it wrong?

soneca 7y ago

I have not tested it, but I believe the site does not load 65.4Mb when on a phone (might consider bandwidth too)

SECProto 7y ago
Yeah. I do routinely tether my laptop, I wonder if there is any recognition of that.
- leppr 7y ago
  There is the "Save-Data" HTTP header[0] that your browser can send[1], but the AirPods page doesn't support it (not many websites do actually). [0]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Save-Data https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Sa... [1]: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/save-data/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/save-data/
mrtksn 7y ago
It loads 29MB when loaded on simulated iPhone 6 screen size.

CydeWeys 7y ago

Mobile browser apps aren't doing anything in this arena; they could be doing a lot more. They could, for example, pause all requests upon hitting a configured limit for the page (like 1 MB) and then only continue downloading if you confirm. The ideal experience would be to confirm the total amount to download ahead of time, but that often isn't known.

dangus 7y ago

Sounds like your limit is 6GB. I understand that you don’t want a high phone bill, but in a lot of ways this limit is self-imposed. You chose a small limit that fits a light user. Someone who doesn’t check webpages purely out of boredom or phone addiction will have no problem staying within a small data limit like this even if they occasionally visit a large, video-based marketing site once in a while. Meanwhile, unlimited plans from various carriers in the United States are reasonably priced enough. $40/month from Visible (Verizon MVNO), for example.

SECProto 7y ago
If you read sibling comments, you'll see that I am not in the US, so most of your comment does not apply. A $40 plan in Canada might get me 1 GB if I was lucky (I can't actually find a plan that cheap that includes any data at all). The cheapest "unlimited" plans (which are 10gb then speed restricted) is about $80. As to 6GB being a "small limit that fits a light user" - I use my data for work, tethering a couple hours every work day. I also browse/read probably an hour a day on data. I stay within the limit by avoiding YouTube, and now apparently apple websites.