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Whether or not google are "stealing" data allowance from customers, or acquiring this right voluntarily/contractually from customers is interesting in the abstr

Whether or not google are "stealing" data allowance from customers, or acquiring this right voluntarily/contractually from customers is interesting in the abstract Specific example of harm: international roaming data fees are outrageous and even a small use of data can stack up. If I visit Canada using my UK mobile phone, I have to be sure to keep data roaming turned off because I get dinged for £6/Mb (about US $7.50/Mb). Over a couple of weeks, google sipping a bit of bandwidth here or there can actually end up doubling or tripling my monthly bill, even when it's single-digit megabytes. (The real problem is of course the existence of the search/advertising hybrid business model, which needs to be addressed at a legislative level. But no, costing me a noticeable amount of money under unpredictable circumstances is not an abstract/trivial problem.)

Angostura 6y ago
You should sign up with three. In Europe + about 30 other countries I get to use my allowance as normal when overseas
- martinald 6y ago
  3 doesn't have free roaming in Canada. They do in US but not Canada.
  - cstross 6y ago
    Canada is one huge hole in Three's roaming. As I learned the hard way, visiting Canada on Three is like taking an involuntary time trip 20 years back in time, cellphone-wise. Source: am a happy long-term Three customer (other than that one visit to Canada in 2018).
blfr 6y ago
The real problem in your example are absolutely abusive and exploitative roaming charges, not Android or search/advertising business model. Should the phone sit quiet when you're not using it? Sure. Is £6/Mb even close to a reasonable rate? Not unless you're on Mars.
- NeutronStar 6y ago
  So it ok because hypothetically another company unrelated to them has set the price for roaming data artificially high?
- onion2k 6y ago
  The real problem in your example are absolutely abusive and exploitative roaming charges, not Android or search/advertising business model. They're both problems.
jsjohnst 6y ago
Not that you should “need” to do so (as in its absurd we still pay such high fees, but carrier roaming interconnect is still legacy tech for the most part), but most carriers these days have a “Intl data” add on that gives you either unlimited data for the day (usually around $10/£10/10€ based on experience) or as a full month add on for around $20 and it then uses your normal data allowance.
- baybal2 6y ago
  Do you see that the man don't have it? Your suggestion is irrelevant
martinald 6y ago
FWIW, both Vodafone and EE offer good deals for Canada roaming. EE includes Canada roaming in many of their plans (or its £10/month extra to add it). Vodafone also includes it in some of their plans or it's £6/day if not.
- cstross 6y ago
  I use Three because apart from Canada their international roaming deals are way better for my purposes (as in: free all-I-can-eat data in almost all the countries I visit). The problem is the holes in the network of bilateral roaming agreements between carriers, which are deliberately opaque to customers.
  - martinald 6y ago
    If you do a lot of travelling Vodafone is usually better. Global Roaming Plus (https://www.vodafone.co.uk/cs/groups/public/documents/webcontent/vfcon092802.pdf https://www.vodafone.co.uk/cs/groups/public/documents/webcon...) covers more destinations than 3 'inclusive' and nearly every country in the world outside of that is £6/day. Whereas with 3 you're stuck back to £10/MB nonsense if you go outside of their roaming countries.
dalbasal 6y ago
Sure, the legal issue can be related to a real life ham. It is, I think, trivial on the whole. It's especially trivial of you consider the way these things are generally "righted." (1) Google will clarify and establish their right to do whatever it is they're doing. Rarely will the result be google changing. (2) The do-whatever-then-ask-forgiveness mo may actually be reenforced. Google actually lost their EU antitrust case. It was about adwords, the google moneymaker. If Google had known in advance they would be found guilty and fined $1.4bn, they would have certainly done it anyway. (3) Whatever harm is acknowledged here will not be acknowledged as what it is, a part of the larger issue of google's abuse of power. Sipping data is the least of it.
baybal2 6y ago
It takes huge effort to cut your traffic to 0 even on nominally "ungoogled" phones. I myself found it out the same way when Google service somehow managed to bypass every lock on roaming traffic.

Angostura 6y ago

You should sign up with three. In Europe + about 30 other countries I get to use my allowance as normal when overseas

martinald 6y ago
3 doesn't have free roaming in Canada. They do in US but not Canada.
- cstross 6y ago
  Canada is one huge hole in Three's roaming. As I learned the hard way, visiting Canada on Three is like taking an involuntary time trip 20 years back in time, cellphone-wise. Source: am a happy long-term Three customer (other than that one visit to Canada in 2018).

blfr 6y ago

The real problem in your example are absolutely abusive and exploitative roaming charges, not Android or search/advertising business model. Should the phone sit quiet when you're not using it? Sure. Is £6/Mb even close to a reasonable rate? Not unless you're on Mars.

NeutronStar 6y ago
So it ok because hypothetically another company unrelated to them has set the price for roaming data artificially high?
onion2k 6y ago
The real problem in your example are absolutely abusive and exploitative roaming charges, not Android or search/advertising business model. They're both problems.

jsjohnst 6y ago

Not that you should “need” to do so (as in its absurd we still pay such high fees, but carrier roaming interconnect is still legacy tech for the most part), but most carriers these days have a “Intl data” add on that gives you either unlimited data for the day (usually around $10/£10/10€ based on experience) or as a full month add on for around $20 and it then uses your normal data allowance.

baybal2 6y ago
Do you see that the man don't have it? Your suggestion is irrelevant

martinald 6y ago

FWIW, both Vodafone and EE offer good deals for Canada roaming. EE includes Canada roaming in many of their plans (or its £10/month extra to add it). Vodafone also includes it in some of their plans or it's £6/day if not.

cstross 6y ago
I use Three because apart from Canada their international roaming deals are way better for my purposes (as in: free all-I-can-eat data in almost all the countries I visit). The problem is the holes in the network of bilateral roaming agreements between carriers, which are deliberately opaque to customers.
- martinald 6y ago
  If you do a lot of travelling Vodafone is usually better. Global Roaming Plus (https://www.vodafone.co.uk/cs/groups/public/documents/webcontent/vfcon092802.pdf https://www.vodafone.co.uk/cs/groups/public/documents/webcon...) covers more destinations than 3 'inclusive' and nearly every country in the world outside of that is £6/day. Whereas with 3 you're stuck back to £10/MB nonsense if you go outside of their roaming countries.

dalbasal 6y ago

Sure, the legal issue can be related to a real life ham. It is, I think, trivial on the whole. It's especially trivial of you consider the way these things are generally "righted." (1) Google will clarify and establish their right to do whatever it is they're doing. Rarely will the result be google changing. (2) The do-whatever-then-ask-forgiveness mo may actually be reenforced. Google actually lost their EU antitrust case. It was about adwords, the google moneymaker. If Google had known in advance they would be found guilty and fined $1.4bn, they would have certainly done it anyway. (3) Whatever harm is acknowledged here will not be acknowledged as what it is, a part of the larger issue of google's abuse of power. Sipping data is the least of it.

baybal2 6y ago

It takes huge effort to cut your traffic to 0 even on nominally "ungoogled" phones. I myself found it out the same way when Google service somehow managed to bypass every lock on roaming traffic.