A small hit, just require an extra click or two for each search from France or involving France, explaining Google's position - things get worse add clicks, things get better remove extra clicks, all the joy of a youtube ad, and users will get in the habit of avoiding those links for ones that don't bother them.
Or for a bigger punch: The French are proud of their language to such an extent that they have objected to English loan words, suppose any results from France or in French were run through Google Translate before being displayed, explaining that due to concerns over the legal climate all Google.fr or French language results have been automatically translated for your convenience... But if needed could be automatically translated back into French, for a translation round-trip. They could also make French a opt-in, requiring explicit action to enable, perhaps expiring every month...
Techdirt has written many articles of the shenanigans of the phone and broadband industries. But regardless of how overblown their claims of speed may be, for the sake of argument accept all their BS, when you do the math, it gets worse.
I was bored and thought I should calculate out my average speed for the month. just to show what happens when you look at the numbers they claim to provide...
For my cell phone 5GB of high-speed and the rest of the month at 2G speeds # of seconds in a month time = 1 average month = 2629743.8 seconds # claimed high speed rate speed1 = 4Mbps # high speed quota data1 = 5GB # time to reach cap if working at quoted speed time1 = data1 / speed1 = 5e9 bytes / ( 4e6 bits/second) = 10000 s = 166 minutes = 2h 46 min
# time for remainder of month time2 = time - time1 = 2629743.8 s - 10000 s = 2619743.8 s
# speed after quota speed2 = 56K # total data of remaining low speed access data2 = speed2 * time2 = 56000 bits/s * 2619743.8 s = 1.8338207e+10 = 18GB
# total data received in a month data3 = data1 + data2 = 5 GB + 18 GB = 23 GB # average speed over the month speed3 = data3 / time = 23 GB/2619743.8 s = 70235.876 bps average or the full calculation = (5e9 bytes + (56e3 bits/s) * (2629743.8s - 5e9 bytes * (8 bits/byte )/(4e6 bits/s)))/2629743.8s = 70997.659 bps average... or 27% over 56k
If we instead use 128Kbps for the low speed as another reference for 2G speeds suggests it is still small and now just 12% above the low speed rate
So much for phone data plan. Using fixed line plan from my cable company they have claimed a speed of 50Mbps with the first 350G prepaid and $10/50GB afterwards
First I will calculate the cost if you could get what they claim is available, so no throttling yields:
speed5 = 50Mbps data5 = 350G bytes time5 = data5 * 8 bits/byte / speed5 = 350e9 * 8 / 50e6 = 56000 s = ~933 minutes = ~16 hours # total data for the month data6 = speed5 * time = 50e6 bits/s * 1 month = 50e6 bits/s * 2629743.8 s / (8 bits/byte) = 16 TB #charge per 50G above 350G rate7 = $10/50G per month data7 = data6 - data5 = 16TB - 350GB = ~16TB # note my prepaid amount is in the rounding error charge7 = data7 * rate7 = ~16TB*$10/50e9 = $3,130/month price/month = $100/month + $3,130/month in overage charges
Instead lets assume I use exactly my prepaid 350G what do I get for average speed? speed8 = (350e9bytes/month + 0 )/2629743.8 seconds/month = 133KBps or 1Mbps average speed over the month
Now these techniques can be used with multiple tiers just as easily but I think that the results speak clearly. My cell phone gets slightly better than old fashioned dial-up when I am on LTE on average due to throttling and my fixed line ISP either averages 1Mbps or costs ~$3,230/month depending on which way you prefer to calculate.
Where in this do you see affordable broadband.
All this is true only if you get their advertised data rates, normally I get a fraction of that and as these are the best case numbers, it gets worse :(
Just imagine if they were required to clearly advertise their speeds 143Kbps average (with 4M peak) for only $50/month from my cell phone carrier 1Mbps average with (50M peak) $100/month from my cable company and for full high speed: 50Mbps only ~$3,230/month from my cable company.
Unsustainable peak speeds should be referenced in much smaller type than the average speed just to be fair to consumers ;) and listing all services by their average speed might prompt some marketing changes, including latency also would be fair.
All of these would put in perspective the charges we pay vs the limitations we face, All of these numbers are I believe accurate. But even if I was off by an entire order of magnitude it would still look terrible for my service providers.
Note I am accepting that they actually mean what they say e.g. a 50GB cap is in bytes not bits for example, and that they are using calender months not 30 day rotating periods, otherwise it gets worse...
Are yours better?
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by jimm.
Grumpy Google?
A small hit, just require an extra click or two for each search from France or involving France, explaining Google's position - things get worse add clicks, things get better remove extra clicks, all the joy of a youtube ad, and users will get in the habit of avoiding those links for ones that don't bother them.
Or for a bigger punch:
The French are proud of their language to such an extent that they have objected to English loan words, suppose any results from France or in French were run through Google Translate before being displayed, explaining that due to concerns over the legal climate all Google.fr or French language results have been automatically translated for your convenience...
But if needed could be automatically translated back into French, for a translation round-trip.
They could also make French a opt-in, requiring explicit action to enable, perhaps expiring every month...
Data Caps
But regardless of how overblown their claims of speed may be, for the sake of argument accept all their BS, when you do the math, it gets worse.
I was bored and thought I should calculate out my average speed for the month.
just to show what happens when you look at the numbers they claim to provide...
For my cell phone 5GB of high-speed and the rest of the month at 2G speeds
# of seconds in a month
time = 1 average month = 2629743.8 seconds
# claimed high speed rate
speed1 = 4Mbps
# high speed quota
data1 = 5GB
# time to reach cap if working at quoted speed
time1 = data1 / speed1 = 5e9 bytes / ( 4e6 bits/second) = 10000 s = 166 minutes = 2h 46 min
# time for remainder of month
time2 = time - time1 = 2629743.8 s - 10000 s = 2619743.8 s
# speed after quota
speed2 = 56K
# total data of remaining low speed access
data2 = speed2 * time2 = 56000 bits/s * 2619743.8 s = 1.8338207e+10 = 18GB
# total data received in a month
data3 = data1 + data2 = 5 GB + 18 GB = 23 GB
# average speed over the month
speed3 = data3 / time = 23 GB/2619743.8 s = 70235.876 bps average
or the full calculation
= (5e9 bytes + (56e3 bits/s) * (2629743.8s - 5e9 bytes * (8 bits/byte )/(4e6 bits/s)))/2629743.8s
= 70997.659 bps average... or 27% over 56k
If we instead use 128Kbps for the low speed as another reference
for 2G speeds suggests it is still small and now just 12% above the low speed rate
speed4 = (5e9 bytes + (128e3 bits/s) * (2629743.8s- (5e9 bytes * (8 bits/byte )/(4e6 bits/s))))/2629743.8s = 142723.87 bits / s = 143 Kbps
So much for phone data plan. Using fixed line plan from my cable company
they have claimed a speed of 50Mbps with the first 350G prepaid and $10/50GB afterwards
First I will calculate the cost if you could get what they claim is
available, so no throttling yields:
speed5 = 50Mbps
data5 = 350G bytes
time5 = data5 * 8 bits/byte / speed5 = 350e9 * 8 / 50e6 = 56000 s = ~933 minutes = ~16 hours
# total data for the month
data6 = speed5 * time = 50e6 bits/s * 1 month = 50e6 bits/s * 2629743.8 s / (8 bits/byte) = 16 TB
#charge per 50G above 350G
rate7 = $10/50G per month
data7 = data6 - data5 = 16TB - 350GB = ~16TB # note my prepaid amount is in the rounding error
charge7 = data7 * rate7 = ~16TB*$10/50e9 = $3,130/month
price/month = $100/month + $3,130/month in overage charges
Instead lets assume I use exactly my prepaid 350G what do I get for average speed?
speed8 = (350e9bytes/month + 0 )/2629743.8 seconds/month = 133KBps or 1Mbps average speed over the month
Now these techniques can be used with multiple tiers just as easily but I think that the results speak clearly.
My cell phone gets slightly better than old fashioned dial-up when I am on LTE on average due to throttling and my fixed line ISP either averages 1Mbps or costs ~$3,230/month depending on which way you prefer to calculate.
Where in this do you see affordable broadband.
All this is true only if you get their advertised data rates, normally I get a fraction of that and as these are the best case numbers, it gets worse :(
Just imagine if they were required to clearly advertise their speeds
143Kbps average (with 4M peak) for only $50/month from my cell phone carrier
1Mbps average with (50M peak) $100/month from my cable company
and for full high speed:
50Mbps only ~$3,230/month from my cable company.
Unsustainable peak speeds should be referenced in much smaller type than the average speed just to be fair to consumers ;) and listing all services by their average speed might prompt some marketing changes, including latency also would be fair.
All of these would put in perspective the charges we pay vs the limitations we face,
All of these numbers are I believe accurate. But even if I was off by an entire
order of magnitude it would still look terrible for my service providers.
Note I am accepting that they actually mean what they say e.g. a 50GB cap is in bytes not bits for example, and that they are using calender months not 30 day rotating periods, otherwise it gets worse...
Are yours better?
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by jimm.
Submit a story now.