Phone Hell Blog April Archive

A closer look at Verizon's cellular based broadband service

By Wilbur Corncob at 04/13/07 09:07

Here a follow up on Verizon's cellular based "broadband" after a phone call. The phone call clarified what I finally figured out from their website. They should have presented the information on their map in a much clearer manner. The concept is simple, the service is fast in metro areas and slow in so called "national access" area. Duh!

They don't present that concept well on their website, and especially not on their stupid coverage map! The map legend talks about Broadband, National Acccess and other ambigous terms.

They could have and should simply note the transfer rates offered in various areas on the map legend. That really could be the key to a customer making the purchase. I am interested in my data transfer rate and service areas. I am not interested in fancy names like "national access".

What else did I learn? That it would be nearly impossible to exceed the 5 GB usage limit, as the service is "unlimited" and "you'd have to be online 24 hrs a day for the whole month" to get close to that usage.

Well, let's do a little math.... this is pretty boring and maybe I don't even have the figures correct, so I'll try to be real clear.

• 5 GigaBytes = 1024 x 1024 x 1024 x 5 = 5,368,709,120 bytes. This should be how much data I can transfer before I am terminated. I suspect it is much less actual data due to packet headers, routing packets, retransmitted packets, acknowledge packets, etc.
• 400 Kbits/Second = 1024 x 400 / 8 = 51,200 bytes / second. This is how many bytes we should be able to transfer in a second in a metropolitan area.
• 5,368,709,120 / 51,200 = 104,857 seconds to transfer 5 gigabytes on 400k connection. This is how long it should take us to use our monthly alotment if we downloaded a large file, like a DVD or two of my 2.5 gigabyte datafiles.
• 104,857 / 3600 = 29.13 hours to transfer 5 GigaBytes. It's hard to comprehend seconds, but when we talk about hours, we see its about 1 day of actual network usage.
• at 60 Kbits/second it would be 194.20 hours. We might be unlucky and be stuck in a national access area. We it would take us a bit over a week.

So the bottom line it would take just over a day to just over a week depending on your transfer rate to use your monthly alotment of service and be terminated.

This is a far cry from the service being unlimited and you'd have to be on 24 hrs a day for a whole month to approach the limit.

My problem here is not that they limit the quantity of data you can transfer. Verizon's is welcome to price and limit the service any way they like. They are not welcome to offer the service subject to immediate termination for simply transferring too much data, and we're not talking spamming here. My problem is multifold:

• They consider one days worth of data transfer to be unlimited
• They promote the service to transfer large files (remember a single DVD is 4.7 GB). A 200 GB hard drive is a fairly common size.
• They promote the sevice as if using 5 GB would be close to impossible or at least extremely difficult. In this day and age 5 GB is a tiny quantity of data.
• They have a severe penalty for exceeding the "unlimited usage" of 5GB/Line/Month, ie: immediate termination of your service!

Now, I realize Verizon will simply say that the service is not intended for such usage, and I disagree. They promote it as a business to business service and for large file downloads and as backup for when there is a landline circuit outage.

That aside the whole issue is resolved by offering a quality service without punishing their good customers. They simply need to define the price as $60/mo/up to 5GB and $x/additional GB. That would benefit their customers and their shareholders.

Cellular Broadband Hell

Yesterday I did a little research for a project that would require internet access via the cellular network.

Verizon has a nice website that explains the service, the phones it works on and the prices. It is important to keep in mind that this is Verizon's business to business website so we are not talking about some whimpy service for home users.

The tethered modem capability is ideal when you're traveling and need to use your notebook to check email, access corporate networks, or download large files like presentations and reports. And with BroadbandAccess Connect, you won't have to buy an extra PC Card or other devices.

[my emphasis]

Now, they are telling me it is good or large files. One of my projects requires a weekly download of a file that last time was 2,607,071,402 bytes (that is 2.6 gigabytes).

The price is listed as $15, $30, or $59.95 depending on which device you are using and noting that you also need a "qualifying" voice plan in most cases.

Now the next problem is where is the service actually available, they offer a website with a list of states and cities which is pretty useless as what exactly does "Philadelphia" mean?

Ok, we move onto their map. They offer a map doing broadband service areas, however most of the map shows "national access" and they never make it clear what national access is versus broadband access, so I assume their map is just confusing and without a close look one would think broadband access is extensive when it may well just be in metropolitan areas.

The speed is supposed to be good:

With BroadbandAccess service, you can work at typical download speeds of 400 to 700 kbps, with bursts of up to 2.0 Mbps.

And now maybe they explain national access:

NationalAccess

Traveling outside of the BroadbandAccess coverage area? No problem. You can rely on our NationalAccess network to provide fast downloads, quick access to your email, and efficient Internet searches in thousands of cities and towns across America whenever you’re outside the BroadbandAccess Rate and Coverage Area.

• Access anywhere within the National Enhanced Services Rate and Coverage Area.
• Connect at speeds bursting up to 144 Kbps, with typical speeds of 60 to 80 Kbps.

Now that is something that would have been nice to make shown on the map! So basically they will give you broadband speeds in metro areas and slightly better than dialup in between.

Now, my favorite part is their warning about usage, keep in mind that this is business to business service and they say it is good for downloading large files:

If more than 5 GB/line/month are used, we presume use is for non-permitted uses and reserve the right to terminate service immediately.

Now, I guess there is a vast difference between my idea and their idea of a large file. I believe even normal business usage could easily run over 5 GB/line/month.

Of course this statement shows the ignorance of big business and their desire to punish their customers.

A good customer is one that uses a lot of your product or service. Here Verizon specifically states that they will "terminate service immediately" if you are a "good customer", ie: one that uses a lot of their service.

An intelligent business would never make such a presentation to a customer, or terminate ones service for using it! An intelligent business would state "the above prices INCLUDE up to 5GB/month usage. Additional usage costs....".

Now the business would reward itself by generating more revenue (ie: profit) from good customers.

I also wonder what resources they offer to show you your actual usage so you have an idea if your service is going to be terminated immediately? Does the 5 GB/month only include data? routing packets? headers? restransmitted packets? That could make a huge difference in your actual allowed data volume.

If retransmitted packets count toward your 5 GB limit than you are punished again for poor network performance!