attention meteor users

Intox

2 days ago i received a text from meteor stating that sms usage could be limited over the new years weekend, whats the deal with this and has anybody else got this text?

thanks

lkman

I also got that message.
I'm sure it's because there's gonna be alot of messages sent then, and they don't want delivery reports holding things up. A bit odd tho.

From Meteor
You can continue 2 send text messages but delivery sms reports may be unavailable from 5pm New Years Eve to 9am New Years Day. Sorry 4 any inconvenience. Meteor

Our man in Havana

It's a pity they can't use the english langauage correctly.

radiospan

I don't think there will be a problem sending texts, just with delivery reports.

Do I remember their network crashing on New Years Day last year?

BuffyBot

It's to ease the burden on the network. The capacity freed up by not doing delivery reports can be used to process messages and make sure they are delivered faster.

chrislad

That's good thinking. I don't know what people use delivery reports anyways.

New Years Eve between 11:30 and 1am are jammers anyways, so anything to lighten the load is welcome.

Sam Vimes

chrislad wrote:

That's good thinking. I don't know what people use delivery reports anyways..

i always use delivery reports. i like to know my text has gone through, especially on meteor where they often don't.

1huge1

actually i noticed a lot of people have changed to meteor this x mass id say there in for a big jump

BigCon

Is it only prepay customers?
I'm Meteor billpay and got no message (never use delivery reports anyway).

i always use delivery reports. i like to know my text has gone through, especially on meteor where they often don't.

I've never had this problem on Meteor (but maybe billpay is different)

marshmallow

I just changed to meteor this christmas and I know a lot of other people who have also.

I got the message. As already stated, they wont be sending reports.

BuffyBot

Nope, I'm on pre-pay and not had a message about it.

zoro

chrislad wrote:

That's good thinking. I don't know what people use delivery reports anyways.

Every person I know that does alot of texting uses delivery reports 100% of the time.

I think it's pretty pathetic that they can't accommodate this (widely used) feature. The network should be _MORE_ than capable of handling the extra load of messages. Otherwise they've just not provisioned for future expansion in any way shape or form.

I've been told by members of customer support that I shouldn't use delivery reports on my texts, but the only reason they could give for this order was that it added strain on the network. As I've said above, there shouldn't be any extra 'strain' on it, as it should be more than able to cope with at least twice the load they expect on the network - if they are planning on expansion.

All my opinion of course, but I'll be damned if I'm disabling message reports

BrianD

I don't think that any network would call itself ready to hande almost every subscriber texting everyone in their phonebook at almost the same time. I think any reasonable minded subscriber should expect and understand this. Also if the metworks were to gear up to accomodate NYE capacity then they would have excess capacity all year round and someone has to pay for this - you.

Remember it is also traffic (much of it unneccesary) that the networks are getting no revenue for. Why is it unnecessary as the networks do not guarantee to deliver a text message at any time.

This delivery report lark should either be stopped or charged for. I have no option of opting out of reports for texts sent to me. Perhaps they could put in a monthly fee for these reports.

At least Meteor are being proactive about this issue. Disable the reports and more real messages get through quickly.

zoro

BrianD wrote:

I don't think that any network would call itself ready to hande almost every subscriber texting everyone in their phonebook at almost the same time.

That's not what I'm saying.

Why is it unnecessary as the networks do not guarantee to deliver a text message at any time.

This is a major flaw imo. Texts are no longer a frivolous extra, they're now as much a reason to dictate the network I choose, as the call service. In many cases, how a company deals with texts will be the deciding factor for new users. If I found that meteor were to start charging for delivery reports (as you suggest) I'd have no trouble leaving them tomorrow - despite my having free meteor to meteor texts for life.

I have no option of opting out of reports for texts sent to me.

This should be a handset option, but it could also be controlled on the network side. For true privacy, a handset option would be suitable though.

At least Meteor are being proactive about this issue.

I see it as a short term solution only. The only true solution to the problem of network congestion is to upgrade the network to suit the current user base's activities. Not to limit their activities to what you deem suitable.

I don't want this to become a flame war But it's definitely a good topic to debate

Airwaves

At least they gave advance warning, let face it Vodafone and 02 will probally have the same problems as they do every year! I wonder how 3 will fair out?

dudara

I've never used a delivery report and probably never will. If it's that important, I'll ring the person.

Good of meteor to inform people, but I haven't received that text and I'm a bill-pay customer.

X-SL

zoro wrote:

Every person I know that does alot of texting uses delivery reports 100% of the time.

You must not know alot of people I text alot and DON'T use them. They are a hassle and get in the way. Why would you want an EXTRA message to open, or to ring or whatever and then have to delete your inbox more often because of the damn thing filling up.

They are good sometimes but definatly not if you text ALOT/FAST.

chrislad

One person I know uses them. They were handy years ago when Eircell was a mess and you didn't even get charged for messages. I have never had problems with Vodafone, O2 or Meteor with texts getting lost or not arriving, for the most part. Obviously, there have been one or two, but not enough for me to even consider delivery reports.

While it's a handy service, I'd happily go without it for one day so that people will have a better chance of being actually able to call friends/family on New Years. Meteor are being proactive about it, and yes, it is a short term solution. No network can take the strain that New Years puts on it. I've been with all 3 networks at New Years, and all of them had trouble. At least Meteor are trying something.

TerrorFirmer

Reports are handy when you send about one text a day.

Not so handy when you text all day, like myself. Annoying, get in the way, clog up the inbox. I always have them turned off.

Nice of Meteor to warn people. I suspect all the networks will be slightly bogged down Saturday night. At least people will know what the deal is, rather then go on whinging about Meteor this and Meteor that..... :v:

lomb

the meteor network has way too much contention, near newlands cross where i live, the busiest junction in the country probably, at peak times u cant even make or take a call, hence my switch to o2.

Pythia

MobileInfantry wrote:

Not so handy when you text all day, like myself. Annoying, get in the way, clog up the inbox. I always have them turned off.

On my 6680, the reports go into a separate folder and don't show a message picture in the corner of the screen. This is great cos if I want to check a delivery report, I can, but they don't get in the way.

Slice

I think delivery reports are totally intrusive, people who use them are a bit suspect to be honest. What's more, the time the message is received says nothing about the time it's read - like I wouldn't read a message the moment I receive it every time.

Also, it's a good point - if you so urgently need someone to get a message or if you so urgently need a response - why not call?

I know one or two people who totally and completely rely on text messaging and they're the same ones that need to know if their messages are received - even though they can't be bothered for whatever insecurity reason to make a phonecall.

6ix

Agreed. Anyone I know who uses delivery reports, seems to rely on them, in a freaky, 'need-to know-that-they-got-the-message' way. IF they use a phone without reports, they seem entirely lost.

They're a waste of time IMO. Ashas been said already - if it's important, you're hardly going to rely on a text message which, although delivered, might not be read for hours.

seamus

zoro wrote:

I think it's pretty pathetic that they can't accommodate this (widely used) feature. The network should be _MORE_ than capable of handling the extra load of messages. Otherwise they've just not provisioned for future expansion in any way shape or form.

As BrianD pointed out, it would be unreasonable to expect any network to be able to handle every subscriber in their network using their handset at the same instant. They use certain metrics to determine the average load in a cell, and expand the capacity as required. Some cells will have a capacity for a few thousand subscribers, other cells will have capacity for a few hundred.

It's a standard thing in network admin - you don't plan for the absolute maximum demand possible, since 99.5% of the time this capacity is going unused and is just costing you money. For example, if you go to a large gig (50,000+ people) in the RDS, you will find yourself constantly having trouble making calls or texts, or even getting connected to the network at all. The cell simply cannot handle that many subscribers at once. But that's OK, cos for the other 99% of the year there is more than enough capacity to handle the amount of people in the area. If Vodafone, for example, upgraded the capacity in that area to handle 25,000 subscribers, they would be spending massive amounts of money maintaining wasted capacity.

TerrorFirmer

Pythia wrote:

On my 6680, the reports go into a separate folder and don't show a message picture in the corner of the screen. This is great cos if I want to check a delivery report, I can, but they don't get in the way.

Ah yeah, it was the same on my 6680 and 6630, very handy I must say, best of both worlds.

Unfortuantely my 6630 broke recently so I'm using a crappy 6310i....

WillieFlynn

I like others who use delivery reports do so because of lack of trust in the network to deliver the messages in a timely manner. This is especially true of texts to other networks.

I have just switched to 3 from O2 so that I can save money by routing all international voice calls via my VoIP provider (blueface.ie). However I have found that I now can't text Spain and with some numbers I wouldn't have found out, except by using delivery reports.

My SonyEricsson phone justs changes the status of the message in the sent message folder, when the message has been received. Where as a previous phone from Siemens aslo displayed the time the delivery report was sent.

wheresmybeaver

I don't mind too much if texts are delayed by half an hour or whatever on new years eve, just as long as they do eventually get through. I remember O2 were guilty in this respect 2 or 3 years ago, when half of my "Happy feckin new years blaaaaaaahhh" midnight texts didnt get delivered.

Still, better than when Meteor were first launched. In the first month or so, nobody on Meteor ever got my texts (I was on O2 billpay) even though they were able to send txts to me no problem. It was a balls.

Dave

chrislad

Happy to say I had no major problems tonight with Meteor. One or two dropped calls, but that's about it. Texts went fine and received fine. Whether it was due to this, I don't know, but things ran a bit smoother than last year.