Things you hate about the mobile industry (threads merged)

drunkmonkey

Dankoozy wrote: »

the going rate for a 6300 is ~100 euro. but of course the shops will charge you 229 because they want to make the subsidy look bigger because they get kickbacks from the network.

Dankoozy wrote: »

I can get a 6300 for the same price as the subsidised phone, easy. not on a high-street mobile phone shop but i can definitely get it.

No Carphone have big sim free prices which make the vodafone prices look good when in fact their sim free prices and vodafone prices are a rip off..

Where's this place you can pick up sim free handsets for the same price as subsidised handsets?

Dankoozy

ninety6days wrote: »

only on meteor/o2 is not to keep someone on a more expensive network, it's the only method networks have of using and individual product to sell a range of services (which is where they actually make their money). they can't all have every phone. Anyway, how is this any differnt from mcdonalds having the only big macs? Or restaurants having their own menus? or sky having movies earlier than others?

Admittedly you're partially right about the GSM issue, but i wasnt specific enough. i was talkngi about the extra services like MMS and internet access, which are most of the actual logistical problems for networks when picking phones, massive amounts of effort go into the network software (particularly meteor) because ITS NOT AS SIMPLE AS PEOPLE THINK.

and further, when was the last time you were "arsed" spending 50000 on something?

once the standards for MMS and all that are properly implemented on the handset and the network there shouldn't be a problem, thats what standards are for.

its different because manufacturers and networks are completely separate entities and the way things are now - the ability to use any GSM handset on any GSM network is a great thing to have. mobile phone networks should compete on the basis of having the best service at the lowest price, not who can strike the best exclusive deals with manufacturers.

'only on meteor' doesn't actually bother me that much once i can still go and get the phone independently. the trouble starts when they start defending their exclusivity 'iphone-style' or making the networks more proprietary so that independently bought phones don't work as well

drunkmonkey wrote: »

No Carphone have big sim free prices which make the vodafone prices look good when in fact their sim free prices and vodafone prices are a rip off..

Where's this place you can pick up sim free handsets for the same price as subsidised handsets?

ebay, expansys sometimes and this little shop in the middle of london that i will never for the life of me be able to find a second time. ah **** it if i had 130 pound in my pocket that day...

ninety6days wrote: »

this is a stupid complaint. It's like complaining that the ABS never faield on a model t.

its more like complaining that the smallest engine offered in any particular car model is underpowered. except with phones you can't really say you want a faster processor unless you overclock it yourself. things are not nearly as bad as they used to be but srsly, a 150 mhz processor in the 9500? wtf were they thinking. but i suppose everyone wanted a phone with a colour screen and the faster processors were too expensive

ninety6days

Dankoozy wrote: »

once the standards for MMS and all that are properly implemented on the handset and the network there shouldn't be a problem, thats what standards are for.

its different because manufacturers and networks are completely separate entities and the way things are now - the ability to use any GSM handset on any GSM network is a great thing to have. mobile phone networks should compete on the basis of having the best service at the lowest price, not who can strike the best exclusive deals with manufacturers.

'only on meteor' doesn't actually bother me that much once i can still go and get the phone independently. the trouble starts when they start defending their exclusivity 'iphone-style' or making the networks more proprietary so that independently bought phones don't work as well



ebay, expansys sometimes and this little shop in the middle of london that i will never for the life of me be able to find a second time. ah **** it if i had 130 pound in my pocket that day...



its more like complaining that the smallest engine offered in any particular car model is underpowered. except with phones you can't really say you want a faster processor unless you overclock it yourself. things are not nearly as bad as they used to be but srsly, a 150 mhz processor in the 9500? wtf were they thinking. but i suppose everyone wanted a phone with a colour screen and the faster processors were too expensive

800 mhz in the jet. 600 in the iphone. Yes, some things are expensive compared to purchasing online. It's almost like websites have no overheads, isn't it? Moron.

watty

SMS. Expensive, costs Network essentially nothing.

Roaming charges are dishonest in Europe

Misleading claims about coverage.

Packages are designed to make it very hard to compare with the other 4 voice Mobile operators.

Cross subsidy of 150:1 to 500:1 of Data packages by Voice packages.

The lying dishonesty of quoteing total Mast Sector peak speed (only one customer with perfect signal) as a speed (weasel Up To).

Claiming Data Internet is Broadband. It can't ever be as minimum speed is under Dialup, and it may drop call or disconnect. It's officially "Midband" and is a form of Wireless Dialup.

Subsidised locked in packages to make phones look cheap. Distorts market and limits handset competiton.

Excessive unlock charge when you have paid enough subscription to cover subsidy and made them a normal profit.

Refusal to sell Data Sims for unlocked Modems. (Because you would buy 4 to have x4 data per month, which they can't afford, see below).

Hidden FUP and misleadingly presented Traffic charges. Claiming 5G, 10G or 15G is a large Cap (120G is a large Cap, 15G is small).

Lack of clarity that if you use up 30 day PAYG DATA, unlike voice you are charged at upto €500 a Gigabyte out of topup till 20 more days are passed if you use your 30day topup data in 10 days.

Only let you have one PAYG SIM for Data (see last one as to why).


Not losing their licence when they did not comply with it. Lying to Comreg about coverage and Roll out.

Allowing and profiting by premium voice and SMS scams.


Operator SMS and MMS Spam. Really getting bad on O2 bill pay.


They are pathetically regulated.

Random

ninety6days wrote: »

800 mhz in the jet. 600 in the iphone. Yes, some things are expensive compared to purchasing online. It's almost like websites have no overheads, isn't it? Moron.

Please don't insult other users. You've been given a warning. PM me if you have any issues.

ninety6days

Random wrote: »

Please don't insult other users. You've been given a warning. PM me if you have any issues.

understood. New here. uesd to forums with less restrictions. not to be repeated. Apologies also to drunkmonkey.

ninety6days

watty wrote: »

The lying dishonesty of quoteing total Mast Sector peak speed (only one customer with perfect signal) as a speed (weasel Up To).

In all fairness with so much variation how else can they quote the speed?

Rsaeire

ninety6days wrote: »

In all fairness with so much variation how else can they quote the speed?

Mobile providers need to quote "a" speed, so consumers are aware of what the network is capable of and so they can market that speed with all the hyperbole they can muster in an attempt to increase revenue.

Also, by carefully including the two words "up to", they're effectively covering themselves should anyone complain that they're not receiving the quoted figure that appears in all the providers' marketing material, e.g. Meteor advertising their HSPA network's speeds of up to 14.4 Mbps; they also "forgot" to advise their loyal customers that they don't sell any device(s) that come(s) close to that speed.

watty

ninety6days wrote: »

In all fairness with so much variation how else can they quote the speed?

There ARE Industry metrics KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), Cell Average Throughput is quoted by the VENDORS of the masts at 2Mbps per sector shared between all the online users.

An economically loaded Mast would have average of 200kBps at peak time.

"Up to" 7.2Mbps is so misleading compared with a real 3Mbps or 7Mbps DSL or Cable or Fixed Wireless Broadband package speeds.

They are NOT quoting a typical speed, but peak system capacity. It's basically a lie. International definition of the systems is NOT Broadband but MidBand. Dialup and up to 2 channel ISDN (128kbps) is officially Narrowband.

Less than 10% of a Cells area can get the full speed, and only if only one user is on line
http://www.radioway.info/comparewireless/CompareHSPAandFixed-v4.html

Speed versus different distance from mast, a SINGLE connection switched on is figures on right,
the "speed bubbles" show individual speeds for 10 users.



Speed versus distance from mast with 20 users (in a sector)

Note though shown as circles a "Sector" of 20 users is 1/3rd pizza/pie slice of "petal" shape overlapping the two neighbouring sectors slightly.
The "speed bubbles" show speed of each user if all are simultaneously running.

watty

The 14.4Mbps only applies thus close to mast and no other users INCLUDING phone calls on your 1/3rd pie/petal sector.

It's thus fantasy, on average, in the real world.

The Cells are small, and Random users clump. So some masts have occasional phone calls (road side National Routes) and others have twice the average number of users and thus you have only 50kbps or random disconnects.

Data users only get what is left after phone calls are connected! It's only a Mobile Phone system.

The "real word" Average speed is (2Mbps x 3 x Number of Masts) / (Number of customers connecting at once). Due to uneven nature some people will have up to 5Mbps (less than 10%) and some 50kbps or disconnects.

xanthor

Rant:

Vodafones spotty coverage around the D5 area, combined with several months of "we only just became aware of the problem".

Vodafone's intermittent 3G coverage right in the center of Dublin.

Vodafone's piss poor "full range" of handsets.

Nokia's market dominance.

Nokia's abuse of their market dominance.

Networks' that will not offer anything other than Nokia for fear of confusing people who think that Nokia is the only viable mobile phone brand on the
planet.