With the advent of mobile broadband it seems that every ISP / Telco provider is providing users with a FREE laptop with their mobile broadband service.
However we have noticed that users end up paying a lot more due to the bandwidth restrictions on mobile broadband (usually between 1 – 15GB). The reason for this is that most users DO NOT realise that any data transfered using mobile broadband is countable against your bandwidth limit. This includes browsing web pages, sending emails, chat rooms, remote support, file sharing etc.
In one case we recently noticed. A user had installed the Limewire peer to peer, file sharing application on the netbook provided by a UK telecoms company. Unfortunately for them, the Limewire application had scanned the users “My Music” and “My Videos” folder in My Documents and was uploading everything from these folders. This resulted in a hefty monthly bill for the user.
Most peer to peer applications or websites (such as utorrent etc) require that users upload what they download to a minimum of a 1:1 ratio. So if you download a 700MB divx file and also upload the same file on a 1:1 ratio, you will have used 1400MB or 1.4 GB of data, and if your mobile broadband limit is 1GB then your over and will be billed for it.
So our advice for mobile broadband users is:
Use you service for browsing web pages and emails only DO NOT use any peer to peer (P2P) or file sharing applications with mobile broadband Monitor your usage regulary – most providers provide an application for this – PAY ATTENTION TO IT
Should you need any advice regarding mobile broadband use, setup or monitoring then please contact us.