[Discuss] OT: a Noplan Phone?

[tmetro+blu at gmail.com (Tom Metro)]

Here's an tangential thought on no-data-plan phones: I've notice my
phone shows constant data activity on 3G when away from WiFi, even when
it has no active data plan (I haven't taken any steps to explicitly shut
down data in the OS).

There is a partially working data link, as I can reach T-Mobile's
captive portal from a web browser. That means my phone is using up data
bandwidth at no charge. (Albeit useless bandwidth for me.)

This seems like a flawed design. Sure, the carrier is saving some costs
by not routing any of my packets to the backbone, but presumably all the
constraints that justify the high data costs are due to congestion on
the phone-to-tower link.

You'd think with the way carriers are more than willing to meddle with
the internals of Android that they'd have put in some controls to
completely shut down the data modem if there isn't an active data plan.
But I guess there aren't enough no-data smart phones to justify the
effort. Plus, it would prevent them from being able to sell you a plan
upgrade from their captive portal when away from WiFi. (Exactly when
you'd be most likely to buy such an upgrade.)

 -Tom

-- 
Tom Metro
Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA
"Enterprise solutions through open source."
Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/