Study: Carriers Inaccurately Track Wireless Usage, Overbill > Simple fix?

reply to InvalidError

Re: Simple fix?

Except

reply to vpoko
We do take the power companies word for it. The difference is that there is an independently certified meter (a requirement of regulation) involved so that you could if you so wished check the power companies math.

See back in the days when the power companies came into being no one trusted companies not to put their finger on the scale to up the bill so regulation was put in place requiring that if there is a meter involved that the meter be certified to measure accurately. There is a political effort afoot to try to convince people that the company can be trusted (wink) and that the regulation should go away. Just like the banking collapse a few years ago we'll find that human nature is for the company to put their finger on the scale just like they did in the past to deserve the regulation in the first place. And much like the mortgage crisis greed will cause severe harm to innocent people.

If the providers want to have billing that relies on metering they should be required by law to have independently certified meters.

reply to BF69
The meters are owned by the carrier and we have to take them at their word that they're accurate. Electric meters are certified by an independent authority.

reply to BF69
but the mobile meter is recording what is sent from the server not what is used by the device.

reply to vpoko
Hate to break it to you but you've always had to take the phone company at its word. Ma Bell didn't have an independent agency verifying that her switches were probably timing your long distance calls. No cell phone carrier ever had such an authority accessing their switches to verify the length of voice calls and number of texts.

The people here accusing the carriers of cheating are essentially accusing Fortune 500 companies of committing fraud on a massive scale. These are outfits that employ legions of lawyers and compliance officers, alongside thousands of IT people, and others, all of whom have access to the data accounting and billing system. Have you considered the fact that not one of these people have come forward as a whistle-blower? Could it just be that there isn't deliberate fraud going on here?

I track my data usage with third party apps and it lines up to what Verizon tracks. They don't perfectly agree but the difference between the two is less than 2%. That's more accurate than my speedometer is required to be, so what exactly is the problem here? The difference is easily explained by packet loss and times when the app wasn't running for whatever reason (updates, waiting for the phone to boot, etc.)