  Simba7I Void Warranties
join:2003-03-24
Billings, MT
1 edit | US wireless carriers are full of it That's what I thought. Why can Russia do it with 3G while we can't even do it with 4G? Oh wait, the carriers' are saying that it's impossible.
All I can say is.. Corporate Greed. It's not "Cell Capacity", it's the carriers unwilling to upgrade their backbone lines to the towers. Why upgrade your backbone when you can advertise "3G" or "4G" and not actually deliver those speeds?
Oh wait.. That would require money.. and, god forbid, they actually spend money to upgrade their sites. They're too busy shelling out the rear for lobbyists.
EDIT: Spelling.. Haven't had my caffeine IV yet. | |
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 |  woody7Premium
join:2000-10-13
Torrance, CA | Re: US wireless carriers are full of it =$$$$$$
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BlooMe | |
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|  Romney2012Defeat Obama 2012-Chg we can believe inPremium
join:2002-03-03
USA
kudos:4 | Wait til the promotion is over and Russians start actually using smartphones and data and their now empty systems start to be used. We will see then if unlimited is still in their plans. | |
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| | | Oh please...... Just recognize this for what it is, a publicity stunt. Maybe you can convince sprint or t-mo to offer a 'contest' like this.
No way are megafon going to allow their subscriber base to hammer gig after gig of data on a regular basis. | |
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| | Simba7I Void Warranties
join:2003-03-24
Billings, MT
1 edit | Re: US wireless carriers are full of it No, it's proof that a properly configured network can handle those types of traffic loads.
All the carriers here seem to blame it on current 3G technology, when that clearly isn't the case. | |
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| | |  knightmbEverybody Lies
join:2003-12-01
Franklin, TN | Re: US wireless carriers are full of it said by Simba7:No, it's proof that a properly configured network can handle those types of traffic loads.
All the carriers here seem to blame it on current 3G technology, when that clearly isn't the case.
100% Agreement. Ask someone that actually works on those towers and understands the technology and they will say the same thing, the data caps are only to make money, not to protect the network. | |
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| | | | | said by Simba7:No, it's proof that a properly configured network can handle those types of traffic loads.
All the carriers here seem to blame it on current 3G technology, when that clearly isn't the case.
It's proof of nothing.
Let's see the subscriber numbers. I'm betting they have far fewer than any US carrier. | |
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| | | | | | Re: US wireless carriers are full of it quote:
MegaFon’s subscriber base by January 2011 exceeded 59 million subscribers, or 30% of the Russian mobile communications market.
MegaFon is the first Russian mobile operator to operate in the GSM 900/1800 standard, and is one of the largest Russian GSM 900/1800/3G providers. The licensed GSM and 3G coverage of the company extends to 100% of the Russian population (145 million).
»www.altimo.ru/?a=doc&id=6&p=1&lang=en
Quite a bit of subscribers even when compared to AT&T and Verizon. If they encouraged downloading endless data, I would like to see the amount of data their network endured in one month compared to the big 2 here in the US. I bet it would be more. | |
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| | | | | | | Re: US wireless carriers are full of it said by sandman_1: quote:
MegaFon’s subscriber base by January 2011 exceeded 59 million subscribers, or 30% of the Russian mobile communications market.
MegaFon is the first Russian mobile operator to operate in the GSM 900/1800 standard, and is one of the largest Russian GSM 900/1800/3G providers. The licensed GSM and 3G coverage of the company extends to 100% of the Russian population (145 million).
»www.altimo.ru/?a=doc&id=6&p=1&lang=en
Quite a bit of subscribers even when compared to AT&T and Verizon. If they encouraged downloading endless data, I would like to see the amount of data their network endured in one month compared to the big 2 here in the US. I bet it would be more. 59 million is a bit more than half the number of subscribers that AT&T has. Russia has a lot of geographic area to cover.
So as I suspected, fewer subscribers means less strain on their network and less problems with data hogs. | |
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| | | | | | Reviews:
 ·Comcast
| Re: US wireless carriers are full of it as a certified installer who worked with MegaFon, these guys had money out the wazoo to spend on the network. They are really a good carrier who's management just gets it. They used 3 times as many antenna arrays per tower as their us counterparts, and they did this by design to allow more users they also do array hand offs at the tower. It eases congestion on the network and prevents useless packets from being sent to the server infrastructure.
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"It's always funny until someone gets hurt......and then it's absolutely friggin' hysterical!" | |
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| | | | | | | | I'm curious, why don't you respond to bosstones information about the technical aspects of the network? Let's hear your reasoning. | |
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| | | | Reviews:
 ·Verizon FiOS
 ·DIRECTV
·Optimum Online
·Cablevision
| The truth is somewhere in the middle, I read somewhere that based on technology for 3G and LTE. A properly configured 3G network should be able to handle 5GB cap per user, if you look back a few years you'll remember that Verizon claimed unlimited, and stopped you at 5GB, they did remove that limit fairly fast once it came out, yet after a couple years of upgrades they now can only handle 2GB? doesn't exactly make sense.
With 4G they said reasonable caps would be around 30GB, 1/15th of what Verizon provides at their base package and 1/3rd of the highest tier.
To have completely unlimited bandwidth to every user may not be possible, but the caps are set to make money, not to protect the network. Carriers in the US are just too greedy to provide fairly priced broadband, which is why I'm holding onto my unlimited plan until they rip it from my hand.
Also overages aren't technically needed either, network congestion can be handled quite effective by throttling heavy users when they are connected to a congested tower, and I'm not advocating currrent throttling practices which limit you to 50k which is basically unusable but something more reasonable like 256 or 512k for 3G, for LTE I'd say it could be as high at 1mb. | |
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| | | | | Simba7I Void Warranties
join:2003-03-24
Billings, MT | Re: US wireless carriers are full of it Large difference between caps and speed. Implementing caps doesn't not fix the bandwidth issue. It just creates another revenue stream for the carriers. | |
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| | | | | | | You realize that congestion can only be an issue during peak hours right? Why do you think the wireless carriers don't offer unthrottled access off-peak, or at night and on weekends like they do with voice? | |
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| |  Xioden
join:2008-06-10
Monticello, NY | $10,000 in overage charges to get a $5,000 vacation? Sign me up! | |
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| | | Simba7I Void Warranties
join:2003-03-24
Billings, MT | Re: US wireless carriers are full of it Sounds like what at&t does.. minus the vacation.
They (MegaFon) said unlimited. Plus, they're in Russia and actually gives a damn about their customers. Here in the US, it's all about the dollar. | |
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| | | | | Ask Sasktel in Canada the winner would get a bill for around five million dollars in overuse fees (419 gigabytes). | |
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 MerovingianCause and Effect
join:2011-03-31
Toronto, ON
kudos:1
·TekSavvy Cable
| Omgz! Oh,
.....my,
..........F'n,
...............Gawd!
If we could do that in Canada, WHOAH!
........................Dream ON bubba.
................Ain't never gona happen.
..........No way no how.
F'n duopolist over here too damn greedy!
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You see there is only one constant. One universal. It is the only real truth. Causality. Action, reaction. Cause and effect.
-Motorola SB6120-1.0.6.1 + Netgear RangeMax WNDR3700v1 + Dupont POI + eXtreme Cable Pr0
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 pnh102Reptiles Are Cuddly And PrettyPremium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD |  Wow...
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| | | Re: Wow... Hilarious. I just spit out my coffee. | |
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 fancydancerPerception is realityPremium
join:2002-08-28
Springfield, IL | Ha! I wonder if they terminated the user who consumed the LEAST amount of data! | |
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axus
join:2001-06-18
Washington, DC Reviews:
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| I wonder how he used so much! That's a lot of data on a smartphone! Some kind of streaming video service, maybe? A custom program to max the download speed and throw away the data would probably be the way to win a contest, though.
I probably use that much data in a year on my DSL :P | |
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| | | Re: I wonder how he used so much! I'd assume tethering and a usenet account running 24/7 to max the connection ..
For those who are curious: 419 gigabytes in one week is basically downloading at a constant rate of 5.68 Mbps | |
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| | | | Re: I wonder how he used so much! jeez... the guy puts me and my unlimited Lte usage to shame. | |
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 eksterBoo
join:2010-07-16
Lachine, QC
kudos:1
·TekSavvy DSL
 ·FreePhoneLine
| Of course Russian can do I mean, seriously, Russia doesn't have this harsh weather, crazy climate, mountains, forests, and rodents. Also, Russia isn't a desolate place with a tiny population spread out in corn fields. Nuh uh. Of course they can do it while North America is stuck with all these problems and obstacles that no one else has. | |
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| Simba7I Void Warranties
join:2003-03-24
Billings, MT | Re: Of course Russian can do No, the companies don't want to invest because they want their ROI immediately. | |
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|  KrKHeavy Artillery For The Little GuyPremium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK | Yeah kind of blows up that geography excuse you always hear. | |
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| | Good for you Russia. and MegaFon... I love it when other countries show how Canada has become a 3rd world telecommunications country. | |
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| | The 'not invented here' excuse will be used Both the FCC and the CRTC should send technical teams over to Russia to speak with the MegaFon engineers to see exactly how they managed to do this without having capacity issues, and then come back and hold the wireless carriers here to the same standard.
But it'll never happen.... just like the Japanese used to keep European skis out of the Japanese market because Japanese snow was somehow 'different' and European skis couldn't cope with it. | |
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| | | Re: The 'not invented here' excuse will be used Well duh, I imagine they did it by not having as many customers, with most Russian citizens being unable to afford a smartphone that would even be capable of such a feat. | |
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| | Reviews:
·Comcast
| Re: The 'not invented here' excuse will be used Really , your going to pull that one out ?
Ever been to Europe or Russia ? Almost every one has a mobile and most tether for data even on the normal feature phones that are capable of using the data channels.
Also , they are close to china and are heavily dumped on with cheap Android phones. As well as also being extremely cheap to have a phone there, service is also significantly cheaper.
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"It's always funny until someone gets hurt......and then it's absolutely friggin' hysterical!" | |
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| | How many subscribers? Various sources say they have around 7.2 million?
Drop in the bucket compared to Verizon and AT&T. | |
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See 10 replies to this post |
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| | You apologists for the U.S. wireless industry... Keep apologizing. But you won't be able to escape the fact that, here in the U.S., we pay more, for less, for wireless, broadband, cable TV, the entire gamut, than do many of our peers in many other industrialized countries. My European in-laws and on-line acquaintances are appalled at what these services cost, and what we get for them, compared to what they get for what they pay.
Quite bluntly: We're getting screwed. We've been getting screwed for years. It looks like we're going to continue to get screwed for the foreseeable future. | |
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See 10 replies to this post |
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| | Some clarification from a Russian commenter @ theVerge dmitrypechenyuk said:
quote:
I’m not related to the MegaFon or winners of the contest. I just want to give some comments and clarifications(yep, I’m from Russia,Moscow)
First of all, there’s no such thing as a trully unlimited data. And that’s true for all three national carriers. Carriers call it “unlimited” only because at some point you hit your data cap and then get throttled speed.
There are 3 types of unlimited data-plans. First one is – you have limited/unlimited speed with data caps(1-20Gb). Second – you have unlimited speed but have data cap per day(usually 30Mb). Third – time-limited unlimited usage(as an example – from 00.00 till 08.00 am its absolutely unlimited)
Throttling is activated when you hit your cap. Usually it’s 64 kbit/s. You can continue use internet though. Sometimes there’s an option(you have to pay a little bit of course) that will give you some additional amount of data and will bring speed back according to your data plan. Otherwise, you have to wait the next month/day.
Futhermore about winner and contest. You needed to buy usb-dongle with data plan(that are not trully unlimited). The winner spend 12,000 rubles(~$400) to pay his traffic. And to answer some questions, he used bittorent to have so big data usage. Source – »delovoe.tv/event/V_Peterburge_abonent_Me/
There’s no need to test limits of their networks. The reason is that they always make it with the mind of many users. That happens because in many rigions in Russia ISP’s have sometimes insane price for their service. That’s why many people buy usb-dongle off wireless carrier rather than have internet-cable in the house. That’s actually a good alternative since all 3 national cellular providers have absolute coverege of GSM network and very very good 3G network everywhere. In fact, carriers earn lots of money providing relatevely cheap internet outside Moscow(that’s why a reasonable 3G network coverage only came here a year ago).
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 r81984Fair and BalancedPremium
join:2001-11-14
Katy, TX | Damn Russians First space and now unlimited data.
Well at least we got the moon cheese first.
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...brought to you by Carl's Jr. | |
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 dvd536as Mr. Pink as they comePremium
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ
kudos:4 | MegaFON has no. . . . . Lucrative overpriced VIDEO packages to protect! | |
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1 edit | can you hear the real REDS now? Take that Verizon and your little greedy ma bell co-hort/co-conspirator AT&T! | |
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 chlenEthically ChallengedPremium
join:2001-01-16
Albany, NY | Russian Telecom While it is rare that I would be defending or arguing on behalf of Russia, I do travel there frequently to see friends and in many ways they are far more advanced in Wireless than the US.
When in Russia I use Global (St. Peterburg) or MegaFon. I have traveled extensively by train and car between Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kazan. I can say with out a doubt that their service is much better even in the middle of nowhere there is very fast 3G.
There are reasons for this.
The Soviet telephone system is barely usable in the lage cities. It is much cheaper and better in voice and data to go wireless. Poor lines make for bad DSL, and cable is none-existent so unless you live in a wealthy new development and get fiber, wireless is a big part.
Most people have smartphones simply because it is cheaper for data. Many tether.
Cell phones are sold at high cost and sim cards are cheap like the rest of Europe and because of this people tend to save up and get latest since it needs to last and often replaces many key functions of a digital camera and laptop. Russia is an expensive country where salaries are only decent in a handful of places.
There is also the fact that no regulatory roadblocks are in the way. Government invests heavily and tells the state sponsored providers what to do. There is no real fight. At the end of the day Russia started with more advanced technology at a cheaper price, and it is cheaper for the country to do this than to upgrade the land-lines.
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This is not the greatest post in the world, no, this is just a tribute!
Слесарь-гинеколог | |
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| dvk245
join:2003-05-25
Brooklyn, NY | Re: Russian Telecom This is true.
Megafon offers a USB 3G dongle for 750 (~$25) rub without any setup fees or contract with an unlimited data plan that costs 500 rub/month. The first month is free. There is a 500 mb daily cap, but no monthly cap to the best of my knowledge. Even out in the boonies the service is generally as good or better than anything I've seen with AT&T here in NYC.
The truth of the matter is that most of the rest of the world puts US to shame when it comes to both the cost and the quality of wireless service. | |
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jfmezeiPremium
join:2007-01-03
Pointe-Claire, QC
kudos:22 | Where is Angelo ? Has Angelo moved to Russia already ? He will definitely give those internet providers a good run for their money  | |
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