Unlimited traffic ≠ unlimited traffic usage. Have you ever encountered this kind of "trap"?

"Use data nationwide as you wish", "Unlimited, smoother" ... Recently, major telecom operators have launched "unlimited data" packages to meet the increasingly strong demand for data among users in the mobile Internet era.

The average mobile phone user uses 4GB of data

The operating data of the three major operators in May have been released one after another. It is worth noting that China Mobile's customer base has increased again, with the total number of users exceeding 900 million. In addition, with the further deepening of speed increase and fee reduction, data traffic consumption has increased by leaps and bounds, with each household's monthly traffic reaching a new peak of nearly 4GB.

Data shows that in May this year, the total number of China Mobile users reached 901.917 million, with a net increase of 2.259 million customers that month, of which the number of 4G users increased by 2.505 million that month, reaching 671.823 million.

In May this year, the three major operators continued to launch a series of new measures to increase speed and reduce fees, including launching various large-volume and unlimited-volume packages. The economic operation of the communications industry in May 2018 announced by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology yesterday showed that the average mobile Internet access traffic (DOU) per household in May was nearly 4GB.

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"Unlimited traffic" does not mean "*** traffic usage"

The pace of “speeding up and reducing fees” is getting faster and faster. Have users really enjoyed the benefits it brings?

Recently, some users complained online that the unlimited 4G network package they purchased had a slower Internet speed after exceeding a certain amount of traffic each month. It took several seconds to open a web page, and even logging into WeChat was difficult. They called the operator's customer service and were told that if they wanted to restore the 4G network speed, they would need to purchase an additional data acceleration package.

Relevant telecommunications experts said that the reason why users' traffic speed is limited after reaching a certain limit is because the operator's infrastructure construction has not reached the reality of opening up 100% traffic to everyone. Only by limiting the network speed can the operator guarantee the user experience of the vast majority of users.

Users are not convinced by the experts' explanation. In their view, "unlimited data" literally means "unlimited data usage", and the operators have added "speed limit" and other preconditions without any warning, which is actually a deception to consumers.

Industry insiders revealed that in order to increase the number of new users, operators have indeed been passive in informing users that unlimited data packages contain speed limit clauses.

Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology explicitly required operators to standardize their publicity: "We must attach great importance to the problems existing in the current publicity of 'unlimited' packages. The entire industry must immediately conduct self-inspection and effectively standardize the publicity and promotion of such packages. Exaggerated publicity is prohibited, and restrictive clauses must be clearly marked."

There are tricks in targeted traffic packages

Many users also complained that similar tricks also exist in the targeted traffic packages launched by operators. For example, a video website cooperated with an operator to launch a targeted traffic package, claiming in the advertisement that users would not incur any traffic fees when using the video APP. However, after reading the terms of the package contract carefully, it is found that only the traffic generated by watching videos is free, but it does not include the traffic generated during the loading of pictures, text, bullet screens, and third-party advertisements in the APP. Without any prompts, users' traffic fees may rise instead of fall.

Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, believes that even if the operator has a clause in the package contract that stipulates unlimited traffic usage as a precondition, it would still be an infringement of the consumer's right to know if it does not remind the user when the user signs up, or if the clause is not specifically marked in the contract.

Do operators really "steal" user traffic?

"One gigabyte of data used to be enough for a month, but now it can't even last 15 days." "The data usage is too fast. The first thing I do every time I arrive at a place is to check if there is WiFi." Many users question the "abnormal consumption" of mobile data and believe that operators are "playing tricks" in data calculations.

Do operators really "steal" user traffic? The Zhejiang Provincial Quality Supervision Bureau and the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Metrology once conducted a communication traffic detection test. In three multi-standard wireless communication Internet traffic monitors, SIM cards from the three major operators were randomly inserted to download the same file. From the comparison of the test results, there is almost no difference with the traffic statistics provided by the operators, which shows that the possibility of operators "stealing traffic" is not great.

Zhu Wei said: "The main reason why users feel that their traffic is running fast is that in order to remind users to update and push various messages in a timely manner, smartphone applications often choose to automatically connect to the network in the background, and the traffic will be consumed silently. In addition, Trojan viruses are also one of the culprits that cause traffic to escape." According to reports, a team of technical experts once discovered a Trojan virus implanted in a mobile phone application. As long as the user installs a mobile phone application with the virus, even a simple operation like sliding to unlock the screen will consume a certain amount of traffic.

Zhu Wei suggested that in order to gain the trust of users, operators should make public the network communication protocols that have been reviewed by the regulatory authorities. At the same time, users should not download apps illegally to avoid being infected with mobile phone viruses that consume data.

To truly achieve "unlimited speed" depends on 5

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Judging from the current situation at home and abroad, unlimited packages cannot be "unlimited", and technical considerations account for a large proportion. So will the 5G network piloted in more than a dozen cities in China this year break the restrictions of unlimited packages?

Independent telecom analyst Fu Liang pointed out in an interview with the media that it is not realistic to have neither limit on quantity nor speed under the current network bandwidth conditions. The base station load will be greatly increased in 5G networks, so it is possible to achieve it overall.

Technically, 5G can improve the shortcomings of 4G networks in base station load, which creates the possibility of truly realizing the "*** system" of unlimited packages.

Zeng Jianqiu, a professor at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, said that the high speed of 5G will bring faster upload and download speeds to users. "The speed of 5G is more than ten times that of 4G. When 5G comes, users will not have any "stuck" problems. Whether using a mobile phone or watching a program, there will be no problem of insufficient speed. This is what users can feel most."

Faster speeds also require a "stronger" network. The millimeter wave technology used in 5G technology can greatly increase the spectrum bandwidth and support more devices. This technology, combined with the 5G small base station deployment architecture, can solve the "peripheral communication" that 4G large base stations cannot solve, allowing users to use ultra-large data flows quickly and stably.

5G is expected to solve the problem technically, but in business, operators may not necessarily maintain the current model. Fu Liang once said that by then, for the packages provided by operators, the traffic scale may no longer be the main concern of users, so the package design and billing model may also evolve and be divided into providing different content, different functions and services.

With the development of 5G networks, the day when users can freely use mobile data traffic is not far away. However, under the current conditions, operators need to inform users of all restrictions truthfully instead of engaging in a "territory grabbing" propaganda war.