Why airtime doesn’t disappear on Telkom’s LTE network

Telkom has confirmed to MyBroadband that it doesn’t bill subscribers when a device connects to its LTE network.
This comes after tests conducted by MyBroadband revealed that airtime was “disappearing” from two MTN prepaid SIMs installed in different LTE-capable smartphones.
Airtime was consumed by out-of-bundle data usage, despite mobile data on the devices being switched off. The devices were also connected to a Wi-Fi connection with Internet access.
Telkom customers are not charged
An LTE connection runs on Internet Protocol, and MTN explained it is a data-only technology. This means devices consume data to establish a connection to the network, even if the mobile data option on a smartphone is disabled.
“LTE is an always-connected technology, and as a result of LTE standards, any compatible device connecting to the LTE network receives an IP address,” said MTN.
Telkom stated that it does not view this “LTE connection data” in the same way as mobile data which is used when browsing websites or using apps.
“Packets are transmitted to the network to authenticate the device so it can attach to the network, this is different to Internet traffic,” said Telkom.
“We classify that as control plane traffic, whereas data from the handset when a subscriber is browsing is user plane traffic.”
Telkom said it does not charge subscribers for any “control plane traffic”.
It said it is difficult to quantify how much data is used for signalling in the control plane, because it is not only for setting up a connection to the network, but also for keep-alive, paging, location updates, and other control functions.
“We will only charge a subscriber for traffic that the subscriber is using,” said Telkom. It added that its network has worked this way since it launched LTE.
“It should be noted that user plane traffic is not always initiated by the user, a subscriber could be hosting a website and any connection to it would be considered user plane and be charged.”