Vodacom CEO explains BlackBerry plans
Summary: Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys explains that there is no throttling on the BlackBerry network, and that they have no intention of influencing the service of normal BlackBerry users
All hell broke loose online when Vodacom announced on Monday (12 September 2011) that they have plans to throttle the speed of BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) users who exceed 100MB of data usage per month.
Vodacom explained that 95% of BlackBerry data usage was attributable to less than 5% of users, and that they decided to implement measures that will ensure that Blackberry users will enjoy a better browsing experience overall.
Consumers slated Vodacom’s decision on social networking channels like Facebook and Twitter, as well as platforms like MyBroadband.
One of the main themes was that Vodacom ‘punishes’ their regular users because of a few people who found a way to bypass the BlackBerry restrictions and hence ‘abuse’ the unlimited bandwidth allocation.
Vodacom CEO steps in
Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys, who was in London at a Vodafone board meeting during this whole fiasco, said that he was as surprised as consumers to read that his company would be implementing a 100MB usage threshold after which BIS speeds will be throttled from 3G and 2G.
Uys explained that there was no final decision made on how to address the problem of a select group of users downloading hundreds of gigabytes per month, and that the intension is definitely not to influence the BIS service in any way.
Uys highlighted that there is currently no throttling on the BIS service, and that regular BlackBerry users can rest assured that their service will not be affected.
Pieter Uys
Abusing the uncapped BlackBerry service
Uys confirmed that some BlackBerry subscribers are using web based torrent download services like Torrific.com to download movies and TV series which the users then transfer from their memory cards to their PCs to watch at a later stage.
Other users take it a step further by using software to spoof the BlackBerry APN which allows them to use their BlackBerry as a tethered modem, bypassing the BlackBerry compression and other limitations to download large files.
Because of BlackBerry’s encryption it is not possible for Vodacom to solve this problem, and Uys said that they contacted Research in Motion (RIM) as a matter of urgency to find a solution to this problem.
Uys said that their 1Gbps connection to RIM’s servers are running at capacity during peak periods because of the small group of people downloading large files – a scenario which means that standard BlackBerry users may experience slower speeds during peak times.
The Vodacom CEO highlighted that their strategy was all along to target the users who download large files (often for 24 hours a day) without impacting their standard BlackBerry subscribers.
Uys said that he is not certain how long it will take for RIM to develop a system to address this problem. He however said that Vodacom made it clear that it is a very serious issue, and want it resolved as soon as possible.
It is commendable that Vodacom are addressing the issue of slow speeds that many BlackBerry users have raised and it’s good to see that the engineers behind the scenes are not only aware of the problem but actively looking for solutions.
But one has to question the manner in which this issue was communicated to the public.
Also read:
Vodacom backtracks on BlackBerry speed throttling
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