Comcast: Our Usage Meter is 94.6% Accurate

While Comcast expands its usage based billing (here), questions are raised if its metering system is accurate. One of Comcast's subscribers describes in a YouTube post his exchange with Comcast customer service over exceptionally high data consumption charges by Comcast.

"It all started about three months ago, September 2015, when I got a call out of the blue. It was Comcast informing me I was getting dangerously close to my data cap .. I hung up the phone, looked at the traffic logs built into my router, saw that I was not even close to Comcast’s cap .. November 9th, nighttime, we finally arrive home, and I decide to see what was happening with Comcast meter. It was showing I used 120 gigs of data! .. So I called Comcast the next day, Nov 10th, and was patronizingly informed that “it must be somebody stealing your wifi”. Possible, but highly unlikely. I’m a software developer, Linux kernel contributor, and I take my home security very seriously ..."

And it continues - see "Comcast data meter ripoff exposed" - here and here

Algar Telecom Uses Openet PCC to Create New Services

Openet announced that "Algar Telecom has adopted Openet’s Policy Manager solution to streamline product development and reduce time to market. Openet’s Policy Manager solution will play a crucial role in delivering next-generation network capabilities, offering centralized access to subscriber data and other specialised BSS functions. By operating in real-time Openet’s Policy Manager will play a fundamental role streamlining the creation of new products and services. 

Using Openet’s Policy Manager, Algar Telecom enables real-time management of data quotas and uses these to target context aware offers to customers. This includes roaming offers, which provide data add-ons when customers reach their roaming data limits. These offers are activated in real-time and a deliver new revenue streams to Algar"


See "Algar Telecom Adopts Openet's Policy Manager Solution to Streamline Product Development" - here.

NBN [Australia] to Use DPI for Restricting Data Usage During Peak Periods

 

NBN Co Satellite Ground Stations

Few weeks ago NBN Australia published an RFI for DPI (see "Carrier Grade (3 9's) DPI RFI by nbn Australia" - here). Recent information shows some of the intended use.

Allie Coyne reports to itnews that "NBN plans to set caps for users on its long-term satellite service, proposing a maximum usage limit of 150GB per month following capacity issues on its interim satellite service.

As first revealed by NBN watcher Ken Tsang, NBN is planning to implement limits that mean LTSS users would be able to download no more than 150GB each month [pdf]. The 150GB tier would be the highest of three tiers. The two lower tiers come in at 75GB and 100GB.

NBN also plans to restrict customer data usage during peak periods, providing them either 15GB, 20GB or 25GB of download for the period, dependent on tier. Quotas would similarly apply for uploads. Customers who exceed the data cap will face having their speeds shaped down to as little as 256kbps for download and upload.

In late September NBN revealed it would start using network monitoring tools to stop individuals sucking up high amounts of bandwidth on the LTSS. It said it would implement deep packet inspection technology to "enhance its capacity planning, offer new services and improve congestion management".

See "Data limits proposed for satellite NBN users" - here.

Does Comcast Use Data Caps for Fair Service?

Karl Bode reports to techdirt that "For years the broadband industry tried to claim that they were imposing usage caps because of network congestion. .. big ISPs have tried to argue that caps are about "fairness," or that they're essential lest the Internet collapse from uncontrolled congestion.

Comcast is of course slowly but surely expanding usage caps into its least competitive markets. More recently the company has tried to deny it even has caps, instead insisting these limits are "data thresholds" or "flexible data consumption plans."
 
But when asked last week why Comcast's caps in these markets remain so low in proportion to rising Comcast speeds (and prices), Comcast engineer and vice president of Internet services Jason Livingood candidly admitted on Twitter that the decision to impose caps was a business one, not one dictated by network engineering:

Read more - "Comcast Admits Broadband Usage Caps Are A Cash Grab, Not An Engineering Necessity" - here.

[Gartner]: MNOs Should: Rethink Their Data Caps; Cache and Optimize Video

A new report by Jessica Ekholm [pictured], research director, Gartner finds that "Global mobile data traffic is set to reach 52 million terabytes (TB) in 2015, an increase of 59 percent from 2014,.. The rapid growth is set to continue through 2018, when mobile data levels are estimated to reach 173 million TB .. New, fast mobile data connections (3G and 4G) will grow more slowly, from 3.8 billion in 2015 to 5.1 billion in 2018, as users switch from slower 2G connections and consume more mobile data. 

Gartner analysts advise communication service providers (CSPs) to rethink their data caps to meet consumer needs and win market share .. CSPs must create and sell data plans with higher caps to increase their share of this growing market. With video usage as a percentage of total data usage set to rise from 50 percent now to 60 percent by 2018, we should expect CSPs to offer the best-of-breed video experience to consumers, This involves using video optimization technologies and caching content closer to the consumer. Contract plans that single out video traffic to allow users to reach a certain cap (without touching their contract data cap) will increase usage and revenue for CSPs and meet consumer demand for more mobile video."

See "Gartner Forecasts 59 Percent Mobile Data Growth Worldwide in 2015" - here.

ISP Sends Bandwidth Hogs to Seek a New Provider

  

Juha Saarinen reports to itnews (Australia) that "Internet service provider Exetel has given 400 of its broadband customers notice that their contracts will be terminated for heavy usage. 

Exetel chief marketing officer Ben Colman [pictured] confirmed the contract terminations to iTnews after affected users took to the Whirlpool user forum in anger .. many also claimed to have been terminated despite never reaching their full allocated data cap.

Colman said the company had decided to terminate the plans of 400 heavy out-of-contract users after one of its regular reviews of customer usage, network performance and cost.

Exetel has advised the affected customers to "churn/transfer your ADSL/Phone service to another carrier" within 30 days.

See "Exetel dumps 400 heavy broadband users" - here.

[Study]: 85% of Operators are Leveraging OTT Apps to Attract Customers

A new study by Allot Communications (surveyed the data plans and charging trends of 175 mobile operators worldwide) finds that "85% of operators are leveraging apps to attract customers and increase ARPU .. Facebook is mobile operators’ top choice for zero-rated apps and Unlimited data plans are in decline".

Some examples of Zero rate programs:

• Facebook Offers Free Messaging Through 18 MNOs - here
• Success for Application-Based Service Plans in Zimbabwe - here
• Vodafone India Offers Free Twitter Access - here
• VimpelCom - Free Access to Wikipedia - here
• Smart [Philippines] Uses Sandvine for Application-Aware Service Plans - here
• Aircel [India] Offers Facebook Aware Service - here

Source: Allot Communications 

"Shared data plans are on the rise From 2012 to 2014, operators offering unlimited data plans have diminished from 35% to 15% while operators offering shared data plans with shared data caps increased from 29% to 42%"

Source: Allot Communications 

"As the evolution of data plans continues, unlimited data plans are becoming an offering of the past. Operators are moving away from actions that degrade QoE such as throttling Internet speed and when usage exceeds the volume cap; they simply charge the overage and maintain QoE"

Source: Allot Communications 

See "Allot MobileTrends Report Records the Rise of Application-Centric Mobile Operators" - here.

[Guest Post]: Brazil 2014 Goes Mobile!

By John Giere*, CEO and President, Openwave Mobility

Mobile devices guarantee that this will be the most watched World Cup ever, but low video quality and data-charge fears will let down a third of Europe’s World Cup fans.

How will you be watching the Brazil World Cup? That’s the question put to over 2200 football fans across three of Europe’s smartphone-savvy, soccer-loving nations: Spain (current champions), Germany (three times world champions) and the UK (well….aspiring champions!). The independent survey was commissioned from Censuswide and took place in May 2014. The findings make very interesting reading. Unsurprisingly, more people than ever want to watch the action on a mobile device. But fears of bill shock and appalling video quality are keeping some football fans firmly glued to their TV screens.

Is Spain set to retain the World Cup?

If the World Cup was decided on mobile usage – Spain would be crowned World Champions yet again! Why? Because 68% of Spanish mobile subscribers will watch at least part of the action on their mobile device. That’s three times the number of people watching on mobile in the UK! Only 1 in 4 Brits (21.6%) will turn to a mobile to watch the Brazilian tournament. Even in Germany, just under half (39%) of their fans are opting to watch the matches on their mobile. To put that another way, Spain’s mobile subscribers are clearly reflecting their country’s chances of lifting the cup again!

Was that a goal? 

Imagine this. It’s the knock out stages and Brazil is playing Argentina. It’s 0-0 into the 85th minute and Messi closes in on the goal and kicks a brilliant curler... and …. and the video on your mobile starts to buffer. A genuine fear of missing those crucial moments is putting off subscribers. 

Amongst the Europeans, German supporters complained the most about poor video quality. In fact almost half (44.3%) of Germans who would like to watch the 2014 World Cup on their mobile device are worried about appalling video quality. In the UK, that figure is 1 in 3 (27.4%) and 1 in 4 (23%) Spanish fans are worried about poor quality video. 

And if poor video quality was not enough, European football fans are also complaining about bill shock.

Who’s afraid of the bill?

No one wants to pay more than they anticipated paying, and that’s keeping some footballs fans well away from their mobile devices. Of the people who would like to watch the games on mobile, a similar number of Brits (30.04%) and Germans (31.8%) fear bill shock. In Spain that figure goes down slightly to 25.40%.

Interestingly, despite fears over unknown data charges, Europe’s smartphone savvy football fans are willing to pay a fixed subscription fee to watch the matches in HD quality. 43% of Spanish, 34% of German and 21% of British subscribers were all happy to pay a fixed one-off fee, i.e. a video-service subscription fee, to their mobile operator for HD quality World Cup footage. This idea of Application Based Pricing has been around for a while now but so far only a few operators have cottoned on to its full potential.

And how much were they willing to pay? In the UK and Germany it was £5 (around US$8). However subscribers in Spain were willing to almost double that and fork out €10 (around US$14). All the signs that Spain’s mobile subscribers have high expectations from this year’s event! The serious point is that clearly consumers are happy to pay a fee for a service that delivers quality and gives them a great user experience. It’s more important than ever for mobile operators to meet the insatiable appetite for mobile video and monetize their data. Application Based Pricing is one of the ways to do just that.

The rise and rise (and rise) of mobile video

We also looked at the growth in mobile video from the 2010 South Africa World Cup. Across Europe we saw 2 to 4 times as many people wanting to view at least part of the 2014 tournament on mobile. This is not just down to an increase in smartphone penetration – that was already high in 2010. Rather, it clearly demonstrates the increasing penetration of mobile video as an activity people understand, can engage with and enjoy. Mobile operators must capitalize on the exponential demand for video. A major event like the World Cup does not only generate instantaneous revenues, it can also change habits as people who were not mobile video users realise that this is a great way to keep up with the action. It’s now more important than ever for mobile operators to intelligently monetize their data.
_________

*John Giere has over 20 years of wireless industry management experience in sales, product management, marketing and business development. Prior to his role as President and CEO of Openwave Mobility, John served as GM of the mediation business unit for Openwave Systems. Before Openwave Systems, John served as CMO for Alcatel-Lucent and CMO for Lucent Technologies. Before joining Lucent in 2003, John worked for Ericsson in various strategic marketing and business development roles. John currently serves on the Board of Sonim Technologies. He holds an MBA from the University of Maryland and a Bachelor of Science degree from Georgetown University.

Comcast: "we have no plans to announce a new data usage policy"

David L. Cohen [pictured], Executive VP and Chief Diversity Officer in Public Policy, Comcast posted to the MSO's blog, in order clarify some "misunderstandings" (see "Comcast Data Cap: Controversial Usage-Based Billing Plan Reportedly Comes To Light At MoffettNathanson Summit" - here).

 "Yesterday, I spoke at the MoffettNathanson Media & Communications Summit in New York City about a range of topics. Since some of my comments have been picked up out of context and misinterpreted in a number of places, I thought it was worth clarifying a couple of things about the Internet, data caps, and prioritization"

• Data Caps are "flexible data consumption plans" 

[see also "Comcast Response to Recent Claims: Higher Base Cap w/Tiered Plans or Overage Fees" - here]

"To be clear, we have no plans to announce a new data usage policy .. We have been trialing a few flexible data consumption plans, including a plan that enables customers who wanted to use more data be given the option to pay more to do so, and a plan for those who use less data the option to save some money .. It’s important to note that we remain in trial mode only .. We're now also looking at adding some unlimited data plans to our trials"

• Net Neutrality

"First, I expressed my support – and Comcast’s support, for legally enforceable Open Internet rules .. Second, an Open Internet is about much more than "fast lanes" and "paid prioritization". What I said about those issues was (1) that I wasn’t even sure what the definition of "fast lanes" and "paid prioritization" were; (2) that they were not covered by the 2010 Open Internet Order and that, therefore, I did not believe that they were illegal".

See "Clarifying Data Caps and Prioritization" - here.

AT&T: 1M Subscribers Switched from Unlimited to UBB in Q1

Some slides from AT&T's Q1 2014 earnings:

See "Quarterly Earnings — 1Q 2014" - here.

AT&T Simplifies Shared Data Plans

AT&T, happy with the success of its shared data plans (see "AT&T: 13M Subscribers on Shared Data Plans; Demand for Bigger Buckets " - here) makes those plans easier, cheaper and smarter - as everybody uses smartphones now. Just count the number of devices (regardless of type) and get a monthly shared quota of 10GB and free calls and text.

"..these best-ever prices on AT&T’s best-in-class network are available beginning tomorrow to any AT&T customer, including small businesses with up to 10 lines, and customers of Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile and other wireless carriers who switch to AT&T .. Current AT&T customers can save big with these new plans, too, when they choose a 10GB or larger bucket of data. For example, a family or small business with four smartphones could move to this new plan and save between $40 and $100 per month, depending on their current plan".

# of Smartphones	Monthly Service Cost	What You Get
2	$130	Family-Size 10GB of Data + Unlimited Talk & Text
3	$145
4	$160
5	$175
Need more than 5 lines?	Easy. It’s $15 more per line.

Previously, subscribers had to go through the following flow:

First, choose your monthly data amount.	Per Month
Mobile Share with Unlimited Talk & Text	1 GB $40 + $45	4 GB $70 + $40	6 GB $90 + $35	10 GB $120 + $30	15 GB $160 + $30	20 GB $200 + $30
Each Smartphone
	Additional data: $15 per GB

Next, add more devices to your plan.
Basic and quick messaging phones	Laptops, LaptopConnect cards, and netbooks	Tablets and gaming devices
$30 each per month	$20 each per month	$10 each per month

See "AT&T Launches Best-Ever Prices for Families on its Best-in-Class Network" - here.

TWC: Online Viewing Drives Broadband Demand Growth (+40% Y/Y)

Optimizing service plans becomes a challenge - the service tiers (speed, data caps) should answer the demand for bandwidth and QoE, while maximizing revenues and minimizing churn. Here is a short example that considers all the ingredients:  

Stacey Higginbotham reports to GigaOm that "Thanks to a UBS note from Monday we now have some good data on broadband usage at Time Warner Cable. 

The investment bank issued a note saying that TWC’s CEO-designate Rob Marcus [pictured] said online viewing is up (although not a replacement for pay TV), and is increasing the demand for broadband. That demand is up 40 percent year over year with an average consumption of 50 GB per month and a median of 20 GB per month. That’s driving the introduction of faster tiers, although TWC will keep usage caps at the low end to appeal to more price-sensitive".

See "Time Warner Cable broadband usage is up 40 percent this year" - here.

Gigaom Bandwidth Caps Watch (8 out of 15 ISPs on the Black List)

Stacey Higginbotham ("Over 60% of US Broadband Subscribers have Data Caps" - here)  [pictured] explains that "We’re not fans of ISPs capping broadband here at Gigaom, so we’re keeping a close eye on how those caps evolve and who they affect. Check out our updated list on who’s capping your broadband .. In most cases, the companies implementing caps maintain that 99 or 98 percent of their users don’t go over them and have median usages that range between 12 and 18 GB per month. So here are the top broadband providers in the U.S. and their caps. Last year we included a column for exceptions to the cap, but this year there aren’t any, so we took that column out". 

ISPs with no caps: TWC, Verizon, Cablevision, Frontier, Windstream, Fairpoint and Cincinnati Bell. 4 ISPs have overage costs - Comcast (see "Comcast Response to Recent Claims: Higher Base Cap w/Tiered Plans or Overage Fees" - here), AT&T, Suddenlink and MediaCom.

See the full table - "Want to know if your ISP is capping data? Check our updated chart" - here.

GigaOM: Over 60% of US Broadband Subscribers have Data Caps

Stacey Higginbotham [pictured] writes to GigaOm about the recent developments in usage-based billing policies in the US broadband market:

"Comcast is expanding its usage-based broadband trials. Given the larger roll out, it looks like a 300 GB cap plus a $10 overage fee that gets you 50 more GB is the winner .. which translates roughly into 40 cents per hour of HD television streamed via the internet .. And it’s not alone. Caps are on the rise in the U.S.:

[see also "Comcast Response to Recent Claims: Higher Base Cap w/Tiered Plans or Overage Fees" - here]

"Look, I’m sick of writing this same story about how caps aren’t necessary, how they act as a curb on innovation, how they protect a television business that won’t adapt and how the cable companies don’t actually have a profitability problem when it comes to investing in their networks. What’s happening here is a five-year erosion of unlimited broadband brought about by a fundamentally uncompetitive market. And this massive shift on broadband policy was utterly ignored by the FCC, which refused to even gather data about caps for years?.

See "Looks like Comcast is quietly pushing a 300 GB cap and overage charges" - here.

O2 Germany Follows DT w/DSL Caps (100-300GB)

Deutsche Telekom's decision to implement data caps on its DSL service (see "DT Implements Data Caps (but Excludes its Own Video and Voice Services)" - here and "DT CEO: "We cannot Explain our DSL Throttling Policy"" - here) opened the door for the other providers.

Michael Filtz reports to ZDNet that "O2 Germany has announced [here, German] that starting in July 2014 it will begin implementing its first national broadband data caps As part of the company's proposed 'Fair Flat rate' plan:

• If DSL users on the company's 'All-in M' and 'All-in L' plans exceed 300GB for three straight months, their speed will be limited to 2Mbps when they use more than 300GB of data again on the fourth month. Additionally, the throttling will continue in subsequent months if users continue to break the 300GB limit. Normal download speeds for these plans are up to 16 Mbps and 50Mbps, respectively.
   
• And users on the budget 'All-in S' plan can expect the throttling to kick in much sooner: they'll have a 100GB cap each month, where their speeds will be reduced from 8Mbps to 2Mbps, regardless of whether they've exceeded the threshold in the previous month".

See "O2 bringing in broadband data caps in 2014 in Germany, power users face throttling" - here.

NSN Reality Check: 3 Types of Unlimited Data Plans

 
Leslie Shannon (pictured), Senior Strategic Marketing Manager, Nokia Siemens Networks, covers the current trends in unlimited data plans, as ".. after luring customers with unlimited data plans, operators soon discovered the downside for their networks: more congestion. This eventually led to a worldwide shift away from unlimited data plans, particularly with the introduction of LTE, which many operators used as an opportunity to pull back on these plans".

"But not everyone. There are still three categories of unlimited data plans out there: Looks unlimited but isn't ..( T-Mobile USA) .. Looks unlimited and is (Sprint, US; LG U+, Korea) .. Unlimited data with varying speeds (Swisscom, DNA Finland)".

Source: Swisscom - see "Swisscom Shows the Unlimited Business-Case"

"Happily, Quality of Service Differentiation can really help here. The key is to think in terms of ‘deprioritizing’ a select few rather than throttling everyone – or no one. Dropping network priority for subscribers over a certain threshold – but only in times of congestion – is common in all of the networks in Hong Kong, for example, and has the advantage of delivering full network speeds when there is no congestion. Alternatively, operators can deprioritize only the highest-usage customers after they reach a set limit, so in practice throttling only those subscribers who cause the most network grief" 

See also "[ABI]: Shared Data Plan Available to 5% of Global Subscribers; Unlimited to 15%" - here. 

See "The temptation of unlimited data" - here.

ESPN Prepares for 1-800 Mobile Data Service with US MNO

   

I've already covered some use cases of "1-800" data services (Facebook, Wikipedia) - but this time it seems to be on a much larger scale, that might cause the FCC to look again at the Net Neutrality rules for wireless services.

Phil Goldstein reports to FierceWireless (based on WSJ story) that "Sports media giant ESPN has talked with at least one large U.S. carrier about subsidizing wireless access to its content .. These discussions could potentially lead to a "toll-free" data plan with carriers and open up new revenue streams for both parties .. in one potential scenario, ESPN would pay a carrier to ensure that customers viewing ESPN mobile content wouldn't have that usage counted toward their monthly data caps. Sharing advertising revenue is another potential avenue for carriers and content providers to explore, the report noted"

Related posts:

• [Guest Post, by Dean Bubley]: 1-800 Apps Concept: Superficially Appealing but Unworkable - here
• AT&T CEO: 1-800 Data will 'Catch Fire in the Next 12 Months" - here 
• AT&T Considers "1-800" Model for Mobile Data" - here
• AT&T Asks Subscribers about 1-800 Data Service - here

"The report noted that "one big carrier" told ESPN that significant numbers of its subscribers reach their monthly cap before the end of the month, which causes data usage to drop. For ESPN and other content companies, a toll-free data arrangement would let them bypass usage caps. For carriers, the deals could present a new revenue growth stream as smartphone penetration continues to rise and subscriber growth slows. If ESPN struck a deal with one major carrier, it would likely do so with others, especially those with usage-based data plans".

See "Report: ESPN in talks with U.S. carrier on toll-free data plans" - here.

DT Implements Data Caps (but Excludes its Own Video and Voice Services)

 
Last month's question - "Will DT Throttle DSL Speeds for Exceeding Quota?" (here) has been answered: Yes.

Deutsche Telekom announced quota limits on its fixed service, with speed reduction penalty (or top-up option). Nevertheless, it excludes its own video and voice services - and explains why it does not violate Neutrality.

"Given the rapid growth of data .. As of 2 May 2013, a monthly quota of 75GB will apply for ‘Call & Surf’ plans with a download connection speed of up to 16Mbps, 200GB for speeds of up to 50Mbps, 300GB for up to 100Mbps and 400GB for packages with a connection of up to 200Mbps .. If the volume limit is reached, a uniform reduction in Internet bandwidth to 384 Kbit/s will be applied" 

Michael Hagspihl (pictured), Marketing Director, explained that "Users of "Entertain" service will not count against the volume contained in the tariff .. so we are sure that they will not suddenly sit in front of a black screen ..  Also Voice over the telecom connection is not counted .. Both services are, unlike Internet services, managed services that are produced in a high quality and secure and paid for separately by the customer. Regular Internet services are not subject to discrimination by the "best-effort" principle - offering as much as possible with the resources available". 

   

See "Telekom ändert Tarifstruktur fürs Festnetz" ("Telecom tariff structure changes for the fixed network") - here.

Torres Networks: Turned MNO's Quota Management into Real-Time (w/Cisco)

 
Following my previous post on Torres Networks' recent PCRF deployment announcement ("Torres PCRF Deployed for Quota and Time-based Policies" - here), I got the following update from Nandita Subbarao (pictured), Manager, Marketing, Torres Networks India:

"Torres has deployed two differentiating Fair-Use Policy use cases with real-time policy control, in the network of a South-East Asian mobile operator. 

Prior to the deployment, the operator offered data service packages with quota and speed limits. The subscriber’s quota limits, however, were not monitored in real time, but instead processed batch-wise at designated times every day. As a result, a subscriber could continue to enjoy additional quota without the system detecting the transgression in usage limit for several hours, leading to a loss of revenue for the operator. With the deployment of Torres Policy Engine, this leakage is now plugged in real time.

The second policy-based package enables and enforces quota usage depending on the time of the day. A subscriber who buys this plan can enjoy higher speed and a separate quota at off-peak hours. Because the policies can be layered and prioritized, the new policies do not interfere with each other, or with the operator’s existing plans or promotions. 

The operator will migrate its existing subscribers (approx. 1 million) to these two use cases in the coming weeks. Moving forward, the operator will offer these FUP services to its entire subscriber base of approx. 11 million. Torres is in the process of rolling out more use cases at the operator’s network.

The Torres Policy Engine protects future growth with an architecture that keeps use cases agnostic to the interface provided by the PCEF. The PCEF, currently in use at the operator’s network (Cisco SCE 2020) provides a proprietary interface towards the PCRF. 

In the coming quarters, the operator is expected to add PCEFs from vendors with 3GPP-compliant interfaces (Cisco SCE 8000, using both Gx/Gy and the proprietary interface). Torres Policy Engine will simultaneously support both the legacy PCEF and the standard PCEF for the use cases.

Torres Policy Engine is deployed on standard telecom-grade hardware with a Linux OS and Oracle DB".

Torres PCRF Deployed for Quota and Time-based Policies

Torres Networks announced its Policy Engine has been deployed by an Asian MNO for "two data service packages with quota-based and time-based policies. These innovative “limit management” packages will enhance the operator’s control in two ways: checking revenue leakage and generating additional revenue through quota purchase. The deployment was completed in March 2013. The operator now plans to roll out several multi-dimensional data service plans, and migrate the existing subscribers to these plans.

See "Torres Deploys Quota/Time-Based Policies at Asian Mobile Operator" - here.