Data Plan Throttling: A Simple Consumer Choice Mechanism

This is an article published in 2013 IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM) (pp. 3151–3156). http://doi.org/10.1109/GLOCOM.2013.6831556. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works.

Anthony, Barbara M.

Chung, Christine

2016-06-16

2016-06-16

2013

Anthony, B. M., & Chung, C. (2013). Data plan throttling: A simple consumer choice mechanism. In 2013 IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM) (pp. 3151–3156). http://doi.org/10.1109/GLOCOM.2013.6831556

https://collections.southwestern.edu/s/suscholar/item/222

Despite only a small portion of unlimited data plan users experiencing throttling each month, it is a prominent source of complaints from users and a significant concern for mobile network operators. We propose a simple mechanism that allows users to choose when they want their data transmission “fast,” and when they want it “slow.” Users still have the same cap on total high-speed transfer before being throttled, and hence may still be subject to throttling, but now they are given some control. We propose a basic model of payoffs, and demonstrate that the proposed mechanism would be preferable to the user over the throttling policies currently in place. We then consider the impacts that extend beyond a single user, and provide a framework for determining the aggregate effects of such a mechanism.

English

IEEE http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?reload=true&arnumber=6831556

Consumer choice mechanism

Data communication

Data plan throttling policies

Data transmission

Mobile network operators

Mobile radio

Unlimited data plan users

Article