Jun 8 2012
A Look at TrafficSense on the Three Network
Over the last week the mobile network operator Three have found themselves in the headlines and on the receiving end of Social Media campaigns over the introduction of TrafficSense technology onto their Network.
What is TrafficSense and why is it causing such a fuss, when in actual fact it’s the right thing to do.
Mobile Networking has limitations; data bandwidth is shared between it’s users and the amount of space available to all data network providers isn’t an unlimited resource. Available bandwidth needs to be managed in an appropriate way so that all users can have equal access to data.
All providers want to protect the majority of their mobile users, but will acknowledge that doing this may impact on a small minority of heavy data users.
Different Networks have different ways of managing their traffic usage to protect their networks. Most have fair usage policies which can see users activities limited. Other networks limit the amount of data that can be downloaded per month, before an extra charge is applied to the account.
Three have The One Plan which allows unlimited data downloads every month as part of the contract, but this does open up the possibility of huge data usage on their network, so to help maintain equal access to their data facilities Three have introduced TrafficSense.
TrafficSense is a traffic shaping application which identities very heavy mobile data users and throttles back their usage to make sure that the Three Network has enough capacity for all users.
Three have become known for it's great data network
Who is affected by TrafficSense?
The vast majority of Mobile Data Users will never notice that TrafficSense is present on the network, and this is the way that it has to remain, but who will be impacted by TrafficSense?
Three are quite clear on this, and it’s well documented on their website.
Many Internet users partake in file sharing, and whilst this activity is frequently abused for illegal activities we need to remember that it can be used for legitimate purposes. Three don’t block file sharing but it does get covered by Traffic Sense. Between 3pm and 12 midnight the amount of network space given to file sharing is reduced, limiting its impact on all other traffic.
Not all Three contracts support tethering but some users do try and connect their devices to the Internet through their mobile phone even if this isn’t supported on their contract, and in these instances TrafficSense will block the connection. Those Tethering within their contracts will not be affected.
The final group of users affected by TrafficSense is the most heavy data users. Three have identified that 5% of their users account for 60% of usage of their Network. To try and spread out the Networks capacity TrafficSense will regularly identify the top 5% of data uses and then apply a throttle on their data connection for 5 days, and it’s this option that has caused the most concern. Its important to note that Three won’t limit how much data these users can download but only at the speed at which they can download it.
These seem to reasonable and logical steps to protect a limited resource but the 5% of users who are getting affected are taking the sanctions very seriously, and there a number of social media campaigns ongoing which have the purpose of raising negative publicity for Three, and at the moment they are grabbing headlines.
It’s unfortunate, and I do have sympathy for those who are affected because they happen to use a large amount of data for legitimate purposes e.g. viewing films on Netflix whilst travelling, but Three have a responsibility to ‘all’ their customers, and their priority has rightly got to be the vast majority of their customers.
All the networks have taken steps to protect their bandwidth, after all we don’t want our 3G networks to become as crippled as some American markets. But, because Three offer unlimited downloads, they have raised expectation levels of their customer base, and this now seems to be creating a backlash.
Three have had to make difficult decisions but there is no doubt that they have made the right one.
About the Author
This has been a post by Phil Lane, a self confessed Gadget Addict. To read all his Blog Posts Click Here.
You can follow Phil on Twitter at @GadgetPhil
Jun 16, 2012 @ 14:44:58
The big issue is that Three have been advertising the One Plan as truly unlimited with no catches and no fair usage policies. Their online staff have also been challenging customers to prove it by downloading literally as much data as they can muster. They made a play for customers wanting a tethering plan suitable for heavy usage and then once they got them changed the rules to penalise those very same customers.
If such fair usage policies are going to be implemented there are much better ways to achieve it than TrafficSense. As it stands it’s highly unpredictable and what marks you as a heavy data user varies with the area in which you live. Relatively small amounts of data usage while tethering can easily put you in the top 5% in a rural area.
Jun 16, 2012 @ 19:19:11
Hi thanks for the reply – my understanding is that it’s the top 5% nationally that are affected not per locality or mast I will check this with Three and report back.
Jun 16, 2012 @ 20:00:24
I’ve heard through twitter that speed limiting has been turned off but I’ll see what Three say
Jun 16, 2012 @ 20:42:29
Oh, cool, well it’ll be interesting to see what they say. As far as I know it was per mast, but it’s good to see that they’re at least reviewing/tweaking how they implement it. I do hope it’s not the case if and when it comes back and I begin tethering properly – I live in a small village with an oldish population!
Jun 17, 2012 @ 06:35:29
I’ll let you know what they say. The info I have is that was based on account usage over a 30 day period.
Jun 20, 2012 @ 08:34:58
Most of us understand capacity isn’t infinite, regardless of what Three’s marketing told us. Unfortunately the practise of Trafficsense was quite different from the grudging explanation. During the test period when a person was throttled by trafficsense their connection was reduced to less-than-dialup speeds. For me and thousands of others the internet became inaccessible between 3pm and 12am for thousands of people. When they had the temerity to complain, they were either told to deal with it for a week until their connection came back, or ignored.
I have nothing against trafficsense if it works. Here’s hoping their next attempt will be less rubbish.
Jun 20, 2012 @ 20:59:40
Hi all, I’ve received a fair amount feedback on this article (I’ve not published it all). There’s a lot of uncertainty about TrafficSense so I’ve forwarded a number of questions to Three for some clarification and a follow up article will follow soon.
Some things are clear – trafficsense and Traffic shaping is the right thing to do.
Some of you have had bad experiences and these need looking at, although Three have responded and turned some elements off.
It remains though, that the majority of Three customers will never notice Trafficsense, which is the way it should be.
Aug 16, 2012 @ 20:22:47
I feel they are still throttling users.
The best speeds I get are around 2mbps, often 1mbps. Yet in the same area (house) on the same phone with the same signal I get around 7-8Mbps for maybe an hour. I start to use my connection and I’m back to being throttled (I suspect) and this lasts for a week.
I was told they do this on a Mast-by-Mast basis, which is rather silly. I’ve seen people on XDA with Speedtests resulting in over 12mbps and say they eat around 70GB data a month and don’t get any form of throttling, while I must have used around 30GB this month and I struggle to get what I’m paying for.
I’m contacting support about it as I also get a lot of “Network Communication Errors” on Speedtest.net, which I don’t believe is right. This is just in case there’s in fact a problem with my device or area, but all the same I find it hard to believe I can have 8Mbps for a couple of hours, in a thunderstorm, and then only be able to access 2Mbps the rest of the time.
Aug 17, 2012 @ 11:13:42
Hi Matt,
I will double check with Three for you, but the latest information I have is that the users who are being throttled by Three are those using Peer to Peer file sharing Apps. The also block Tethering on those who don’t have appropriate plans.
Originally Traffic Sense heavy usage detection was implemented at Mast Level but this was changed (and rightly so) early in the implementation to nation wide monitoring.
Also those who were being restricted were getting much slower connections then you <100k
Aug 17, 2012 @ 13:44:28
Spoke to you on Twitter about this