Subject: Re: Binary upload API Was: Options for compound entries

From: "Bill Kearney" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 8 Aug 2004 18:27:50 -0400

Also bearing in mind what one considers 'no good reason' another may consider
invaluable for interoperability.

I'm all for being as 'bandwidth stingy' as possible when it comes to support
devices like cell phones.  But I'd much rather see gateway or proxying services
be employed to handle this.  There are a number of core interoperability issues
that may need to be resolved before embarking on more compressed interfacing
techniques.  As in, make all this stuff work reliably with XML and then, once
that's accomplished, seek to establish a profile that maximizes network use.
They're both good ideas but it seems the latter won't come without the former.

Meanwhile, I'm not finding an well of sympathy for carriers bemoaning 'charges'
for bandwidth.  If they can't give the customers what they want the customers
can and will move to carriers that do.  Number portabilily is a wonderful thing.
If the providers are so short-sighted as to drive off consumers because of
INTEREST in using services, well, they deserve to fail.

-Bill Kearney

> Keep in mind that what is desirable for the consumer isn't necessarily
desirable for the producer or service provider. That 33% overhead from encoding
has a real cost associated with it. Multiplied over many mobile devices in a
service provider network the cost is substantial. Remember, in general what
subscribers pay for their bandwidth doesn't reflect what it costs the provider.
The bell curve says that the half of the subscribers who have below average
usage will more than pay for those with above average usage. When something
throws that out of balance the service provider eats the bandwidth charges and
looks for ways to reduce bandwidth usage or passes costs onto the consumer. If
the cool new feature on the mobile device inflates bandwidth costs by 33% for no
good reason, that's the first place the provider is going to look to improve,
lock down, or cost out to the consumer.