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Home users, the study found, typically manage their cappedbroadband access against three uncertainties -- invisible balances,mysterious processes and multiple users -- and these uncertaintieshave predictable impacts on household Internet use and can forcedifficult choices on users. Given the undeniable trend in bothInternet norms (such as cloud-based applications) andhome-entertainment delivery toward greater broadband requirements,the study seeks to create awareness and empathy among designers andresearchers about the experience of Internet use under bandwidthcaps. Marshini Chetty, a postdoctoral researcher in Georgia Tech's Schoolof Interactive Computing, interviewed 12 households in SouthAfrica, a country in which broadband caps were universal untilFebruary 2010. Typically, the caps set by South African ISPs aresevere with some plans only offering 1 GB of data per month. At thetime of the study, the caps ranged up to 9GB of data, far lowerthan the 150GB-250GB caps set by U.S. providers. What Chetty and her collaborators found were coping mechanismsbuilt into South Africans' daily lives in order to manage theironline activities under the caps. For example, some would routinely"top up" their accounts (pay additional fees forincremental cap increases), while others would visit family membersto use their Internet accounts, or switch from desktop connectivityto smartphones. And with few (if any) ways for customers to monitorInternet usage throughout the month, their access often would becut off in the middle of performing an online activity. "People's behavior does change when limits are placed onInternet access -- just like we've seen happen in the smartphonemarket -- and many complain about usage-based billing, but no onehas really studied the effects it has on consumer activity,"said Chetty, who earned her Ph.D. in computer science from GeorgiaTech in 2011. "We would also hear about people 'saving'bandwidth all month and then binge downloading toward the end oftheir billing period." "Mysterious processes" refers to customers' inability todetermine which applications are eating up their bandwidth, rangingfrom being unaware that streaming video or downloading songsconsumes much more data than normal web browsing, to not knowingthat many background applications (such as automatic softwareupdates) count against the monthly cap. "We were surprised to learn that many of the households westudied chose not to perform regular software updates in order tomanage their cap," Chetty said. "This activity can bebenign for some applications, inadvisable for others and downrightdangerous in certain cases. For example, not installing securitypatches on your system can leave you vulnerable to viruses andother sorts of cyber attacks." Chetty suggested that thefrequency of such risky behaviors among the broader population ofmetered/capped Internet users should be assessed via follow-upscientifically representative surveys. Finally, in households with multiple Internet users, it can bedifficult for the heads of the household to manage overall activitywhen they are not fully aware of each member's Internet use. Aswith other consumable resources in a household, from milk to hotwater, the apportionment of "fair" amounts of bandwidthreflects family practices and requires a fair bit of nuance,varying by family style and composition. "As ISPs move more toward usage-based pricing, we need to keepin mind the reactive behaviors that consumers adopt and theconsequences of those behaviors. Because when you have broadbandcaps, you will use the Internet differently," Chetty said."This study was performed in South Africa, and although thecaps are higher in the United States, there are still instanceswhere people are hitting them. So if you're going to have caps, youshould empathize with your users and offer ways for customers tosee how their data are being used and who is using them." Moretools are becoming available, from ISPs, within operating systemsand from third parties; but this is one of the first academicstudies that systematically reveals why there is a demand for suchtools, and why they are important to users. The study's findings are summarized in the paper, "'You'reCapped!' Understanding the Effects of Bandwidth Caps on BroadbandUse in the Home," which Chetty will present on May 10 at the2012 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems(CHI 2012), being held May 5-10 in Austin, Texas. Chetty'scoauthors include Beki Grinter, professor in the Georgia TechSchool of Interactive Computing, and Richard Banks, A.J. BernheimBrush and Jonathan Donner from Microsoft Research. The paper is oneof nine Georgia Tech entries in the main program of CHI 2012. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as China Siphonic One Piece Toilet , Full Body Porcelain Tile Manufacturer, and more. For more , please visit Full Body Porcelain Tile today!
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